The Transition from Slave to Free Labor: Notes on a Comparative Economic Model (original) (raw)

Herbert S. Klein and Stanley L. Engerman, "The Transition from Slave to Free Labor: Notes on a Comparative Economic Model,"

AI-generated Abstract

The transition from slave to free labor in the Americas during the nineteenth century was a complex process that transformed agricultural practices, labor relations, and migration patterns. This paper compares different emancipation contexts and models, highlighting the conflict between ex-slaves and planters over land and labor rights. It illustrates how various local conditions, government policies, and market forces shaped post-emancipation realities, often leading to compromises rather than absolute victories for either side.

American Plantation Slavery and Capitalism

Was American plantation slavery more of a feudal relic or a capitalist innovation?' Plantation slavery was a feudal relic-instituted by premodern fears of landless labourers in the seventeenth century and maintained by the powerful class it created by tropes of racismwhich was made incredibly profitable by the capitalist world in which it existed despite being economically costlier than free labour. This essay will examine the distinctly premodern social relationships which underlay the highly profitable plantations and the economic value of its slave driven society considering its manufacturing and consuming capabilities. The 'New History of Capitalism' argument-that slavery was an innovative and efficient use of labour by capitalists which underlay modern economic growth, recently emphasised by Sven Beckert and Edward Baptist-will be rejected. 1 The South and its environment were central to industrialisation. Slavery underlaid capitalist development unnecessarily.

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