To End Slavery, You Need Industrial Progress

By Nancy Spannaus

Oct. 9, 2021—All four classes in my series on Why American Slavery Persisted are now available on americansystemnow’s You Tube channel. In them, I present the evidence to support my thesis that the success of the abolition movement depended on the implementation of Alexander Hamilton’s principles of political economy.[1] In other words, the success of the fight to eliminate slavery demanded the successful national pursuit of industrial progress.

It is my hope that this series, along with my upcoming book on this subject, will not only contribute to a deeper understanding of our nation’s experience with slavery, but will also help in resolving the deadly effects of our failure to eradicate slavery without a Civil War.

A summary description of each hour-and-a-half class follows:

Class #1

Did you know that anti-slavery sentiment was widespread in the American English colonies?  That the colony of Georgia banned slavery at its founding?  That only South Carolina started as a slave colony? In Class 1 on Why American Slavery Persisted, Nancy Spannaus gives you information you never knew about the widespread American colonial opposition to slavery, and opens up the question: Just why did it take a Civil War to eliminate it?

Class #2

As the American Revolution grew in strength, so did the patriots’ war against slavery! In part 2 of Why American Slavery Persisted, Nancy draws on the rich evidence of that fight in the period from 1760 to 1787, the eve of the Constitutional Convention. The British squelched efforts to ban slavery as long as they were in control, but once they were defeated, substantial progress began to be made.

Class #3

Nancy dubbed part 3 of Why American Slavery Persisted “Compromises and Promise.” It is here she reviews in some detail the Constitutional framework, and the economic policies initiated by Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton, both of which pointed toward an end of the slave system. You don’t think so? Hear what Frederick Douglass had to say, and learn about the American System! The  American System was the opponent of the free trade system. “Free trade” was the battle-cry of the proponents of the slave system.

Class #4

Hamilton’s plan to industrialize the United States put slavery on the road to extinction, but those plans were sabotaged big time. Part 4 of Why American Slavery Persisted tracks the war on American System which was waged by the Jeffersonians and the British-linked bankers, who demanded the British free trade system. After a brief Hamiltonian revival under President John Quincy Adams, President Jackson delivers the coup de grâce by destroying the Bank of the United States, setting the path toward Civil War. This is history very relevant to today.

[1] For a comprehensive picture of Hamilton’s American System, see Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics. A further description is available here.

Tags: Alexander Hamilton, American Revolution, American System, Nancy Spannaus, slavery, You Tube