Whose Mistake US Slavery?
Most people today are confident that the US in 1860 having ~4M slaves (out of its 31M population) was a big moral mistake. But who exactly is to blame for this mistake? I broke the causal path into these 8 steps:
Africa Wars - African nations/tribes go to war against each other. Sometimes in part to grab slaves.
Enslave Losers - African war winners enslave losers instead of killing them. Other options more risked revenge.
Sell to Traders - African war winners sell slaves to African slave traders
Sell to Non-Africans - African slave traders move slaves to coast (~10-20% die on way), sell to Non-Africans
Move to US - European slave traders move ~4% of African slaves to US (~10-15% die on way), sell them there
US farmers buy - US farmers buy slaves, work them
Let slaves have kids - US farmers let slaves live long, and have kids. This was unusual in history of slavery.
Treat kids as slaves - US farmers treat kids of slaves as also slaves. If this were not allowed, they’d not have allowed step 7.
Polls with 4009 responses rated which of these were the worse moral mistakes, relative to a max of 100:
It seems that respondents put most blame here on people who choose to enslave over to kill or stop from existing. Even though when directly asked they say that slavery is not as bad an outcome as death or non-existence.
Who is to blame for slavery ? The answer is anyone involved in the development and maintenance of the supply chain. There is no sliding scale of blame here, either. Once you participate in something like this you are just as guilty as anyone else. Take away the market and you have no need for the slaves. Take away any step in the procurement process and the supply chain falters unless you have already established a population of slaves which you are breeding locally. If I had to say which was the most egregious of all of the crimes listed above, that would be it - establishing a population you use as breeding stock for slaves permanently. Otherwise, all of these are equally heinous crimes against humanity.
How to covercome bias. The language and opening framing highlight the culpability of African wars. Bias continues when agency is implied rather than stated due to the elision of subject noun phrases. Number 4 is "Sell to Europeans." It could be rephrased as "Europeans purchase". Number 5 could be rewritten as "Europeans and Americans move slaves to the US." Instead of number 5, "US Farmers buy" it could be "US slave traders buy and sell to farmers."
What has been elided here:
Massive maritime infrastructure came into play due to prior European expertise with overseas mercantilism and capitalist markets. This knowledge base revved into high gear due to the astounding profits that were available in slave trading. This machinery and expertise are tucked out-of-sight due to the strategic language used in Hanson's poll.