Changes

White children became owners of their half-siblings. White farmers who were not as financially well-off as the large planters had no means by which to purchase slaves therefore were unable to compete with those who did not pay for labor. Economic downturns arose as little employment was available to southern whites. The tensions that grew in an expanding nation eventually led to the death of 628,000 men, countless others who were permanently wounded, and the assassination of the President the United States. Slavery——harm——led to all of those things.

The utilitarian knows that in order for society to thrive, the individuals who compose that society must do the same. Thrive, in this case, is not defined by monetary gain but rather by group cohesion, individual happiness, and collective justice. Sadly, this was not the case in Antebellum America as “so much less do the generality of mankind value liberty than power.”<ref>Mill, ''On Liberty,'' 89.</ref>