The information on NYC is interesting. Does anyone have information on the relative size of merchant & industrial capital within the City at that time?
Carrol -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Joseph Catron Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2014 12:01 PM To: Progressive Economics Cc: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition Subject: Re: [Pen-l] Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 7:31 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: Unfortunately, slavery in the Upper South, where cotton was not an economic staple, is barely discussed, even though as late as 1860 more slaves lived in Virginia than any other state. Unadjusted for population, yes, but that doesn't tell us as much about slavery's role in local economies. As percentages, the 1860 numbers were: South Carolina: 57% Mississippi: 55% Alabama: 45% Florida: 44% Georgia: 44% Louisiana: 47% North Carolina: 33% Virginia: 31% etc. http://www.civil-war.net/pages/1860_census.html After the outbreak of war, these figures were used for "the Census Office's first attempt to map population density" in 1861. https://www.census.gov/history/www/reference/maps/distribution_of_slaves_in_1860.html On Sun, Oct 5, 2014 at 7:35 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism <[email protected]> wrote: 'What would New York be without slavery?'" I imagine Foner, if not Baptist, gets into the economic motives - made pretty explicit at the time - behind New York City's secessionist movement? "[M]uch of New York’s wealth came from its close ties to the South, a fact [secessionist Mayor Fernando] Wood emphasized in his message to the Common Council: 'With our aggrieved brethren of the Slave States, we have friendly relations and a common sympathy.' Much of the South’s cotton exports passed through New York, and the city's merchants took 40 cents of every dollar that Europeans paid for Southern cotton through warehouse fees, shipping, insurance and profits. Cotton — and hence slavery — helped build the new marble-fronted mercantile buildings in lower Manhattan, fill Broadway hotels and stores with customers, and build block after block of fashionable brownstones north of 14th Street. If seceding Southern states formed their own nation, New York merchants could expect to lose much of that lucrative trade. Southerners threatened to blacklist Northern companies they felt sided too closely with the Union and to unilaterally cancel debts owed to Northern merchants. New York's elite — and the city’s economy — would be devastated ... "While business leaders tried to force the city government to boost the chances of an independent city and protect their livelihoods, some New Yorkers were ready to take bold vigilante actions in support of secession. Leading businessmen even hatched a plot — never carried out — to capture the government's military property around the city, including ships, forts and the vast Brooklyn Navy Yard." http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/06/first-south-carolina-then-new-york -- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað." _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
