Why is it important to Jacobs's overall argument to make the claim that "slavery is a curse to the whites as well as to the blacks" (p. 46)? How (in Chapter IX) does Jacobs attempt to prove this claim?

In Chapter IX, Jacobs notes that "Cruelty is contagious in uncivilized communities." Most of the whites who lived in the south became inured to violence and depravity. Harriet writes of many instances of terrible treatment to slaves. She also notes that women were treated as nearly completely devoid of value, "put on par with animals." She does include one anecdote about a kind white woman, but notes that this was a rarity.

One of the horrors of slavery was how corruption was all-pervading. The slave girl is reared "in an atmosphere of licentiousness and fear". Slaveholders' sons become privy to immoral desires; slaveholders' daughters learn things they should not know about at such a young age. They become aware of their fathers' predilections. Some of these women even take up with slave men and then must face the sad consequences if they have a child. It is clear that "slavery is a curse to the whites as well as the blacks."