What is the Baltimore Sun Thinking?

[dannubis]

There seem to be a lot of anal references in your thinking

[molly bloom]

There seem to be a lot of anal references in your thinking

Well, I've seen one or two in my time, even a singing one in a John Waters' film... so when one posts here, I know it readily enough.

[Docfeelgood]

...anti-slave propaganda?

Forget it!
I'm not getting into a argument about the history of slavery in America.
I have given my point of view on the subject.

[Docfeelgood]

Totally unexpected response!!!

I mean, how could anyone be against such a benign state or condition ? I'm really looking forward to developing keloid scars of my own, and possibly to enjoying a good old-fashioned hobbling.


Sometimes I think you're a liberal posting under a pseudonym to make fun of how they perceive Deep South red neck crackers. But mostly I think you're a horse's arse.

kiss my azz!

[Elok]

I believe the Baltimore Sun is thinking, "Damn, look at those circulation numbers. Pathetic. Could I jump out the window and make it look like an accident so my wife and kids still get the insurance?"

Or maybe that's just the editors.

[Elok]

What? you think all southerners had one or two slaves in each household?

Stupid.

In 1850 the average slave cost around 1500 dollars each plus cost of feeding and housing.
Think! Would a slave holder really mistreat there investment?
Inflation is calculated as ten dollars to one dollar today.

So, $15,000 was the equivalent of a slave's price. That puts a slave around the same level as a good used car today. I could picture a rich man today buying a sizeable number of good-condition used cars and smashing them to bits, provided he made a decent profit off it. It's generally held that they did the math and found that it was cheaper to work a slave to death and get a new one than to treat one well enough to last. A humanely-treated slave gets shorter hours, is allowed to catch his breath instead of picking more cotton, gets better food and actual medical treatment, etc. All that adds up.

Now, there are examples of slaves who were treated well in the past for cost considerations--gladiators, for example, were pampered. But that was a very different business model. You bought a likely slave (expensive) then sank a lot of cash into him to get him trained at one of the good schools, plus a special diet. You might own a handful of gladiators, if you were a wealthy owner, and you'd promote the better ones into celebrities to draw bigger crowds. You don't use up star entertainers and throw them away after building them up like that. American plantations' field slaves, by comparison, were farm equipment. They lived and died as replaceable, interchangeable parts and the master might never even know their names.

[Felch]

If you were going to work somebody to death, you'd have been better going with Irish or Chinese working for wages. No upfront costs at all, and the maintenance is minimal.

[Docfeelgood]

If slavery was the issue for the civil war? then why did blacks fight for the Confederacy?

[Berzerker]

because their masters got out of serving by sending them?

[snoopy369]

10 to 1, what? Not remotely close. The CPI is 30 to 1, and that's the lowest remotely reasonable number. Most of the more reasonable numbers are 100-400 times.

http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/relativevalue.php

Just using $1500 and 1855 (in case 1860 is affected by the war), I get around $286,000 in 'unskilled labor'. So a slave was about as valuable as a house nowadays - and probably more valuable than a house back then, since houses were far easier to build and land was very cheap.

[Docfeelgood]

10 to 1, what? Not remotely close. The CPI is 30 to 1, and that's the lowest remotely reasonable number. Most of the more reasonable numbers are 100-400 times.

http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/relativevalue.php

Just using $1500 and 1855 (in case 1860 is affected by the war), I get around $286,000 in 'unskilled labor'. So a slave was about as valuable as a house nowadays - and probably more valuable than a house back then, since houses were far easier to build and land was very cheap.

That was what I got after googling it.
My bad then for being wrong

Does show that not everyone could afford slaves.

[PLATO]

If slavery was the issue for the civil war? then why did blacks fight for the Confederacy?

Because being possible cannon fodder was preferable to being tied to a whipping post? That is a statement in and of itself, isn't it?

That being said, I do not believe that slavery was the sole issue of the civil war either. The OP shows an additional and compelling reason that was likely a good part of the mix as well. To be intellectually honest though, it would be a mistake to discount the influence of the issue of slavery.

Being raised in the South, there is a large part of the educational system that used to highlight the non-slavery issues and give just an obligatory surface coverage to the actual influence that slavery had as a root cause to the war. In all honesty the discussions that have been posted on Poly have been a good source for the motivations of many of the Southern Leaders.

The sad part is that slavery being a cause of the war diminishes the position of other major issues of the time (like the tariffs mentioned here) and issues that remain in our time (like State's Rights) that I believe were legitimate reasons that the South had to secede.

[giblets]

After decades of putting up with disagreeable tariffs, the southern states suddenly decided to secede following the election of an anti-slavery presidential candidate, because of the tariffs. That's just blindingly obvious.

[Felch]

The obvious answer is that different people were motivated by different things. Some people were interested in the slavery issue, and some couldn't care less. Some were motivated by tariffs or state's rights, and some couldn't care less. Some wanted a chance to win glory, and some just wanted to watch the world burn. Trying to figure out why after 150 years is bull****.

That said, there wouldn't have been a civil war if America didn't have slavery.

[Berzerker]

S Carolina threatened to secede back in the 1820s over tariffs