I’ve always wondered what would have happened if the Confederacy was left to its own devices. Thry had a clear vision, but it was intensely nearsighted.
Free chattel labour was appealing for a farming economy in 1860, but it’s less of a selling point elsewhere. You’re right on the cusp of major industrial and trchnological advancement, while clutching to a labour pool that you don’t want learning to read and probably wouldn’t trust with machinery. You’re not moving up the value chain that way.
So you’ve got a cash-crop dependent, export centric economy, who is about to be caught with its pants down when other countries start to fire up steam and petrol-powered agricultural equipment. You’re also pointing a target on your back as consumers are becoming more sophisticated and concepts like boycotts and sanctions are developing.
Give it 50 years, and they’d halve their per-capita GDP and either be a weird novelty for slavery tourism, or the “secret sauce” behind sketchy impossibly-cheap clothing and foodstuffs where the vendor doesn’t want to proudly boast “made in CSA” on the label.
The confederacy, left to their own devices, would have started the war at some point or another, because that’s what they did. They fired the first shots trying to force the North to accept slavery, wanting to expand slavery into the territories to make new slave states.
I’ve always wondered what would have happened if the Confederacy was left to its own devices. Thry had a clear vision, but it was intensely nearsighted.
Free chattel labour was appealing for a farming economy in 1860, but it’s less of a selling point elsewhere. You’re right on the cusp of major industrial and trchnological advancement, while clutching to a labour pool that you don’t want learning to read and probably wouldn’t trust with machinery. You’re not moving up the value chain that way.
So you’ve got a cash-crop dependent, export centric economy, who is about to be caught with its pants down when other countries start to fire up steam and petrol-powered agricultural equipment. You’re also pointing a target on your back as consumers are becoming more sophisticated and concepts like boycotts and sanctions are developing.
Give it 50 years, and they’d halve their per-capita GDP and either be a weird novelty for slavery tourism, or the “secret sauce” behind sketchy impossibly-cheap clothing and foodstuffs where the vendor doesn’t want to proudly boast “made in CSA” on the label.
The confederacy, left to their own devices, would have started the war at some point or another, because that’s what they did. They fired the first shots trying to force the North to accept slavery, wanting to expand slavery into the territories to make new slave states.
There are still countries that practice slavery, including the United States.
Don’t forget unethical medical research
The indubitable Spike Lee has imagined what would happen for you, and it’s free on the you-thing:| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exnwTWfFRM8