Quote:
Originally Posted by Cen1aur 1963
The mere idea of bringing in free labor to replace workers that are paid would have been as destructive to the nation as the succession of the South was.
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The idea wasn't about replacing Northern wage labor with slave labor - it was to prevent the recently acquired territories from using slave labor instead of wage labor. The goal was keeping whites in paid jobs; a goal which would've been hard to attain had the territories been allowed to practice slavery.
ETA: I am far from an expert on this. I'm just recalling information that was presented to me (in southern schools, I should add). The moral issue was not cut and dried based on the Mason-Dixon line. There were plenty of northerners who wanted to abolish slavery for non-moral reasons, just as there were plenty of southerners who wanted to abolish slavery for moral reasons.
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