In 1860, the aggregate value of slaves as property was $3 billion, nearly 20 percent of the nation’s wealth. The value of slaves was more than 50 percent greater than the capital invested in railroads and manufacturing combined, a calculation that excludes the value of land in southern plantations. Slavery generated a stream of income that enabled overall white per capita income in the South to approximate that of northern whites. In the seven cotton states, nearly a third of white income came from slave labor. Thus, slavery was essential to the prosperity and standard of living of many
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