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[Helgoland]

Eh, I guess you could make an argument for granting them certain rights and privileges while still not freeing them outright, effectively turning them into serfs. If you additionally turn that modified slavery non-hereditary, you get a fairly quick end to slavery without all the economic upheavals that happened - and without producing quite as much resentment among Southern whites.

You'd still be fucking over the black folks, though.

[Rolepgeek]

Eh, I guess you could make an argument for granting them certain rights and privileges while still not freeing them outright, effectively turning them into serfs. If you additionally turn that modified slavery non-hereditary, you get a fairly quick end to slavery without all the economic upheavals that happened - and without producing quite as much resentment among Southern whites.

You'd still be fucking over the black folks, though.

I argued that in a parody essay a few years back. Make it into a punishment for criminals to restore America's economy; no need to outsource labor when you have comparatively really cheap labor sold by the state, which also provides a source of revenue.

Still, 5% of America (or anywhere close to that number) believing that we should still have slavery? That's...hard to believe. Maybe just because I'm an optimist, but still.

[mainiac]

no need to outsource labor when you have comparatively really cheap labor sold by the state, which also provides a source of revenue.

But then they'd be taking jobs from our hardworking inmates.

[Sheb]

He, saying slavery shouldn't have been abolished after the Civil War doesn't mean we should still have it. It might mean you think slavery should have been abolished, just a bit later.

[mainiac]

After the civil war, all the apologists for slavery adopted the line of "oh I was never saying that!"  For instance Alexander Stevens giving the cornerstone speech said slavery was the cornerstone of the newly founded CSA. 

Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.

Then in 1910 at some later date he claims:

My own opinion of slavery, as often expressed, was that if the institution was not the best, or could not be made the best, for both races, looking to the advancement and progress of both, physically and morally, it ought to be abolished.

This creates a false impression.  The abolitionists pretty much closed shop after the war.  There was some interest in the advancement of black people but it's hard to keep an abolition movement going after slavery is gone.  The slaveholders on the other hand never moved on so they had decades to rewrite history.  So they created this absurd notion that reform would have happened eventually.  It wasn't happening.  The slaveholders were growing more unyeilding in their demands before the war, the institution was getting more brutal and even more inefficient.  The radical republicans were 100% on the nose right, you needed to break the political power of the slaveowning class.

[nenjin]

The abolitionists pretty much closed shop after the war.  There was some interest in the advancement of black people but it's hard to keep an abolition movement going after slavery is gone.  The slaveholders on the other hand never moved on so they had decades to rewrite history.  So they created this absurd notion that reform would have happened eventually.  It wasn't happening.  The slaveholders were growing more unyeilding in their demands before the war, the institution was getting more brutal and even more inefficient.  The radical republicans were 100% on the nose right, you needed to break the political power of the slaveowning class.

With the result of creating one of the most politically intransigent voting blocks in the US.

[Culise]

Oh, it probably would have been abolished eventually.  It is just that, contrary to the Lost Causers' claims, i would have been a nasty, brutal political slog, and possibly a military one as well depending on how entrenched the old aristocracy of the South was at the time the new crisis came to a head.  They intentionally designed the Constitution of the Confederacy to prevent the federal government or individual state from posing any restriction on their peculiar institution for a reason; they didn't want any petit-abolitionist movement to go creeping one state at a time into their new country as it had crept into Maryland and Delaware.  Indeed, for all the cries of "state rights" (the other big claim of the Lost Cause), the CSA was more than willing to restrict those same rights of individual states when it came to anything that could impinge on their actual economic or political power.

At least, so I hope.  I could actually see slavery being given a third revival through industrialized slavery, as opposed to simple wage-slavery. 

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm not convinced of the notion it would have been gradually abolished, we see enough market for human beings even now that if it were legal, it would be a major industry. While traditional chattel slavery was facing economic insolvency it would have been more productive to find a new outlet rather than just giving up slavery.

[Helgoland]

At the very least it would've survived as a niche market - both for people looking for full-time servants and for fetishists with more libido than morals.

[Shadowlord]

At least, so I hope.  I could actually see slavery being given a third revival through industrialized slavery, as opposed to simple wage-slavery.

It already is.

[lemon10]

I'm not convinced of the notion it would have been gradually abolished, we see enough market for human beings even now that if it were legal, it would be a major industry. While traditional chattel slavery was facing economic insolvency it would have been more productive to find a new outlet rather than just giving up slavery.

Slavery is always going to be hugely profitable. The fact that you have to pay your workers literally nothing (except food and board) instead of almost nothing ensures profits, even when its illegal.

Now, it probably would have been abolished by now due to what would have been a steadily growing abolitionist movement and massive international pressure and sanctions. But it would still have been messy, and I'm not sure that the south would have let it go with anything short of a war.

[smjjames]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/2016-gop-primary-live-updates-and-results/2016/02/duncan-hunter-endorses-donald-trump-219725?lo=ut_a1

DUUUUNNNNNCCCCCAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!

...
....
.....

He is my congressional representative btw, I live in the district he represents To be fair, I've voted against him....

[mainiac]

To be fair, I've voted against him....

Dont make excuses.  You are now a card carrying Trump supporter.

[PTTG??]

Slips a "stand unshakeably with the nation of Israel" in there.

I want a program that replaces all instances of Israel with random, similar nations. "We pledge to stand unshakably with Kuwait, Greece, and Singapore. With theocracies such as Iran, and with expansionist countries like Russia. These will be our dearest allies."

[smjjames]

To be fair, I've voted against him....

Dont make excuses.  You are now a card carrying Trump supporter.

Just because I've voted against him?

Though I MAY have voted for him in 2008, I don't remember.