I believe one of two things would have happened. Either northern capitalists would have continued to trade with the South, strengthening the Confederacy while undermining northern workers, or, barring govt interference, Abolitionists would have triggered slave revolts throughout the South.
If the latter, I strongly suspect this would have threatened northern capitalists who would have either triggered a second Civil War to quash the slave rebellion "on our shores" or worse, realigned with white southerners to conduct a race war. Either way I believe the long term would have been much worse than the present situation.
The best alternative would have been organizing white labor to halt the importation of slaves. It would have been ugly and racist, but it might have led to our govt helping to end the Middle Passage and overthrow slave-holding nations throughout the hemisphere.
But wishing for a successful workers revolt is a bit like wishing for Santa Claus. Slavery remains the US's 'peculiar institution' and we are still in its thrall. Electing a Kenyan-American as President was false hope, just like our new Vice President, a Jamaican South Asian Canadian woman. They have tasted the aftermath of our peculiar institution, but are not ADOS (an acronym more significant than BLM but studiously ignored by the media).
A provocative read. Thank you. For some reason it woke my head up instead of churning my gut like most of the news does of late : )
I believe one of two things would have happened. Either northern capitalists would have continued to trade with the South, strengthening the Confederacy while undermining northern workers, or, barring govt interference, Abolitionists would have triggered slave revolts throughout the South.
If the latter, I strongly suspect this would have threatened northern capitalists who would have either triggered a second Civil War to quash the slave rebellion "on our shores" or worse, realigned with white southerners to conduct a race war. Either way I believe the long term would have been much worse than the present situation.
The best alternative would have been organizing white labor to halt the importation of slaves. It would have been ugly and racist, but it might have led to our govt helping to end the Middle Passage and overthrow slave-holding nations throughout the hemisphere.
But wishing for a successful workers revolt is a bit like wishing for Santa Claus. Slavery remains the US's 'peculiar institution' and we are still in its thrall. Electing a Kenyan-American as President was false hope, just like our new Vice President, a Jamaican South Asian Canadian woman. They have tasted the aftermath of our peculiar institution, but are not ADOS (an acronym more significant than BLM but studiously ignored by the media).
A provocative read. Thank you. For some reason it woke my head up instead of churning my gut like most of the news does of late : )