[Georgia Girl 2]

Probably true. I was being very conservative. More like 10 years in reality.

One point to remember is that slaves are only good for unskilled jobs as you have to force them to work agains’t their will. If you put them on a skilled job in a factory they will sabotage it at every opportunity. The more industrialized the country the less jobs slaves can do.

[Vigilanteman]

Yes and no. Many of the more enlightened slave owners put them to work as blacksmiths and even machinists, a trend which accelerated during the war as the white men march off to fight in the Confederate Army.

Even though he was a mere boy at the time, Booker T. Washington makes this and some other very interesting observations in his autobiography Up From Slavery, an incredibly good read even 130 odd years later.