Thought For the Day: How Did American Capitalism Survive the End of Chattel Slavery?

“Slavery has been a fact of human existence throughout recorded history. Why did it suddenly create capitalism a couple of centuries ago in a few select places, namely the Netherlands, Britain and the American colonies? Why didn’t the Romans create it? The Vikings? The Spanish? It is true that slavery and cotton production played a large role in the American economy, but they weren’t determinative. As Phillip Magness of the American Institute for Economic Research points out, slave-produced cotton and its derivatives accounted for 5 or 6% of GDP prior to the Civil War. … If slavery was the basis of capitalism, one wonders, why did the capitalist North dare wage a war to destroy the seedbed of its own prosperity? Why didn’t the region that was the great source of capitalism win the war based on its superior economic wherewithal rather than getting ground down by a more financially proficient and productive North? Finally, how did American capitalism survive the end of chattel slavery?” – Rich Lowry

Any real student of American history knows that chattel slavery was a tiny percentage of America’s total GDP leading up to the Civil War. Every real student of American history knows that one of the major reasons the North won was it’s tremendous capitalist economy. Why the lies in CRT? Worse yet, why do none of these uber offended proponents of this say nothing about the state of slavery in the world today? What does that look like? I am sure glad someone asked…When do we confront modern slavery and something about what is truly offensive and in our reach to do something about?

About alohapromisesforever

Writer, poet, musician, surfer, father of two princesses.
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