Thus through their writings, their propaganda, and their humanity it is evident that southerners clearly felt that their institution of slavery morally ambiguous. This ambiguity we define as guilt and we can see its results throughout the South in this time period. Slaves were people just as white southerners were people, and despite the propaganda, this was an inevitable conclusion that everyone who had close contact with both had to realize. Through life, sickness, and death, the similarities were impossible to ignore. And thus the enslavement of humans while championing liberty had an obvious effect: guilt. The human heart and soul transcends the mind in matters of morality to warn the conscience, and that is exactly why southerners felt guilt in the face of slavery.
Works CitedOakes, James. The Ruling Race. New York: WW Norton & Company, 1998