Maybe the strangest thing of all about nineteenth-century American pro-slavery songs and the pro-slavery argument in general is the idea that anyone thought a defense was necessary. Involuntary servitude of one kind or another has existed in just about every organized society of the past 6,000 years, and it continues to exist to this day in some societies (such as, for example, these United States . . . . prison labor, etc.). Why did writers, composers, politicians and others feel compelled to mount such a strident defense in 1850 when practically noone even questioned the morality of the institution 100 or 500 or 1000 years earlier?