Did any people in the South make a profit off of the Emancipation Proclamation?
I’m thinking if you were a Southern merchant in 1845, and you knew the slave trade was soon gonna end, you would sell short on the commodity like any other commodity.
You’d borrow slaves from a neighbor, then sell them to a third party, and then on a contracted date, you’d buy back the slaves and return them to the neighbor.
If you timed it just right, you’d be buying back the slaves right before slavery was illegalized, you’d pay 0.000005 cents per slave, plus interest, and keep the proceeds.
How come no Southerners tried this? They could have also used this money to fund the war on either side, North or South. You could do this also as a way to raise money to back the Union.
The South during reconstruction was impoverished and destroyed by the circumstances resulting from the Civil War and the destruction of towns like Vicksburg, Mississippi (not that the South wasn’t to blame).
But I’m just curious if any Southern folks actually ironically profited by selling short.
Tagged with: Emancipation Proclamation • Slavery • Third Party
Filed under: Commodity Trading
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Well, I thought I had heard everything till you came up with this brainy idea.
Short selling slaves!
Part of your program might have worked. If you borrow slaves and sell them, you pocket the money but are indebted to the real owners. What is crucial–that you are indebted to return a fungible slave and NOT money.
Then at the moment slavery is illegal, you no longer have the obligation to buy slaves in the open market, nor pay off the original owner. That moment forgives your obligation and makes it in fact illegal–leaving you with a pocket full of money.
Probs–the EP (which became effective in Jan 1863) was unenforceable where it applied.
Your “modest proposal” begs an interesting question: what sort of debts and debt forgiveness did the ending of slavery create. For instance, suppose someone bought a slave on time, and bought with the understanding of a future payment, and slavery ended–was the original debt also forgiven?
Too bad the “emancipation proclamation” didn’t do a damn thing. And the South was so financially ruined by the war that no one but carpet baggers and scalawags benefitted. And thats why the Klan was formed.