The word "justifiable" is a bit of a problem. But Southerners vigorously defended the institution, citing various racist ideas, the Bible seemingly sanctioning the practice, the negative consequences of abolition, etc. All of these are on display in George Fitzhugh's Sociology for the South (1854). Indeed, his argument might sound right at home to modern ears, as it raises the specter of socialism: “The Abolitionists themselves furnish the most conclusive evidence that slavery must exist in every society until human nature itself is changed. .... Separate property, too, gives power to those who hold property to command the labor of those who hold none. ‘Property,’ say they, ‘is a thief!’ and must be abolished. The Bible commands wives to obey their husbands, and slaves their masters; the Bible must be cast into the flames! Christianity and Socialism are deadly enemies. ...We treat the Abolitionists and Socialists as identical, because they are notoriously the same people, employing the same arguments and bent on the same schemes. Abolition is the first step in Socialism: the former proposes to abolish Negro slavery, the latter all kinds of slavery, religion, government, marriage, families, property, nay, human nature itself. Yet the former contains the germ of the latter, and very soon ripens into it; Abolition is Socialism in its infancy.”