ABSTRACT
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming as a universal truth that "all men are created equal," negro slavery was a legalized institution throughout the thirteen states. The rapid and unforeseen development of slavery in the South was due to one of those slight changes in the mechanics of industry which so often exercise a profound influence upon the course of history. The economic dilemma which negro slavery created was the same as that which is created by any system of slavery, including wage-slavery—it was profitable to the individual slave-owner, but disastrous to the community. It was primarily due to slavery that the South remained an agricultural community. As an economic institution the slavery question might have been settled by compromise; as a moral question it could not be settled until the Union was destroyed or until it became all slave or all free.
