Two questions.
1. Would slavery have existed without the consent of the state in the first place?
2. Would slavery have ended without the Civil War?
Feel free to voice your opinion or facts/statistics.
Slavery haven't ended it just changed its form.
(english is not my native language, sorry for grammar.)
Ooo i'm going to be writing something soon on slavery and the state. Not specifically the civil war though, so I'll comment on that now.
The USA was the only nation to require a war to abolish slavery. One of many reasons for its stability in the south was the fugitive slave act. On paper, it seems like it wouldn't be a big deal, but slaves escaping across borders is how slavery collapsed in Brazil.
Brian: Two questions. 1. Would slavery have existed without the consent of the state in the first place? 2. Would slavery have ended without the Civil War? Feel free to voice your opinion or facts/statistics.
Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism talks about this, how the State was totally needed to subsidize slave owners, because it wasn't profitable otherweise.
Also how the very reason the South lost the Civil War in the first place was because the North didn't have slavery, and was for that very reason an economic powerhouse compared to the backwards South.
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It's easy to refute an argument if you first misrepresent it. William Keizer
Smiling Dave: Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism talks about this, how the State was totally needed to subsidize slave owners, because it wasn't profitable otherweise.
In the Roman Kingdom/Republic/Empire, slavery also existed. Did the state had to subsidize slavery back then?
good q.
" In ancient Greece and Rome, slavery was viewed as a temporary status as slaves were often encouraged to buy their freedom. These slave systems, like the indigenous African variety, could only be sustained through a continuous influx of new slaves obtained through war. " From a Mark Thornton article.
I'm also interested in more info.
Here's Mises' explanation of why slavery is doomed:
"If one treats men like cattle, one cannot squeeze out of them more than cattle-like performances.
But it then becomes significant that man is physi- cally weaker than oxen and horses and that feeding and guarding a slave is, in proportion to the performance to be reaped, more expensive than feeding and guarding cattle. When treated as a chattel, man renders a smaller yield per unit of cost expended for current sustenance and guard- ing than domestic animals.
If one asks from an unfree laborer human performances,
one must provide him with specifically human inducements.
If the employer aims at obtaining products which in quality and quantity excel those whose production can be extorted by the whip, he must interest the toiler in the yield of his contribution. Instead of punishing laziness and sloth, he must reward diligence, skill, and eagerness.
But whatever he may try in this respect, he will never obtain from a bonded worker, i.e., a worker who does not reap the full market price of his contribution, a per- formance equal to that rendered by a freeman, i.e., a man hired on the unhampered labor market. The upper limit beyond which it is impossible to lift the quality and quantity of the products and services rendered by slave and serf labor is far below the standards of free labor.
In the pro- duction of articles of superior quality an enterprise employing the ap- parently cheap labor of unfree workers can never stand the competition of enterprises employing free labor. It is this fact that has made all systems of compulsory labor disappear. "
He adds that historically, every single time slavery [or serfdom] was tried, it was an economic failure:
"Yet the fact that the enterprises employing unfree labor would not be able to stand the competition of enterprises employing free labor was not contested by anybody. On this point the eighteenth- and early nineteenth- century authors on agricultural management were no less unanimous than the writers of ancient Rome on farm problems."
Of course, would love to see more primary sources on this.
MaikU: Slavery haven't ended it just changed its form. Beat me to it. | Post Points: 5
What are the main reasons that the southern state seceded?
tariffs for 1
Can you explain/expand?