Well I've been thinking a lot about slavery and reading a bit of William Lloyd Garrison and I guess I have a couple of questions about it.
Firstly how did African slavery come about in America? Did it arise through state power or did it people just start doing it? Did the southern states protect the slave owners? I know there were fugitive laws, but were there any other laws that kept the blacks enslaved? If the slave trade did occur outside Government operations how could such a mockery of liberty happen within the market?
I realise the civil war was a brutal way to end slavery, but what were the libertarian solutions to the problem?
Thanks guys.
"No person is so grand or wise or perfect as to be the master of another person." ~ Karl Hess
"look, property is theft, right? Therefore theft is property. Therefore this ship is mine, OK?" ~Zaphod Beeblebrox
fancyshirtman: Well I've been thinking a lot about slavery and reading a bit of William Lloyd Garrison and I guess I have a couple of questions about it. Firstly how did African slavery come about in America? Did it arise through state power or did it people just start doing it? Did the southern states protect the slave owners? I know there were fugitive laws, but were there any other laws that kept the blacks enslaved? If the slave trade did occur outside Government operations how could such a mockery of liberty happen within the market? I realise the civil war was a brutal way to end slavery, but what were the libertarian solutions to the problem? Thanks guys.
I know you are clearly not advocating this, but the civil war was a brutal war and these few points should be focused on when dealing with a statist.
1. Conscription is nothing more than mass enslavement, so don't you think it's ironic that we utilized mass enslavement to "free" the slaves.
2. Lincoln is nothing more than a tyrant glorified by the state. Look at how all the history teachers and textbooks politely gloss over his horrendous actions.
3. The idea of a "perpetual union" is nonsense, individual states should be allowed to secede if they wish (hopefully one day we see this come to fruition)
4. African Americans were still terribly mistreated (by the state) for over a hundred years after the fact. So much for the bloody and harrowing civil war.
5. War is never just and it should only come about when rebeling against an opressive government like the Revolutionary War. Even then, it pays to be peaceful, if possible.
Thanks for those strong points against the civil war LvMIenthusiast. Those will deffinently come in handy.
Some have argued (perhaps Rothbard?) that property laws in the colonies may have contributed to the widespread use of slave labor. Land distribution in the early-mid seventeenth century was largely feudal, with larger tracts being bestowed on favored individuals. Primogeniture laws prevented these large estates from being divied up among heirs, so large properties were passed down from generation to generation. On a small farm, a few indentures servants or slaves will suffice, but to farm large tracts more labor is needed, so slavery becomes more profitable at that point.
Once this system became entrenched, laws were enacted to protect it. The argument thus leads to the conclusion that, had free homesteading occurred in the South there could not have emerged the large tracts of land which relied on slave labor. This is not to say there would have been no slavery, just that there would have been less of it, and probably very little opposition to its abolition.
Not saying I agree necessarily, but that is one explanation I've heard.
fancyshirtman:Thanks for those strong points against the civil war LvMIenthusiast. Those will deffinently come in handy.
fancyshirtman: Firstly how did African slavery come about in America?
Firstly how did African slavery come about in America?
Indians were dropping dead of disease like flies so they didn't make for good slaves. It is not like you had a situation where there was no slavery, but then it suddenly appeared. You had for the whole time a culture where slavery was accepted so it was natural to introduce it where it made sense, eg the sugar cane plantations in the Indies.
fancyshirtman: If the slave trade did occur outside Government operations how could such a mockery of liberty happen within the market?
If the slave trade did occur outside Government operations how could such a mockery of liberty happen within the market?
What do you mean within the market? Enslavement is a coercive action, not a market action.