Posted on 09/26/2019 7:28:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Recently there seem to be an increasing number of claims that American prosperity resulted from slavery. This is presented as justification for the renewed calls for reparations for slavery, which Democrats are using in an attempt to gain support as we approach the next presidential election. But did slavery actually create the wealth of the U.S.? Does this claim have any historical basis in fact, or is this a distortion of history to influence the views of voters?
We should all agree that slavery is an immoral institution in which people are treated as property and work, not for themselves, but for the benefit of their “owners.” It is an extractive economic system that shares some characteristics of feudalism and communism. They are all extractive in the sense that work is extracted from laborers who benefit very little from their own efforts, and as a result do not have much incentive to work hard, to make improvements, or to innovate, even though they may be faced with threats and coercion.
Lacking the motivating force of self-interest, such systems have proven to be highly inefficient, as well as inhumane, and hinder economic growth. So, while a small elite can live well through the efforts of others under these systems, the overall economy suffers, there are fewer opportunities, and a lower standard of living for members of society as a whole.
If we consider the historical experience of other nations involved in the slave trade, it could help our understanding of the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Yes. My grandfathers were both coal miners, one electrocuted thanks to his inability to afford proper footwear. You all can mail me my check check at www.urasucker.com.
America wasn’t truly ‘prosperous’ until well after slavery had ended....................
The end of access to free labor created the industrial revolution. The continued access to cheap labor prolongs it. People tend to create labor saving machines when there is a reason to. I think hard core dem types would rather have half the material goods we enjoy today if it means they have servants to lord over
The North was always richer than the South...
More complex than that. Rephrase it as “Did slavery give some people economic gain at the expense of the slaves?” Then the answer is “of course, yes.”
There are other reasons for the prosperity.
Of course. That’s why automobiles, Gatling guns, the steam engine and the computer were all invented and marketed in the ante-bellum South, where Henry Ford developed mass production of machinery and McCormick invented mechanized harvesting. All those damyankees ever invented was the cotton gin and crack cocaine./s
But did slavery actually create the wealth of the U.S.? Does this claim have any historical basis in fact, or is this a distortion of history to influence the views of voters?
To the liberals, answers to such questions don’t matter. They are hell bent on shoving reparations down our throats.
Whenever the liberal narrative of an issue is in conflict with historic facts, the narrative is presumed to be truth. That’s how liberals operate.
Necessity is the Mother of Invention.
“American prosperity resulted from slavery.”
So I guess the cotton growing South generated the real economic growth in the US and not the industrial North.
NO. Next question please.
Until air conditioning, the states where slavery had been legal were generally less prosperous than the states where slavery wasn’t legal, so no, slavery didn’t cause America’s prosperity.
The contribution of slave labor to the US economy was minimal.
Almost all the wealth created by slave labor was created in the South.
Almost all of that was destroyed in the War Between the States (Civil War).
It is almost certain the U.S. destroyed more wealth in the Civil War than was contributed by slave labor over the entire history of the United States.
One of my great-grandfathers fought in the Union Navy. He was killed, long after the war, in a log drive down the St. Croix/ Mississippi about four decades later.
So, where is the slavery?
Why, he was a coal miner who worked 14 hours every day, and still couldn’t afford new shoes. How is that NOT slavery? Pay up, Sir! lol
The industrial revolution is what drove American prosperity. While it is fair to point to tobacco and cotton as cash crops which defined much of the US economy in the 18th century, the emergence of manufacturing in the mid-19th century shifted the economic power base of the US to the northeast and midwest. Certainly there was a link between the two in terms of the industrial textile mills of the northeast which used the raw cotton grown in the south. But the rise of the iron industry and food farming in the midwest became larger components of the economy in the late 19th century and beyond.
AND that their heirs would be better off today had they remained in Africa??
The reason that the South lost so decisively was because slavery kept them from modernizing. If slavery was a net benefit the South would have been10 times more productive and twice as wealthy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.