As Jackson
became President, the issue of slavery was dormant. The nation had simply accepted the
condition of servitude that people of color occupied. While there might have been some limited
questioning of it, the intensity and fervor that would lead to the Civil War was not evident
during Jackson's time.
Thus, Jackson's support of slavery is seen in his own
actions. Jackson lived his life as a Southerner who made a profit from slavery. In his early
life in the Carolinas and then as he made his fortune, Jackson did not oppose slavery. Jackson
never spoke out against it and made no claims about its inhumanity. Jackson could be seen as a
supporter of slavery because it helped him to generate profit and establish his name. Jackson
"prospered" as a result of slavery. He owned a plantation that produced cotton. The
workers on this plantation were slaves, by some accounts up to 300 slaves. At the same time,
Jackson participated in military campaigns that sought to increase the Southern, slave- owning
territory.
In this, Jackson's support of slavery is once again evident.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was quite pointed in his critique of Andrew Jackson's support
of slavery: "Jackson has to own that he owes his farm on the banks of the Mobile to the
strong arm of the Negro." Without questioning the system in which profit was tied to human
misery, Jackson must be seen as a supporter of slavery: "..wealth accumulation was tied to
slavery...Jackson practiced and defended what had been the accustomed way for white men to make
money for 200 years." It is in these respects in which Jackson supported
slavery.
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