Though living in France, Bastiat wrote this book when slavery was still legal in the United States and was very controversial there, as it was in Europe. In the U.S. at that time, there was a dramatic struggle between the agricultural southern states and the industrialized northern.
Bastiat's writing took place despite his residence in France, during a time when slavery was still permitted in the United States and generated significant controversy there, mirroring its reception in Europe. In the U.S., a intense conflict arose between the agricultural southern areas and the rapidly industrializing northern states.