Before modern fiscal policies did their work, indentured servitude and downright slavery ensured that the rich could get years of decades of cheap labor out of

Before modern fiscal policies did their work, indentured servitude and downright slavery ensured that the rich could get years of decades of cheap labor out of owning other's labor and oppress them to remove hope of liberty and escape. This is the precursor to 1860 and civil war, which did free millions but destroyed the south and 600k lives lost. Can we right the ship without devastating processes, or is our system doomed to slow incremental change whereby the generations slowly grind away at societal problems? Or are those problems growing worse faster than the slow grind?