"Southern planters understood that their cotton kingdom rested not only on plentiful land and labor, but also upon their political ability to preserve the institution of slavery and to project it into the new cotton lands of the American West. Continued territorial expansion of slavery was vital to secure both its economic, and even more so its political viability, threatened as never before by an alarmingly sectional Republican Party. Slave owners understood the challenge to their power over human chattel represented by the new party’s project of strengthening the claims of power between the national state and its citizens—an equally necessary condition for its free labor and free soil ideology."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Sven Beckert, as quoted in "Empire of Cotton" (12 December 2014), The Atlantic.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
American Civil War
485 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by American Civil War →
Related Quotes
"The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states, …"
"The General Assembly shall have no power to pass laws for the emancipation of slaves."
"I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I believe it will be greatly for the interests of the South. So fully am I s…"
"There lies the most perfect ruler of men the world has ever seen. Now he belongs to the ages."
"If you surrender, you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if I have to storm your works, you may expect no quar…"
"The General Assembly shall, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and every tenth year thereafter, c…"
"The river was dyed with the blood of the slaughtered for two hundred yards. The approximate loss was upward of five h…"
"As ensigns of an unholy cause the Confederate flags are, and of right ought to be, odious to the eyes of loyalty."
"War means fighting, and fighting means killing."
"No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be p…"