The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

Anyone who had to grow up in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s was propagandized by the myths that grew out of the "noble cause" version of the racist war to save slavery fought by the Confederate States of America between 1861 and 1865. The version of history that we were taught in public and private schools during those years might have begun and ended with the showing of "Gone With The Wind" -- with maybe "Birth of a Nation" thrown in to remind us of the nobility of Nathan Bedford Forrest's band of veterans of the noble cause. Add to that the myth of Robert E. Lee and the trashing of U.S. Grant (and Reconstruction) and we had a deep hole to dig out of if we wanted to understand the true history of a country that in 1861 had four million men, women and children in bondage and an entire class of pundits, preachers, and professors devoting their well-subsidized writings to creating the racist myths of American slavery.Of course there were books and studies that pointed out the other side and debunked the silly stuff produced by Margaret Mitchell and the official racist propagandists posing as historians -- but they were as hard to find in most American schools when I went to elementary school (1952 - 1960) or high school (1960 - 1964) as union leaders who would praise the Communists who had helped bring some rights to the workers in the mass industries from electrical (near where I lived, the GE Kearny works), Auto (down the street from our home, the BOP GM plant) and of course the steel mills that had helped our parents (both my Mom and Dad were in the World War II Army) defeat the 20th Century version of the "Noble Cause" -- Nazism.And so it's wonderful that "The Half Has Never Been Told" is now available for readers to dig their way out of the evil mythologies that surrounded the century of Lynch Law, KKK rule, and "Gone With The Wind" nonsense. There were other books available even in those dismal days, of course. Had we had access to the writings of W.E.B. DuBois in Linden New Jersey we could have tried (probably unsuccessfully) to argue with those who cried about the fate of Scarlet O'Hara or pushed us into fighting Communism by traveling 8,000 miles to what had under colonialism been called "Indochina." But it was hard. As the man said in the movie (later), "Free your mind and your ass will follow." But the corollary is that if your mind is enslaved to a set of carefully orchestrated lies about U.S. history, then you have a double challenge: finding the truth and then doing something about it."The Half Has Never Been Told" is one of the few books that takes on the challenge of rectifying the silliness of official U.S. History all the way to the mystical roots in the lies about the economics of American slavery. As Baptist demonstrates, using an enormous number of original sources, slavery in the USA was enormously profitable -- and more so every decade between the sad compromises of the Constitution and the onset of the Civil War. Contrary to the economic myths of previous generations, slavery was enormously profitable and grew in profitability throughout the six decades of the 19th Century during which it ruled the American South (and dominated much of the economy of the rest of the country). "Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism" is the apt title here. Without slavery, American capitalism couldn't have invented itself with such power by the middle of the 19th Century. And the power -- economic and political -- because the financial power to purchase the lies that passed as "history" for nearly 100 years.Baptist weaves the stories of the lives of slaves into his mega-narrative about the political economy of American racism (and capitalism) and then unfolds the narrative into the future, when the slaves had become free. The joining of the two helps make the history more profound. The history of working people has been suppressed for all of "history," so Baptist's narrative is a contribution that goes beyond just the history of the USA. Around here in Chicago, where we have been revitalizing the work of the unions that represent working people (I am a delegate, now retired, in the Chicago Teachers Union, and everyone in our family took part in the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012), we have to constantly remind one another that the dominant ideas of any generation are the lies that the ruling class tries to make everyone believe as "fact." As I remind my friends, "They [the owners and bosses] will do anything we can't stop them from doing... They've been getting away with that since they forced us to build the pyramids and didn't even say 'Thank You'"..."The Half Has Never Been Told..." is one of several books in 2014 that helps set the latest distortions of the record straight. Along with Piketty's "Capital" and a handful of other books, it's worth the time (and sleeplessness) required to get through it in detail.But upon finishing it, you have to wonder. How could anyone as nice as our mothers (and others) believe to the point of tears the racist nonsense pushed by Hollywood (and the publishing industry) in the form of "Gone With The Wind" and the rest of that stuff? So maybe we can alert one another to the next round of lies that will be pushed on us by the preachers, pundits and professors who serve as the propagandists of the current generation of plutocrats. We'll see. Meanwhile, thanks for the research and hard work that went into "The Half Has Never Been Told..."Noting that the hardest work was done by the slaves who toiled without much ability to tell their narratives during all those years. Now that others are also digging into the facts, it's good that this part if now being told and retold. And it's also time we revised further the odious "heroes" of slavery and the lies that surrounded it, from Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee to the Margaret Mitchells and Walt Disneys (you need to review "Song of the South" and "Old Yeller" if you don't realize this part) of the 20th Century.

I practiced law for over 40 years and have written hundreds, if not more, of briefs in cases litigated in state and federal trial and appellate courts. This book is a good brief and effective advocacy to in support of the author's premise, set forth in the introduction at pages xxiii that commodification, and suffering,and forced labor of African Americans is what made the United States powerful and rich. The author skilfully humanizes slaves by usually referring to them as enslaved people and dehumanizes many of those connected with the slave business as enslavers. (e.g. enslaver generals, enslaver politicians, enslaver entrepreneurs, etc.) This is an effective method of advocacy used by plaintiff attorneys.A second premise of the author is that African Americans who entered the federal forces turned the tide of the war. That theory is not developed by the author and I don't address it here.For some reason, the author in a afterword seemed to dislike an assertion that the book was advocacy (page 422). I fail to understand why. There is nothing wrong with advocacy. Surely, no intelligent reader in the 21st century does not understand that every writer of history has his or her own theory and writes in support of it. All historical works are read with that in mind.Now, where the book differs from a brief is this. Basically a brief contains: a premise; a recitation of facts; an analysis; and a conclusion. In this book the facts stop abruptly at the commencement of the Civil War and the analysis and conclusions are found in the two afterwords in the paperback edition. The afterwords must be carefully read to garner the author's intent. In my opinion, the intent is an argument, an a good one, that African American have been exploited and handled shamelessly in the Americas since the end of the 17th century and we ought to be ashamed of it.This book does reflect excellent scholarship written for the non-specialist reader. It discusses the horrors of slavery and the inhuman treatment of enslaved persons in the push system that enabled enslavers to increase cotton production massively. The book also takes up other topics such as religion, music, and other subjects. The author's discussion of General Andrew Jackson who was successful, particularly at the Battle of New Orleans, shows why Jackson was so popular with the "common man" at the time and why he was for so long a hero of the Democratic party.In my opinion the author has not proved his thesis because there were so many things necessary for the development of modern capitalism in the west to conclude that the cultivation of cotton was the primary cause. Others may well disagree. Also, as for the South being the richest part of the country, I think that the facts that the South was overwhelmed by the wealth of the North raises serious questions about who was richer. It is common knowledge that at the outset the South believed that because of the need for cotton in Europe, the United Kingdom would come to the aid of the South. Of course that didn't happen. The manufacturers simply turned to other sources.Overall, an excellent work! I highly recommend it.

Just a remarkable work of history. Beautifully structured and written. Bold, heartbreaking, a genuinely moving book that captures the humanity of the enslaved while illustrating their vital importance to the development of American capitalism. Historical writing at its best.

In many ways this book does for the story of slavery what Dee Brown's "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee" attempted to do for Indians in 1970 - it recasts the whole of the story of slavery to see it through the experiences of those it affected. But where Brown's speculative approach was criticised, Baptist is forensic in his evidence. He draws the tales of ordinary men women and children from the pages of the scant records and produces a narrative of living, breathing human beings.Baptist fundamentally challenges the bastions of long held slavery orthodoxies and demonstrates how the issues which led slavery to such success not only built modern America but also drove the development of capitalism. Further he cautions, that such practices might still be seen in the world today.A powerful book and required reading for anyone interested in this topic.

Gets to the heart of the matter. And without being dry and academic-sounding!

This is a forensic debunking of previous attempts to limit the impact of slavery on the development of the American republic in the nineteenth century. The author comprehensively demonstrates that slavery was central not just to the development of Southern agrarian capitalism but also to Northern finance capitalism.

Far from being a sideshow, a marginal phenomenon, slavery epitomizes American XIXth century capitalism. Enormous fortunes were built litterally on the back of black people transported against their will to the "Southwest" and made to toil eleven hours a day in the cotton fields. "Added value" was extracted with the whip. The "half" which is told here is in fact a main component of American history.Edward Baptist is a professional historian who builds his case on thousands of charts and original documents that make his main thesis absolutely convincing and a valuable contribution to the ongoing revival of studies devoted to slavery.A minor spoiler now: I wish the author had focussed on his point and refrained from telling individual stories, or more precisely, to woe the reader with the premices of individual stories that never fully materialize, probably for lack of documents.