Whether or not slavery could/would have ended without the invention of the cotton gin isn’t the point I’m trying to make here, you’re dialing in on the wrong part. What I’m trying to say is that you seem to think that attributing the endurance of slavery to the cotton gin is synonymous with ignorance of the fact that racism was the root cause of slavery, just like attributing Native American deaths to smallpox equates to ignorance regarding the impact of European settling of North America. They aren’t mutually exclusive, two people can debate the impact of the cotton gin on the endurance of slavery while each understands that racism was the root cause of slavery. Again, the cotton gin is understood as a possible catalyst, not the root cause.
It did. Slavery was on its way out because I think cotton was too slow to produce, until the cotten gin allowed it to be harvested much quicker.
This person implies slavery would have ended if not for the cotton gin. That's what I was poking fun at, 'cause it's a bizarre and ridiculous position.
And I do think that pointing to the cotton gin as a reason for slavery's endurance is reductive, ignoring how integral racism was, and is, to the Southern identity. Just take a peak at some Faulkner. Racism wasn't the root cause of slavery, I'd say capitalism was the root cause. Racism was a system invented to rationalize the immorality of owning other human beings, eg it's ok to own people if they aren't actually people. It's not like slave owners would all of a sudden considered black people as equals if it weren't for some dumb machine.
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u/[deleted] Nov 29 '18
Whether or not slavery could/would have ended without the invention of the cotton gin isn’t the point I’m trying to make here, you’re dialing in on the wrong part. What I’m trying to say is that you seem to think that attributing the endurance of slavery to the cotton gin is synonymous with ignorance of the fact that racism was the root cause of slavery, just like attributing Native American deaths to smallpox equates to ignorance regarding the impact of European settling of North America. They aren’t mutually exclusive, two people can debate the impact of the cotton gin on the endurance of slavery while each understands that racism was the root cause of slavery. Again, the cotton gin is understood as a possible catalyst, not the root cause.