Could you say that this country was based on the work of slaves, and that it gave us an advantage over other countries?

Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

August 2, 2023

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min read

Question: Could you say that this country was based on the work of slaves, and that it gave us an advantage over other countries?

Answer: Slavery was a huge disadvantage. It held us back, especially in the South. Obviously, slavery is a huge disadvantage to the slaves, who are part of the country, and they're then forced to live stunted lives, but also pretty much everyone else. Slavery is a dead-weight loss, both morally and economically. It caused huge social friction between North and South, between slaves and non-slaves, people who were for abolition and people who were not, as well as being economically underperforming.

The important thing to note historically is that those countries that rejected slavery and worked hard to abolish it; those are the countries that became rich first and then fastest.

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About the author:

Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

Stephen R. C. Hicks is a Professor of Philosophy and a Senior Scholar for The Atlas Society.

He is author of The Art of Reasoning: Readings for Logical Analysis (W. W. Norton & Co., 1998), Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault (Scholargy, 2004), Nietzsche and the Nazis (Ockham’s Razor, 2010), Entrepreneurial Living (CEEF, 2016), Liberalism Pro and Con (Connor Court, 2020), Art: Modern, Postmodern, and Beyond (with Michael Newberry, 2021), Eight Philosophies of Education (2022), and Lectures on the Philosophy of Politics (Spanish translation, Publicaciones del Orden Espontáneo, 2026). He has published in Business Ethics Quarterly, Review of Metaphysics, and The Wall Street Journal. His writings have been translated into 20 languages.

He has been Visiting Professor of Business Ethics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Visiting Fellow at the Social Philosophy & Policy Center in Bowling Green, Ohio, Visiting Professor at the University of Kasimir the Great, Poland, Visiting Fellow at Harris Manchester College of Oxford University, England, and Visiting Professor at Jagiellonian University, Poland.

His B.A. and M.A. degrees are from the University of Guelph, Canada. His Ph.D. in Philosophy is from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA.

In 2010, he won his university’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

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