They should have started with making inhumane treatment illegal, and long before 1861. Working and living conditions for slaves could have been similarly regulated, which would have made the slave economy less profitable. It only became a matter for war because it was allowed to go so long and degenerate to such an inhumane level.
It didn’t begin that way, of course. Indentured servants didn’t become slaves for life without the right to redress of grievances against their owners until Casor vs. Johnson was reversed on appeal in 1655.
They should have started with making inhumane treatment illegal, and long before 1861. Working and living conditions for slaves could have been similarly regulated, which would have made the slave economy less profitable. It only became a matter for war because it was allowed to go so long and degenerate to such an inhumane level.
It didn’t begin that way, of course. Indentured servants didn’t become slaves for life without the right to redress of grievances against their owners until Casor vs. Johnson was reversed on appeal in 1655.