Question

The Rise of the American Civilization, by Charles and Mary Beard
The amazing growth of northern industries, the rapid extension of railways, the swift expansion of foreign trade to the ends of the earth, the attachment of the farming regions of the West to the centers of manufacture and finance through transportation and credit, the destruction of state consciousness by migration, the alien invasion, the erection of new commonwealths in the Valley of Democracy, the nationalistic drive of interstate commerce, the increase of population in the North, and the southward pressure of the capitalistic glacier all conspired to assure the ultimate triumph of what the orators were fond of calling "the free labor system." This was a dynamic thrust far too powerful for planters operating in a limited territory with incompetent labor on soil of diminishing fertility. Those who swept forward with it, exulting in the approaching triumph of machine industry, warned the planters of the ultimate subjection.

U.S. Senator John C. Calhoun (South Carolina), speech in the U.S. Senate on the “Positive Good” of slavery, 1837
We of the South will not, cannot surrender our institutions. Too maintain the existing relations between the two races, inhabiting that section of the Union, is indispensable to the peace and happiness of both. It cannot be subverted without drenching the county in blood, and extirpating one or the other of the races. Be it good or bad, it has grown up with our society and institutions, and is so interwoven with them, that to destroy it would be to destroy us as a people. But let me not be understood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing relations between the two races in the slaveholding States is an evil: - far otherwise; I hold it to be a good, as it has thus far proved itself to be to both, and will continue to probe so if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition. I appeal to facts. Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually. It came among us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it has grown up under the fostering care of our institutions, reviled as they have been, to its present comparatively civilized condition.
Question 6: John C. Calhoun’s “Positive Good” speech
In his 1837 speech, John C. Calhoun defends slavery by arguing that it:
A. Was a temporary necessity that would eventually disappear
B. Was morally justified and beneficial to both races
C. Could be gradually abolished without violence
D. Was economically inefficient but socially necessary
Question 7: Pro-slavery ideology
Calhoun’s argument is most representative of which broader pro-slavery claim?
A. Slavery was protected solely by the Constitution
B. Slavery was a necessary evil
C. Slavery was a positive social and moral institution
D. Slavery should be limited to existing states

Answer 1

Question 6: B. Was morally justified and beneficial to both races.
- Calhoun calls slavery a "good," insists it has civilized and improved the Black race, and rejects that it is an evil.

Question 7: C. Slavery was a positive social and moral institution.
- His rhetoric matches the "positive good" pro‑slavery ideology that portrayed slavery as beneficial and morally justified rather than merely a necessary evil.