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Joseph Francis's avatar

I think you're probably right that slavery would have persisted a lot longer (forever...?) without the American Revolution, although I would add the planters did end up fighting in part to defend slavery, after Lord Dunmore's declaration... It wasn't the root cause, though, which was really westward expansion plus British mercantilism.

(I ask "forever...?", because I think the second order consequences of there being no American Revolution are such that it is impossible to know what would have happened...)

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Joseph Francis's avatar

And I think your next post should be on how the American Revolution was actually of far more consequence than the French Revolution!

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Noel Maurer's avatar

Tell me more about this idea, Joe! I do, of course, agree with it, but let's flesh it out.

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