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So, what's your point? Northerners and Westerners were nicer?
No, they had no love for black people, but they understood the next point I make below.
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Totally false. Nobody is forced to work at Walmart, Amazon nor anywhere.
You missed the point.
Slave labor devalues the labor of free men.
In the same way, cheap global labor devalues the labor of Americans today. Northern whites understood that slavery--propelled by capitalism--was the enemy of individual free enterprise.
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I would say that many understand that without ownership and people willing to risk everything, there would BE NO COMPANY to work for.
Except that labor coming to the table with equal power to negotiate does not destroy companies.
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The cost of "maintenance" of an employee, and sustaining their lives is the vast majority of cost. It is very relevant as labor is another cost of doing business, just like a tractor, or cow. Have you ever owned, or run a business? Doesn't sound like it.
You tried to make the point that the cost of maintaining a slave was some kind of different and special factor from maintaining any other production asset.
You were wrong.
And yes, I do own and run a business with assets that have maintenance costs.
In the same way, cheap global labor devalues the labor of Americans today. Northern whites understood that slavery--propelled by capitalism--was the enemy of individual free enterprise.
I agree with this point. Most freemen did not own slaves. Slavery was detrimental to most of the free persons too. I would imagine the average northern white or freeperson in a free state was economically better off than the average southern white or freeperson. A northerner would not want to assume the status of a southerner by slavery spreading to their state. Not all labor performed by slaves was agricultural either by far.
Unless you can convince me that a free black (or white) person at the time who happened to be struggling to survive, walked onto a plantation and said “make me a slave,†I find what you say to be an absurdity.
There’s not a free man in history as far as I’m concerned that was worse off than a slave. Many slaves were delusional enough in the Antebellum South to actually look down on poor whites and to think they were better off than those whites were, but that was brainwashing at work.
That said, I certainly consider Antebellum slavery to have been hugely capitalist. A malign form of capitalism for sure, but capitalist nonetheless.
But I have read accounts of some slaves wanting to remain a slave, because the alternative wasn't always much or any better especially economically for a free white or black person in the South. A poor free white person couldn't legally be a slave, but could be basically no different, living in the owner's shack, working the owner's land or business, being paid at or below subsistence etc.
Because they were told (and believed) (and in many cases, believe) that they were still intrinsically superior to blacks, and that intrinsic superiority was a central tenet of southern culture. And don't forget the Biblical element.
However, here's an interesting article about how a mix of slave labor pushing white labor out of jobs and the panic of 1837 created at least a small pushback by poor whites.
The "bible element" is sadly laughable and ironic because it simply doesn't exist in the bible.
Moreover, that was known at the time. That's why the European argument against slavery was a Christian argument. That's why the man who founded the first Baptist congregation in America, Roger Williams, was also the first American Abolitionist.
That's why southern slaveholding Baptists created the Southern Baptist Convention, because the American Baptist Convention was pressuring them to free their slaves (The American Baptist Convention--all the other Baptists in America--were so anti-slavery that they didn't even allow their members to have paid domestic servants).
That's why there were white Evangelicals fighting against slavery.
The "bible element" was patently bogus, and all of the rest of Christianity even at that time knew it was bogus.
But I have read accounts of some slaves wanting to remain a slave, because the alternative wasn't always much or any better especially economically for a free white or black person in the South. A poor free white person couldn't legally be a slave, but could be basically no different, living in the owner's shack, working the owner's land or business, being paid at or below subsistence etc.
Capitalism was the driving force for slavery. Long-staple American cotton was the most desired fiber in the world throughout the industrial age, and nothing could compare to it. It was truly a miracle fiber, and it was as revolutionary then as polyester was when it was introduced.
Everything made of American cotton simply lasted longer, was stronger, took dyes better, and was easier to manufacture than any other fiber that existed. It's only competition as a fiber was Indian cotton, which was all short-staple, weaker, thinner, and much less durable.
Europe, especially Great Britain, couldn't get enough of it, and the fabric mills in England clothed the rest of the western world.
Cotton completely took over the southern agricultural economy. It was such a high-labor crop that slavery was the only way a grower could have enough people to plant, tend and harvest it, and the demand always out-stripped the supply.
When the cotton gin was invented as a quick efficient way to remove the seeds from the fiber, the gin eliminated the last thing that impeded the sales. Literally, the south could not grow enough cotton, and cotton was so profitable it was foolish to grow anything else if cotton could be grown on a southern farm.
King Cotton financed the south throughout the Civil War. Even after emancipation, cotton still dominated the southern economy. Cotton was the reason Americans first settled Texas and Arizona.
Business is what has motivated most slavery in history regardless of how that business activity is classified. Slavery existed in many cultures before capitalism as we now know it.
I listened to a podcast recently where they talked about this. What's funny is that slave owners used to claim that slavery was good for the economy, even though a free economy proved to be far more efficient...and now a lot of anti-capitalists trying to link slavery and capitalism are making some of the same arguments as those slave owners. Pretty funny in a twisted way.
I listened to a podcast recently where they talked about this. What's funny is that slave owners used to claim that slavery was good for the economy, even though a free economy proved to be far more efficient...and now a lot of anti-capitalists trying to link slavery and capitalism are making some of the same arguments as those slave owners. Pretty funny in a twisted way.
There are many ways unbridled, unregulated capitalism is bad for the economy.
Major economic failures are always traceable to some area of capitalism having run amok, such as the housing bubble burst in the early 2000s and the savings and loan crash in the 80s.
There are many ways unbridled, unregulated capitalism is bad for the economy.
Major economic failures are always traceable to some area of capitalism having run amok, such as the housing bubble burst in the early 2000s and the savings and loan crash in the 80s.
Both of those caused by GOVERNMENT POLICY run amok. We've not had true capitalism for many years in the U.S. It is very highly regulated, and has been for over a century and more. Your Communism won't work, nor will more socialism and more OVER REGULATION.
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