Swarthout’s Reviews > The American Crucible: Slavery, Emancipation and Human Rights > Status Update

"The real constraint on the slave economy related to its typical labour processes and political economy. The gang and task systems could not be applied to every process, and the climate of intimidation and violence did not foster respect and cooperation, or attract skilled free immigrants."

"about a third of the slave crew on a colonial eighteenth-century plantation were skilled or responsible slaves. The nineteenth-century slave regimes were more tightly focused on field work and mechanical processing."