Robert William Fogel (1926–2013)

An expansion of the author's previous "Time on the Cross," this is a deep dive into the mechanics of American slavery. Some fairly interesting conclusions, based on "cliometrics" (the somewhat cutesy term for using data to do historical analysis). One was that slavery was a lot more robust than many in the 19th century had believed, and another that slaves under slavery were not quite as maltreated, also as many in the 19th century had believed. The author is extremely careful to fashion a show more new indictment of the institution, which appears at the end of the book -- probably in response to heat he got relating to the original book. show less

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 show more 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. show less

Though it may seem to some that it has its moral defeciencies, it really does not. Fogel and Engerman put to bed many of the myths that have arisen around American slavery. The South wasn't an economic backwater, planters did not drive their slaves to death, and the slaves weren't "shiftless negroes" either.

"Few historians have more skillfully integrated economic with social, intellectual, and political history to demonstrate both the importance and the limits of economic developments -- the material reality and the perception of it . . . Pleasurable as well as instructive reading for anyone interested in the most fateful of our national crimes and the most fearful of our national crises . . .. A splendid book." Eugene D. Genovese, Los Angeles Times Book Review.