“Similarly, the nation’s top wealth holders in 1860 had tended to be its major slaveholders. In total, the United States in 1860 had about four million slaves, and on the open market they were worth at least three billion dollars. That was roughly three times the amount of capital invested in manufacturing, three times the amount invested in railroads, seven times the amount invested in banks, and forty-eight times the amount the federal government spent that year. Only the nation’s real estate was more valuable.” CapitalismSlavery In The United States20151860 Book:Who Freed the Slaves?: The Fight over the Thirteenth Amendment Source: Who Freed the Slaves?: The Fight over the Thirteenth Amendment
“The need for the amendment was obvious. Of the nation’s four million slaves at the outset of the war, no more than five hundred thousand were now [15 June 1854] free, and, to his disgust, many white Americans intended to have them reenslaved once the war was over.” American SlaveryEmancipation Proclamation201513th Amendment1854 Book:Who Freed the Slaves?: The Fight over the Thirteenth Amendment Source: Who Freed the Slaves?: The Fight over the Thirteenth Amendment