The Poverty of Slavery (eBook)

Robert E. Wright is the Nef Family Chair of Political Economy at Augustana University, USA. He has co/authored or co/edited two dozen books on US economic history and policy, including Corporation Nation, Fubarnomics, and One Nation Under Debt. He has served on the board of Historians Against Slavery, an NGO, since 2012.

Previous Publications 5
Acknowledgments 7
Bibliography 8
Contents 9
Chapter 1: Yet Another Half Untold 10
Notes 23
Bibliography 23
Chapter 2: Various Degrees of Liberty 27
Notes 42
Bibliography 42
Chapter 3: A Not So Peculiar Institution 47
Bibliography 73
Chapter 4: Slavery Resilient 80
Notes 114
Bibliography 114
Chapter 5: That Which Is Seen: Enslavers´ Profits 123
Note 142
Bibliography 142
Chapter 6: That Which Is Unseen I: Slavery´s Pollution 148
The Enslaved and Their Immediate Families 150
Slaves´ Places of Origin 158
Enslavers 163
Population Growth 169
Non-slave Laborers and Their Employers 173
Education, Infrastructure, and Technology 175
Agricultural Productivity and the Environment 181
Governance, Institutional Quality, and the Distribution of Wealth and Income 183
Public Perceptions 190
Note 192
Bibliography 192
Chapter 7: That Which Is Unseen II: Slavery´s Hidden Costs 203
The Costs of Protecting Slaves, Non-Slaves, and Enslavers from Themselves and Each Other 205
Public Control Costs 217
Interdiction and Restoration Costs 222
Summing Up the Costs 227
Bibliography 229
Chapter 8: Real Abolition 237
Bibliography 248
Bibliography 252
Index 277