Regarding slavery, Thomas Jefferson, drafter, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and slave owner, once admitted:
"But, as it is, we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other."
Slavery enslaved the slave master, too. Let no one think for one second that the slave masters fully prospered from enslaving another group of people.
Three times a mass of slaves broke out rebellion throughout the South. How long did Southerns really believe that they could hold down one group of people and still pay lip service to the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence?