ABSTRACT
The most familiar images of Southern slavery relate to the fully fledged mature institution of the last generation before the Civil War. The most convincing explanation, offered by Winthrop Jordan and others, is that the institution of chattel slavery and the clear belief in the racial inferiority of the African marched hand in hand, with each supporting and reinforcing the other. The institution of slavery and many thousands of individual slaves were part of the history of westward expansion and the American frontier experience. By 1830, Southern leaders could proudly assert their confidence in their distinctive slave society. Slavery had proved beyond a doubt its capacity for growth and its potential for further expansion. However, in other ways it was also fragile and vulnerable, and behind the confidence of its protagonists and propagandists lurked anxieties which could never be entirely suppressed.
