Good article as far as he goes.
I believe we have to get rid of the notion that slavery, especially Southern slavery, is the worst of all possible human conditions. Aristotle didn’t seem to think so. And I would much rather have been Thomas Jefferson’s slave than a coal miner in west Virginia (or my great-grandmother in Berlin in the closer to the present 1940).
The notion that slavery is the worst of all possible conditions arose from the fact that the North had to come up with a reason to justify what was done to the South. I say this as someone who has never lived south of Long Island, NY. I’ve just gone beyond the history I was taught in high school.
ML/NJ
If slaves were at the mercy of their masters why were life insurance policies on slaves common?
150 years ago, if you worked an Irish or Polish or Chinese or Italian laborer to the point they could no longer work, no big deal; there’d be plenty more fresh off the boat tomorrow, eager to take their place.
If you worked a slave to the point they could no longer work, you were out a considerable capital investment.