Nick Jurgensen 

Economics

State v. Mann: 1829 — In Defense of Slavery

When a slave disobeys his orders from their master there should be disciplinary actions. When the slave does not take the disciplinary actions and runs away as Lydia did, it was absolutely justified to shoot her. If other slaves watched her just run away without punishment they would do the same without fear. It is unacceptable to have slaves thinking they can just refuse their orders and punishments as they want and escape slavery. Overall these slaves fleeing their masters could destroy our economic system in the South. If slaves start rebelling against their masters the economy will be destroyed. Slaves are the main reason the south is making money off of cotton. Cotton is the biggest product that is sold in the south and this should not be taken softly. The slaves cannot be allowed to refuse punishment without the master having the ability to do whatever they find necessary to do to hold up the system. Every slave owner should be allowed to shoot a slave they are in charge of for not complying with their masters. Here in the south, we produce mainly cotton and fifty percent of the slaves in the US are working on cotton plantations. If the slaves are not punished for the actions that don't align with their master's beliefs they need to be beaten because we could have a rebellion causing our economic system to fail. This is because we depend on the slave's work to produce mass amounts of cotton as well as other goods. For example, if one slave rebels and gets away with no punishment or disciplinary action this will tempt other slaves to try the same. When the slaves start to rebel against their masters without punishment the master will no longer have the power to control their slaves. This will destroy the south in more ways than just the cotton industry. It is crazy that a white woman would receive a ten-dollar fine for shooting at the black slaves even when she did not kill them. In the case of Arthur William Hodge, he killed one of his slaves for acting in a way he disapproved of, and then later in court Arthur William Hodge was hung for this. He killed the slave and Mann only shot the slave and wondered her. This is unfair and unjust for a slave to get Mann in more trouble than he could get the slave into in his own ways. A slave doesn't even cost ten dollars and he is getting fined for ten which is ridiculous because even if he killed the slave he still would have lost ten dollars in value. The fine is larger than any slave's worth. The slaves need to know their place and be submissive to their owner's wishes if this does not happen they need to be beaten in order to have a proper understanding of their role in the world. Once they understand their role they will be able to work and sustain and normal slave life.