Relaxing the anti-slavery laws would be both morally-sound and economically beneficial

Slavery has received a lot of negative press, but it has deserved every bit of that negative press. In this round I will do what my opponent did and talk about the morality and economics of slavery, but I will show why it is wrong. MORALITY Slavery is not Morally acceptable when we look at the morals that the United States wrote down in the Declaration of Independence life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness (1), slavery does not follow these standards. If we just look at the second word in the phrase (life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness) liberty the definition of it is, "The quality or state of being free; the power to do as one pleases;freedom from arbitrary or despotic control."(2) Now if we compare that to the definition of being a slave "a person held in servitude as the chattel of another;one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence."(3) As you can see the definitions don't match so slavery is against the base principles the United States is built upon. If definitions are not enough to convince you lets look at the hardships many slaves faced. Many Africans would be either sold into slavery because they were captured during war or would be kidnapped by traders. Those who were kidnapped were taken from friends and families against their will and the bible states in Exodus 21:16, "Anyone who kidnaps someone is to be put to death, whether the victim has been sold or is still in the kidnapper"s possession." So using my opponents logic of many people using the bible as a moral compass the idea of kidnapping someone goes against the bible. After these people were kidnapped they would be put onto the Middle Passage which is a trade route that slave trades would use. The conditions of the shipping boats were horrible, slaves were chained together and disease become rapid because of the human waste and rats, so such diseases as dysentery and even outbreaks of small pox would occur. The conditions were so horrible that the survival rate of the Middle Passage was around 50% that means half of the people who were kidnapped against their will died before being sold into slavery. Many slaves after the long trip would have mental problems that would make them go insane. Suicide is viewed as very mortally wrong, but the conditions in the middle passage were so horrible that many slaves turned to it as an escape from the hardships. The people running the middle passage would beat and even kill slaves that did not follow the rules. Slavery is wrong that anyone can see this. (4,5,6) Economics Slavery only helps the rich with free service. The gap between the rich and the poor is as large as it has ever been and slavery will only help with this. The rich in the last 50 years has seen a 62% increase in income while the poor has only seen a 28% increase in income (7). If slavery came back the 28% increase would soon turn downhill and become a decrease. Slavery has also become nearly useless because now does it takes as lest a high school diploma to get any work in the United States and slavery won't allow this to happen. Even if slaves become high school educated they would not get higher education thanks to the small to none pay. Machines have also made human labor not efficient as it once was. Slavery is wrong and anyone who says otherwise is wrong as well. Sources (1) http://www.ushistory.org... (2) http://www.merriam-webster.com... (3) http://www.merriam-webster.com... (4) http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com... (5) http://cghs.dadeschools.net... (6) http://library.thinkquest.org... (7) http://www.facethefactsusa.org...