Re: Ricardo Duchesne on Ellen Meiksins Wood

Well history goes where it goes, we only think we take
it somewhere. One point at a time.

LP writes:

>>1. If the Brenner thesis hinges on market relations
as a sine qua non for capitalism, then the American
Civil War does not bear it out as Post 
alleged. With an outcome that eventually resulted in
debt peonage,convict labor, sharecropping and KKK
terror to keep blacks from going North, the only term
that can describe this is "extra-economic" coercion,
which Brenner and Wood associate with precapitalist 
societies.<<

None of which are unique to the 'South'. And none of
which I think would be necessary for a precapitalist
society. BTW, reading through your pieces I think you
do quite a bit misjustice to racial mixing (and its
extensiveness) in US history, which goes way way back
to the very start of the colonies. Perhaps one appeal
of abolition in the border states was that many people
were not really sure how they would be racially
counted if slavery expanded and racial lines became
even more legalistically rigid. If you come from an
area where tri-racial communities exist, you know what
I'm talking about.   

Charles Jannuzi
Fukui, Japan

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