[Marxism] Pomeranz

[James Zarichny]

Charles Brown wrote:
“It still is the case that in order to even consider
chattel slavery as one of the options for dealing with
the unstable labor population means that chattel
slavery has to be part of your cultural thinking, your
ideology. There were no slaves in England, and hadn't
been for hundreds of years. So, the idea of slavery
was not based on something actually existing in
England at the time. It seems plausible that the idea
of using slavery to fill the labor shortage comes in
part from the cultural memory of the earlier slave
societies. “

My comment:
       There is a much simpler explanation.  It has
nothing to do with cultural ideology.  Initially the
English were afraid of the Spanish Armada.  After all,
Spain claimed  all of the New World except Brazil. 
When  the French settled in Florida, Spain slaughtered
the French settlers.  It was not until after the
Armada was defeated  that the British could settle, so
Spain had the New World to itself for about a century.
 Spain brought  the first slaves.  There were  a
million Black slaves in the Americas before the first
English settler arrived.  In 1619 when the English
acquired their first slaves, other Europeans had had
slaves for over a century growing sugar cane, indigo,
rice end other  crops that did not grow in Europe. 
The English followed suit because the Spaniards had
demonstraterd that slavery was profitable.
Jim Zarichny



	
		
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