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Large planters in the southern United States attempted to convince the growing anti-slavery movements of the northern region that slaves were well cared for and happy in their state of servitude. Most of these claimants cited the struggle for employment and overcrowding in the cities of the northern U.S. as a sound reason as to why they were acting in the best interests of their human property. Viewing African-Americans as racially inferior, owners often dehumanized slaves as a means by which to justify denying them the rights and freedoms enjoyed by white men. In an article published in 1849, Thomas Carlyle went so far as to claim that “Negroes” were created to “be servants to those that are born ''wiser'' [than you], that are born lords [of you]—servants to the whites.”<ref>Thomas Carlyle, “Occasional Discourse on the Negro Question,” ''Fraser Magazine for Town And Country'' Vol. XL (February, 1849) http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/het/carlyle/occasion.htm.</ref>

Carlyle, like so many others who defended slavery, defined intellect by skin color. Carlyle, writing from England, was referring to the slaves of the West Indies whereas Thomas Paine, writing from the United States, refuted such arguments before they were ever uttered. Although at the time speaking of an inherited monarchy, one can juxtapose Paine’s words based on his consistent anti-slavery opinions. In a small pamphlet entitled, ''Common Sense,'' he wrote that “male and female are the only distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth enquiring into.”<ref>Thomas Paine, ''Common Sense''(1776, repr., London: Penguin, 1986), 72.</ref>That unanswered query was the cause of civil war and potentially irreparable harm.