Modernizing
a Slave Economy: The Economic Vision of the Confederate Nation, John Majewski (Kindle Edition)
Modernizing a Slave Economy, published in 2009 by the University of North Carolina Press, examines the economic vision for an independent Confederate nation. Majewski demonstrates that southern extremists envisioned industrial expansion, economic independence, and government activism as essential features of the future independent Confederate state.[1]
He
explains that southern boosters “had long cast an envious eye at the wealth and
power of northern commercial centers.” (pg. 5) This goal was hampered by the
South’s poor soils that did not allow intensive agriculture development due to
its acidity and lack of nutrients.[2] This ecological reality,
which not fully understood during the 1800s, forced southern planters and
farmers to hold large amounts of land in reserve, and practice shifting
cultivation. Shifting cultivation, while
the logical response to the ecological conditions of the South, was widely
viewed as wasteful and a mark of inferiority and prevented the growth of
industry and urban areas. These three
factors led to the development of the southern economic thought. To combat the perceived backwardness of the
South, southern extremists pushed for increased government intervention in the
economy and a powerful central state. This
powerful central state was necessary, according to southern extremists, to
close the gap between the Northern industrial and urban centers and those in
the South. Majewski demonstrates how
southern boosters attempted to implement these policies in the South in the
pre-bellum era, but met with mixed and limited success, and these failures led
them to advocate, ever more forcefully for secession from the Union. It was only through disunion and independence,
they argued, the South could reach its true economic potential. He demonstrates how these ideas and
approaches carried over into the Civil War with the South’s state-owned
industries and extreme economic control during that conflict.
Overall, Modernizing a Slave Economy provides a good examination of the economic vision of southern extremists, who, contrary to popular opinion, viewed slavery and modernity as compatible and desirable. Majewski further demonstrates that southern extremists with extreme hubristic arrogance assumed they were the key to the world economy and felt assured of European intervention in support of their independence. This false sense of security led them to insouciantly begin a war with a much stronger opponent. This book, while very interesting and informative, can be challenging to follow at times, and one could wish for a more significant discussion of how slavery was used in southern industries during the pre-war era. The book can be challenging to read, particularly the first chapter, but it provides a good insight into southern economic thought and why they embarked on an, ultimately futile, war with a more powerful enemy.
