Bender, Thomas, ed. The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism as a Problem in Historical Interpretation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

Summary
This volume of essays extends the debate about the relationship between capitalism and the antislavery movement started by Thomas L. Haskell in 1985. At the core of this debate is the following question: '''Is there something to be made of the near simultaneity of the rise of capitalism and the emergence of organized antislavery? (Causation or correlation?)''' Few scholars today discount the possible connection between the two, but the question is how to phrase that connection and what explanatory weight to give it. This debate, in many ways, goes to the core of historical explanation: the relation between social structure, practice and change to culture, ideas, and ideology. Haskell offers a cultural history of capitalism, seeing the rise of a “market” as reshaping individual consciousness. Individuals felt empowered, able to take a stand against slavery. His work, however, is more in line with the historical sociology of Max Weber and draws very little from historical sources. In contrast, David Brion Davis and John Ashworth see anti-slavery rooted in class interest. In the case of Davis, the anti-slavery movement reflected the ideals of English Quakers, who embodied a capitalist mentality. The end of slavery served their capitalist interests in an emerging free labor economy. Ashworth reinforces much of Davis’ argument, and adds to it. He emphasizes the rise of wage labor and the creation of new values. In particular, he argues, the home and family became a place of “rejuvenation.” Bender, based on his readings in the debate, attempts to strike a compromise: He sees the concept of class interest (Davis and Ashworth) supplementing Haskell’s theoretical framework of Market consciousness.

Example (David Brion Davis): English Quakers, he argues, were the very embodiment of the capitalist mentality. They were central in eighteenth century commerce, banking, and industry (Quakers: The Lloyds and the Barclays would come to be designated as the world’s greatest banks) and had built a transnational network (U.S. and Britain).“Useful improvements” that Quakers supported – canals and better roads, credit and insurance faculties, and railroads – were linked to a variety of other philanthropic endeavors, most prominently the manumission of slaves.

Vs. Haskell: Capitalism created a “can do” mentality and a heightened awareness of the remote consequences of ones acts as well as inactions (beyond class, humanitarianism).

See also: Amy Dru Stanton, Barbara Jean Fields, Walter Johnson