Historians agree slavery was central to nineteenth-century capitalism

Evidence

Historians and economists have long debated the extent to which slavery gave rise to industrial capitalism. Some have argued that Northern industry was dependent on slavery, while others have made the opposite claim: that slavery was dependent on Northern industry. There is much more consensus about the centrality of slavery to the development of capitalism throughout the nineteenth century. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1875

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s methodology goal: this passage distinguishes the contested specific claim (slavery caused industrial capitalism) from the broader consensus claim (slavery central to capitalism) — a nice template for separating reframing thesis from contested empirical claims.