re: What would America look like if slavery was never institutionalized?

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Who's more to blame, John Rolfe or Eli Whitney?

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The first human that learned that it was easier to sharpen a stick and force his neighbor to do his labor for him.

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Again, limiting the discussion to America.

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Eli Whitney.

John Rolfe lived during the period in which indentured servitude was more popular or economical than slavery. Slavery was also on the way out until Whitney invented the cotton gin and crowned cotton as King.

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The civil war is a huge cause of racism in America, if a war wasn't fought over the slavery of blacks this country would have a very low percentage of racist people in this country. The immigration of blacks would have been voluntary and resulted in people that wanted to better themselves. The incarceration rate in this country would also not be the highest in the world per capita.

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As they say, History is written by the winners.

The Civil War did not start out over slavery. it started out over state's rights vs. the federal government. Some states had already abolished slavery and others were on their way towards outlawing it.

Slavery was brought into the equation and mentioned specifically by Lincoln to sway Britain and France away from supporting the South and sending troops over here to help the South whip his arse. Both of their economies at the time were textile and agrarian based and they depended on the cotton from the South for income.

You do realize that very few in the South actually owned slaves. Most people in the South were share-croppers and had it almost as bad as the slaves. Why in the hell would they fight for slavery when the majority of them were practically slaves themselves?

probably similar to the Nordic countries.

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If not for Rolfe, Eli Whitney would never have been heard of. I'm thinking that what became the English agricultural colonies would have failed, and everything south of today's New York would have become Spanish. If that was the case, the Spanish would have likely conquered the few, sparsely populated English colonies to their north, and an English heritage America would have never existed.

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The Spanish had no interest in North America. They explored it for almost a hundred years before Jamestown. They were interested in gold only and there was no gold to found in 16th century North America. If it had not been for Rolfe cultivating tobacco America would be nothing more than a few logging camps to produce raw material for the European navies, religious settlements, and fur tadeposts.

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f it had not been for Rolfe cultivating tobacco America would be nothing more than a few logging camps to produce raw material for the European navies, religious settlements, and fur tadeposts.

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So, Rolfe then?

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No flexible use of the word "motherfricker".

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Motherfricking right, we in this motherfricker until the motherfricking end, motherfrickers

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This country would be basically a giant Sweden, Iceland, Denmark or Norway

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Not even close.

You would still have a large Asian and Hispanic population. Also, there would still be blacks here due to immigration.