Link to Archive of Weekly Issues Conceptual linking: agency and slavery

Dear Habermas Logo and Link to Site Index A Justice Site

Conceptual Linking
Mirror Sites:
CSUDH - Habermas - UWP

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan, Transcend Art and Peace
Created: November 7, 2001 Latest Update: November 7, 2001
E-Mail jeannecurran@habermas.org
E-Mail takata@uwp.edu
E-Mail Olivier Urbain, Soka University

Capitalism and Slavery

Journal entry by Cynthia Taylor

Copyright: Jeanne Curran, Susan R. Takata, and Olivier Urbain: October 2001.
and Individual Authors. "Fair Use" encouraged.

On Tuesday, November 6, 2001, Cynthia Taylor asked:

How can I conceptually link capitalism and slavery?

On Wednesday, November 7, 2001, jeanne wrote:

In our theory class on Tuesday, November 6, 2001, Cynthia Taylor reminded me of her question on capitalism and slavery. She had asked it also on Thursday, November 1, 2001. She had e-mailed it to me. She really wanted an answer.

It was an unexpected juxtaposition. My first reaction was that slavery occurs in capitalist systems. But so does it in other systems? Or does it? Feudal systems? Come to think of it, I never thought about this before. So I promised to think about it, and then promptly forgot it.

Let me try to answer your question just from a general knowledge of theory and off the top of my head.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the accumulation of capital by the most capable citizens is reinvested in enterprise so that economic growth and the creation of new jobs is possible. The accumulation of wealth permits one to take greater risks in investing (venture capital) and to weather financial setbacks without the enterprise collapsing. This offers stability to the country as a whole. There have been numerous disscussions of whether and/or how the Taliban, at one point, offered that stability to Afghanistan, and that is one of the objectives of the nation-building that Bush is disscussing with the UN.

There is an underlying assumption in capitalism that the enabling of new ventures offers opportunities for upward mobility, and growth opportunities to the members of the society.

In slavery, there is no such opportunity of growth. There were Union leaders in the Civil War who cited that problem with slavery, and held slavery to be antithetical to capitalism for that reason.

Slavery can best be conceptually linked to capitalism by Marx's concern for the exploitation of the worker. As Marx pointed out, capitalism permits the accumulation of wealth by those who are extremely capable, extremely lucky, and/or extremely ruthless and willing to exploit the labor of others. In Marx's understanding of the exploitation of the worker, the worker is not given a fair share of the profits that stem from the value added to the commodity produced by his/her work. In the question of slavery, there is no concern for the compensation of the slave for the value added to the commodity produced by his/her work. The slave is a commodity himself/herself, and is not treated as having any interest in the product of his/her work.

Does that help, Cynthia?

love and peace, jeanne