re lincoln slavery re top ten tricks you can play on the american voter in article apr isc br isc br com steveh thor isc br com steve hendricks writes in article kmitchelc wa hlz netcom com kmitchel netcom com kenneth c mitchell writes slavery makes economic sense it never makes moral sense when human muscle power is an economically valuable asset agricultural slavery might have lasted right up to the first mechanical cotton reaper but no further reapers are cheaper than slaves and don t have to be fed during the winter this argument makes a several fundamental errors first agricultural slavery was not limited to production of cotton in the american south slave labor was used extensively to grow tobacco sugar and rice all of which remained labor intensive enterprises well into the th century and of course in states like kentucky and virginia not well suited to large scale plantations slave labor was used to make one of the most valuable agricultural products of all more slaves in some ways this treatment of humans beings as breeding livestock is the most horrifying aspect of american slavery second although mechanization of cotton production could be expected to reduce the demands for labor eventually it was only in the s the mechanization of cotton production in the south largely eliminated the labor intensive character of the operation long after the first mechanical cotton reaper was invented this is an interesting question steinbeck s grapes of wrath published in the s uses agricultural mechanization of cotton production in arkansas as the cause of the joad family being evicted from the land how many years were involved in the mechanization of cotton farming when did this first appear ken mitchell the powers not delegated to the united states by the steve hendricks domain steveh thor isc br com clayton e cramer uunet pyramid optilink cramer my opinions all mine relations between people to be by mutual consent or not at all
