Comment by schuyler2d
3 years ago
The industrial revolution radically increased slavery.
Read the history of the cotton gin and then how steam power made larger transportation easier and expanded populations to consume cotton and tobacco. Industrially produced guns and other tools helped "manage" slaves and later prisoners.
Post-civil war, industrial prison system instituted chain gangs to recreate "legal" slavery and forced prison labor still exists in many states.
Not really. It increased some types of slavery as before steam power those parts you name were not economical. However slaves were a major way to grow food prior to the industrial revolution. Industry created machine that needed only a few trained crew to operate. That you only needed a few meant that the slave master could do all the work without having to watch the slaves (who did tend to rebel or not work hard if you didn't watch them closely). You couldn't have a lone slave run a machine in general because the slave not being watched would find it easy to run away - possibly with the machine.
The US south ended slavery with the civil war, but most places in the world had a peaceful end. It wouldn't have been peaceful if it was economical as the rich would have fought to keep it.