You understand that the relatively low cost of living until the last 50 years or so was built on the systematic oppression of minorities and women, right?
But, I just checked the demographics in Massachusets in the 1800s and it shows that there were 0 slaves. And it looks like minorities were in very very small numbers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1800_United_States_census
I don't think the labor supply of oppressed minorities was influential enough to drive down the cost of labor. Yes, for railroads sure but not for construction of buildings.