Time will inevitably change everything. That said, more than about a century and a half ago the institution of racial slavery was a hotly debated social issue, leading to the Civil War. It is my personal opinion that slavery is best defined as the absolute possession of the life of another human being as personal property, and this practice of racial slavery was largely one of the only means to economic prosperity throughout the Deep South. Wealthy plantation owners, slave-owning subsistence farmers, and even Northern abolitionists who were involved in purchasing cotton from Southern slave states and weaving that cotton into clothing for sale benefited economically from slave labor. This uniquely American practice of forced labor was particularly horrific compared to other forms of slavery because it targeted a specific ethnic group into human slaves who were typically in lifetime debt to their masters, in the process dehumanizing everyone of that same ethnicity. This truly damning social injustice did not rest easily on the American conscience. Often considered undemocratic, slavery required a compelling moral justification to avoid its abolition. This “moral justifier” often came in the form of a religion that held that slavery was a socially moral institution, an argument supported by several verses in the Bible that refer to how slaves should behave towards their masters. Historians have often studied this complex relationship between religion and slavery in American history, and this article will also seek to examine the impact Christianity had on the convoluted issue of slavery in antebellum American society. Some Christian preachers like George Whitefi... in the center of the paper... the governor of South Carolina." Pattillo, Henry. “The Plain Planter's Home Aide; Containing an Address to Husbands and Wives, Children and Servants." Whitefield, George. “Three letters from the Reverend Mr G Whitefield: viz….Letter III. To the inhabitants of Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, concerning their negroes. "Oakes, James. “I own my slaves, but they own me too”: Ownership and paternalism in the slave South. Reviews in American History, December 2010: 587-594. Center for Historical Studies. Web April 23, 2014. Young, Jeffery . "Richard Furman, 1823." Proslavery and Sectional Thought in the Early South, 1740-1829. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006. 226. PrintYoung, Jeffery. "George Whitefield, 1740." the Early South, 1740-1829. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006. 68. Print