08-16-2005, 12:13 PM
this was a few pages ago, but I have a ocuple comments to make on it
A personal pet peeve of mine is this viewpoint (along with the popular idea that the civil war was over slavery)
Slavery was a dying institution not only due to the social enlightenments going on in the mid to late 1800s (few of the confederate leaders owned slaves), but more importantly (effectively..) because it was no longer economically viable to own slaves. Slaves cost the present day equivalent of a nice mercedes, with added food and shelter "maintenence" costs. (this is also why the popular view spread by northern authors who had never been to the south of slaves being frequently beaten is for the most part untrue) With the influx of immigrants and expanding population creating a bigger potential workforce, paid laborers were becoming much more profitable.
And if you think the exploitation of immigrant labor in the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s is any better than slavery, you are kidding yourself.
damnit458 Wrote:Had the confederate side won, slavery would not have been outlawed, period.
A personal pet peeve of mine is this viewpoint (along with the popular idea that the civil war was over slavery)
Slavery was a dying institution not only due to the social enlightenments going on in the mid to late 1800s (few of the confederate leaders owned slaves), but more importantly (effectively..) because it was no longer economically viable to own slaves. Slaves cost the present day equivalent of a nice mercedes, with added food and shelter "maintenence" costs. (this is also why the popular view spread by northern authors who had never been to the south of slaves being frequently beaten is for the most part untrue) With the influx of immigrants and expanding population creating a bigger potential workforce, paid laborers were becoming much more profitable.
And if you think the exploitation of immigrant labor in the mid to late 1800s and early 1900s is any better than slavery, you are kidding yourself.