Oh they were not a part of the US? News to me.
And I’m the one changing history 
The Deep South made the US an economic superpower? That’s your claim?
The bottom dropped out of cotton prices about the time the war was over. It took a decade to recover production and then it was mostly white farmers.
The US did not become an economic superpower until about 1816 and WWI and then it wasn’t cotton. It was mostly by default.
There have been some great achievements by individuals who happened to be members of the black nation, but as a collective… not so much.
It is estimated that each slave in the US was worth about $1000 (1860 value) by 1860. There was 4 million slaves (about 1/7 the total US population and 1/4 of the south’s population).
Just the slaves themselves were worth 4 billion in 1860 money. When adjust for inflation, equal trillions in todays value.
I understand the need to make slavery seem small, ineffective and a long time ago (fun fact, Harriet Tubman and Ronald Reagan were alive at the same time) But it’s just not true.
Your premise is flawed. They weren’t exportable.
I do. The spirituality that came out of the fires of oppression altered our protestant churches and our worship services. And related to this… I don’t understate the importance of their music either. As the psalm says
“For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion”
There is power in a song of an oppressed people. And it’s been recognized for thousands of years. And for America, that power could have come to our country from no other people. And for that I am thankful.
Obviously YMMV.
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No, my claim is slavery made us an economic superpower. At the very least it foundational to use becoming one.
As did our GDP.
Mostly white farmers? Hmm. Peonage…
Slavery was a huge abomination. In the Deep South. Slavery was very effective. In the Deep South.
Slavery was a long time ago. In US years.
Slavery did not make the US an economic superpower. It’s just not true.
You are wrong.
Yes, mostly white farmers. Careful you don’t trample your exclusivity now.
It’s industry, not agriculture, that made the US an economic power house.
Not fighting wars on our soil is what made the US an economic powerhouse.
That’s part of it, but industry drove America into being a world leader.
No, not fighting wars on this soil did.
Please explain.
The US was primarily still an agricultural economy at the turn of the 20th century, although oil was coming.
When you don’t have to rebuild and repopulate, it’s an advantage.
The South was a part of the United States. True or false?
Hell we even made concessions (3/5th for example) to the south just so they stayed/joined in the union.
Both we had to do following the civil war. Right?
I don’t disagree, but America became an economic powerhouse when our industry came into its own.
By the time of WWII there wasn’t another country that could match the economic power of the US.
Until 1860 true. After 1865 state by state true.
I’m not sure what that has to do with it, but… sure…
Lack of competition. Everybody else was rebuilding.
Yes. Hence the two generations. With mostly white farmers.
