<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">In a review of Gerald Horne's Book <i>The Counter-Revolution of 1776</i>, published by the Marxist historian Charles Post in the Marxist journal <i>Science and Society</i>, Post concludes as follows: </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Ultimately, the greatest weakness of Horne’s book is his
reduction of</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">the American Revolution to a “counter-revolution of slavery”
(x). Clearly</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">the <i>intent </i>of the southern planters and their allies
among northern colonial</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">merchants was to defend slavery. The Constitutional Settlement
of 1787,</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">which consolidated a relatively centralized capitalist state
in the United States,</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">established the dominance of the merchants and planters and
placed the</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">master–slave relationship outside the purview of the classes
represented in</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">the newly created federal government. However, the <i>unintended
consequence</i></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">of the Revolution and the Constitutional Settlement was to
create a <i>mass constituency</i></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">among European–Americans in the north opposed to the
expansion</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">of plantation slavery in the 1840s and 1850s, and in support
of the <i>abolition</i></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">of slavery during the Civil War.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The goal of the merchants and their political
representatives who spearheaded</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">the adoption of the Constitution in 1787–88 was to create a
centralized</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">state capable of securing the public debt, stabilizing a
national currency,</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">and ensuring the collection of government revenues (taxes,
tariffs and land</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">sales) and private debts (Holton, 2007). The new state
institutions allowed</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">merchants and land speculators to defeat northern
independent household</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">producers in the cycle of class struggles in the 1790s.
Farmers unsuccessfully</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">fought tax collectors, merchant–creditors, and land
speculators to defend</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>non-market access to land</i>, which allowed them to market
only physical surpluses</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">and maintain possession of landed property without “selling
to survive.” The</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><i>unintended consequence </i>of closing off access to free
or inexpensive land on the</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">frontier was the transformation of the conditions under
which farmers in</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">the north obtained, expanded and maintained landed property.
Northern</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">U. S. farmers became dependent upon successful market
production for</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">their economic survival — they became agrarian
petty-commodity producers</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">who had to specialize output, accumulate land and capital,
and introduce</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">new tools and methods to preserve their landed property. As
rural households</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">became dependent on the market for their economic survival,
northern</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">agriculture became a massive home market for industrially
produced capital</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">and consumer goods, sparking the industrial revolution of
the 19th century.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">The transformation of social property relations in northern
agriculture</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">established the conditions for <i>capitalist development </i>in
the north after c. 1840,</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">and created a <i>majoritarian </i>social bloc of farmers,
manufacturers and skilled</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">workers opposed to the geographic expansion of slavery. By
the 1840s, the</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">growing contradictions between the social conditions of the
development of</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">capitalism and slavery set the stage for the sharp class
conflicts that culminated</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">in the Civil War. The emergence of two regional social blocs
— a northern</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">coalition of farmers, native- born skilled workers and
manufacturers opposed</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">to slavery expansion organized in the Republican Party; and
a southern coalition</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">of slaveholders and non–slave-owning white farmers demanding
the</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">opening of the west to slavery organized in a rump
Democratic Party — set</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">the stage for Lincoln’s election, southern secession and
war. Military contingency</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">and the mass flight of slaves from the plantations led to
the abolition</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">of slavery, with the support of the vast majority in the
north (Levine, 2013).</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> </p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Ultimately, Horne’s claim that the American Revolution was <i>simply
</i>a</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">“counter-revolution of slavery” is, at best, only <i>partially
true. </i>The American</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Revolution and Constitutional Settlement protected the
masters’ property</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">rights in African–American men, women and children, enabling
the plantocracy</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">to maintain and expand their form of social labor as the
demand</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">for slave-produced cotton exploded in the first half of the
19th century.</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">However, the <i>unintended consequence </i>of the Revolution
— the transformation</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">of northern household-based agriculture — not only created
the conditions</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">for the development of capitalism, but created massive
social forces opposed</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">to slavery’s expansion and eventual existence. Put another
way, the American</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Revolution <i>both </i>consolidated and ultimately
undermined chattel slavery in</p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;line-height:107%;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">the United States.</p></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Apr 19, 2020 at 11:42 AM C. G. Estabrook via Peace <<a href="mailto:peace@lists.chambana.net">peace@lists.chambana.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">The anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775) should remind us to ask how much the 'War of Independence' was a defense of slavery against the presumed plans of the British government to abolish it - in part because the slave-based economies of the American colonies were out-producing the home country.<br>
<br>
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