Ta Nehisi Coates repeats Ed Baptist's absurdly false rendering of GDP to claim that slavery accounted for half of all economic activity in the antebellum US. How can we discuss these issues seriously when people throw around junk stats at will?

In which Ta Nehisi Coates repeats Ed Baptist's absurdly false rendering of GDP to claim that slavery accounted for half of all economic activity in the antebellum US. How can we discuss these issues seriously when people throw around junk stats at will? https://t.co/pTW4wFMiLu

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) June 20, 2019