[Republican Wildcat]

That was my rebuttal to Bill Nye’s bogus assertion, and it was entirely factual. The South was held back economically by its practice of slavery. Look it up.

[Mount Athos]

That’s some of the most retarded history I’ve heard about the south. Good for entertainment value though

[AnAmericanMother]

One of my profs in college (Gene Genovese) posited the same thing, and concluded that slavery would have fallen of its own weight in another generation. And he was an out-and-out communist (but a pretty sharp guy).

Also, my 4x great grandfather was born in London England but wound up in Georgia - he was an investment banker/ entrepreneur/ financier. I have one of his letters from some time in the 1850s, in which he told a friend that slavery was not economically feasible for the same reasons you mention. And he was another pretty sharp guy.