Without consent or contract : the rise and fall of American slavery (1989)

With its virtual monopoly of raw cotton, the Confederacy could have risen to become a dominant world power. A small "sales tax" of $.05 on cotton would put the cost burden on foreign and northern buyers, yielding $100 million annually during the 1860s--"50 percent more than the entire federal budget on the eve of the Civil War". [415] They could have held the north hostage, where a large textile industry depended on cotton. If the revenue had been devoted to weapons, the Confederated South could maintain a standing army many times larger than the North, and proceeded to enslave the New World.

Fortunately for the cause of freedom and the viability of the middle classes, the Southern oligarchy was not capable of shrewd planning. The possibility of a global roll-back of working-class rights is not the gloomiest of the possible alternatives which have emerged from this comprehensive study of the demographics, the geology, and the cultures in conflict over the institution of Slavery in America. [416]. However, it is clear that if the North had not stood in the way of their take-over, the aristocracy built upon severe subordination could only have led to a loss of human lives far greater than the terrible toll of the Civil War. It is clear that the hope of a peaceful reduction or gradual decrease of Slavery was highly unlikely. It can be seen that Slavery was expansive, aggressive, voracious, and not going to die voluntarily. Slavery had become institutionally viable and profitable. The oligarchs were deaf to the religious and moral suasion so ardently hoped for by William E. Channing. [416].

I look with awe upon the Republican Party today--at the end of 2011. The GOP once produced great champions for freedom and enfranchisement. Where have they gone? I look at the cowards in State and Federal legislatures who have abandoned the Union. We see the emergence of a well-funded echo-chamber repeating the naked deceptions of the oligarchs--an aristocracy which continues to disguise and withhold economic and political truth. These truths include the facts exposed by Professors Fogel and Engerman. We need this book to refute the lies of those who have "taken over" the GOP itself. ( )