The import of slavery for the South

The South’s enormous economic stake in slavery far outweighed the impact of protective tariffs on its income.  In 1860, the aggregate value of slaves as property was $3 billion, nearly 20 percent of the nation’s wealth.  The value of slaves was more than 50 percent greater than the capital invested in railroads and manufacturing combined, a calculation that excludes the value of land in southern plantations.  Slavery generated a stream of income that enable overall white per capita income in the south to approximate that of northern whites.  In the seven cotton states, nearly a third of white income came from slave labor.

That is from the new Douglas A. Irwin book on trade policy, Clashing Over Commerce: A History of US Trade Policy.

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