This paper discusses ideas presented by the anti-
slavery activist, Frederick Douglass, who wrote in active defense against
Southern voices who
defended slavery, like William Harper in "A Defense of Slavery" and Solon Robinson in "Blessings of Slavery". These writers saw it fit that inferior slaves work in bondage without a care for their own freedom. The paper examines how Southern slaveholders during the 19th century defended slavery by reasons of political, economic, moral, and social justification. Douglass's writings stressed the human, emotional, and moral costs of slavery.