The Half Has Never Been Told â€� Reader Q&A

Questions About The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

by Edward E. Baptist (Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Author)

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Is there controversy over the work of Baptist and other scholars in the New History of Capitalism literature?

Dubi Just looked at the Columbia Law article. The authors are clear at the start that they do not doubt the horrific history of slavery recounted in Baptisâ€¦m´Ç°ù±ðJust looked at the Columbia Law article. The authors are clear at the start that they do not doubt the horrific history of slavery recounted in Baptist and other NHC literature. They question a) the premise that slavery was the primary driver of the industrial revolution rather than a failing antiquated economic model, and b) that torture was the primary driver of productivity gains by slaves in the cotton fields.

As far as a) is concerned, Baptist is quite clear that he means slavery was the primary driver of economic growth in the U.S., not worldwide. This argument is based not only on the value slaves provided via free labor, but also on the establishment in support of slavery (and land grab from Indians) of banks and credit markets and other tools of modern finance that exist to this day (and still cause major recessions). Baptist gives British technical innovation its due, contrary to the assertion in Oldstead-Rhode.

As for b), Olmstead-Rhode's problem with Baptist's theory is in the value of the testimony of slaves who worked on those plantations. They are so picky in contradicting slave testimony that they come off as deniers -- for example, they don't have much to say about the evidence Baptist presents based on the testimony and records of white enslavers. They accuse Baptist of making wild claims, and yet that is pretty much all they do in their article -- for example, they say Baptist ignores new strains of cotton as potential drivers of productivity when in fact Baptist spends a fair amount of time on the subject and provides quantitative analysis demonstrating that new strains cannot account for all of the gains in productivity.

If you're interested, here's what Baptist has said about people who choose not to believe slave testimony: (less)

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Contra Baptist: http://bradleyahansen.blogspot.com/2016/12/capitalism-and-slavery-debate-is-not.html?m=1

Wren Not a question. See above.

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