Demography of Slavery

• Origins of slavery
• Dimensions of the
Slave Trade
• Demographic Impact
on Africa
• Middle Passage
• Regional differences
in slave demography
• Economics of slavery
in the U.S.

Domesday book,
1086

1
13th Century Slave Market in present day Yemen

2
Earliest representation of the people of the new world

3
 Slave Exports from Africa to Americas

7,000,000

6,000,000

5,000,000

4,000,000

3,000,000

2,000,000

1,000,000

-
1500-1600 1601-1700 1701-1800 1801-1900

Embarkations by country: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Database (2008)
1,400,000

1,200,000

1,000,000

Spain / Uruguay
800,000 Portugal / Brazil
Great Britain
Netherlands
U.S.A.
600,000 France
Denmark / Baltic

400,000

200,000

0
26 5

76 5

6
26 25

51 0

76 5

01 0

26 5

51 0

76 5

01 0

51 0

01 0

51 0
17 7 2
15 55

15 157

16 60

16 1 62

16 65

16 1 67

17 170

17 175

17 77

18 180

18 82

18 185

86
15

-1

-1

-1

-1

-1

-1

-1
-

-
01

26
15

15

4
 Embarkations by country: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Database (2008)

2,000,000

1,500,000 Denmark / Baltic

France
U.S.A.
Netherlands
1,000,000 Great Britain
Portugal / Brazil
Spain / Uruguay
500,000

0
76 5

26 5
26 25

51 0

26 5

51 0

76 5

26 5

51 0

76 5

01 0

51 0

6
16 16 0
15 55

1 5 157

16 162

16 165

16 167

17 170

17 1 72

17 175

17 177

18 180

18 182

18 1 85

86
15
-1

-1
-

-
-

-
01

01

01
15

15

5
 Inferring mortality:
Latest figures from Trans-Atlantic Slave
Trade Database (2008)

• Total embarked: 12,521,336

• Total disembarked: 10,702,565
• Implied death date: 14.52%

Percent of Slaves Dying by Time Period

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
26 25

26 5
51 0

76 5

01 0

51 0

76 5

01 0

51 0

76 5

01 0

51 0

6
16 16 2

17 17 2

18 18 2
15 55

15 157

1 6 160

16 165

16 167

1 7 170

17 175

17 177

1 8 180

18 185

86
5
-1

-1

-1
-

-
-

-
01

26

26
15

15

6
 Percent of Slaves Dying by Importing Country
20

18

16

14

12

10

0
Spain / Portugal / Great Britain Netherlands U.S.A. France Denmark /
Uruguay Brazil Baltic

Destinations of Slaves in the Atlantic Trade

5%
12%

Caribbean
Brazil
Central, South America
50% North America

33%

7
 Disembarkations by destination: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Database (2008)
1200000

1000000

800000
Mainland North America
British Caribbean
French Caribbean
600000
Other Caribbean
Spanish Americas
Brazil

400000

200000

0
5

5
51 0

01 0

26 5

51 0

76 5

01 0

26 5

51 0

76 5

01 0

26 5

51 0

6
15 15 2

15 155

15 157

16 60

16 162

16 165

16 167

17 170

17 172

17 75

17 177

18 180

18 182

18 1 85

86
-1

-1

-1
-

-
-

-
01

26

76
15

8
 Disembarkations by country: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
Database (2008)
2,000,000

1,800,000

1,600,000

1,400,000
Brazil
1,200,000 Spanish Americas
Other Caribbean
1,000,000
French Caribbean
800,000 British Caribbean
Mainland North America
600,000

400,000

200,000

-
51 50

76 7 5

26 25

51 50
26 25

76 75
01 00

26 25
5 1 50

01 00

51 50
7 6 75

01 00

26 25

6
86
1 5 -15

15 -15

15 -15
16 -1 6

16 -16
16 -16

16 -16
1 7 -17

17 -17

17 -17
17 -17

18 -18
1 8 -18

18 -18
-1
01
15

9
10
 Slave Market on the African Coast, early 18th cent.

Sale of Enslaved
Africans and
Transport to Slave
Ship, mid-18th cent.

11
12
13
14
15
 Slave Population of British Colonies

1680 1750

Caribbean 76,000 295,000

North America 9,000 247,000

16
Total Slave Disembarkations by 1680 and 1750

1680 1750

Caribbean 113,976 948,097

North America 4,070 161,121

Ratio of Slave Population to Disembarkations

1680 1750

Caribbean 0.66 0.31

North America 2.21 1.53

17
Hypotheses:
Mortality higher in West Indies, due to
• disease environment
• dietary deficiencies (protein, thiamine, vitamin A,
and calcium), and overall caloric intake
• brutality of work conditions on large plantations with
absentee owners
• Easy availability of additional slaves from Africa
• Infanticide/suicide as slave resistance

Hypotheses:
Fertility lower in West Indies because of
• African lactation practices and taboos on intercourse
after giving birth, reinforced by continued high
importation from Africa
• dietary deficiencies leading to late menarche and low
fecundity
• skewed sex ratios
• absence of slave breeding by planters
• work conditions—excessive labor reduced fecundity

18
 Crude Birth Rates among slaves,
early 19th century:

– Jamaica: 23
– United States: 53

Measuring the brutality of slavery

• Fogel and Engerman, Time on the Cross:

– 0.7 whippings per slave per year

• Herbert Gutman, Slavery and the Numbers

Game:
– Same data, one slave whipped every 4.56
days

19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Slaves on
Smith's
Plantation,
Beaufort,
South
Carolina.
Photographed
in 1862

26
Interior view of a slave pen, showing the doors of cells
where the slaves were held before being sold. Slave pen,
Alexandria, Va. Photographed between 1861 and 1865

27
Brazilian sugar mill in the 1830s

28
Newly Enslaved Africans, Brazil, 1830s

Brazilian Plantation

29
Slave Market, Brazil, Ca. 1825

Slave Market, Brazil, 1830s

30
 Newly Arrived Slaves,
Surinam, 1770s

Sale of a Slave Woman and Her Children, Surinam, 1839

31
 Slave Auction, Martinique, 1826

Slave Auction, New Orleans, 1839

32
 Slave Market, Muscat (Oman), 1840s

Slave Market in Zanzibar, East Africa, 1873

33
Slave Market,
Zanzibar, 1864

Slave Market, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1819-1820

34
 Slave market, Charleston SC, 1850s

Slave Dealer, Alexandria, Virginia, 1863 or 1865

35