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I feel like stirring the pot this morning.. If the Civil War was never fought...

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by 93Devil, Feb 18, 2014.

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When does slavery go away in the South?

  1. Before 1900

    36.7%
  2. Between 1900 and 1920

    16.7%
  3. Between 1920 and 1940

    3.3%
  4. Between 1940 and 1960

    13.3%
  5. Between 1960 and 1980

    8.3%
  6. Between 1980 and 2000

    1.7%
  7. Between 2000 and now

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  8. To this day, there would still be slavery in the South

    20.0%
  1. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    Drafting off of the 12 Years a Slave movie, but this is an honest question; if the Civil War is never fought, when does slavery go away in the South?

    Now, this might seem a simple yes answer, but to answer yes, you have to state when, why and how.

    I am going to say it stays with us until the 1960s because if only for battle it took for the Little Rock Nine in 1957. That was just to go to school. To end slavery would have a severe monetary affect on many businesses in the South. I just don't think it happens easily or overnight. I also think our economy needs to be strong for this to happen, and in the 1960s or 1950s, it would have been strong enough.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    How? I guess it would have taken a military action on a few plantations, and it would not have been pretty.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Interesting debate, although one also has to think about how differently the South would have felt about civil rights if they hadn't been forced to give up their slaves at the point of a gun, but rather done so themselves voluntarily.
     
  3. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    Now when you say the Civil War was never fought, are you saying that the South never seceded or that they did and the North decided to let them go?

    If it's the former, slavery would have been banned in the South with the Emancipation Proclamation or a similar decree around roughly the same time, plus a few years for holdout pockets of resistance and foot-dragging by recalcitrant state and local authorities.

    If it's the latter, it takes longer, but at some point relatively soon the slavery engine would have run out of steam. Britain wasn't in the slave business, and Brazil abandoned slavery in the late 1800s. Allegedly there were plans to do away with slavery in Confederate states, but I can't seem to locate anything reputable that references them., But I think eventually a slavery-driven economic model wouldn't have been sustainable, and by 1900 it largely would have ceased outside of plantations that were grandfathered in.
     
  4. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    I have no idea. What does Slate say?
     
  5. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    I see Mark2010 voted.
     
  6. micropolitan guy

    micropolitan guy Well-Known Member

    Britain outlawed slavery in 1833. The Southern states had ample opportunity over two or three decades to follow suit and outlaw slavery before they opened fire on the United States at Fort Sumter. Had they agreed to end slavery as late as 1860, the Civil War wouldn't have happened. There would have been no reason for them to feel they had to secede because pressure from the abolitionist North would have abated.

    As it is, 1961-65 sort of settled the question once and for all.
     
  7. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    What's everyone's issue with Slate here?

    They can be contrarian, which they even joke about. But their regular writers - Yglesias on economics, John Dickerson on politics, Dahlia Lithwick and Emily Bazelon on law - are excellent.

    I don't know why people here are so dismissive.
     
  8. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    Are you talking large-scale slavery? That would have ended as tractors came onto the scene and you no longer needed a lot of people to farm vast acreage. Technology would have replaced field hands just as robots have replaced a lot of factory workers.

    But I think it probably would have happened before then. England was a driver in abolishing slavery in Brazil via economic pressure. Europe could have done the same to the US.

    Of course, slavery still exists in every state in the union in some form or fashion as it it. So while it's been outlawed, it hasn't been abolished.
     
  9. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Do you mean jails/prisons?
     
  10. Paynendearse

    Paynendearse Member

    Go this far: If the boats had never sailed from Africa, would there ever have been slavery? Or when they sailed it was with willing passengers, samw as Irish and German immigrants seeking a new life in a new world?
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    It says "would be" slavery.

    Not "should be" slavery.
     
  12. Paynendearse

    Paynendearse Member

    Considering the race riots that were rampant in the 1920s, it would've never made it past then.
     
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