American Taxation, American Slavery

by Robin L. Einhorn

For all the recent attention to the slaveholding of the founding fathers, we still know remarkably little about the influence of slavery on American politics. American Taxation, American Slavery tackles this problem in a new way. Rather than parsing the ideological pronouncements of charismatic slaveholders, it examines the concrete policy decisions that slaveholders and non-slaveholders made in the critical realm of taxation. The result is surprising—that the enduring power of antigovernment rhetoric in the United States stems from the nation’s history of slavery rather than its history of liberty.             We are all familiar with the states’ rights arguments of proslavery politicians who wanted to keep the federal government weak and decentralized. But here Robin Einhorn shows the deep, broad, and continuous influence of slavery on this idea in American politics. From the earliest colonial times right up to the Civil War, slaveholding elites feared strong democratic government as a threat to the institution of slavery. American Taxation, American Slavery shows how their heated battles over taxation, the power to tax, and the distribution of tax burdens were rooted not in debates over personal liberty but rather in the rights of slaveholders to hold human beings as property. Along the way, Einhorn exposes the antidemocratic origins of the popular Jeffersonian rhetoric about weak government by showing that governments were actually more democratic—and stronger —where most people were free.             A strikingly original look at the role of slavery in the making of the United States, American Taxation, American Slavery will prove essential to anyone interested in the history of American government and politics.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Economics, American History, Race, Politics

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of euphemism. Mind blowing, maybe moreso because I don’t have a deep knowledge of US history (been a while since high school). The notion that so much of what we believe and argue re tax policies in this country was derived so directly from our founding disputes over slavery. The book describes how it was a refusal to talk about slavery head on, knowing it would blow up the whole union, led us to hundreds of years of passive aggressive tax discussions where no one wanted to say what they were actually stating.

[Ajk · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a few really good, illuminating, sentences in here but in all honesty its a bit of a churn. I could tell you the premise of the book - that slavery is at the core of how America understands wealth, even today, but I have a tough time demonstrating the through-line.
A lot of this is just me not being very good at tax theory, which I remember struggling with in school. But also I think the author lets the 18th-c speakers talk for themselves which…they do in an 18th-century voice. Tough hoeing at times.

[Matthew Rohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting look at the role of the politics of slavery in the early US on the design of state and federal tax structures. The writing can be dry in parts but the underlying information is both important and intriguing

[Torrell Foree · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to know the history of how taxes came about in the United States, you will be surprised to know that the history of taxation is intertwined with the history of slavery. The author does a wonderful job at showing how slavery was such a controversial issue during the revolutionary era that the founders attempted to avoiding talking about the polarizing institution by any means possible. The power of democracy in slave-holding territories versus non-slaveholding territories is also thoroughly covered in this book. Their views on democracy in the 18th century has relevance to our views on democracy in 2013. Definitely a good read!

[Stonna Shores]

So far this has a lot of information and I have to keep going back to read what I just read. Slow going but I really want to read it.