2min chapter

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#145 – Christopher Brown on why slavery abolition wasn't inevitable

80,000 Hours Podcast

CHAPTER

The Politics of the American Revolution Put the Slavery Issue on the Political Agenda

It seems really hard to tell. This is like a very difficult part of kind of factual history, because suppose one view is just that you look at this individual who seems to have been a real initiator of things. And before they took action, there were far fewer people involved afterwards, there's tons. So listen, yeah, I think I think the politics of the American revolution put the question of slavery on the political agenda in a way that was lasting. It did not have to necessarily lead to a push to end the British slave trade beginning in the 1780s.

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Speaker 2
So it sounds like you're leaning towards the view that there were individuals who mattered that if you know, I guess it's half a dozen people happen to walk in front of a bus, then maybe the movement could have lost momentum. It seems really hard to tell. This is like a very difficult part of kind of factual history, because suppose one view is just that you look at this individual who seems to have been a real initiator of things. And before they took action, there were far fewer people involved afterwards, there's tons. The other mistake would be, well, they were broad social trends. And if it hadn't been, then someone else would have filled that niche within society that they would have to be the person who spoke up instead. So listen, yeah,
Speaker 1
I think I think the politics of the American revolution put the question of slavery on the political agenda in a way that was lasting. I don't think it was possible to use the cliché to put the genie back in the bottle after the way that the issue of slavery gets batted around because of the politics. So, but it could have worked out a variety of different ways. It did not have to necessarily lead to a push to end the British slave trade beginning in the 1780s. But I do think, and certainly the success of that effort would not be guaranteed by any means. But I don't think it was possible after the American revolution to treat the institution of slavery as a kind of feature of the world that as a moral issue was no one's responsibility.
Speaker 2
I see.

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