Reddit reviews The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

There's a book you really need to read, called "The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism".

It was a business. That does not mean is was not extraordinarily violent and deeply racist and degrading and evil in very mundane ways on a daily basis.

Alright, so we're sure that southern states fought for slavery not "states rights", and that northern states were gunning for abolition.

So my question now is, what exactly was the north's motivation? Was it purely moral? Or were there selfish incentives, such as economic, social, political, or otherwise systemic?

The textbook answer of why the north and south were bound to collide is that northern industry was incompatible with the southern plantation economy. But there's this relatively new book called The Half has never been Told, (disclaimer I have not read this book I am somewhat ashamed to admit, I merely heard the author talk about it on NPR at some point). If I understand correctly, this book claims that far from being incompatible, the south's slave system was the critical ingredient that catalyzed and drove forwards America's whole entire industrial revolution. The south makes the cotton, northern factories pump out textiles. American capitalism was based on slavery, the sweat and blood of slaves was the seed capital that was invested to create the exponential powerhouse that is the american economy.

So, that's in a nutshell why I ask this question, if we put aside all the very clear altruistic imperatives, what incentive did the North have for abolishing slavery? What incentive did the north have for wanting to limit slavery's expansion? Why did northerners want to ban slavery in their own states in the first place, other than moral reasons?

The followup question is, if the north acted totally amorally in it's self interest only, would some sort of compromise have avoided the civil war? No doubt such a compromise would involve somehow guaranteeing slavery in the southern states for perpetuity.

And another followup question is, given that the north had economically benefited so much from slavery, if "The Half has never been Told" is to be believed, would they have benefited further if they hypothetically did manage to pull off a Grand Bargain with the south?

Generally, I would say your point about being open-minded and understanding others perspectives is valid and a great thing to do.

However, the recent links with Republicans (through conservatives) to racism, though Trump and others, deserve to be automatically judged. Any group that espouses outright racism should automatically lose.

Also, there as been the recent post showing John Lewis being for Net Neutrality and local Republicans at the federal level being against it and as well as their comparative campaign contributions from Comcast etc. Surely lobbying effects every congressman etc, but it's painful when it is so clearly obvious your representative cares more about specific business interests than what you want.

Though both Democrats and Republicans are now involved in instituting neoliberal policies (such as privatizing prisons) that unequally effects non-white and poor people, these policies did come into Vogue under Nixon and Regan. A capitalism (and therefore business) first attitude means a citizen last attitude.

I understand their perspective, generally. More importantly, I understand the historical and modern consequences and causes of their policies and actions. Racism, sexism, and other forms of oppression exist systematically throughout our society as it is, we don't need to fuck people over more now when we already have stolen and murdered and subjugated and basically fucked billions of people over historically.

I am positive there is a lesser evil, and even if we just base it on racist tendencies alone, the answer is clear; assuming one is anti-racist.

*Edit: I can cite some academic sources if anyone desires.

Some Sources, mostly dealing with US history:
Knocking the Hustle - Lester K. Spence - for neoliberalism and related issues
The Case for Reparations - Ta-Nehisi Coates - inequality/racism in the 20th century
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - Walter Rodney - How Europe and the United States benefited from the slave trade and how Africa was harmed.
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism - Edward Baptist - How all citizens of the US benefited from slavery and how it was responsible for US's quick growth/power.
A People's History of the United States - Zinn Ch1 is about Columbus and settler colonialism. Invasion/land theft/murder.
Legacies of the Dawes Act -Berthrong Land Theft from Native Americans.

http://www.kulturemedia.org/

I want to give you this example and you can see the parallels today.

 

1. China was rich around the 1800's. They wanted nothing from the West. The West waged two wars and forced them to become drug addicts. They were stereotyped as godless heathens, savages, etc. Today, the West's wars were framed as fighting to "defend free trade" against greedy and unfair Chinese.
   
   
2. Chinese, who fled semi colonized China become coolies who built up businesses in America were plundered of everything and many were killed off because the Chinese were "vicious, greedy and exploiting poor honest white people" https://i.imgur.com/tyFQ5oY.jpg.
   
   
3. China is rich again. America and the West claims China isn't playing fair and stealing and in Trump's words, "raping America".
   
    
   
   So, yes, propaganda is real and it is effective. It's not conspiracy. When I say whites cannot be trusted people think I'm nuts too, but I just gave you three examples of things that happened to just one nation.
   
    
   
   It is pervasive. They do control a lot of the media and they fill it with lies
   
    
   
   Also, whites are even more full of shit than most ever imagined. Look at all that fair trade in the "rules based order".
   
   http://www.amazon.com/War-Racket-Antiwar-Americas-Decorated/dp/0922915865/
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Overthrow-Americas-Century-Regime-Change/dp/0805082409/
   
   https://i.imgur.com/OMawpLS.jpg
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Settlers-Mythology-Proletariat-Mayflower-Kersplebedeb/dp/1629630373/
   
   https://www.amazon.com/Half-Has-Never-Been-Told/dp/046500296X

Possibly cheaper per hour worked (though I'd really want to see your citation on that), but definitely not cheaper per unit of product. You couldn't whip wage workers into faster picking, while whipping slaves into faster picking (something like a 200% increase in cotton picking efficiency between 1800 and 1860, which dropped like a rock once chattel slaves could no longer be used) was one of the foundations of the Southern economy.

Please see The Half Has Never Been Told for more information on the economics of slavery in the antebellum South. Slavery made America what it is today.

Hey on that topic here's a book about how slavery is the foundation of American capitalism that I've been reading: https://www.amazon.com/Half-Has-Never-Been-Told/dp/046500296X

https://www.amazon.com/Slaverys-Capitalism-American-Economic-Development/dp/0812248414/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_5?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0812248414&pd_rd_r=VV6K0B54G4C4D7FRX8J5&pd_rd_w=k09jp&pd_rd_wg=OEStf&psc=1&refRID=VV6K0B54G4C4D7FRX8J5

check out every author in this book. I've specifically heard good things about these two:

https://www.amazon.com/Half-Has-Never-Been-Told/dp/046500296X

https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Cotton-History-Sven-Beckert/dp/0375713964/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=CBC4DEDY0KK072A8T0A6

The Half Has Not Been Told (http://www.amazon.com/The-Half-Never-Been-Told/dp/046500296X) apparently pretty solid in this regard.

Except the untold sums of money and forms of wealth created by slavery and the resulting discrimination that this nation is still repairing itself from:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Half-Never-Been-Told/dp/046500296X

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism https://www.amazon.com/dp/046500296X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Qj0-zb50EJPJ4

I should just include a link to his book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Half-Never-Been-Told/dp/046500296X

> Slavery is a good example, sure it had economic benefits at the time but weighed against the ongoing social and economic costs has it really been worth it?

There weren't huge costs in economic terms, especially since we rolled back reconstruction a couple years after the US Civil War. I've been meaning to buy and read The Half Has Never Been Told. Apparently slavery made us wicked rich. So yeah, from an amoral/immoral standpoint it was worth it.

Of course China is copying the U.S., Britain, Australia, Europe, etc. etc. We're all rich and powerful as fuck.

Plowing a rut is easier than plowing virgin sod.