Among its other unique characteristics, American slavery took place in a democratic context, which meant both that the slaveowner had unlimited control over his inalienable “property,” and that some rationale had to be developed to reconcile slavery with democratic values. The economic setbacks of American blacks are attributable to the peculiar characteristics of American slavery, which Sowell calls “the most thorough human subjugation” of all the forms in which slavery has appeared. As the experience of West Indians in this country demonstrates, slavery per se will not always produce traits antithetical to economic success. He describes in detail the development of American slavery and contrasts it with slavery in South America. As to a stable family structure, it is a necessary but not sufficient condition for economic progress: “Stable families imply emotional strength and stable values transmitted to the children, but the particular nature of these values influences the uses to which the emotional strength is put, and therefore the chance of economic progress.” Italian immigrants from rural backgrounds had not developed and therefore could not transmit those values, such as a concern for education, most conducive to economic success in large modern cities.Īs to the first question, Sowell’s discussion of slavery takes up a major portion of the book. If the effects of slavery prevent economic success, why are West Indian black immigrants (whose ancestors were also enslaved) economically successful? And if family structure correlates with economic success, why are Italian-Americans not more successful? Sowell, who uses inter group comparisons whenever possible throughout the book to test out theories, challenges these conclusions with two questions. It is widely thought, for example, that the position of the American black community results from slavery, and that weak family structure is a particularly important inheritance from slavery because strong family structure correlates with economic advancement.
His conclusions, which defy the conventional wisdom, are fascinating. What Sowell does in this extremely useful book is to apply logic and economic analysis to group history. He scorns “the view in some quarters that the economic advancement of minorities is the result of tolerance, which is the result of ideas promoted in missionary fashion.” Instead, he argues in Race and Economics that the failure or success of racial and ethnic minorities in America is to be explained by solid economic and historical analysis. Thomas Sowell has a more pragmatic notion. Racial and ethnic relations in the United States have long been seen as a great morality play in which injustice is caused by, and will be ended by attacking prejudice.
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