[ml/nj]

But that little bothersome difference between northern agrarians(who paid their laborers) and southern agrarians(who didn’t) over slavery didn’t make that possible.

Do you really think supporting someone full-time, including before and after they stop working, was cheaper than hiring labor? I seem to recall that de Tocqueville talked about this when he made a comparison of the opposite banks of the Ohio River.

ML/NJ

[Delacon]

“Do you really think supporting someone full-time, including before and after they stop working, was cheaper than hiring labor? I seem to recall that de Tocqueville talked about this when he made a comparison of the opposite banks of the Ohio River.”

Actually I’ve read articles that support the argument that slave labor is not cheaper than non slave labor. Nothing conclusive. I like the idea and think it has merit. So let me stupulate that slave labor was more expensive than paid labor. Would your point then be that the slave owners were not only immoral but stupid businessmen as well? No wonder the northern farmers didn’t join with them.

[Non-Sequitur]

Do you really think supporting someone full-time, including before and after they stop working, was cheaper than hiring labor?

You couldn't sell the hired labor at a moments notice. And what was there to supporting a slave anyway? Clothing was rudimentary. The food was raised on the plantation, by slave labor. Housing was not a continuing expense. Other than their original cost the continuing expense was nothing next to the labor they produced.