Comments on: Slavery and American Capitalism

By: Judy

Judy — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 04:36:15 +0000

I was going to comment on this column until I checked out your link to another of your columns here:

http://historyhalf.com/american-capitalism-the-engine-of-progress/

Where you say:

“The human race did very little to improve standards of living during the four or five thousand years of recorded history leading up to 1776.”

I would take what you have to say much more seriously if you hadn’t posited that the human race accomplished very little in the 5000 years or so prior to the the American Declaration of Independence, our Revolution, and our exercises in capitalism.

By: Craig White

Craig White — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:47:19 +0000

I don’t think the ancient and extensive existence of slavery altogether condemns American capitalism, and most serious historians won’t say so either, but connections between the systems of capitalism and slavery persist in its freemarket model, esp. the splitting of rich and poor, and the dehumanization or alienation of labor. Most of your essay simply casts people who are concerned with such issues as simple-minded haters, and diverts responsibility from American capitalism to assumed enemies overseas. None of these rhetorical strategies are surprising or novel, but they only confirm existing prejudices instead of exploring our actual condition.

By: Tom Wojtyga

Tom Wojtyga — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:34:23 +0000

I don’t have enough scientific data to conclude if slavery fueled, or held back American economy , but having grown up in Poland ,I visited Soviet Union many times, and I can tell you that comparing slavery to socialism or even communism makes you sound like an idiot.However low the pay for bottom earners in Soviet Union was , it was still thousand times more than what slaves got paid in American colonies. Many top earners , like doctors , scientists and political dignitaries made a pretty comfortable living . The Soviet Union failed because of corruption ,waste and arms race.

By: Godwin Eto

Godwin Eto — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:51:21 +0000

Did slavery contribute significantly to the growth of American economy?

By: Al

Al — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 21:05:56 +0000

Thanks Ethan.

Like many of the people who have left comments on this page, you seem to misunderstand the basic point of this column.

It’s interesting that so many people have such a hard time understanding the point I’m trying to make.

When you say that the idleness of Southern whites was the real problem in the south, you are not contradicting me at all; you are actually just re-stating my central point.

And if you go looking for “evidence that slaves held back American economic growth,” you probably won’t find any. I certainly have not said that slaves held back economic growth; I said that the institution of slavery held it back. That’s an important distinction.

As I said in my response to an earlier comment, if enslaving people and robbing them of their human dignity were the way to build a strong economy, the Soviet Union would have won the Cold War. President Reagan understood the inherent weakness of the USSR’s centrally controlled economy, and it guided him in all his Cold War policies.

The thing that has made America great is the ingenuity and effort of free individuals.

The reason this is important today is that too many Americans think that top-down control, from, for example, a paternalistic government, can build a strong nation. I want to make my readers question this assumption.

Al Fuller