Aaron Wells
@aaronwells.bsky.social
PhD, UCLA. Research emphasis: Ancient Mediterranean, History of Theocracy, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Tortured #Bills fan, Proponent of #GeneralStrike, universal health care, debt release. Catahoula and GSP Owner. 🚫 No DMs! 🚫
Chattel slavery's end was monumental. But emancipation came with a price: within a decade the South was rebuilt on sharecropping debt servitude, convict leasing, and Jim Crow terror, a new racial apartheid, just without the auction block. The North could live with this for nearly a century.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Chattel slavery's end was monumental. But emancipation came with a price: within a decade the South was rebuilt on sharecropping debt servitude, convict leasing, and Jim Crow terror, a new racial apartheid, just without the auction block. The North could live with this for nearly a century.
Emancipation was an unprecedented liberation event: 4 million people freed, the plantation system dismantled. Yet “Interest-Convergence” partially explains this: Northern capital needed the South’s slave system dead so its land, labor, and markets could be adapted to the white wage-labor empire.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Emancipation was an unprecedented liberation event: 4 million people freed, the plantation system dismantled. Yet “Interest-Convergence” partially explains this: Northern capital needed the South’s slave system dead so its land, labor, and markets could be adapted to the white wage-labor empire.
Emancipation overthrew the Plantation Empire but entrenched Northern segregation as the dominant model for white supremacy, ensuring the Civil War's outcome remained one of racial domination, not equality.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Emancipation overthrew the Plantation Empire but entrenched Northern segregation as the dominant model for white supremacy, ensuring the Civil War's outcome remained one of racial domination, not equality.
Wartime abolitionism radicalized Union policy, freeing 4 million people and arming 180K Black soldiers. Yet this "Second American Revolution" did little to dismantle the North's own apartheid structures: Black Codes barring freed POC from land ownership or testimony rights, etc.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Wartime abolitionism radicalized Union policy, freeing 4 million people and arming 180K Black soldiers. Yet this "Second American Revolution" did little to dismantle the North's own apartheid structures: Black Codes barring freed POC from land ownership or testimony rights, etc.
While the moral push for abolition, exemplified by Black enlistment, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment, marked a profound victory, it coexisted uneasily with Northern expansionism's racial exclusions.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
While the moral push for abolition, exemplified by Black enlistment, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment, marked a profound victory, it coexisted uneasily with Northern expansionism's racial exclusions.
By war’s end, abolition’s moral win (13th Amendment) arguably offset Northern apartheid’s triumph. Still there were Black Codes in “free” states, Chinese Exclusion (1882), and Dawes Act (1887) land grabs from Natives. The war ended chattel slavery, not the dominant system of white land monopoly.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
By war’s end, abolition’s moral win (13th Amendment) arguably offset Northern apartheid’s triumph. Still there were Black Codes in “free” states, Chinese Exclusion (1882), and Dawes Act (1887) land grabs from Natives. The war ended chattel slavery, not the dominant system of white land monopoly.
The Homestead Act (1862) gave 160-acre plots to heads of household (implicitly white men), while California’s 1850 constitution banned Black testimony in court, legalised the indentured servitude of the Indigenous, and built a legal framework for their ethnic cleansing/genocide in the 1850s–1870s.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
The Homestead Act (1862) gave 160-acre plots to heads of household (implicitly white men), while California’s 1850 constitution banned Black testimony in court, legalised the indentured servitude of the Indigenous, and built a legal framework for their ethnic cleansing/genocide in the 1850s–1870s.
But Northern “free labor” still meant white labor: Union armies seized Native lands in Kansas, taking Indigenous territory while excluding Black workers from Homestead Act benefits. Northern expansion demanded “free soil” for white settlers.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
But Northern “free labor” still meant white labor: Union armies seized Native lands in Kansas, taking Indigenous territory while excluding Black workers from Homestead Act benefits. Northern expansion demanded “free soil” for white settlers.
Wartime moral abolitionism did explode: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (1863) freed millions of enslaved people, fueled further by Black soldiers and white evangelicals decrying slavery as sin.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Wartime moral abolitionism did explode: Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (1863) freed millions of enslaved people, fueled further by Black soldiers and white evangelicals decrying slavery as sin.
The Civil War decided which version of white supremacy would get the continent and its railroads, mines, and farms. The Plantation chattel slavery system lost. The Wage-Labor plus segregation plus ethnic cleansing system won.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
The Civil War decided which version of white supremacy would get the continent and its railroads, mines, and farms. The Plantation chattel slavery system lost. The Wage-Labor plus segregation plus ethnic cleansing system won.
So on the eve of the Civil War, it was not so much a battle between freedom and slavery. It was more a celebrity death match over the future shape of American racial apartheid.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
So on the eve of the Civil War, it was not so much a battle between freedom and slavery. It was more a celebrity death match over the future shape of American racial apartheid.
Central Pacific hired 15,000 Chinese workers to blast the Sierra Nevada (1865–69) at half-white wages. Yet Congress passed the 1862 anti-coolie law and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Northern capital needed their labor to finish the railroad, then needed them gone so the West could stay white.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Central Pacific hired 15,000 Chinese workers to blast the Sierra Nevada (1865–69) at half-white wages. Yet Congress passed the 1862 anti-coolie law and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. Northern capital needed their labor to finish the railroad, then needed them gone so the West could stay white.
1862–1869: U.S. courts and speculators used the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to strip 70–90 % of Mexican-American land grants in California, New Mexico, & Texas.
Former Californios and Tejanos became wage laborers on land their families owned for generations. Many Indigenous were simply murdered.
Former Californios and Tejanos became wage laborers on land their families owned for generations. Many Indigenous were simply murdered.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
1862–1869: U.S. courts and speculators used the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to strip 70–90 % of Mexican-American land grants in California, New Mexico, & Texas.
Former Californios and Tejanos became wage laborers on land their families owned for generations. Many Indigenous were simply murdered.
Former Californios and Tejanos became wage laborers on land their families owned for generations. Many Indigenous were simply murdered.
During the Civil War, the Union ethnically cleansed the Great Plains: 1862 Dakota War: 38 Dakota hanged in mass execution; 1864 Sand Creek Massacre; 1863–68 Navajo Long Walk. The Goal: clear out the Indigenous for the transcontinental railroad and white settlers.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
During the Civil War, the Union ethnically cleansed the Great Plains: 1862 Dakota War: 38 Dakota hanged in mass execution; 1864 Sand Creek Massacre; 1863–68 Navajo Long Walk. The Goal: clear out the Indigenous for the transcontinental railroad and white settlers.
Pacific $ had long inflamed northern lust: San Francisco gold & China trade demanded a railroad. Lincoln’s Pacific Railway Act gave 175 million acres and $64 million in federal bonds to white-owned corporations. Black citizens, Chinese workers, and Indigenous were barred from the best land grants.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Pacific $ had long inflamed northern lust: San Francisco gold & China trade demanded a railroad. Lincoln’s Pacific Railway Act gave 175 million acres and $64 million in federal bonds to white-owned corporations. Black citizens, Chinese workers, and Indigenous were barred from the best land grants.
Beyond its segregation system, the North fought to build a coast-to-coast wage-labor empire:
Transcontinental Railroad (1862–69), Homestead Act (1862), Morrill Land-Grant colleges (1862), all passed while the South was out of Congress. White homesteaders and generally white workers only.
Transcontinental Railroad (1862–69), Homestead Act (1862), Morrill Land-Grant colleges (1862), all passed while the South was out of Congress. White homesteaders and generally white workers only.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Beyond its segregation system, the North fought to build a coast-to-coast wage-labor empire:
Transcontinental Railroad (1862–69), Homestead Act (1862), Morrill Land-Grant colleges (1862), all passed while the South was out of Congress. White homesteaders and generally white workers only.
Transcontinental Railroad (1862–69), Homestead Act (1862), Morrill Land-Grant colleges (1862), all passed while the South was out of Congress. White homesteaders and generally white workers only.
The social and economic stakes of 1861 pitted two apartheid systems, both built on white supremacy, against each other to decide which model would own the US. Chattel slavery used black bodies as capital, cotton as currency. Northern segregation exploited or banished blacks, wage labor its currency.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
The social and economic stakes of 1861 pitted two apartheid systems, both built on white supremacy, against each other to decide which model would own the US. Chattel slavery used black bodies as capital, cotton as currency. Northern segregation exploited or banished blacks, wage labor its currency.
New York ended slavery in 1827, paying slave owners compensation while giving freed people nothing. By 1860, Black New Yorkers earned half of white wages, lived in segregated districts, and were excluded from most trades. Wage apartheid was a New York standard.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
New York ended slavery in 1827, paying slave owners compensation while giving freed people nothing. By 1860, Black New Yorkers earned half of white wages, lived in segregated districts, and were excluded from most trades. Wage apartheid was a New York standard.
Pennsylvania had abolished slavery slowly with the 1780 Gradual Law, and then kept Black wages 30-50% below white. PA barred Black children from public schools and funded the American Colonization Society to ship free blacks to Liberia. Segregation & deportation were PA racial apartheid standards.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Pennsylvania had abolished slavery slowly with the 1780 Gradual Law, and then kept Black wages 30-50% below white. PA barred Black children from public schools and funded the American Colonization Society to ship free blacks to Liberia. Segregation & deportation were PA racial apartheid standards.
Ohio never banned Black residency outright but required $500 bonds, segregated schools, no jury service, and no voting. Cincinnati's white workers rioted in 1829 and 1841 to drive out black labor. Wage-labor apartheid with mob enforcement was the Ohio standard.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Ohio never banned Black residency outright but required $500 bonds, segregated schools, no jury service, and no voting. Cincinnati's white workers rioted in 1829 and 1841 to drive out black labor. Wage-labor apartheid with mob enforcement was the Ohio standard.
Indiana's 1851 Constitution prohibited any Black person from settling in the state. Article 13 stated: "No negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the state." White farmers wanted cheap land and white-only labor competition.
www.contextus.org/Constitution...
www.contextus.org/Constitution...
Constitution of Indiana, Article XIII (1851) 1
November 1, 1851ARTICLE XIII NEGROES AND MULATTOESNo negro or mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the State, after the adoption of this...
www.contextus.org
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Indiana's 1851 Constitution prohibited any Black person from settling in the state. Article 13 stated: "No negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the state." White farmers wanted cheap land and white-only labor competition.
www.contextus.org/Constitution...
www.contextus.org/Constitution...
And so what of the North? Illinois entered the Union "free" in 1818 but wrote Black Codes that banned free black migration, required $1,000 bonds, and allowed whipping for vagrance. By 1860, only 1% of the population was black. Illinois's goal was a wage-labor state, with few to zero black citizens.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
And so what of the North? Illinois entered the Union "free" in 1818 but wrote Black Codes that banned free black migration, required $1,000 bonds, and allowed whipping for vagrance. By 1860, only 1% of the population was black. Illinois's goal was a wage-labor state, with few to zero black citizens.
Texas seceded on February 1st. It was the last frontier of the plantation chattel slavery empire: slave prices had doubled in the 1850s as cotton had moved west. Secession locked in $150-$200 million dollars in human property and aimed to keep spreading, while Lincoln sought to stop the spread.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Texas seceded on February 1st. It was the last frontier of the plantation chattel slavery empire: slave prices had doubled in the 1850s as cotton had moved west. Secession locked in $150-$200 million dollars in human property and aimed to keep spreading, while Lincoln sought to stop the spread.
Alabama seceded on January 11th with zero apologies: the "black belt" counties were 60 to 80% enslaved and produced the world's cheapest cotton. Protecting half a billion dollars in combined slave capital and land values was the cold-blooded calculation of Alabama's ruling plantation elite.
November 29, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Alabama seceded on January 11th with zero apologies: the "black belt" counties were 60 to 80% enslaved and produced the world's cheapest cotton. Protecting half a billion dollars in combined slave capital and land values was the cold-blooded calculation of Alabama's ruling plantation elite.