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