>>9577716 lb
>Slaves were not free labor.
They are something normal free people could not compete with. That was the point. Just like Americans cannot realistically compete with an illegal who will work for $5/hr. That was the point I was making. I know the rest of what you are conveying already like this
>They COULD NOT BE FREED due to the manumission laws the legislators from the NORTH imposed on the South
Things people are not taught in school. Like the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the South, to prompt them to rebel and fight on the side of the North. There was still slavery in the North, and Lincoln wanted to repatriate all of them, that's why Liberia was created. He considered them inferior beings and was convinced that there was no way to live together as equals.
The whole subject makes me sick.