Project 2025 and White Male Dominance

Humankind’s global power structures... especially those tied to white male leadership... are deeply rooted in historical systems of economic subjugation. The United States’ 19th‑century marriage of slavery and capitalism remains one of the most powerful examples: slaveholding states and Northern industrialists were not adversaries, but partners. To dismantle the legacy of white male dominance, we must begin by confronting this legacy directly, and that process must start with a re‑envisioned Constitution... one that rejects hierarchical patriarchy and embraces egalitarian justice.

On New Hampshire’s White Mountains, newspapers proudly reported in 1827 that Southern “sugar of Louisiana” could be found alongside Northern cotton goods... “cotton cloths of Rhode Island are domesticated” in the Cotton South. That simple, elegant observation betrayed an economic system in which the very people who made the nation rich (enslaved laborers) were treated as chattel. In fact, the capital invested in slaves by the 1860s exceeded the combined value of America’s railroads and factories. Slavery was not an economy of marginalized brutality, but rather the beating heart of national prosperity.

Americans of the era understood this well. In intellectual and political circles, observers recognized the symbiotic relationship between slaveholding states, Northern industrialists, shipping magnates, and financiers. Economic expansion in the Northeast was inseparable from cotton grown on Southern plantations. Even abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison held the North accountable... not as an innocent bystander, but as a willing accomplice whose commerce relied on enslaved labor. The Panic of 1837, Garrison argued, was not just a national disaster but a moral reckoning... a necessary collapse for New York mercantile houses deeply entangled in Southern slavery.

Despite modern scholarly interest in slavery’s economic dimensions, much remains uneven. While historians have thoroughly charted Britain’s rise through slave-supported commerce and empire, America’s parallel story has seen less consistent attention... though it’s no less essential.

Several key works have helped redress this imbalance: Philip Foner’s 1941 expose of New York merchants’ deep ties to cotton; Douglas North’s 1961 economic history volume, which devotes attention to North–South trade; Barrington Moore’s reflections on cotton as a linchpin of American capitalism; James Oakes’s sharp portrayal (1982) of slaveholders as vocal defenders of private-property rights; John Ashworth’s 1995 study linking Southern slave resistance to Northern middle-class sensibilities; Adrian Davis’s exploration of slavery’s “sexual political economy” and enforced reproduction; and Robin Einhorn’s 2006 analysis positioning low taxes and anti‑government sentiment as cultural offspring of a slavery‑based economy. Each step brings us closer to a fully grapsed understanding of the system’s breadth.

This historical clarity underscores a fundamental truth: the architecture of global power (both then and now) is intrinsically bound to systems designed to elevate a narrow group: white men with wealth and inherited privilege. Wealth grew out of stolen lives, inheritance, and entrenched hierarchy.

If we are serious about dismantling the legacy of white male dominance, we must begin by rewriting the rules that still protect it. The U.S. Constitution, for all its democratic promise, was born of compromise with slavery... most infamously, the Three-Fifths Clause... and in practice has been interpreted in ways that silence, marginalize, and exclude non‑white, non‑male voices. To break free, we must embark on a constitutional re-envisioning rooted in egalitarianism and collective justice.

This is not simply a matter of amending one or two clauses... it’s a moral project that requires addressing entrenched structural bias:

1. Reconstruct political representation to ensure historically marginalized communities have actual legislative power—not token influence.

2. Guarantee economic rights—including living wages, reparative justice, and meaningful wealth redistribution—to challenge inherited advantage.

3. Embed anti‑patriarchal and anti‑racist principles as bedrock constitutional values, overturning centuries of legal and cultural assumptions.

Moving forward requires national conversation, not narrow partisan trade‑offs. Schools, workplaces, and civic organizations must illuminate how slavery was not a regional relic, but foundational to American prosperity and global structures of power. Most importantly, we need a constitutional convention steeped in diverse representation... a project that views the Constitution not as a static artifact, but as a living framework capable of holding the powerful accountable and inviting equality into our institutions.

The story of slavery and capitalism in early America is not merely historical... it’s the root of enduring global hierarchies of gender and race. Viewing the U.S. Constitution as the linchpin for systemic change, we have an opportunity: to transition from a society built on white male dominance to one grounded in shared humanity and fairness. By re‑rooting power in egalitarianism, redistributing wealth, and affirming universal rights, we can reforge our institutions... crafting a more equitable world for us all.