For planters, slavery was preferable to indentured servitude because the latter created a host of freemen now looking to become planters themselves. This competition not only threated the economic livelihood of the established planters, but eventually erupted in a type of class warfare between the establishment and poor whites. Creating a class of lifetime slaves eliminated this problem. Despite the ever-present fear of slave uprisings, the slaves eventually proved less of a danger than the freed white servants.6 The planters, then, just needed some clear justification for permanently
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