Among historians, there is little consensus about the relationship between slavery and capitalism. Some argue that capitalism is a system that is built on the free will of all participating parties, making it possible for the buyer and the seller to negotiate.
However, other historians claim that slavery and capitalism are siblings, and the former paved the path for the development of the latter. First and foremost, cheap slave labor in the United States made industrialization possible. By reducing the costs of harvesting raw materials such as cotton, Americans could invest in the textile industry, which was one of the leading capitalist industries in the nineteenth century.
What is insidious is how chattel slavery inspired some modern capitalist practices. For instance, it was slaveowners developed a system of quotas and punishments that boosted labor efficiency. While today, corporal punishments are forbidden by law, similar systems of KPIs and penalties exist.
Another piece of legacy is modern capitalist corporations’ strife to reduce production costs by any means. It has become a common practice to outsource production to developing countries with meager pay, almost non-existent employee rights, and harsh working conditions.