ePub Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery (Norton Paperback) by Robert William Fogel in History

Review

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy RGCGOOD1 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Great BookBy KirillVery interesting book with in-depth insight on both the origin and economics of slavery; and the underlying causes that ultimately led to the Civil War. A must-read for anyone interested in the subject.4 of 6 people found the following review helpful. The Accountant's Guide to SlaveryBy Cabin DwellerI don’t know why a “rise and fall” book is always of such dramatic and morbid interest; such as with the Roman Empire or the Third Reich; except for here with the subject of American slavery. This is one of the less dramatic books I have read lately. The author Robert William Fogel made all attempts to successfully avoid the rise and fall of narrative plot and instead is a very meticulous documentarian and statistician. Looking back; I can now see this book had three parts: the numbers; which I have never read; the abolitionists; which I have lately and often read; and the theory; which proposes that slavery was still profitable and not on its way out by natural means. If Fogel prefaced this book with that outline; he was too verbose to have been clear. Now I see that he has thought more about the topic of slavery than entire cities of people. On page 30 is a bundle of stats and a graph to proof slavery was not diminishing throughout the 19th Century. 11 percent of all slaves lived on cotton plantations in 1800. 64 percent lived there by 1850. Tobacco; sugar; and rice dwindled by importance. There is also a map in this first section which shows virtually no slaves; in 1800; in Alabama; Louisiana; and Mississippi. I have heard it said many times; but the cotton gin revolutionized slavery still more than we realize. As comprehensive as Fogel is; a significant part of this book is out of bounds of the South. On page 83; he has begun his theme of the power; success; and efficiency of Southern Slavery. “When the yeoman class of the South is defined to include both non-slaveholding farmers and farmers with seven or fewer slaves; their average wealth is nearly identical with that of northern farmers …” And for larger plantations that utilized “gang-system farms;” they were 15 times more profitable; meaning dominant over small northern and southern yeoman farmers. The sky was the limit for gang-system plantations; which Fogel had defined as a system of simultaneous moving parts. Much later in the book; Fogel is unapologetic to say that Northern farmers; and laborers; could not compete with slave system’s efficiency; including the complicity of slaves themselves. But that is where the middle part of the book; the second part of three; comes into play; the human element. So Fogel’s analysis is too complex to narrate or denounce slavery. The “fall” in the title invokes the abolitionist voices of William Lloyd Garrison and Horace Greeley; and again only in Garrison’s case is the fight against slavery only on behalf of the slave. More than in previous works that I have read; Greeley is a dynamic confusion of allegiance; and although he would bully Lincoln in the Tribune he was himself aware of the bigger picture. It’s not that interesting of a story and I cannot retrace it all; but the oppression of northern wages combined with immigrant attractions away from slavery combined with railroad expansion; and all of these economic issues; is what pushed Greeley to his strong abolitionist stance. I can’t find the quote in which he clearly states that Northern labor suffered the most from Southern slavery; but he says it. Instead I find that I marked Hinton Helper; of the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina; who theorized that Southern acres were more valuable than Northern; except that slavery had reduced Southern acres to 1/5 of their actual value.