Slavery and Economic Growth in the Early United States
Gavin Wright
The country is once again called upon to come to terms with its slave past, a call that has aggravated the deep polarization into which we have descended. For many decades, economic historians have grappled with economic dimensions of slavery, addressing such questions as: Was slavery profitable? Was slave labor as productive as free labor? What were the implications of slavery for regional growth and development? In a recent essay in the Journal of Economic Perspectives , I recount what economi