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Slavery existed virtually without criticism for some three thousand years before abolitionist movements around the world began criticizing it in the late eighteenth century. The first substantial abolitionist movement was organized in England on the eve of the American Revolution (1774), and by 1888 the last bastion of slavery in the Americas -- Brazil -- had achieved emancipation. Thus, an institution that was a normal state of affairs in most countries of the world for three thousand years was eliminated within the course of a century (although chattel slavery has been resurrected in the Sudan and elsewhere in contemporary Africa).

Abolition of slavery throughout the world occurred for religious, philosophical, and economic reasons. The Quakers were among the first abolitionists because of their belief that slavery was an offense against God. The philosophy of the Enlightenment, which championed individual rights and the idea of equality under the law, added fuel to the argument that all human beings have natural rights to life, liberty, and property and ought to be treated equally under the law.

The advent of the industrial revolution added economic pressures as well, for slave labor is inherently inefficient compared to free labor. Slaves have very few, if any, incentives to work productively, to acquire new skills, and to improve their productivity levels, since they do not stand to benefit from doing so. Furthermore, capital-intensive agriculture and industry began to render labor-intensive production, including slave labor, uncompetitive. As the economist Mises wrote, "Servile labor disappeared because it could not stand the competition of free labor; its profitability sealed its doom in the market economy."
With the development of capitalism, slavery all over the world became uneconomical, with the result being manumission -- the willingness of slave owners to allow their slaves to purchase their freedom -- and other forms of peaceful emancipation.

Dozens of countries, including, the possessions of the British, French and Spanish empires, ended slavery peacefully during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Only in the United States was warfare associated with emancipation.

couzin wrote:Spike Lee was one of the producers - Kevin Willmott directed. Actually, a very funny movie - sorta what you would have got if co-directed by Mel Brooks and John Waters...

wheelgun1958 wrote:So as not to hijack the Machete thread, who has seen the Spike Lee film C.S.A.?