Before the war it was becoming popular to rent or sell slaves to corporations. They built the railroads and mined coal to their deaths. Slavery wasn’t going to die on its own.
Slavery is literally “any job that can be done can be forced to be done”
Quality doesn’t matter, only ends justifying means
Their plan was literally ‘Britain needs our cotton’.
Problem:
India exists.
Second problem:
The US… had a navy. The Confederacy… basically did not.
Anyway, all ports blockaded, never seriously challenged.
… Just real 12D chess goin on, even a fucking HOI4 player would laugh at how stupid their plan was.
yup, an agrarian monoculture swinging against the industrial powerhouse of the north… not very smart.
“One of the most destructive wars in human history”
“One of” is doing some heavy lifting there.
It definitely was one of the wars!
I mean, it’s currently at number 50 on Wikipedia’s list of wars by death toll (out of 130 listed conflicts). I feel like that might qualify as one of the most destructive, but it’s obviously a subjective description.
Also, at the time, it would have been quite a bit higher on the list.
It really doesn’t. Destructive is a much broader term than casualties, especially military.
Among the local wars between northern american people at the time, it was one of the most destructive!
It may be costly. It may be ineffective. And maybe I built my plantation in the least fertile place possible. And maybe I don’t know shit about farming. And maybe, possible, having slaves is a constant loss to me and my civilization.
But damnit if I can’t use slavery to justify my racism, how will I feel like a big important man?!
I know this is the shitposting Lemmy and historical accuracy isn’t the goal here … But you don’t honestly think they put plantations in infertile places and used slaves for no reason right? They made a shit ton of money
Before the war there were more Millionaires in Natchez Ms than in the entire state of New York. WTF are you on about?
Using slave labor on stolen land actually yields pretty high returns.
Also, like, you’ve seen this image before, right?
They were definitely not using the least fertile places possible.
If you think THAT’S stupid, wait until you see what they start THIS one over.
And then calling it the “war of northern aggression”
We should just stop pretending to be neutral and call it ‘the war of southern treason’.
One of the most destructive wars in history?
To be fair Americans don’t really know history, being the most propagandized people on the planet.
Lol in the Wikipedia list for wars by death toll its at place 50. A few beneath Cesar’s conquest of Gaul 2000 years earlier that was fought with swords…
Yeah, but as a percentage of total people population, Cesar killed/murdered a lot more.
Welcome to industrialization
Industrialization in the form of the cotton gin was one of the main reasons slavery was so profitable in the South. What are you talking about?
Slavery was even dying before the cotton gin was invented. It’s inventor even thought it would end slavery; but ironically for him, it did the opposite.
Turns out if you can use less slaves to make the same amount of cotton, demand goes up and thus supply must too.
Whoa. When you put of that way, it’s the Jevons Paradox again.
I’m talking about basing an economy off of one export and then starting a war with the dudes who have all the boats and manufacturing!
A southerner would think they would lose the export anyway due to abolition. So gambling on the union not being that keen on fighting may be sensible.
They weren’t fighting over some mode of production.
Enslavers murder people in order to maintain their extreme privileged which is based on the violent control of people and resources.
Nothing much has changed since then.
The same states spent another 100 years successfully fighting against equal treatment. The war wasn’t about modes of production; it was about the definition of personhood.
(I’m from Arkansas. We’ve got some crazy Christian Identitarian sects that still openly racist, and don’t believe Jesus saved non-whites.)
Monoculture is an antiquated form of agriculture.
Slavery is a barbarously cruel crime against humanity.
Perhaps people will say similar things about industrial meat production and billionaires in a few hundred years.
Would any one believe that I am master of slaves by my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them. I will not — I cannot justify it, however culpable my conduct. - John Patrick Henry US Founding father
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States rights to…(fill in the blank here) 😉
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You’re good lol I was just riffing. I appreciate the sincere explanation though /gen /pos 😄
In part, it was about states’ rights. Except, the South was opposed. It forced northern States to enforce its laws with the Fugitive Slave Act. The northern states’ insistence on their right to abolish slavery within their own borders was one of the big factors in the South seceding.
While the rest of the world perfects wind and solar, the United States is fighting a bloody, expensive war for oil.
Same or different?
Nowadays, you just give an unemployed person the ability to be a “free entrepreneur” while using an app and boom, labor cheaper than slaves - no need to worry about silly things like keeping them (barely) fed and clothed when you can convince them it’s their own damn fault for not working hard enough to feed themselves! Sure, you no longer “own” slaves and you can’t actually whip them for silly things like wanting to be treated like a human, but hey, it’s cheap!
Sarcasm aside, it does make me wonder if slaves in the 16th-19th centuries were anything like today’s delivery workforce, where some have a modicum of knowledge about the shit situation they’re in and want better wages and living/working conditions, while others in the same shit situation insist it’s just because “you’re not working hard enough bro!”
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