Who was doing this antislavery agitating in the streets anyway? Not the slaves. It's not like the government was thinking, "oh no! If we don't abolish slavery, the slaves will revolt!" Actually if that were the case, the South would have been the ones moving to abolish slavery.
----- Original Message ---- From: Joseph Catron <jncatron at gmail.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Fri, December 4, 2009 5:33:41 PM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Obama's betrayal of hope
On Thu, Dec 3, 2009 at 2:26 PM, Eric Beck <ersatzdog at gmail.com> wrote:
Do you really think the ending of slavery had
> nothing to do with agitation in the streets? Really?
>
Do you imagine that* *chattel slavery could persist as a social institution in an advanced industrial society? Or that it is mere happy coincidence that it does not?
Chris and Wojtek are right; Carrol is wrong (although I suspect he overstated his case, rather than actually believing his own claim). Technological and economic innovations have influenced the behavior of governments far more than angry mobs - and I've never been one to underestimate the influence of angry mobs.
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað." ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk