The point that the cornerstone speech made was that the white race was superior to the black race and that they were not equal to one another which was told by Stephens. With the cornerstone speech there were different claims as in what came first “the chicken or the egg?”; as in whether slavery was a result of white racism or helped create it. I completely agree with what the textbook says, “Racism emerged to justify slavery; it did not cause slavery”. I agree with this because being racist wasn't the reason for slavery, Americans had slaves because no matter if they thought it was good or bad they were going to do it anyway because it was benefiting them. Racism did not help slavery, but helped cause it, according to Carl Degler. Historians