Comment by sanderjd
3 years ago
Steam engines were widespread for half a century before the abolition of slavery. Your argument here is just not coherent.
3 years ago
Steam engines were widespread for half a century before the abolition of slavery. Your argument here is just not coherent.
Not in a form that could replace slaves. The first traction engines were not until around the civil war time, and those were not practical for many tasks that slaves did. Steam trains did exist, but the idea of running a train engine off of tracks didn't really come around until the 1850s - just before the war - and those were very limited machines that couldn't work most soils.
Even at that, the steam engine was in the process of replacing slaves for many tasks. There were just a lot of tasks left that the steam engine wasn't yet practical to replace slaves - but that would have happened anyway.