Peter da Silva wrote in alt.memetics:
>Slaves were mostly used in labor-intensive cash crops. Cotton is the
>obvious one, but there's plenty of others. And I've heard it argued that
>without the mechanical methods of harvesting and processing cotton that
>were one of the products of the industrial revolution the south would
>still be effectively a slave society.
The end of slavery begins with the invention of an ox-yoke (or the
equivalent for whatever the available non-human beast of burden is).
However, it sometimes takes a long time for the end of slavery to
finish.
The reason the ox-yoke marks the beginning of the end of slavery is
because without this invention, the load-pulling ability of a beast of
burden (in relation to the cost of its food) is the same as that of a
slave. Any greater load tends to choke the beast.
But the ox-yoke VASTLY increases the pulling capacity of the ox, while
only slightly increasing the load-pulling capacity of the human.
All of a sudden, the use of humans as beasts of burden is horribly
inefficient. And every other use of slaves that is economically
productive enough to support a slaveholding culture, draws on the
slaves' brains. Slaves aren't stupid - unless being stupid is the
smart thing for them to do. And slaves who think are extremely
dangerous.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Pursuant to US Code, Title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, ß227,
any and all nonsolicited commercial E-mail sent to this address
is subject to a download and archival fee in the amount of $500
US. E-mailing denotes acceptance of these terms.