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> It just feels difficult to imagine that something they were so deeply invested in for generations wasn’t that important. Southern culture was about having g
by slibhb 8mo ago
> It just feels difficult to imagine that something they were so deeply invested in for generations wasn’t that important.
Southern culture was about having giant houses, partying, and not laboring. They didn't fight for the economics of it but rather to preserve that way of life.
> I’ve also wondered if the fiction of American exceptionalism is meant to help future generations pretend that the foundation of their success isn’t built upon an incredible horror perpetrated by their ancestors.
American exceptionalism isn't a fiction. It's probably a selection effect due to immmigration.
And the "incredible horror" is very real...but I'm not convinced that it was necessary ("built upon") for American success.
- Waterluvian 8mo agoDid the wealth from slavery play an important role in making the U.S. attractive for significant immigration to begin with?
- slibhb 8mo agoMy sense is that most immigrants ended up in the north by far, which was richer, more densely populated and had better jobs. Slavery made it significantly harder for free laborers to find work in the south. It is psychologically interesting that many people claim that slavery was the bedrock for the modern US economic. As if it's not enough to say "slavery was evil" but something more, like "slavery was evil AND without it the US would be a backwater". But I just don't see a lot of evidence for that theory being true.