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How much did slavery contribute to American wealth?

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Harper's magazine estimated slaves in the US did a quarter billion hours of free labor. Multiply that by average wages today, perhaps even higher, for some slaves were skilled carpenters, blacksmiths, etc. read more

Slaves contributed much to American wealth. Slaves worked very hard to develop land, grow crops, cut timber, raise livestock, build infrastructure, make things and generally were productive. At the age of 27, they became profitable to their owners and remained profitable well into their 60’s or 70’s in many cases. read more

Furthermore, slavery was capable of producing enormous amounts of wealth. On the eve of the Civil War, the slave South had achieved a level of per capita wealth not matched by Spain or Italy until the eve of World War II or by Mexico or India until 1960. read more

Conservatively speaking, 600,000 soldiers lost their lives in the Civil War, two percent of the American population at the time. Twenty percent of all Southern white men of military age died in the War. Until Vietnam, more people had died in the Civil War than all other American wars combined. read more

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