4 ms·

Not as economical as cheap labor. It's clear that it's cheaper to hire poor emigres and have them die in a few weeks or months (or you could just fire them) tha

Not as economical as cheap labor. It's clear that it's cheaper to hire poor emigres and have them die in a few weeks or months (or you could just fire them) than to use slaves, which you had to pay for, clothe and shelter.

bilbo0s 12y ago
Not if the slaves don't die. This is what doomed blacks in America actually. They had a tendency not to die at the rate that natives and immigrants did. We know that on northern canal projects... thousands of immigrants and natives might die in a single season from malaria... but blacks didn't seem too affected at all by these sorts of environments. (Look it up... even with the Erie canal, which was really well run medically speaking, 1,000 men could die every season from malaria. The southern canals didn't suffer these kinds of casualties. Why?) Well today, of course, we KNOW about the sickle cell and how it helps a human with respect to malaria. But put yourself in the shoes of a camp doctor in the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries... I'd be willing to bet that the survival rate of the blacks would have seemed nothing short of miraculous to you. This is the, not so politically correct, reason that blacks were doomed to slavery. They didn't die doing work that most other people DID die doing. This is WHY they were more economical. Immigrants would never have been able to complete the canals that the slaves completed in the South. Because, since it was the South, the mosquito problem would have been even more acute. The death rate even higher. And on top of all of that... the geography was agitating against them. It would have been a catastrophe to even attempt those canals with immigrants or natives. Not to sound racist or anything... but that's the whole reason we HAD the blacks. To put it all into dollars and cents... S-O-A was going to be about 60 some odd miles long and cost just $500,000. And the geography was actually FAR tougher to build a canal on than the geography along the Erie. By comparison the Erie was 5 or 6 times longer... but cost 14 TIMES as much. Largely down to the use of waged labor that died easily. If they had used blacks... even if they paid them the same wages... due to the difference in death rate... the cost would have been only 9 to 11 times that of the S-O-A. If they had used slaves... it would have been cheaper per mile than the S-O-A. These financial realities did not go unnoticed by northern elites. And the animosities these realities created exploded into civil war eventually.

bilbo0s 12y ago

Not if the slaves don't die. This is what doomed blacks in America actually. They had a tendency not to die at the rate that natives and immigrants did. We know that on northern canal projects... thousands of immigrants and natives might die in a single season from malaria... but blacks didn't seem too affected at all by these sorts of environments. (Look it up... even with the Erie canal, which was really well run medically speaking, 1,000 men could die every season from malaria. The southern canals didn't suffer these kinds of casualties. Why?) Well today, of course, we KNOW about the sickle cell and how it helps a human with respect to malaria. But put yourself in the shoes of a camp doctor in the 17th, 18th or 19th centuries... I'd be willing to bet that the survival rate of the blacks would have seemed nothing short of miraculous to you. This is the, not so politically correct, reason that blacks were doomed to slavery. They didn't die doing work that most other people DID die doing. This is WHY they were more economical. Immigrants would never have been able to complete the canals that the slaves completed in the South. Because, since it was the South, the mosquito problem would have been even more acute. The death rate even higher. And on top of all of that... the geography was agitating against them. It would have been a catastrophe to even attempt those canals with immigrants or natives. Not to sound racist or anything... but that's the whole reason we HAD the blacks. To put it all into dollars and cents... S-O-A was going to be about 60 some odd miles long and cost just $500,000. And the geography was actually FAR tougher to build a canal on than the geography along the Erie. By comparison the Erie was 5 or 6 times longer... but cost 14 TIMES as much. Largely down to the use of waged labor that died easily. If they had used blacks... even if they paid them the same wages... due to the difference in death rate... the cost would have been only 9 to 11 times that of the S-O-A. If they had used slaves... it would have been cheaper per mile than the S-O-A. These financial realities did not go unnoticed by northern elites. And the animosities these realities created exploded into civil war eventually.