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"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."
- Abraham Lincoln
What Lincoln also meant, I think , was that the brutality necessary to uphold slavery brutalized the masters as well as the slaves. The lack of human compassion, the ability to see people as property, the torture, the rapes, and ultimately the murders, all dehumanized the "southern gentleman" (and the others involved in the slave trade) in ways that slavery itself could not do to the slaves. Slaves had no choice; masters freely bought into the system.
- Abraham Lincoln
What Lincoln also meant, I think , was that the brutality necessary to uphold slavery brutalized the masters as well as the slaves. The lack of human compassion, the ability to see people as property, the torture, the rapes, and ultimately the murders, all dehumanized the "southern gentleman" (and the others involved in the slave trade) in ways that slavery itself could not do to the slaves. Slaves had no choice; masters freely bought into the system.