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- Title
Could Thomas Jefferson Have Ended Slavery? An Economic Analysis.
- Authors
Branch, Ben
- Abstract
Could slavery have ended early on without a civil war? That is the counterfactual question considered herein. More specifically, could Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder himself, have convinced the young American nation to use the value of the land of the Louisiana Purchase to purchase freedom for the slaves? Exploring this matter, raises a number of related issues. How much would freeing the slaves have cost? How much was the Louisiana Purchase land worth? What were the social and political obstacles to a peaceful end to slavery? How would the economy of the slaveholding states look with only a free workforce? How did the estimated cost of purchasing freedom for the slaves compare with the Civil War's cost? Each of these questions are considered herein. To cut to chase, the economics of freeing the slaves with funds derived from the Louisiana Purchase would have been feasible even though the sums are large. The nation would have been much better off if this route had been taken. The social/political obstacles were, however, likely to have been insurmountable.
- Subjects
UNITED States; SLAVERY in the United States; EMANCIPATION of slaves; LOUISIANA Purchase; AMERICAN Civil War, 1861-1865; SLAVE labor; JEFFERSON, Thomas, 1743-1826; HISTORY
- Publication
B>Quest, 2018, p0
- ISSN
1084-3981
- Publication type
Article