The South and Slavery Driven by the moral attacks of Garrison and his American Anti-Slavery Society, Southerners felt their very livelihood was at stake. They, the Southerners, decided to come up with an elaborate defense to counter these "absurd" charges. Slave owners did everything they could to justify maintaining slavery. In my opinion, they were trying to justify it as much to themselves as to the abolitionists. First, antislavery movements were not popular in the South. Slavery is the basis on which the entire Southern economy rests. Removing the slaves would mean paralyzing the South. Only a small number (2,292 of 4,6274 planters) held more than a hundred slaves. Those holding zero to twenty slaves supported slavery in the hope that they would one day become part of the "Planter Elite." It is by clinging to that hope that they support slavery. The belief that the white race is superior to the black race also played a role in maintaining slavery in the South. If the South emancipated all slaves then it would have to give all free citizen rights to blacks. This would lead to equality between the races, which “superior” whites cannot stand. Holding slaves is like "holding a wolf by the ears." If they abandoned slavery, the slaves could declare war on the white race. Fearing for their lives, Southerners held onto their slaves as well. The Southern pro-slavery argument is a basis on which Southerners defend the right to own slaves as a positive good rather than a moral evil. They found sanction in history by pointing out that many of the great civilizations of the past (Greece, Rome, Egypt) used slavery. So thinking that slaves made those civilizations great would in turn make this nation great too. Southerners also found some support for slavery in the Old and New Testaments. However, there is no strong religious argument to justify slavery. They said that many people in the Bible had servants and slaves. According to Southerners: Who are humans to oppose what God has ordained? By examining the scriptures of the Bible, Southerners found a religious sanction for maintaining slavery.