Pic Of The Moment: Here's What Trump Supporters Think "Make America Great Again" Means

[Jim Lane]

24. The fate of slavery in an independent CSA

You write, "Slavery was on the way out anyway from what I have read." I haven't read much on the question but this seems dubious to me.

Before the Civil War, there was some talk about ending slavery by having the government buy and free all the slaves. The idea never got anywhere because it just wasn't economically practical. Slavery was such a huge economic benefit to the people who could benefit from other people's forced labor that the market value of all the slaves was staggering.

In an independent CSA, there would have been some abolitionists, and their numbers might even have increased over time, with a growing moral awareness of the horror of slavery. But the economics would still have been there. Abolition with compensation would have been unaffordable. Abolition without compensation would have dealt a huge blow to the net worth of most of the richest and most powerful people in the new country. How, exactly, would that have come about through peaceful political processes?

All that said, it is interesting to speculate about what the United States would be like today without those eleven states. The political center would be much more to the liking of most DUers!