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Time to bring that back (lemmy.world)

submitted 9 months ago by Stamets to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 9 months ago

A bit of a tangent but the year of jubilee is an interesting concept in the Torah. The idea is every 49 years they did an economic reset. Slaves were freed, debts forgiven, and land returned.

Unsurprisingly the concept was very appealing to enslaved people. During the US Civil War, many enslaved folks used it as a justification and rallying cry to escape to the north. In Defense of Looting argues that this was one of the most effective instances of mass political theft in history. This also had the effect of hollowing out the South's economy, swelling the North's military ranks, and scaring the shit out of racists everywhere.

I don't think reconstruction would have gone as far as it did without this mass political action and the power it gave formerly enslaved people.