this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
159 points (95.4% liked)
A Comm for Historymemes
2251 readers
1125 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
-
No fascism, atrocity denial, etc.
-
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
-
Follow all Lemmy.world rules.
Banner courtesy of @[email protected]
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yes, there were people who were anti-slavery for moral reasons.
Let's not forget that there were plenty of people who thought that Africans were inferior who wanted slavery ended for economic reasons.
A slaveowner would rent out his slaves to do work for less money than any free man. Many slaveowners would bring skilled workers over from Europe and pay them for their jobs, and also to train some slaves. After the master carpenter moved on, the slaveowner had a dozen carpenters on his plantation. When they weren't working for him, he'd rent them out. That meant that it was impossible for any local carpenters to earn a living.
Which is why I expect to see unions fighting for prison labor reform.