Re: Dumb Question on Capitalism

["José G. Pérez" <jgperez@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Charles,

    I'm more than a little fuzzy on how to analyze this all, but it seems to
me that slavery in the U.S. was capitalist slavery. My understanding is that
the slaves were dedicated to a couple of cash crops (especially cotton),
i.e., the production of a commodity for the market. Slave breeding was also
a big business, especially in the border states, and again this was
production for the market.

José
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 08, 2000 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: Dumb Question on Capitalism


>
>
> >>> <abc170@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 03/07/00 02:09AM >>>
>
> Naturally there can be combinations of political economies.
>
> While I know nothing on American slavery, I do not think that the
expropriation from slaves in colonial America had anything to do with
capitalism.
>
> Maybe the English investor behind the scenes was a capitalist, but not the
actual slavery in the Colonies.
> *********
>
> CB: The Southern slaveowners, like Jefferson and Washington, were
capitalists, bourgeoisie. They were different from Roman slaveowners in that
they produced for an economy in which the capitalists market was dominant.
They accumulated capital as capitalists.
>
> Capitalism got started with slavery as one of its chief momenta. For most
of capitalism, slavery has been a key component. It is capitalist slavery,
and the slavery is a significant mixture of the capitalist and slave
organizations of production, but the overall mode of production is
capitalism.
>
> CB
>
>
>
>
> ******************
> On Thu, 02 March 2000, "Charles Brown" wrote:
>
>
> > John Taber wrote:
> >
> > >Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
> > >
> > >I must be confused on what "capitalism" means. I never thought that
> > >a slave-based economy should be called capitalism. Similarly, I
> > >wouldn't think that a feudal system is capitalist.
> > >
> > >But on this list "capitalism" seems to be broadly used. Would
> > >somebody care to educate me?
> > >
> >
> > ************
> >
>
>
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