In the correct circumstances, slave labor can be a considerable advantage. In other circumstances...not so much. Maintaining a slavery-based society is, socia

In the correct circumstances, slave labor can be a considerable advantage. In other circumstances...not so much. Maintaining a slavery-based society is, socially, a huge hidden cost. (That's everything from shouting down objecting moralists to putting down slave rebellions.) And for socioeconomic reason, slave labor societies often trap themselves in a relatively crappy local maximum. Such as the American South's plantation-based and agriculture-dominated system.