https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/slavery-and-british-industrial-revolution

Of interest:

《Taken together, our findings suggest two important conclusions. First, involvement in the slave trade and wealth derived from slaveholding had an important effect on the geography of economic development during the British industrial revolution. While the sudden re-ordering of economic prominence in the period after 1750 has long seemed puzzling (Crafts 2014), our evidence offers a clear explanation for why some locations suddenly took off economically. Second, our results strongly suggest that Marx was right: slavery wealth accelerated Britain’s industrial revolution.》

(Yes, I’m responding to the recent Reuters article. Yes, I have enslavers in my family tree.)

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-slavery-lawmakers/

《Molasses to rum to slaves
Who sail the ships back to Boston
Ladened with gold, see it gleam
Whose fortunes are made in the triangle trade
Hail slavery, the New England dream!
Mr. Adams, I give you a toast:
Hail Boston! Hail Charleston!
Who stinketh the most?》

https://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/1776/molassestorum.htm

---

(To be a little less cryptic, and now that I’m sitting at my desk rather than in bed, typing with my thumbs:

I’ve run into the attitude, among white people, of “Well, I didn’t own slaves. My people didn’t even come to this country until 1880 or 1920 or whatever, so I don’t see what my responsibility for reparations is.”

A big focus on enslavers helps perpetuate this thinking of being less responsible if your ancestors didn’t directly participate in enslavement.

Everybody wants to be a hero who takes on the explicit racist, but what about the system and the thousand little cuts?)