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Interesting side note: When the levee systems were originally built, the work was concerned too dangerous for slaves (good field hands were worth more than $4,000 back then). They hired Irish laborers to do the job.
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I just finished a book about abolitionists trying to settle in Kansas Territory, and part of it the people who were not abolitionists were saying the abos wanted to get rid of paying for slaves and making the Irish do the work or something (I can't remember the exact argument but I've been surprised how much the history in that work of fiction has cropped up in things I've seen online lately.)