Although slavery institution was at the base of colonial economic life during the seventeen century (especially in the south), such practice sometimes was a subject of moral criticism, thus, requiring a proper justification. In this regard, slavery defenders introduced a number of arguments in favor of their position. Among them, the ones that justified slavery as a general concept included the notion of slavery as universal natural order or the centrality of unfree and forced labor for certain industries, to name a few. However, other assertions intended to support and explain the slavery of non-whites or people of color in particular. On the one hand, such arguments were based on racial prejudices and, on the other hand – on a literal reading of the Bible and other religious manuscripts.
As for the former, the Europeans associated the darker skin color of Africans and Indians with evil. Indeed, the sharp difference in cultural traditions, behavior, and appearance was usually interpreted as a sign of barbarism. For this reason and due to widespread racist sentiments, ‘civilized’ Spanish, French, and English nations viewed Indians and Africans as inherently lazy and stupid. As a result, such perceptions gave rise to the argument that the latter people are inferior to Europeans and, thus, should be in a position of servitude (BBC, n.d.). Additionally, it was even stated that slavery was actually good for the slaves as they were unable to govern themselves effectively; therefore, slave owners should, in some sense, be considered saviors.
The other line of argumentation, as mentioned above, was based on the specific interpretation of the religious texts. For instance, slavery defenders were often referring to the story of Noah and Ham. “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers,” exclaims Noah knowing that Ham seeing him naked told everything to the brothers instead of covering his father (NIV, n.d., Genesis 9:25). Therefore, as Canaan descendants were believed to be Africans, it was maintained that the enslavement of black people was according to God’s will.
References
BBC. (n.d.). Attempts to justify slavery. Web.
New International Version [NIV]. (n.d.). BibleGateway.com. Web.