• PugJesus@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
    29·
    5 days ago

    Explanation: During the US Civil War, fought over the issue of race-based chattel slavery, many Southern rebels (colloquially, ‘Johnny Reb’) volunteered to fight for the slaver South despite many of them being quite poor themselves.

    Because they weren’t rich… but someday they might be!

    • Broadfern@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      4 days ago

      Unfortunately a lot of poor(er) whites in the south also had an enslaved person or two under their thumb.

      • PugJesus@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
        8·
        4 days ago

        Even those who didn’t would sometimes ‘rent’ slaves out from the big plantation owners when they needed extra labor.

        “Look, see how useful our neofeudal system is? A few more generations and you might be a lord like us… if you help keep these slaves down”

    • PugJesus@piefed.socialOPMEnglish
      8·
      4 days ago

      The elimination of race-based chattel slavery was a good step, however, and most states explicitly do not allow for forced prison labor.

      Unfortunately, two of the largest, Cali and Texas, do.

  • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    4 days ago

    Ironically enough, even most of the plantation “owners” didn’t really own their plantations or slaves. They were typically massively in debt, usually to English bankers who were financing the loathsome operation to provide cheap raw material for their cotton factories. This is why the British government – which had led the way in banning slavery in the British empire and using its navy to interdict the transatlantic slave trade – was somehow on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War.