There may have been a lot of debate about the capitalist nature of American slavery, but I think those are old debates. Most everyone doing research in the area agrees that it was capitalist. The problem arose from a misreading of Marx by some of the old CP members who insisted that to have capitalism you had to have wage labour. No one actively researching the area doubts that slaveholders were capitalists. The more relevant question to the debates that have taken place here is "Was the US part of the periphery or part of the core during the early half of the nineteenth century?" Rod Hay [EMAIL PROTECTED] The History of Economic Thought Archives http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/index.html Batoche Books http://members.tripod.com/rodhay/batochebooks.html http://www.abebooks.com/home/BATOCHEBOOKS/ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com