alt Hacker NewsMy impression is that slavery was economically disadvantageous the whole time, but persisted in the South because of the relative power of the slaveholders.
My impression is that slavery was economically disadvantageous the whole time, but persisted in the South because of the relative power of the slaveholders.
Exactly. As distasteful as it is to put it in these terms, some slaveholders had massive "balance sheets" consisting of thousands of human "assets". Outlawing slavery meant reducing the value of these assets to zero.