On Tue, 10 Nov 1998 15:34:40 -0500 Tom Lehman <uswa12 at lorainccc.edu>
writes:
>
>--------------00FD7FA92FF072E9B4FD29E2
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>Dear James,
>
>Yeah, wasn't it great! One change of clothes a year. A shack to live
>in---the animal barns were better. Oh yeah! When your not busy
>working for
>the "massa" you get to grow your own food.
>
>Speaking of modern day innovations. Many of the slaves used in the
>ante-bellum iron and steel business were leased to the ironmasters.
>Sort of
>like using contractors today. A smart southern ironmaster wouldn't
>have to
>keep a big labor force on hand. He could contract for slave labor as
>business conditions warranted.
>
>Sincerely,
>Tom L.
>
>
While the contracting out of slave labor might have provided
a partial way out of that system's inherent inflexibilities I fail
to see how it in the long run could become as efficient as
exploitation based on free labor. The contracting out of
slave laborers was in the first place primarily a means for
slave owners to make some money off of surplus slaves
who they could not profitably use on their own plantations
and who could not be easily sold off. The fact still remains
that the exploiters of free labor could more easily discharge
surplus laborers than could the owners of slave laborers and
that was an inherent limitation on the degree to which slave-based
production could be made more efficient.
Jim Farmelant
___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]