[rextorres]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Slavery had nothing to do with the construction of the American industrial giant. ALL of the slave states had very poor industrial facilities, as they were primarily agricultural. The colonies/states that became heavy industrial centers made very little use of slavery, and abolished it early on in their statehoods.

I saw an interesting documentary that argues the same point regarding the Roman Empire.

According to the argument the Romans had the potential for an Industrial Revolution - there are technical schematics by Archimedes i.e. for the steam engine - but that Slavery made the development of these technologies uneconomical.