Northern equivalent of Southern Aristocracy

[cedarstripper]

Originally Posted by larry_cockerham

I wonder why yanks don't ever discuss the northern slave trade?

Because in my experience, its usually referred to as the slave trade which "the North" carried on, and I maintain that "the North" did not carry on any such trade. Individual ship owners, investors, even substantial portions of some communities might have at one time become involved in fitting these smuggling ships out, but even if they had an owner or crew from a northern port, they still do not represent "the North." "The North" as a whole condemned the smuggling of slaves, as did their politics.

Cedarstripper

[cw1865]

I know that you brought up the 400 million figure, but considering the costs of the war, and hindsight being 20/20, paying out five billion 1860 dollars would have been 'cheap'

[Freddy]

The town I grew up in was a "Mill Town", like most other towns in Massachusetts from 1820 on. Once the land was was taken by whites for farming much of it gave way for industrialization after 1820. The Mill owned everything: mill, dam, housing, store, village farm, shops, and just about all other buildings. Professionals, doctors, lawyers, and ministers did well, but most who worked outside the mill farmed tracts of land. Huge mansions can be found in every town where mill owners and their superintendents lived. It remained this way for more than a century where most scraped out a living in the mills or on the farm. Mill owners lived in luxury and controlled politics and the community. After WWII the mills shut down and workers found other better paying jobs, but the owners of industry remained powerful. They still are the Northern Aristocracy, but the average worker has made huge gains financially since 1820.