Estate Quotes
“Manumitting” means the freeing of slaves. See Quotation 643600 for Laurens’ view of slavery despite the fact that he was a substantial slave owner. He was willing to lose the money represented by the value of his slaves, but most slave owners self interest was to the contrary. One of the most interesting thing about this quotation is the fact that Laurens received so much opposition from his fellow South Carolinians and other Southerners despite the fact that only Laurens would lost money by freeing his slaves. Even slave owners who wanted to do the right thing and were willing to lost the money were under enormous social and political pressure not to free slaves.
England in contrast did not even educate many men in arithmetic and accounting and women not at all with the sexist English culture of the day. English merchants were notorious for selling their business at low prices as they got older unless they had an adult son with an aptitude for the business. The Dutch, with educated women could have a wife run a business if the husband died or was disabled, and allow children to grow up, thus keeping the business in the family, but more important for Holland, keeping the business thriving.
