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LittleGreenSoldier t1_iz53ynv wrote

Reply to comment by CryptidGrimnoir in TIL "The Twelve Days of Christmas" STARTS on Christmas Day, and ends of January 5th (Three Kings Day). by HauntedHippie

From a farming family here.

There's really only two periods per year where the work is that hard, even pre-industrial, and that's plowing and harvesting. Each is a sort of two week crunch time. The rest of the year is actually pretty chill, you get into a routine.

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canalrhymeswithanal t1_iz9yikr wrote

Then why the hell America need to enslave so many people? Should've just gone to a temp agency.

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LittleGreenSoldier t1_iza20lr wrote

Cotton is a way more labour intensive crop. The bolls had to be picked by hand, and because they're mostly air they take up a huge volume, meaning more trips back and forth to empty your basket/sack/whatever. In addition to that, there was a MASSIVE upswing in demand for cotton because of the industrial revolution, and the mechanization of textile manufacturing. Suddenly machines could card, spin and weave cotton faster than a hundred people could. With that skyrocketing demand came the plantations, just like with sugar in the Caribbean; huge monoculture farms planting on an industrial scale. You can pay workers to do that, but buying a slave is an upfront cost equal to about a year's wages for a free worker, and you have that slave until they die. Buy a woman and you can make more slaves for no additional cost.

It's monstrous, but they considered it solely an economical decision.

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canalrhymeswithanal t1_iza2fgv wrote

I should've added the /s tag, but also this was informative and I appreciate that.

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