Genovese

[JKSCHW at aol.com]

The relation of capitalism to American slavery is complicated. Slavery was 
connected to the development of global capitalism, to be sure. The cotton and 
tobacco the slaves raised were commodities sold in the US and world market, 
and were worked up by wage labor proper outside the slave states. But insofar 
as the Southern mode of production did not rest mainly on wage labor, it 
canot be described as fully capitalist. The slaves were themselves 
commodities; their labor was not. But Charles knows this, and nothing in our 
disagreement rests on it. --jks

In a message dated Fri, 13 Oct 2000  1:46:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
LeoCasey at aol.com writes:

<< << American slavery was capitalism. The slaveowners sold to the capitalist 
market.  >>

Come on now, if selling to a market makes a system of production capitalist, 
capitalism has existed since the end of hunting and gathering societies. 
Markets existed a myriad of ancient slave societies and feudal societies. 
There is a substantial historical literature on the nature of modern slavery 
in the "new world," and it just might be a good idea to read some of it 
before offering these kinds of theses for public consumption.

Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who 
want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and 
lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --

 >>