UNPAID LABOR

The Foundation of a Nation.

The 10,000,000 people who were victimized in what was first and foremost a horrific labor system also built the nation’s foundation.

UNPAID LABOR and The Constitution of the United States of America

The Unpaid Labor System was in place in America for 169 years before the United States became a country. All of the original thirteen British colonies (n/k/a American states) benefited from the Unpaid Labor System. In 1776, the Unpaid Labor System was the foundation of the new American nation. The Unpaid Labor System in the southern states was a very important part of the nation’s economy. But the Northern states became less dependent on the Unpaid Labor System over time. In fact, the Northern states began to see it as a threat to paid labor.

The Unpaid Labor System was very large. The System was very important. The Southern colonies would not agree to become part of a new country unless the Unpaid Labor system was legalized in the United States Constitution. The Constitution is the framework written by the United States founders to define how Americans should live together.

The following compromises protected the Unpaid Labor System and made it legal:
Compromise #1: Article I, Section 2 Gave power in the Congress to states based upon the number Unpaid Laborers in their state.

“Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.”

-Actual Language of Article 1, Section 2, U.S. Constitution

Compromise #2: Article I, Section 9 Allowed people to be brought from Africa and sold in the U.S. for 20 years after the Constitution was signed.

“The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.”

-Actual Language of Article I, Section 9, U.S. Constitution

Compromise #3: Article IV, Section 2 Gave people that owned Unpaid Laborers the right to get them back if they escaped to another state.

“No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.”

-Actual Language of Article IV, Section 2, U.S. Constitution

UNPAID LABOR Shaped America's Economy

The Extraordinary Growth of a Nation

Investors paid the cost to bring hundreds of thousands of Africans to America to put them to work. Unpaid Laborers were needed to clear America’s land. They were needed to grow America’s food. In 1776, when the United States started, one (1) of every five (5) people in America was an Unpaid Laborer.

Americans such as George Washington made fantastic fortunes using Unpaid Laborers. They depended on the work of Unpaid Laborers to support them and their families. Thomas Jefferson also accumulated great wealth using Unpaid Laborers although he left his family in crushing debt when he died. Twelve (12) of the first eighteen (18) U.S. Presidents owned slaves.

In 1803, the United States doubled in size by buying the Louisiana Territory for $15 million dollars. In 1800, there were 893,605 Unpaid Laborers in the U.S. Back then it would have cost over $268 million dollars to buy that many slaves. That shows how important the Unpaid Labor force was to the country.

In the Mid 1800's Cotton Was King

Cotton was king in America in the mid 1800’s. It was as important as Oil is in America today. The throne of the cotton kingdom was in the North, especially New York City. Northern banks made loans to southern planters. Insurance companies insured their crops, the laborers, and the farms. Businesses in the North made the ships that were used to bring Unpaid Laborers to America before slavery was abolished. They made fortunes from the cotton they sold all around the world. Auctioneers, warehouses, brokers, merchants, and many other businesses in the North depended upon the Unpaid Labor System. The system produced extraordinary economic prosperity and wealth.

Cotton planted and picked by Unpaid Laborers was the number one product that America sold to other nations. In 1860, the South was producing 66 percent of all of the cotton in the world. They sent it to the factories in Europe that made and sold all kinds of cotton products.

The Rapid Rise to World Power

In 1860, more Unpaid Laborers than white people lived in the states of Mississippi and South Carolina. They were 40 percent of the population in eleven (11) southern states. Unpaid Laborers and the wealth they produced made those eleven (11) southern states one of the five (5) richest societies in the world.

The state of Georgia estimated (3) billion dollars as the value of Unpaid Laborers in the South in 1860. Mississippi’s estimate was four (4) billion dollars.

Cotton produced by Unpaid Laborers was the raw material for the first world wide manufacturing system. Their labor and the wealth it produced is the reason the USA grew faster than England, France and all western economies.

UNPAID LABOR Shaped America's Politics

The Unpaid Labor System existed in America for 169 years before the United States was formed. The Unpaid Labor System helped all of the original thirteen (13) British colonies in America. Colonies are like states. In 1776, the Unpaid Labor System existed in all 13 states and was the foundation of the South’s economy. But Northern states, with far fewer Unpaid Laborers, did not depend as much on the Unpaid Labor System. They started to see it as a threat to their political and economic power. During the Revolutionary War, the threat from Britain kept the states united, but once it ended, compromise would be needed to bring the 13 colonies together to become a nation. A compromise is a deal in which each side gives up something to gain something.

The rules that the nation’s leaders wrote to say how the government would run are called the Constitution. The Unpaid Labor System was so large and so important that the colonies were forced to address it directly in the Constitution of the United States of America before the colonies could come together as states to form the U.S.A.

Political Compromises

Political compromises were made that required the new government to protect the Unpaid Labor System. To get the southern colonies to agree to become a part of the new nation the U.S. Constitution had to include rules that said the Unpaid Labor System would continue. One rule was that 3 of every 5 Unpaid Laborers would be counted for deciding how many representatives each state would have in Congress. That increased the political power of the southern states and let them control:

1) Who would be the President
2) Who would be judges on the Supreme Court
3) Who would be the top person in the U. S. House of Representatives

For Decades!!

The Civil War

In 1860, the United States was forced to decide if it would become a nation based primarily on paid labor or the Unpaid Labor System. Abraham Lincoln, who was against the expansion of Unpaid Labor, was elected president. He did not win a single southern state. His name was not even on the ballot in several southern states! Before he started his job as president, the states of Mississippi and South Carolina withdrew from the United States. Eventually, eleven (11) states would decide that the Unpaid Labor System was more important to them than being a part of the United States. They formed their own country. It was called the Confederate States of America. They went to war against the United States to protect the system of Unpaid Labor.

Carl Von Clausewitz famously stated “War is politics by other means.” The Civil War was the deadliest war in American history. Over 750,000 lives were lost in the war over the Unpaid Labor System. More American lives were lost in that war than were lost in the Revolutionary War, World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War-COMBINED.

UNPAID LABOR Shaped America's Military Success

In 1775, George Washington became the General of the Continental Army; the army that fought Great Britain in the Revolutionary War. He didn’t want Unpaid Laborers to be soldiers. The British Army said that they would free any Unpaid Laborer that would join them.

The British offer forced Washington’s hand because of the threat of an armed uprising by freed Unpaid Laborers. And then there was the problem of not having enough white recruits. This forced America to make the same offer as the British had made to Unpaid Laborers, and General Washington changed his mind. He would say, “We must use the Negroes or run the risk of losing the war…” The Continental Army was America’s most racially integrated army until the Vietnam War.

In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln, believing that the United states could lose the Civil War, decided to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. A proclamation says what is going to happen. The Proclamation said that Unpaid Laborers held by the Confederate states were free, and could join the Union army. It was a military step he had to take. While the Proclamation freed absolutely no one (Unpaid Laborers in states loyal to the U.S. (Missouri, Delaware, Kentucky and Maryland) remained enslaved)) it encouraged Unpaid Laborers to leave their masters and fight for their freedom in the U.S. military. More than 200,000 enlisted in the Army and the Navy. Their contribution helped the United States to win the Civil War.

The Emancipation Proclamation accomplished three (3) major military objectives:

It created a reason for 180,000 Unpaid Laborers to become soldiers in the United States Army
It reduced the South’s labor force
It stopped France and Great Britain from joining forces with the South. France and Great Britain were the most powerful countries in the world back then!

UNPAID LABOR Shaped America's State Boundaries

The United States doubled in size when it bought the Louisiana Territory. Missouri was the first area in the northern part of the Territory to try to become a state. They wanted to be a slave state. This caused a lot of angry talk in congress between the states in the North and the states in the South. They argued until they came up with the Missouri Compromise of 1820. A compromise is a deal in which each side gives up something to gain something. The agreement let Missouri become a state. It made the Unpaid Labor System legal in Missouri. It also let Maine become a state. But in Maine the Unpaid Labor System was against the law. This compromise kept the political power between Northern states and the Southern states even.

The Missouri Compromise also created a boundary line. Areas of the Territory above the line could only become paid labor states. Areas of the Territory below the line could become Unpaid Labor states. The compromise of 1820 and other compromises determined the boundaries of eight (8) states.

The Myth of Black Inferiority

...was so crucial to America's success that the government LEGALIZED IT in the US Constitution and in state and local laws for 350 years. The falsehood of Black inferiority remains today.