[aruanan]

3. Nearly all businesses hired immigrant labor (like the irish) instead of owning slaves for anything except agriculture. Why? - if it was cheaper to own slaves as the author suggests (ps - it wasn’t).

Well, there were a lot of skilled labor jobs done by black slaves that were hired out for temporary periods. I remember something about someone asking why they weren't using slaves loading a riverboat but were using Irish workers instead. The answer was because slaves could get hurt too easily doing that kind of work.

[DirtyPigpen]

I hate to say this but some in my family owned slaves. They were very expensive. I saw the will/inventory of one relative dated 1850 something. Had about 5 as I recall listed on the will/inventory. $350 was about the average price. Back then that was a lot of cash!

They didn’t have slave insurance back then.

They listed everything on the will, right down to how many spoons they had!