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Was John C. Calhoun proud of slavery?

MacKenzie Cast

 

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Dear Ms. Cast,

An excerpt from one of John C. Calhoun’s manifestos on February 6, 1837 makes John C. Calhoun’s convictions regarding slavery quite clear:

“Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and improved, not only physically but morally and intellectually….I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding states between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good….I hold then, that there never has yet existed a wealthy and civilized society in which one portion of the community did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other.”

Sincerely,

 

Jon Guttman

Research Director

World History

www.historynet.com

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