What Was Taken: The Hidden Costs of American Prosperity
The United States did not ascend to economic supremacy by ingenuity or industriousness alone; it rose on the backs of stolen labor and stolen land. While the Industrial Revolution is often celebrated as the dawn of innovation and progress, its gilded edge conceals a deeper, darker truth. This essay explores the economic theft that laid the foundation for America’s prosperity—the vast wealth extracted from Native American land and African American slave labor. Through a lens that connects historical exploitation to measurable economic gains, we delve into what was taken, how it was monetized, and what profits were generated.
Stolen Land: The Expropriation of Native Americans
To understand the American economic miracle, we must first confront the theft of over 1.5 billion acres of Native American land. This expropriation was not a series of incidental acts but a systematic campaign sanctioned by the U.S. government. Policies such as the Indian Removal Act of 1830 cleared the way for agricultural and industrial expansion, displacing entire nations in the process. The land taken from Native Americans, valued in contemporary terms at $1.5 trillion, became the physical and financial foundation of the burgeoning American economy.
But this theft was more than economic—it was cultural, spiritual, and existential. The forced removal of Native peoples severed them from sacred lands they had inhabited for millennia. It dismantled ways of life rooted in intricate connections to nature, community, and history. Events like the Trail of Tears, where thousands of Cherokee died during brutal forced relocations, illustrate the sheer human cost of this theft. These were not just lands lost; they were worlds destroyed.
Economically, the stolen land’s agricultural potential was unparalleled. Cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops flourished on fertile Native soil, feeding directly into America’s agrarian economy. As historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argues, this theft didn’t merely displace Native populations; it facilitated the expansion of plantation economies and fueled the industrial boom. Railroads, funded largely by government land grants, amplified this exploitation. By 1860, railroad companies had received approximately 175 million acres of public land—much of it originally Native territory. These infrastructure projects turned stolen resources into tradable goods, creating the logistical backbone for America’s industrial rise.
Stolen Labor: African Americans as the Engine of Wealth
If stolen land was the foundation, stolen labor was the fuel. African American slaves provided the essential labor that transformed Native land into unprecedented wealth. Edward Baptist’s The Half Has Never Been Told estimates that by 1860, the labor of enslaved African Americans had generated over $3 billion in economic value—equivalent to more than $10 trillion today. Slavery was not merely an institution of brutality; it was an economic system that powered the pre-Civil War U.S. economy.
The cotton industry exemplifies this theft. By 1850, the United States supplied 75% of the world’s cotton, and this “white gold” accounted for more than 50% of U.S. exports. This wealth was not confined to Southern plantation owners; it rippled outward to finance Northern industries and international markets. Textile mills in Massachusetts, fueled by Southern cotton, were among the first to mechanize production, marking America’s entry into the Industrial Revolution. Profits from slavery enriched banks, insurance companies, and shipping firms, creating global trade networks that linked Southern fields to European factories.
The commodification of human lives underpinned this system. Enslaved African Americans were not only laborers; they were property. By 1860, their collective value exceeded that of all the nation’s industrial and railroad assets combined. As historian Sven Beckert explains in Empire of Cotton: A Global History, enslaved people were also collateral for the credit systems of banks from New York to London. This interplay of human commodification and financial speculation created vast wealth while leaving behind generational scars.
Even technological advancements, such as Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin in 1793, deepened this exploitation. While celebrated as a breakthrough, the cotton gin exponentially increased demand for enslaved labor, enabling plantations to process cotton faster and at higher volumes. By the eve of the Civil War, cotton revenues had reached $200 million annually—a staggering figure at the time, equivalent to several billion today.
The Interplay of Land and Labor in the Industrial Boom
The synergy between stolen land and labor catalyzed economic growth. Land theft provided the raw materials, while enslaved labor maximized output. Cotton, in particular, became the linchpin of global capitalism, connecting American plantations to European textile factories. By 1860, America’s domination of the cotton trade was so complete that it accounted for over half of the global supply.
But this synergy was built on unimaginable suffering. African Americans were forcibly uprooted, families were torn apart, and lives were reduced to entries on balance sheets. Native Americans faced genocide, cultural erasure, and the loss of spiritual homelands. The human toll of this economic engine cannot be overstated. As one Cherokee survivor of the Trail of Tears lamented, “They made us leave everything—our homes, our land, our dead.”
Beyond Numbers: The Human Cost
While economic figures illustrate the staggering scale of theft, they fail to capture the immeasurable human cost. For Native Americans, the theft of land was accompanied by extermination campaigns, forced relocations, and the erasure of cultures. The Trail of Tears, the Sand Creek Massacre, and countless other atrocities stand as grim reminders of this legacy. These were not isolated events but deliberate acts of violence designed to remove Indigenous peoples from their lands.
For African Americans, the brutality of chattel slavery defies comprehension. Enslaved people endured physical torture, family separations, and psychological scars that reverberate across generations. The commodification of human lives reduced mothers, fathers, and children to property that could be traded, insured, and exploited. Financial institutions like JP Morgan Chase and insurance companies like Aetna directly profited, offering loans to slave owners and insuring enslaved individuals as property. These firms grew into economic titans, their foundations stained with the profits of stolen labor.
Legacy and Reckoning
The glittering façade of the Industrial Revolution masks the true origins of its wealth. Native American land provided the raw materials, and African American slaves turned those materials into commodities that powered industrial growth. This theft was not incidental—it was intentional, systematic, and indispensable to America’s rise as a global economic powerhouse.
The legacy of this exploitation endures. The racial wealth gap between white and Black Americans, the economic marginalization of Native communities, and enduring inequities in land ownership are all direct descendants of this history. According to data from the Federal Reserve, Black families today hold just 15% of the wealth of white families—a disparity rooted in centuries of systemic theft and exclusion.
Reckoning with this history requires more than acknowledgment; it demands action. Scholars like Ta-Nehisi Coates have advocated for reparations to address the intergenerational harms caused by slavery. Others propose land restitution programs to return stolen Native lands to their original stewards. While these solutions are controversial, they represent crucial steps toward addressing the foundational injustices at America’s core.
Conclusion
The Industrial Revolution did not emerge in a vacuum. It was built on a dual theft: the expropriation of Native American land and the exploitation of African American labor. The profits extracted from these injustices fueled America’s economic rise, embedding racial and economic inequality into the nation’s fabric. As we celebrate the innovations of the Industrial Revolution, we must also confront its moral and economic costs. What was taken—land, labor, and lives—cannot be undone, but by acknowledging this history and addressing its legacies, we can begin to envision a more equitable future. The question remains: What are we willing to give back?