Was Eugenics Practiced In the USA?

[Mister D]

You're funny. You can't invade your own country. The money spent putting down the idiotic rebellion would not have been enough to buy 4 million slaves.

It could have bought almost twice that amount.

[Captdon]

It could have bought almost twice that amount.

I stand corrected on the money part. I thought the South was worth more than it was.

[southwest88]

With all the money Lincoln and the north spent on their invasion of the south, they could have liberated every slave in the country. Just saying.

From The wizard and the prophet, Charles Mann, c2018, A. Knopf, p458:

"In 1860, slaves were the single most valuable economic asset in the United States, collectively worth more than $3 billion, an eye-popping sum at a time when the U.S. gross national product was less than $5 billion. (The slaves would be worth as much as $10 trillion in today's money.)"

So, no. There likely wasn't that much paper money circulating in the US @ the time. & politically, even if the US government had scraped together the money somehow (bonds?), Plantation Society's position in the World depended upon cotton & slaves. I don't think the large plantation owners would have sold in any event.

[Mister D]

From The wizard and the prophet, Charles Mann, c2018, A. Knopf, p458:

"In 1860, slaves were the single most valuable economic asset in the United States, collectively worth more than $3 billion, an eye-popping sum at a time when the U.S. gross national product was less than $5 billion. (The slaves would be worth as much as $10 trillion in today's money.)"

So, no. There likely wasn't that much paper money circulating in the US @ the time. & politically, even if the US government had scraped together the money somehow (bonds?), Plantation Society's position in the World depended upon cotton & slaves. I don't think the large plantation owners would have sold in any event.

The US Government estimated that the war cost a little over 6 billion dollars to wage.

[Lummy]

Lincoln's opinions varied over time, & in the end, I believe he recognized that there was neither the political will nor the capital to buy & free all the Black people held in slavery in the South (or throughout the country, come to that).

As always, there was strong opposition from blacks (or from abolitionist groups, rather) to a plan for deportation and time was short. Other crucial issues demanding attention, like the impending fall of Washington, pushed the entire discussion to the back burner.

Slaves need not have been purchased to participate in deportation, but they did have to be free as a legal technicality to settle the issue with slave owners. By the end of the war, they were all too pooped to deport, and of course, Lincoln was killed, which was not only a tragedy but a huge failure of continuity in his political vision.

[Captdon]

From The wizard and the prophet, Charles Mann, c2018, A. Knopf, p458:

"In 1860, slaves were the single most valuable economic asset in the United States, collectively worth more than $3 billion, an eye-popping sum at a time when the U.S. gross national product was less than $5 billion. (The slaves would be worth as much as $10 trillion in today's money.)"

So, no. There likely wasn't that much paper money circulating in the US @ the time. & politically, even if the US government had scraped together the money somehow (bonds?), Plantation Society's position in the World depended upon cotton & slaves. I don't think the large plantation owners would have sold in any event.

I agree that there is doubt about whether the owners would have sold. The money part is wrong as i found out. We did raise 6 billion to fight. So, the money was there.

[Captdon]

As always, there was strong opposition from blacks (or from abolitionist groups, rather) to a plan for deportation and time was short. Other crucial issues demanding attention, like the impending fall of Washington, pushed the entire discussion to the back burner.

Slaves need not have been purchased to participate in deportation, but they did have to be free as a legal technicality to settle the issue with slave owners. By the end of the war, they were all too pooped to deport, and of course, Lincoln was killed, which was not only a tragedy but a huge failure of continuity in his political vision.

There is also the fact that we couldn't have moved 4 million people anywhere.

[southwest88]

I agree that there is doubt about whether the owners would have sold. The money part is wrong as i found out. We did raise 6 billion to fight. So, the money was there.

No, the North (& the South) sold war bonds - see https://www.barrons.com/articles/SB5...91061207786514

"Altogether, the federal government was able to get 21% of its revenue from taxation. The South, with its less developed and cash-poor agricultural economy, was able to raise only 6% that way.

"Fully two-thirds of federal government revenue came from bond sales, thus throwing most of the cost of the war onto the future. In 1860, the national debt had amounted to a relatively paltry $64 million. By 1866, it was $2.68 billion, a 40-fold increase."

(My emphasis - more @ the URL)

That money was raised on the premise that the North would win the war. But it took decades to pay off the loans, & that money likely could not have been raised if the purpose were to purchase all the slaves & transport them somewhere else.

[Captdon]

No, the North (& the South) sold war bonds - see https://www.barrons.com/articles/SB5...91061207786514

"Altogether, the federal government was able to get 21% of its revenue from taxation. The South, with its less developed and cash-poor agricultural economy, was able to raise only 6% that way.

"Fully two-thirds of federal government revenue came from bond sales, thus throwing most of the cost of the war onto the future. In 1860, the national debt had amounted to a relatively paltry $64 million. By 1866, it was $2.68 billion, a 40-fold increase."

(My emphasis - more @ the URL)

That money was raised on the premise that the North would win the war. But it took decades to pay off the loans, & that money likely could not have been raised if the purpose were to purchase all the slaves & transport them somewhere else.

The money was still there. Whether or not the will was is debatable.

[southwest88]

The money was still there. Whether or not the will was is debatable.

Pres. Lincoln laid out the case himself:

"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."

August 22, 1862 Lincoln published a letter in response to an editorial by Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune in which the editor asked why Lincoln had not yet issued an emancipation proclamation, as he was authorized to do by the Second Confiscation Act.

As the war continued, Lincoln's war aims changed. He decided to strike @ the South by putting pressure on the CSA to divert manpower to guarding the slaves, & to welcome escaping slaves into Union service.

As this progression of opinion was taking place, the political will to buy up & transport all the slaves was not in place - it never was, TMK. & bear in mind that in bringing slaves to the US, the youngest, old & weak died on the way. Transporting the entire Black population would have meant hiring or building a fleet of ships to carry the passengers in relative comfort.