美国革命时期南部奴隶主集团的亲奴隶制辩论

The Southern Slaveholding Group's Proslavery Arguments in the American Revolutionary Age

18世纪末的美国革命是在捍卫人的自然权利纲领下进行的,经过这场革命的熏陶,生命、自由和追求幸福的权利成为美国社会的主流意识。可是,作为美国革命的主要领导成员和重要参加者,南部奴隶主集团却拒绝放弃对黑人的奴役。为了捍卫黑人奴隶制,维护自己的权势和利益,南部一些政治和宗教精英人物以及少数地方的奴隶主群体竟然毫无愧疚地公然为南部奴隶制的合理性进行辩护。这些亲奴隶制辩论在奴隶主集团势力范围之外并没有说服力,却为南部奴隶主自己找到了一条摆脱心理压力的途径。

In the end of the 18th century the American Revolution undertook under the guildlines of doctrine of natural rights. Under the influence of this revolution life, liberty and pursuit of happiness became a prevailing idelogy in Ameri- can society. However, as leading members and major participators, the body of southern slaveholders refused giving up their enslavement of Black Americans. To hold slavery, protect their powers and interests, several southern political and religious elites and some local slaveholding groups stood up defending the justification and necessity of southern slaver- y, explaining their proslavery arguments. Those proslavery arguments had no persuasive effect outside the South, but it helped slaveholders become relaxed on their slaveholding lives.