[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.

[Mount Athos]

Sure, it might have fallen of its own accord in another generation. And the viability of it wasn’t the same in 1860 as 1770.

But that has nothing to do with the issue raised.

Would the south have been more advanced and more economically developed if it never had slavery? I find the claim ridiculous, but think what you want.

If it was so harmful, they could have stopped at any point. But year after year they continued, supposedly against their own interests.

I guess the keyboard warriors of 2022 knew more than the people actually there at the time what was best for their interests.