I Really Mean It
Veteran
It is slavery which has given value to the [American] colonies, it is the colonies which have created world trade, and world trade is the necessary condition for large-scale machine industry. Consequently, prior to the slave trade, the colonies sent very few products to the Old World, and did not noticeably change the face of the world. Slavery is therefore an economic category of paramount importance.
Wipe North America off the map and you will get anarchy, the complete decay of trade and modern civilization. But to do away with slavery would be to wipe America off the map
it was from a letter written in 1846. it bears down on the irrefutable fact that this world, as it is presently constituted, would not exist but for slavery.