-Caveat Lector-
Slavery was first and foremost an economic institution. If you really
want to understand what it was all about, you have to analyze the
economics of the trade.
By far and away, the best book on the economics of slavery is Capitalism
& Slavery by Eric Eustace Williams, ISBN 0807844888. Williams was a
consummate scholar. He worked entirely from primary sources. His study
went far beyond the slave trade itself. He examines in minute detail
the role that the slave trade played in the rest of the economy world,
and especially of England. He examines not only supporting industries
such as ship building and shackle production, but also stuff that many
of us might have overlooked.
He draws from banking records, bills of lading, production quotas, etc.
to demonstrate how virtually every aspect of the England’s economy
benefited, directly and indirectly from slavery. He makes use of such
seemingly unrelated statistics as cloth yard production records and
quarry extract tonnage. He ties these together with real estate
transactions, payroll records, contemporary newspapers (both articles
and advertising) and records of parliamentary debate on such disparate
matters as tariffs and naval procurement.
Among his most fascinating lines of inquiry is to follow the fortunes of
certain leading families, some of whom grew incredibly wealthy off of
the slave trade without even ever becoming directly invloved. Among
those who were directly involved, we find virtually every family of
prominence in English society.
Another of Williams’ more productive lines of inquiry is civic
engineering. Not only was a great deal of the wealth of England’s ruling
families derived from human flesh, but also the wealth of cities. He
uses real estate transfer tax records, building contractors’ payroll,
and receipts for the brick and marble of the still standing improvements
on the land, to illustrate his thesis. Much of England’s finest
architecture was mortared with African, and to a lesser extent Irish,
blood.
Many of Old Blighty’s victims rail against this “nation of pirates,”
from whose fangs blood still drips. Most however, rely on anecdotal
evidence, the more heart rending, the better. There is no dearth of such
gruesome tales. There are more than enough bloody shirts to wave. But
Williams foregoes the easy route. Instead, he condemns England with her
own receipts. He proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that economic
cornerstone upon which England’s wealth is built is slavery. The money
it generated, both directly and indirectly, made England what it is
today. Though it is a shadow of its former self, England is still an
Evil Empire par excellence. That the core of it’s fortune is blood
money, Williams proves beyond doubt.
Williams himself is an interesting character. For a long time he was a
professor at Howard University. Later on he served for a while as Prime
Minister of Trinidad and Tobago. I never would have heard of the guy had
I not read Redneck Manifesto by Jim Goad, ISBN 0684831139. Goad’s book
is a truly excellent piece of sociology. It ranks with the best. I
recommend it highly. He devotes an entire chapter of Redneck Manifesto
toa condensation of Williams’ work.
While the serious scholar will find Goads‘s condensed version no
substitute for the original, it certainly does make for much lighter
reading. By all means, read Goad first. But don’t stop there. Go ahead
and dig into his sources, especially Capitalism and Slavery. Take notes
if it will help. Goad certainly did. No single book gives a better
understanding of the enormously far reaching effects of slavery.
Most work on the subject focuses on the moral, political and
sociological aspects. That ain’t the half of it. As Williams makes
abundantly clear, slavery transformed the world. Capitalism as we know
it today could never have developed without slavery. Neither could have
much of modern life. To think of slavery as something that happened in
the past, and that is no longer relevant, is an attitude at odds with
the facts. It’s echoes can be seen, not only in the distorted
interpersonal relationships that it’s legacy forces upon us, but also in
the ledgers of every bank and most corporations. They are still making
money with the money they made of of slavery. To understand them one
must understand slavery. To do this, one must, as Deep Throat so
succinctly put it, “follow the money.”
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