Did the wealth and GDP per capita in the Southern US increase or decrease after the abolition of slavery?

Righting a terrible, terrible moral wrong should come regardless of the short-term economic costs. To suggest that economic concerns trump overturning codified racism is one of the most disheartening things I've read on this site. (I do hope I've misread your comment as a support of apartheid.)

1. You should really bother to look up the answer instead of climbing on a soapbox - GDP per capita in SA has been climbing.

2. His point- that certain countries were much better run while colonized still stands (check out Zimbabwe for example).

I did look up the data, and saw what you saw. However, his daughter comment links an article that claims "whilst there have been gains in some areas, overall, most Black South Africans are materially worse off now than they were under Apartheid," which I took to be the actual point he was making.

Ok, fair enough - I just saw that thread and thought it would make sense to argue facts rather than moral posturing :)