Edward Baptist's new book The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism received some no-doubt welcome attention last week as a consequence of a bizarre (and since retracted) Economist review that accused the book of being 'advocacy' rather than 'history' on the grounds of the author's anti-slaveholder bias. If you're interested, here's what Baptist has said about people who choose not to believe slave testimony. They accuse Baptist of making wild claims, and yet that is pretty much all they do in their article - for example, they say Baptist ignores new strains of cotton as potential drivers of productivity when in fact Baptist spends a fair amount of time on the subject and provides quantitative analysis demonstrating that new strains cannot account for all of the gains in productivity. They are so picky in contradicting slave testimony that they come off as deniers - for example, they don't have much to say about the evidence Baptist presents based on the testimony and records of white enslavers. Baptist gives British technical innovation its due, contrary to the assertion in Oldstead-Rhode.Īs for b), Olmstead-Rhode's problem with Baptist's theory is in the value of the testimony of slaves who worked on those plantations. This argument is based not only on the value slaves provided via free labor, but also on the establishment in support of slavery (and land grab from Indians) of banks and credit markets and other tools of modern finance that exist to this day (and still cause major recessions). They question a) the premise that slavery was the primary driver of the industrial revolution rather than a failing antiquated economic model, and b) that torture was the primary driver of productivity gains by slaves in the cotton fields.Īs far as a) is concerned, Baptist is quite clear that he means slavery was the primary driver of economic growth in the U.S., not worldwide. The authors are clear at the start that they do not doubt the horrific history of slavery recounted in Baptist and other NHC literature.

The authors are clear at the start that they do not doubt the horrific history of slavery recounted in Baptis …more Just looked at the Columbia Law article.

Dubi Just looked at the Columbia Law article.

Edward baptist the half was never told