venividivici
On December 2, 1863, when the “Freedom” statue was hoisted atop the dome of the U.S. Capitol, it was due to the workmanship of a slave at the Bladensburg (Maryland) Foundry, Philip Reid. He was responsible for the bronze casting that is a symbol of freedom around the world.
Between 1790 and 1863, artisans like Reid comprised half the workforce that built the White House and the Capitol. America’s Capitol City was built on the backs of slaves: Those who worked Virginia’s quarries, digging and transporting the stones to Washington; performing work required to place the cut stones on the walls; digging the trenches and ditches; and hauling lumber and other materials.
Over a 70-year period, slaves toiled from dawn to dusk building the temples to represent a country were “all men are created equal.” Slaves cleared the trees and brush for the Mall and Washington boulevards that lead to the seat of a government.
Reid & Company never received a fair day’s pay, but the Irish and German immigrant workers who labored beside them were paid from $4.65 to $10.50 a week. Enslavers received $5 a week for each of their slave’s labors.
To determine the economic value of slavery, the population of slaves in the US was obtained from the US Census Bureau. It was assumed that, on average, slaves worked some 60 hours per week for 51 weeks during the years with the average pay rate over the 164 years at $.10 per hour. All of these assumptions are conservative since underreporting was a common practice since state and local taxes had to be paid on the number of slaves.
The results of the economic value of this free labor are, when inflated conservatively at 3% to 2006 dollars, a staggering value of 20.3 trillion dollars or to put this number in a more visual perspective; it amounts to $563,450 per African American currently living in the US. This amount is low since slave labor was counted from the year 1700 instead of 1619 and, the census data, in all likelihood, is low for various taxing demands and for those members of the Black race that were able to pass for white or elude the census.
The 19.7 trillion dollar slave contribution is still within the US economy since the dollar has constantly inflated in value, and money like matter in never destroyed; it can be wasted but not destroyed, in an inflationary economy. This slave-induced contribution is still working and funding new ventures, within the US economy as we speak.
It is known that Aetna Insurance Co., E.I. Dupont, and J.P. Morgan, Brown University, to name a very, very few, reaped substantial benefits from the grim business of slavery. For example, Pierre Bauduy purchased 4 out of the original 16 shares issued for the E.I. DuPont Company for $8,000. Pierre Bauduy obtained his money from the profits of a Haitian plantation which he was forced to vacate during the Haitian revolution.
The manufacturers of slave ships and cotton merchants heavily financed Brown University in its early beginnings. Aetna Insurance Co. sold insurance policies on slaves to protect slave owners from the losses of run away slaves. Don’t forget about the fugitive slave act: which gave way to hunting slaves at prices averaging $350.00 a head when the average salary was $40.00 a month. These men went on to start other ventures that exist today. The original capital for J.P. Morgan was derived from its cotton trading company in the South. So much fortune was amassed off the backs of the cotton, tobacco, and rice-picking slaves that J.P. Morgan loaned money to the US government during the Civil War.
Your argument. “Why did the south lose the war is irrelevant”? It lasted 250 years.It served it’s purpose. And public opinion on the issue changed. Oh my! You said human nature is the same whether it’s 50 years or 5000. Throw out those homemade text books.
Literally and figuratively, slavery is at the root of this country’s prosperity, you can have your own views and I don’t care whatever they may be. But you don’t have a clue. And if you wish to prove me wrong point me to your evidence not your imagination and the lies you were told all your life. Fact is Fact.
