A Defence of Virginia

“It need hardly be said that we abhor the injustice, cruelty, and guilt of the African slave trade. It is justly condemned by the public law of Christendom—”—Robert Lewis DabneyA Defence of Virginia, originally published in 1867, is an exoneration of The South against Northern claims that the Southern people were perpetrators of moral depravity, injustice, and unholy human bondage. In this work, Dabney labors to vindicate the slavery system practiced by the Southern masters.Dabney underscores the brutalities of past slave systems that existed under Roman civil law, and condemns the practices of The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. However, Dabney argues, if the New Testament writers did not condemn the Roman system per se, how can the Southern masters be charged with an unholy human bondage? He pens, “Hence we boldly claim, that our system, instead of necessitating the ignorance and vice of its subjects, deserves the credit of a most beneficent culture.”Moreover, Dabney confronts Northern criticisms by arguing the South's secession was a legitimate exercise of states' rights. The Reverend contends the North's assailments were hypocritical: while condemning Southern slavery, Northern states had profited from it through trade and manufacturing, and their aggressive abolitionism amounted to a violation of constitutional federalism and a God-sanctioned institution.The Dabney-Thornwell Institute, acting true to its formational cause, has edited nothing from Dabney’s work: either by exclusion or inclusion of new material. Read more