Thursday, August 4, 2022

Ransom & Sutch, One Kind of Freedom (1977)

 Roger L. Ransom and Richard Sutch, One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation
(C) 1977 Columbia University Press

 

A thorough dissection of the slow movement from slavery to repression to something more likely to be described as freedom.  Their conclusions are still a bit optimistic by the extent to which economic and political equality have been achieved.  They conclude: "Today, little remains to remind Americans of pose-emancipation economic institutions [legal restrictions on property ownership; explicit refusal to provide educational opportunities;”etc.—DAC].  But they do conclude as of the 1970s that "The promise of freedom and equality that accompanies Emancipation remains as yet unfulfilled despite the apse of more than a century.  Surely the time has finally come to make good on this promise'