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Time On The Cross - The Economics of American Negro Slavery - Fogel Robert William, Engerman Stanley L. - 1974 - Anna's Archive
Time On The Cross - The Economics of American Negro Slavery - Fogel Robert William, Engerman Stanley L. - 1974 - Anna's Archive
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Robert William Fogel & Stanley L. Engerman
TIME ON THE CROSS
The Economics of American Negro Slavery
$8.95
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3473
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which black Americans struggled success' • c
HIGH SCHOOL
LIBRARY
Burlingame, Calif
Books by Robert William Fogel
and Stanley L Engerman
HIGH SCHOOL
LIBRARY
Burlingame, Calif
I
COPYRIGHT ©
1974 BY LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY (iNC.)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY
OR BY ANY ELECTRONIC OR MECHANICAL MEANS INCLUDING INFORMATION STORAGE
AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHER,
EXCEPT BY A REVIEWER WHO MAY QUOTE BRIEF PASSAGES IN A REVIEW.
T O4/74
Second Printing
1. —
Slavery in the United States Economic aspects.
I. Engerman, Stanley L., joint author. II. Title.
EM+9.F65 331. 1' 173.^' 0973 73-183 1*?
ISBN O-316-28700-8
30^01
To Mary Elizabeth Morgan's first daughter
She has always known that black is beautiful
Publisher's Note
well as about the slaves who were born, lived, and died in
those years. The cliometricians also scoured the papers of
the historical societies of various southern states and some
states in the North, where are deposited the family papers
and business records of the largest planters. The wills and
other legal documents of the estates of planters have been
particularly valuable. In addition to yielding prices on tens
of thousands of slaves, these records have been one of the
principal bases for determination of the structural character-
istics of black families. Pursuit of this body of evidence
eventually led even to such places as the Wasatch Mountains
of Utah, where the Genealogical Society of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has stored microfilms of
probate records gathered from hundreds of county court-
houses.
As a result of the search, the cliometricians have amassed
a more complete body of information on the operation of
the slave system than has been available to anyone interested
in the subject either during the antebellum era or since then.
It is this enormous body of evidence which is the source of
many of their new discoveries.
Some of the discoveries were at one time as unbelievable
to the cliometricians as they will be to the readers of this
volume. Indeed, many of the findings presented in the
chapters that follow were initially discounted, even rejected
out of hand. But when persistent efforts to contradict the
unexpected discoveries failed, these scholars were forced
into a wide-ranging and radical reinterpretation of American
slavery.
This will be a disturbing book to read. It requires for-
bearance on the part of the reader and a recognition that
what is set forth represents the honest efforts of scholars
whose central aim has been the discovery of what really
happened. We believe that this forbearance will prove worth-
while. For the findings we discuss not only expose many
myths that have served to corrode and poison relations
SLAVERY AND THE CLIOMETRIC REVOLUTION / Q
between the races, but also help to put into a new perspec-
tive some of the most urgent issues of our day.
In considering the evidence presented in this book, readers
should keep in mind certain caveats regarding the ad-
vantages and limitations of cliometric methods. The advan-
tage of the application of quantitative methods to history
is not that it provides unambiguous answers to all questions.
Not all questions have unambiguous answers. And many
of those questions which in principle have unambiguous
answers cannot be resolved because of the absence of crucial
bodies of data, because the retrieval of some bodies of data
are too expensive to be practical, or because the analysis of
a given body of data poses problems that cannot be treated
bv the mathematical and statistical methods that have thus
far been developed.
It is, for example, much easier to obtain data bearing on
Figure 1
Figure 2
riod
1451 -1600
H 275.000
the Madeiras, the Cape Verde Islands, the Canaries, and Sao
Thome. The end of sugar production also marked the end
of slave imports into these territories.
The sugar monopoly of the Spanish and Portuguese was
broken during the seventeenth century when the British,
French, and Dutch became major powers in the Caribbean.
The British venture into sugar production began in Barbados
during the second quarter of the seventeenth century. In
1655 the British seized Jamaica from the Spanish, and
shortly thereafter began the development of sugar planta-
tions on that island. During the eighteenth century the out-
put of sugar grew rapidly, not only in these colonies but
throughout the British West Indies. By 1770 the annual
yield of the sugar crop in the British Caribbean territories
stood at 130,000 tons, more than three times as much as
same year.
the output of Brazil in the
The development of the sugar culture in French Carib-
bean possessions was even more spectacular. Haiti (then
called Saint Domingue) was the principal sugar colony of
the French. The French promoted plantations in that ter-
ritory from the early seventeenth century until the Haitian
revolution in 1794. By 1770 Haiti was producing 107,000
tons, nearly as much as the entire British output. Produc-
tion elsewhere brought the sugar output of French Carib-
bean possessions in 1770 to 151,000 tons. The Dutch were
a poor fourth (after the French, the British, and the Portu-
guese) in the international sugar trade in 1770, with an
output of 15,000 tons, nearly all of which was produced in
Dutch Guiana, located on the north-central coast of South
America in terrain which embraces the modern nations of
Guyana and Surinam. The Danes produced a total of 11,000
it on the island of Saint Croix. By
tons of sugar, nearly all of
1770 Spain had been squeezed out of the international
sugar trade. The sugar produced in Spanish colonies was
consumed largely by the local population. However, Spain
re-emerged as a major sugar supplier in the nineteenth cen-
20 / THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT OF U.S. SLAVERY
Figure 4
100
J I I » 1 L.
1650 1660 1670 1680 1690 1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780
Figure 5
1620 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 I 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 I 10 20 30 40 50 60
1700 1800
Figure 6
120
100
f\
80
/
E /
m 60 /
c
A
<o
(0
3
c
1-
40
A/\ /
1 \
20
/\/
n s^
OOOOOOOQOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
6666666^666666666*666666
»
co^-vo<or^ooo>o»-«\je»>^'U )<or«-ooo)0'-c\jco^-io<o
,
1
Figure 7
Actual U.S.Negro Population Compared with the Population that Would Have
Existed if the U.S. Had Duplicated the Demographic Experience of the West
Indies
1,400
1,200
Actual Population
Population
If U.S. Duplicated
West Indian Experience
200 -
1620 30 40 50 60 I 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 I
1700 1800
40
S 30
I
0.
V.
Vy
20
U.S.
2 a i
British French
i
Spanish
'A
Brazil
IZZL
Dutch, Danish
Caribbean Caribbean America and Swedish
Caribbean
Figure 9
2% \ French*
THE COURSE OF EMANCIPATION / 29
Table 1
Occupations
and Markets
Figure 10
100
90
Percentage of Adult Male Slaves in 1 850
inGiven Occupation
^
80
60
c
o 50
®
£L
40
30
20 1
10
A
Managerial and
Professional
Artisans and
Craftsmen
7A w
managerial ranks. To a surprising extent, slaves held the
top managerial posts. Within the agricultural sector, about
7.0 percent of the men held managerial posts and 11.9
percent were skilled craftsmen (blacksmiths, carpenters,
coopers, etc.). Another 7.4 percent were engaged in semi-
skilled and domestic or quasi-domestic jobs: teamsters,
coachmen, gardeners, stewards, and house servants. Oc-
cupational opportunity was more limited for women. About
80 percent of slave women labored in the fields. Virtually
all of the 20 percent who were exempt from field tasks
Cotton 73 percent
Tobacco 14 percent
Sugar 6 percent
Rice 5 percent
Hemp 2 percent
.
The Interregional
Redistribution of Slaves
-y-& I
^7^^^\ / \ [ \f
——.
-iV *Mt*V
V^- "T" \ 1
*
^^\\
\ g Each Dot Represents 200 Slaves \ f
Figure 12
Period
1790-1800 17,000
1800-1810 31.000
1810-1820 101.000
1820-1830 121.000
1830-1840 223.000
1840-1850 149.000
1850-1860 193.000
Tota 835.000
Figure 13
2,400
2,200
Actual Population /
2,000
1,800
1 1600
Thou!
o
©
in
oo
Population
oo / Population If Growth
//
Had Been at
oo the National Rate
600 yS ^,^--""
400
200
' ' 1 1 1 i
1840
THE INTERREGIONAL REDISTRIRUTION OF SLAVES / 47
Figure 14
A Comparison of the Age Distribution of Slaves Sold in New Orleans with the
Age Distribution of All Slaves Migrating from East to West
70
\/A Percentage of All Migrating Staves in Age Group
60
V.
30
20
1
n
0-12 13-24
Age Groups
i860).
The prevailing view of the slave trade has been fashioned
by historians primarily from the accounts of firsthand ob-
servers of the slave South. Since such observers lacked the
hard data needed determine the scope and nature
to actually
of this trade, they could only convey their impressions. Un-
fortunately these impressions are far from uniform. There
were not many detached and objective observers of slavery
after 1830. Most so-called observations or travel accounts
were actually polemics against or for slavery. In choosing
between these conflicting and contradictory tracts, the his-
torians who fashioned the conventional view of the slave
trade uniformly rejected the impressions of southern writers
as apologetics and accepted the views of northern or Euro-
pean critics as accurate. It is, of course, tempting to believe
that truth must be on the side of justice, and that conviction
may have guided these scholars, since no objective criteria
for the decisions that led them to reject some accounts and
accept others is apparent.
If historians have not previously exploited the New
Orleans data, it is not because their existence was unknown,
but because the volume of data was so massive that it could
not be assailed successfully by scholars untrained in modern
52 / OCCUPATIONS AND MARKETS
renting was too much like the hiring of free labor and might
have seemed too incidental, perhaps even too aberrant, to be
treated as a central feature of the system. This was especially
true of slave artisans who frequently hired out on their own
account. Such slaves operated in virtually the same way as
their free counterparts. They advertised them-
their services
selves, negotiated their own contracts, received monies and
paid debts themselves, and obtained their own residences
and places of business. The primary difference between such
slaves and free artisans was that the slaves were required to
pay their owners a fixed percentage of their income.
Hiring was not a minor or inconsequential feature of
slavery. Through the examination of data in the manuscript
schedules of the U.S. census, it has been determined that
about 31 percent of urban slave workers were on hire dur-
ing i860. In some cities, such as Richmond, the proportion
was in excess of 50 percent. The proportion of slave rentals
in rural areas was lower, generally running about 6 percent.
For the slave labor force as a whole, then, about 7.5 percent
were on hire at any moment of time. Since hire contracts
rarely ran for more than a year, and many were for sub-
stantially shorter periods of time, the ratio of hire transac-
tions to slaves was probably 15 or more percent. Thus hire
transactions were probably over five times as frequent as
sales.
While many slave hires were negotiated directly between
the owner and renter, or by a slave directly with a renter,
there were commercial agencies which specialized in the
business of providing "temporary employment." Richmond
alone had nine such agencies which provided rentals for
local residents and for people in the surrounding country-
side as well as for those living in neighboring cities.
Renters of slaves included railroads which temporarily
needed larger than usual numbers of workers because of
construction of new lines, industrial firms which experi-
MARKETS FOR SLAVES / 57
The Issues
The source and the magnitude of the profit of slaveowners
has been something of a mystery. The absence of hard data
touched off a debate on these issues among professional his-
torians that has extended for nearly three quarters of a
century. Until recently, the debate was dominated by the
views of Ulrich B. Phillips. A Southerner by birth, and a
professor of history at the Universities of Wisconsin, Michi-
gan, and Yale, Phillips was for many years the doyen of
those writing on the antebellum South. His interpretation of
the economics of slavery was first set an essay pub-
forth in
lished in 1905 and books published in
later elaborated in
did not pay to keep a larger force than was needed to culti-
vate the land."
On the other hand, Kenneth Stampp, the author of the
most systematic rebuttal to Phillips, felt that slaves were
profitable not because they were more than free
efficient
labor but because their labor cost less. The lower cost of
slaves tended to offset the superior efficiency of free labor.
As a consequence, "the slave was earning for his owner a
substantial, though varying, surplus above the cost of main-
tenance." Stampp also placed more emphasis on slave breed-
ing or rearing as a source of income than did Gray. "[Num-
erous shreds of evidence ," he said, "indicate that
. . .
Figure 15
***** * * * *
*
-0 15
0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 60.00 70.00 80.00
Age
Figure 16
Averages of Price Relatives by Age for Male Slaves in the Old South
1.05
<y £*TS
0.90
* *y
f
0.75 "
*\
L \ %
c 0.60
a.
® 0.45
re *\
0.30
*\*
0.15
\^
0.00
-0.15 i i i
Age
THE CAPITALIST CHARACTER OF SLAVERY / 73
Figure 17
Annual Net Earnings from Male Slaves by Age about 1850, Old South
100
80
60
(0
at
| 40
(0
UJ
20
-20
4D 1 1 1 1 1 1
10 20 30 40 50
Age
Figure 19
Annual Net Earnings from Slaves by Age and Sex about 1850, Old South
80 -
60
r v \
\ \
\ \
II
\
\
\\
40
i \
\
\\
1
1
\
\
\\
1 \
\
\\
1
20 1
1 s
1
1
1
1
1/
1/
-20
-40 i i 1 1 1
30 40 50 60 70
Age
THE CAPITALIST CHARACTER OF SLAVERY / 77
Figure 20
Division ofFemale Price between the Value of the Childbearing Capacity and
the Value of the Field Productive Capacity, New South
yuu
f >.
\
The vertical distance between the solid
and br oken curv®s r «P r «s«n <s that
Market Price /
/ \ part of the market price at each
800 / \ age which is due to child-
/ /" "^
v\ bearing capacity
/ / A.
700
/
/
/
/ A\
/ / A
/ / A\
/
/ /
/ \
600
/ /vaJueofFieW \
/ / Productive Capacity \
/ / \
500 / / \
/ / \
/ / \
// \
400 / / \
/' \
/' \
300
/' \
/' \
200 "
// \\
//
/' \V
/'
/'
X
100 //
9
f
n I 1 1 1 1 1
20 30 40
Age
Old South, where land was of poor quality, that planters had
an inducement to encourage fertility; while in the New
South, where the yield of the soil was high, planters pre-
ferred to have "female slaves working in the field than to
have them indisposed with pregnancy or occupied with chil-
Figure 21
Division of Female Price between the Value of the Childbearing Capacity and
the Value of the Field Productive Capacity, Old South
700
V\
600
500
ft \\
//
400
//Value of Field \
// Productive Capacity \
A \
/' \
300 - f \
1 \
1 \
200
V
A
\\
100 Hi
//
\\
1 X
n 1 » 1 l L_ 1 ^
30 40 50 70
Age
Figure 22
$100
The vertical distance between the so«d
and broken curves represents the
expected annual value of the
chlldbearing capacity
at each age.
Total Net Earnings
40
20
-40
30 40 70
Age
(1790 - 100)
180.00
120.00
100.00
80.00
60.00
40.00
I i i i t t i i i i I i i i i i i i i i i i i
i i I t i i i
Figure 24
(1790 * 100)
225.00
200.00
/
175.00
/
150.00
\T
125.00
s~*
100.00
r~^^^
75.00
*^"\ /
50.00
x^y
25.00 -
Figure 25
5,000
4,000
3,500
2,500
1,500
1,000
n nn I i i i I I i l 1 1 Km t
I i i I i i i I m i I t i i i I i i t i I i i t i I mm n
I
1840
i i I i m
1850
1 1 mi I mn
1860
I m i
Figure 26
25.00
20.00
12.50
10.00
7.50
5.00
0.00 1 1 I I 1 I M I 1 I I I I 1 I I 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 I i 1 1 1 I i 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 m 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 I
The Deviation of Cotton Prices from Their Trend Values, 1 802-1 861
50.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
<£ 0.00
-50.00 1 » t i i > t t i i I i i i i I i i i i I i i i i I i i i i i i i i i I i i i i I i t i i I i i i i I i i i i I i i i i I i i i i I
Figure 28
450 Demand
Supply
350
300
I i i i l I I i l
I .... I ... I I I i i i i i i i i
Figure 29
The Predicted Course of Slave Prices, in the Absence of a Civil War, for the
Decade 1881-1890
150
/
140
/
130
/
120
f
-
110
v\/
100
II I
t
1881
1
1882
II
1883 1884
1
1885
1
1886
1
1887
1
1888
1
1889
1
1890
Figure 30
Slave Prices
Figure 31
Indexes of the Demand for Slaves in the Cities and the Countryside
1840 1850
of the South.
It is possible to test the contention that slaveholders were
pessimistic about the future by constructing an "index of
sanguinity." The equation from which the index is con-
structed is set forth in appendix B. The index turns primarily
on the ratio of the average purchase price of slaves to their
average annual hire rate. The annual hire rate reflected the
market's appraisal of the productive value of slaves over
the ensuing year. The purchase price reflected the market's
appraisal of the productive value of slaves, not only during
the next year but over the balance of their lives. Hence,
when investors thought the future was going to be more
lucrative than the present, the purchase price of slaves rose
relative to the annual hire rate. When they expected the
economic situation to deteriorate in the future, the purchase
price fell relative to the annual hire rate.
Indexes of the sanguinity of slaveholders are presented
for the Old and New South in figure 32. Several features
104 / PROFITS AND PROSPECTS
Figure 32
New South /
•••*
f
/ Old South
+**
\
\ jk u
\ •*""" /
''l
\ * J
-20
fall in the average slave price which took place in the Old
The Anatomy
of Exploitation
was indeed this childlike quality that was the very key to his
being.
^ Slave Diet
Free Diet
S 30
o
Total
(Slaves,
Consumption
1 1 Foods)
1
Meat
i
Potatoes
I Grains Milk
(in Calories)
f
////////////// ///////////
Slaves (11 Foods) 4.185
W,
The Nutritional Value of the Slave Diet: Average Slave Consumption of Various
Nutrients in 1860 as a Percentage of Modern Recommended Daily Allowances
Percent
Calcium
Thiamine
Riboflavin
Niacin
Vitamin C
Figure 35
_ n 3 4 5
Slaves per House
FOOD, SHELTER, AND CLOTHING / 115
results shown in figure 34. The slave diet was not only
adequate, it actually exceeded modern ( 1964) recommended
daily levels of the chief nutrients. On average, slaves ex-
ceeded the daily recommended level of proteins by 1 1 o per-
cent, calcium by 20 percent, and iron by 230 percent.
Surprisingly, despite the absence of citrus fruits, slaves con-
sumed two and one half times the recommended level of
vitamin C. Indeed, because of the large consumption of
sweet potatoes, their intake of vitamin A was at the thera-
peutic level and vitamin C was almost at that level. Of
course, the fact that the average daily nutrient content of
the slave diet was good does not mean that it was good for
all slaves. And even the best-fed slaves experienced seasonal
variation in the quality of their diet, due to the limitations
in the technology of food preservation during the antebellum
era.
Data on slave housing are much more sparse than on
slave diets. The most systematic housing information comes
from the census of i860, which included a count of slave
houses. These census data show that on average there were
5.2 slaves per house on large plantations. The number of
persons per free household in i860 was 5.3. Thus, like
free men, most slaves lived in single-family households. The
sharing of houses by several families of slaves was un-
common. Occasionally, on very large plantations, there were
dormitories for unmarried men and women. But these were
exceptional. The single-family household was the rule.
Unfortunately, the census did not collect information on
the size or the quality of slave houses. Descriptions in plan-
tation records and in travelers' accounts are fragmentary.
They suggest a considerable range in the quality of housing.
The best were three- or four-room cottages, of wood frame,
brick, or stone construction, with up to eight hundred square
feet of space on the inside, and large porches on the out-
side. Such cottages had brick or stone chimneys and glazed
windows. At the other pole were single-room log cabins
Il6 / THE ANATOMY OF EXPLOITATION
without windows. Chimneys were constructed of twigs and
clay; floors were either earthen or made of planks resting
directly on the earth.
Comments of observers suggest that themost typical
slave houses of the late antebellum period were cabins about
eighteen by twenty feet. They usually had one or two rooms.
Lofts, on which the children slept, were also quite common.
Windows were not glazed, but closed by wooden shutters.
Some houses also had rear doors. Chimneys were usually
constructed of brick or stone. The building material was
usually logs or wood. Seams in the log cabins were sealed by
wooden splints and mud. Floors were usually planked and
raised off the ground.
While such housing is quite mean by modern standards,
the houses of slaves compared well with the housing of free
workers in the antebellum era. It must be remembered that
much of rural America still lived in log cabins in the 1850s.
And urban workers lived in crowded, filthy tenements. One
should not be misled by the relatively spacious accommoda-
tions in which U.S. working-class families live today. That
is an achievement of very recent times. As late as 1893, a
Medical Care
While the quality of slave medical care was poor by
modern standards, there is no evidence of exploitation in
the medical care typically provided for plantation slaves.
The inadequacy of the care arose not from intent or lack
of effort on the part of masters, but from the primitive
nature of medical knowledge and practices in the antebellum
era.
That adequate maintenance of the health of their slaves
was a central objective of most planters is repeatedly em-
phasized in instructions to overseers and in other records
and correspondence of planters. "The preservation of the
health of the negroes," wrote J. A. S. Acklen to his overseer,
"and the care of them when sick, will require your best
attention; and to be ignorant of the best mode of discharg-
Il8 / THE ANATOMY OF EXPLOITATION
ing your duties in these particulars, is to be unfit for the
responsible station you hold." P. C. Weston charged his
Table 2
All sick persons are to stay in the hospital night and day, from
the time they first complain to thetime they are able to work
again. The nurses are to be responsible for the sick not leaving
the house, and for the cleanliness of the bedding, utensils, &c.
The nurses are never to be allowed to give any medicine without
the orders of the Overseer or Doctor. A woman, beside the
plantation nurse, must be put to nurse all persons seriously ill.
In all cases at all serious the Doctor is to be sent for, and his
orders are to be strictly attended to; no alteration is to be made
in the treatment he directs.
were due
like those of free infants, to diseases such as
whooping cough, croup, pneumonia, cholera, and various
maladies of the gastrointestinal system — diseases about
which the men of the antebellum era had little understand-
ing and over which they had little control. Of those causes
of death that apparently could be controlled, suffocation was
most About 9.3 percent of the slave infants who
significant.
died in 1850 were reported to have succumbed from this
cause. Among whites, only 1.2 percent of infants were re-
ported to have died from suffocation. The excess of the
slave suffocation rate over the white suffocation rate ac-
counted for nearly fifteen deaths out of every thousand
slave births.
There has been much debate among historians as to the
causes of infant suffocations. Some have attributed them
to infanticide, arguing that life was so unbearable for slaves
that many mothers preferred to their young rather
kill
Figure 36
The Life Expectation at Birth for U.S. Slaves and Various Free Populations,
1830-1920
Holland, 1 850-59 36
France, 1854-58
Italy, 1885
Austria, 1875
Chile, 1920
The Family
The administration most large plantations was based
of
on two organizations. Field work revolved around gangs.
THE FAMILY / 1 27
her family with slave women." The trouble with this view is
that it recognizes no forces operating on human behavior
other than the force of statute law. Yet many rights per-
mitted by legal statutes and judicial decisions are not widely
exercised, because economic and social forces militate
against them.
To put the issue somewhat differently, it has been pre-
sumed that masters and overseers must have ravished black
women frequently because their demand for such sexual
pleasures was high and because the cost of satisfying that
demand was low. Such arguments overlook the real and
potentially large costs that confronted masters and overseers
134 / THE ANATOMY OF EXPLOITATION
who sought sexual pleasures in the slave quarters. The
seduction of the daughter or wife of a slave could undermine
the discipline that planters so assiduously strove to attain.
Not only would it stir anger and discontent in the families
affected, but it would undermine the air of mystery and dis-
tinction on which so much of the authority of large planters
rested. Nor was it just a planter's reputation in the slave
quarter of his plantation that would be at stake. While he
might be able to prevent news of his nocturnal adventure
from being broadcast in his own house, it would be more
difficult to prevent his slaves from gossiping to slaves on
other plantations.
Owners of large plantations who desired illicit sexual re-
lationships were by no means confined to slave quarters in
their quest. Those who owned fifty or more slaves were very
rich men by the standards of their day. The average annual
net income in this class was in excess of $7,500. That
amount was more than sixty times per capita income in
i860. To have a comparable income today, a person would
need an after-tax income of about $240,000 or a before-tax
income of about $600,000. So rich a man could easily have
afforded to maintain a mistress in town where his relation-
ship could have been not only more discreet than in the
crowded slave quarters of his own plantation, but far less
likely to upset the labor discipline on which economic suc-
cess depended.
For the overseer, the cost of sexual episodes in the slave
quarter, once discovered, was often his job. Nor would he
find it easy to obtain employment elsewhere as an overseer,
since not many masters would be willing to employ as their
manager a man who was known to lack self-control on so
vital an "Never employ an overseer who will equalize
issue.
himself with the negro women," wrote Charles Tait to his
children. "Besides the morality of it, there are evils too
numerous to be now mentioned."
Nor should one underestimate the effect of racism on the
THE FAMILY / 1 35
who died within the first three months, the average elapsed
time until the birth of the next child was slightly more than
one year. However, for those mothers whose children sur-
vived the first year of life, the elapsed time before the birth
of the next child was somewhat over two years. This is the
pattern of child spacing that one would expect to find in a
noncontraceptive population in which mothers engaged in
breast feeding for the first year of their children's lives. For
one of the effects of breast feeding is to reduce the likelihood
of conception. In other words, the pattern of child spacing
among slaves suggests that the nursing of infants by their
mothers was widespread.
This finding hardly supports the charge that slave mothers
were indifferent to their children, generally neglected them,
and were widely engaged in infanticide. Quite the contrary,
the ubiquity of the year-long pattern of breast feeding, com-
bined with the nearly identical rate of infant mortality
among slaves and southern whites, and with the rare occur-
rences of suffocation and other accidents as the cause of
death of infant slaves, suggests that for the most part, black
mothers cared quite well for their children.
An even more telling piece of information is the distri-
bution of the ages of mothers at the time of the birth of their
first surviving child. This distribution, which is shown in
figure 37, contradicts the charge that black girls were fre-
quently turned into mothers at such tender ages as twelve,
thirteen, and fourteen. Not only was motherhood at age
twelve virtually unknown, and motherhood in the early
teens quite uncommon, but the average age at first birth
was 22.5 (the median age was 20.8). Thus the high fertility
rate of slave women was not the consequence of the wanton
impregnation of very young unmarried women by either
white or black men, but of the frequency of conception after
the first birth. By far the great majority of slave children
were borne by women who were not only quite mature, but
who were already married.
I38 / THE ANATOMY OF EXPLOITATION
Figure 37
o 20-
.,
THE FAMILY / 1 39
Figure 39
her misery. Pappy tried to ease her mind but she jest kept
a'crying for her babies, Ann and Reuban, till Mister Lowery
got Clark to leave them visit with her once a month."
Further testimony to this striving is given by the ads which
planters placed in newspapers advertising for the capture of
runaways. These ads frequently indicate the planter's belief
that his slave was attempting to reunite with the family
from which the slave had recently been removed.
The abolitionist position on the black family, which has
been accepted so uncritically by historians, was strikingly
inconsistent. To arouse sentiment against the slave system
they accurately portrayed the deep anguish which was
caused by the forced breakup of slave families while simul-
taneously arguing that slavery had robbed black families of
all meaning. This latter view was given vivid expression in
Punishment, Rewards,
and Expropriation
The most apparent in its
exploitative nature of slavery is
Figure 40
3 4
[Y]ou shall have two thirds of the corn and cotton made on the
plantation and as much of the wheat as will reward you for the
sowing it. I also furnish you with provisions for this year. When
your crop is gathered, one third is to be set aside for me. You are
then to pay your overseer his part and pay me what I furnish,
clothe yourselves, pay your own taxes and doctor's fee with all
expenses of the farm. You are to be no expense to me, but render
to me one third of the produce and what I have loaned you. You
have the use of the stock and plantation tools. You are to return
them as good as they are and the plantation to be kept in good
repair, and what clear money you make shall be divided equally
amongst you in a fair proportion agreeable to the services ren-
dered by each hand. There will be an account of all lost time
kept, and those that earn most shall have most.
Figure 41
30
20 /
10
(0
1o
Q
-10
-20
-30
-40 -I /
-50
-60
"I /
-70
i J l i 1 1 1
60
Age
Ezra Seaman in 1848 and 1852, Helper also added the value
of feed grains to the value of the inventory of livestock. As
a consequence he exaggerated the annual production of
meat and double-counted the feed grains. He also confused
the concept of the annual product of agriculture with the
value of agricultural capital, incorrectly adding the two
together. Helper's contention that the agricultural produc-
tion of the free states far exceeded that of the slave states
was, therefore, based on a series of errors all of which served
to exaggerate the North's agricultural position. Modern esti-
again and again to yield the same product, and the inevitable
result follows. After a short series of years its fertility iscom-
pletely exhausted, the planter — he is called in the
"land-killer"
picturesque nomenclature of the South —
abandons the ground
which he has rendered worthless, and passes on to seek in new
soils for that fertility under which alone the agencies at his dis-
posal can be profitably employed.
end."
CAIRNES: AN ECONOMIST'S REFORMULATION / 1 85
cal results —
as the means of upholding a form of society in
which slaveholders are the sole depositaries of social prestige
and political power, as the "corner stone" of an edifice of which
they are the builders —
that the system is prized. Abolish slav-
ery, and you introduce a new order of things, in which the
ascendancy of the men who now rule in the South would be at
an end. An immigration of new men would set in rapidly from
various quarters. The planters and their adherents would soon
be placed in a hopeless minority in their old dominions. New
interestswould take root and grow; new social ideas would
germinate; new political combinations would be formed; and
the power and hopes of the party which has long swayed the
politics of the Union, and which now seeks to break loose from
that Union in order to secure a free career for the accomplish-
ment of bolder designs, would be gone for ever. It is this which
constitutes the real strength of slavery in the Southern States,
and which precludes even the momentary admission by the
dominant party there of any proposition which has abolition
for its object.
Paradoxes of
Forced Labor
I4U
120
100
80
60
40
20
Figure 43
140
120 -
EH
80
60 -
40 -
20 -
n
1-15 16-50 51 or More
Number of Slaves per Farm
IQ4 / PARADOXES OF FORCED LABOR
90
80
70
60
?
(0
-
c 50
<5
a.
40 -
30 -
20 -
10
n
0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-100 100 or More
Persons per Farm
Figure 45
A Comparison of the Efficiency of Old South Farms with Northern and New
South Farms
TOU
i?n
mn 1
80
60
40
20
n
Northern Free Old Slave Old Slave New
Farms South Farms South Farms South Farms
196 / PARADOXES OF FORCED LABOR
in the cotton lands of the black belt and to over two hundred
slaves in counties of the alluvial lands along the Mississippi.
Indeed by the decade of the slave era, the ability to
last
provide efficient management appears to have become the
main constraint on the optimal size of plantations.
One should not leap to the conclusion that this finding
supports the stereotype of planters as a class of "idlers" who
lacked "steady habits and frugal instincts," and who usually
entrusted the primary management of their plantations to
inept, cruel overseers while they indulged their taste for
pleasure in various cities of the South, the North, or of
Europe. No doubt such planters existed. But they were a
distinct minority. Among moderate-sized holdings (sixteen
to fifty slaves) less than one out of every six plantations
used a white overseer. On large slaveholdings (over fifty
slaves) only one out of every four owners used white over-
seers. Even on estates with more than one hundred slaves,
the proportion with white overseers was just 30 percent,
RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF SLAVE AGRICULTURE / 201
Figure 46
16-50 51-100
Slaves per Farm
the plow gang. The hoe hands chopped out the weeds which
surrounded the cotton plants as well as excessive sprouts of
cotton plants. The plow gangs followed behind, stirring the
soil near the rows of cotton plants and tossing it back around
the plants. Thus the hoe and plow gangs each put the other
under an assembly-line type of pressure. The hoeing had to
be completed in time to permit the plow hands to carry out
their tasks. At the same time the progress of the hoeing,
which entailed lighter labor than plowing, set a pace for
the plow gang. The drivers or overseers moved back and
forth between the two gangs, exhorting and prodding each
to keep up with the pace of the other, as well as inspecting
the quality of the work.
This feature of plantation life — the organization of
slaves into highly disciplined, interdependent teams capable
of maintaining a steady and intense rhythm of work —
appears to be the crux of the superior efficiency of large-
scale operations on plantations, at least as far as fieldwork
was concerned. It is certainly the factor which slaveowners
themselves frequently singled out as the key to the superior-
ity of the plantation system of organization. Although
Olmsted repeatedly reported that planters preferred slave
labor to white labor because slaves "could be driven," the
significance of these statements completely eluded him.
White men, said one planter, "are not used to steady labour;
they work reluctantly, and will not bear driving; they can-
not be worked to advantage with slaves, and it is incon-
RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF SLAVE AGRICULTURE / 205
worked more hours per day or more days per week than free
farmers. The best available evidence is that both slaves and
free farmers averaged approximately 70-75 hours of work
per week during the peak labor periods of planting, cultiva-
tion, and harvesting. Nor does it appear that slaves worked
more days per year. In addition to having Sundays off,
slaves had all or part of half of their Saturdays free, most
of these being concentrated in the off-peak periods of farm-
ing. There was also up to a week or so of additional holidays,
some at predesignated times, asduring Christmas or in the
intersticebetween the end of cultivation and the beginning
of the harvest, some as unscheduled rewards for work well
done. About a dozen days per year were lost due to illness.
Thus the work year appears to have consisted of roughly
265-275 days.
The higher rate of the utilization of labor capacity was
partly due to what was, by the usual standards of farmers,
an extraordinary intensity of labor. Far from being "ordinary
peasants" unused to "pre-indus trial rhythms of work," black
plantation agriculturalists labored under a regimen that
was more like a modern assembly line than was true of
the routine in many of the factories of the antebellum era.
It was often easier for factory workers to regulate the pace
of machines accustomed rhythm than for slaves to
to their
regulate the pace set by drivers. For much of antebellum
manufacturing was still operated on the work patterns of the
handicrafts. Division of labor was still at relatively low
levels and interdependence of operations was still limited.
Just as the great plantations were the first large, scientifi-
cally managed business enterprises, and as planters were
the first group to engage in large-scale, scientific personnel
management, so, too, black slaves were the first group of
workers to be trained in the work rhythms which later be-
came characteristic of industrial society. It was not the
slaves but men like Olmsted who retained a "pre-indus trial
peasant mentality," who viewed the teamwork, coordina-
QUALITY OF SLAVE LABOR AND RACISM / 209
drivers.
Slaves also operated at the highest level of plantation
supervision, short of actual ownership, as overseers or
general managers. When acting as overseers, slaves were
QUALITY OF SLAVE LABOR AND RACISM / 211
them both."
Before any field of work is entered upon by a gang, the driver
who is to superintend them has to measure and stake off the
tasks. To do this at all accurately, in irregular-shaped fields,
must require considerable powers of calculation. A driver, with
a boy to set the stakes, I was told, would accurately lay out forty
acres a day, in half-acre tasks. The only instrument used is a
five-footmeasuring rod. When the gang comes to the field, he
points out to each person his or her duty for the day, and then
walks about among them,
looking out that each proceeds prop-
a hard day's labour, he sees that the gang has been
erly. If, after
overtasked, owing to a miscalculation of the difficulty of the
work, he may excuse the completion of the tasks; but he is not
allowed to extend them. In the case of uncompleted tasks, the
body of the gang begin new tasks the next day, and only a suf-
ficient number are detailed from it to complete, during the day,
the unfinished tasks of the day before. The relation of the driver
to the working hands seems to be similar to that of the boatswain
to the seamen in the navy, or of the sergeant to the privates
in the army.
Having generally had long experience on the plantation, the
214 / PARADOXES OF FORCED LAROR
advice of the drivers is commonly taken in nearly all the ad-
ministration, and frequently they are, de facto, the managers.
Orders on important points of the plantation economy, I have
heard given by the proprietor directly to them, without the
overseer's being consulted or informed of them; and it is often
left with them to decide when and how long to flow the rice-
grounds — the proprietor and overseer deferring to their more
experienced judgment. Where the drivers are discreet, experi-
enced, and trusty, the overseer is frequently employed merely as
a matter of form, to comply with the laws requiring the superin-
tendence or presence of a white man among every body of
slaves; and his duty is rather to inspect and report than to
govern. Mr. X considers his overseer an uncommonly efficient
and faithful one, but he would not employ him, even during the
summer, when he is absent for several months, if the law did
not require it. He has sometimes left his plantation in care of
one of the drivers for a considerable length of time, after having
discharged an overseer; and he thinks it has then been quite as
well conducted as ever. His overseer consults the drivers on all
important points, and is governed by their advice.
"Mr. X" was not the only planter who frequently con-
sulted with his slave managers and who deferred to their
judgment, or insisted that his overseers do so. Nor was
Olmsted the only one to note the high quality of black man-
agers. When McBride, the owner of the Hickory Hill planta-
tion, left on a long trip, he wrote detailed instructions to
his overseer on the method of planting and cultivating
various crops. In the case of rice, however, McBride said he
was too ill-informed on that crop to offer advice and sug-
gested that the overseer consult the driver who was "an
old rice planter." Similarly, Charles Manigault instructed his
overseer to "be careful not to interfere too much with the
beating and management of the Rice Mill" since "the
Negroes in charge have much experience therein." Indirect
testimony of the high regard which planters had for the
intelligence and good judgment of their slave drivers and
other lower echelon personnel comes from the frequent com-
QUALITY OF SLAVE LABOR AND RACISM / 21
not the type that called for intensive effort. The high-
pressure tasks of planting, cultivating, and harvesting were
either over, or not yet at hand. As we have previously
stated, Olmsted's itinerary during his first trip kept him
squarely in the interstice between harvesting and planting.
As he moved south and westward into cotton country, he
generally moved toward both later completion of the harvest ,
They were not reckless rebels who risked their lives for freedom;
ifthe thought of rebellion crossed their minds, the odds against
success seemed too overwhelming to attempt it. But the in-
evitability of theirbondage made it none the more attractive.
And so, when
they could, they protested by shirking their duties,
injuring the crops, feigning illness, and disrupting the routine.
These acts were, in part, an unspectacular kind of "day to day
resistance to slavery."
They were not reckless rebels who risked their lives for freedom;
if the thought of rebellion crossed their minds, the odds against
success seemed too overwhelming to attempt it. But the in-
evitability of their bondage made it none the more attractive.
And so, when they could, they protested by shirking their duties,
injuring the crops, feigning illness, and disrupting the routine.
These acts were, in part, an unspectacular kind of "day to day
resistance to slavery."
until perfectly cool, and until it can be done rather with sorrow
than in anger.
Table 3
1 2 3
PECU- NON- NET GAIN
NIARY PECU- OR LOSS
GAIN NIARY (COL. 1 —
LOSS COL. 2)
Slaves 6 90 -84
Consumers of Cotton 14 14
Slaveholders 10 10
TOTALS 30 90 -60
No, you dare not make war on cotton. No power on earth dares
to make war upon it. Cotton is king. Until lately the Bank of
England was king, but she tried to put her screws as usual, the
fall before the last, upon the cotton crop, and was utterly van-
quished. The last power has been conquered. Who can doubt,
that has looked at recent events, that cotton is supreme? . . .
ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE SOUTH, 1840-1860 / 247
AVERAGE ANNUAL
RATES OF CHANGE
1 840 1860 (percent)
National Average $ 96 $128 1.4
Massachusetts
NORTHEAST
Rhode Island
Connecticut
New Jersey
SOUTH ATLANTIC
mates. The per capita income figures are for the entire population,
free and slave.
ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE SOUTH, 1840-1860 / 249
Table 5
Table 6
Denmark 5
Sweden 9 92 779
Switzerland 28 270
Spain 8 74
Canada 68
India 1 2
Australia 21
Implications for
Our Time
post-Civil War period and down to the eve of World War II.
under slavery.
they could into "Uncle Toms." Three hundred and fifty years
on the cross are enough. It's time to reveal not only to blacks
but to whites as well, that part of American history which
has been kept from them — the record of black achievement
under adversity.
Acknowledgments
other than cotton; farms and breeding of slaves, 5, 48, 54, 66,
farming; land; plantations; 78-86, 1 30-131. See also ex-
rural areas ploitation
Aham (slave), 152, 260 British Caribbean, British West
Alabama, 44, 47, 99, 151-152, Indies. See West Indies
197, 198-199 business cycle. See depression
American Revolution, 86 (business cycle)
anthropological beliefs, 216, 225
antislavery critics, 246; and ideo- Cairnes, John Elliott, 47-48, 63,
logical campaign, 34-35, 158- 170, 181-190, 197, 198, 231,
160, 161; racism and, 136, 254; Olmsted as source for,
143-144, 178-181, 182, 215- 182-186, 188-190
218, 258-260, 262-263; reli- Canada, T250, T256
gious opposition to, 31-32. See Canary islands, 15, 19
also abolition and abolition- Cape Verde archipelago, 15, 17,
ists;emancipation 19
apprenticeship, 36, 150 capitalism, 57, 129; and agricul-
Arabia and Arabs, 13, 17 ture in the South, 129, 232;
Argentina, T33 and capitalist character of
Aristotle, 30 slavery, 67-78; and discipline
artisan crafts. See skills of labor, 146-147; and human
Asia, 13 capital, 147, 163, 174, 232-
Atlantic Coastal Plain, 198 234, 237-241, 261-262; and
Australia, T250, T256 paternalism, 73, 77, 129
Austria, T34, T250 Carey, Henry, 24
Austria-Hungary, 255, T256 Caribbean. See West Indies
caste system, 261-262
Baltimore, Maryland, 98, 101 Catholic Church, 30
Bancroft, Frederic, his Slave census, information from: of
Trading in the Old South, 51, 1820, 98, 99; of 1850, 7, 41,
66-67 98, 160-163, 176, 189, 244;
Banner of Liberty, The, 178 of i860, 7, 98, 99, in, 115,
Barbados, 19, 21, 23 135
Barrow, Bennet H. (plantation Central America, T34
owner), 119, 145, 147, 148 Central Piedmont Plateau, 198,
Beaufort, North Carolina, 162 199
Beebe, Gilbert J., 178 Charleston, South Carolina, 38,
Belgium, T250, 255, T256 101, 141, 166
Bible, the, 146. See also Scripture Chesapeake Bay area, 44, 199,
births. See childbearing; demo- 253
graphic experience and evi- childbearing, 80 earnings from,
;
143-144; sales of, 49-51, 68- ing slaves, 48, 61, 66, 69, 75,
69; suffocation deaths of, 124- 96, 153-155, 171; of sexual
126, 137; of white fathers, 131, exploitation, 133; of slaves,
133. See also childbearing; computed, 68-69; of slave
demographic experience and rental, 177, 241 of specula-
;
data, use of, 4, 10-11. See also earnings of slaves, 66; age and,
cliometrics 74-75, 77, 153-155, 209; from
Davis, David Brion, 31 childbearing, 77, 83-84; extra,
death rate. See demographic ex- 151-152, 241; male vs. female,
perience and evidence 77; range of variation, 151-
DeBow, J. D. B., his The In- 152. See also income
dustrial Resources, etc. . . . of Eastman Kodak, 73
the Southern and Western economic growth, 6, 160, 161-
States, 182 167, 187-188, 190, 247-253.
demand for slaves, 5, 88, 101- See also economic system; in-
102, 174, 234, 235 dustry; land
Democratic party, 178 economic system: of antebellum
demographic experience and evi- South, 5, 6, 65, 103-106, 159-
dence: of African-born slaves, 190, 192-223, 247-257; com-
26-27; and childbirth, 136- pared with postbellum, 260-
139; of Creoles, 26-27; of in- 262; conspicuous consumption
fants, 69, 123-126, 137; of in, 61, 70-71, 73, 186, 253-
mulattoes, 133; of U.S. slaves, 254; development of American,
25-29, 57, 69, 126, 154; in 7, 192, 251, 252; and expecta-
West Indies, 25-27, 29; of tions of slaveowners, 103-106;
whites, 26, 123, 124, 125, 126, and human capital, 147, 163,
137, 154- See also breeding of 232-234, 237-241, 261-262;
slaves; childbearing; popula- labor-force participation rate
tion and, 207-209; North vs. South,
Denmark, 15, 19, T34, 165, 249, 164-167, 244, 247-252; profits
T250, T256 in (see rates of return on
deportation. See exportation slaves); and real national in-
depression (business cycle), 7, come, 164-165, 234, 235;
60, 86-88, 165 slavery's alleged effect on, 159-
Devereux, Julian S. (plantation 160, 161-163, 171-174, 187-
owner), 148-149 188, 212, 226. See also capital-
diet of slaves, 127, 151, 202; ism; cotton; industry; labor;
average daily, 1 09-1 11, 113, slave economy
115; and denial of food as pun- economies of scale: in agricul-
ishment, 147; deterioration of ture, 5, 61, 184, 185, 192, 194,
(postwar), 261 nutritional
; 196, 200, 204, 234-237; 255-
value of, 113, 115 257; in industry, 235; and
disciplineof slave labor, 127, pecuniary income of slaves,
134, 146-147. See also punish- 239; and rates of return, 5, 61,
ment 184, 185, 237, 240
disease and immunity, 26, 121- Ecuador, T34
122, 124. See also illness; med- efficiency and quality of slave
ical care of slaves 160,
labor, 40, 60, 64, 167,
divorce, 128
215-219, 220, 227, 231 in ag- ;
execution, 55, 144-145. See also ity, 26-27, 79, 80-84, 137,
punishment 155-156; in labor and society,
exploitation, 107-109, 124, 177; 35, 141-142, 177, 206-207,
defined, 107; economic burden 219, 220; mulattoes among,
of, 157, 244-246; financial, 5, 131 ; occupational opportunity
107, 153-157; sexual, 5, 85-86, for, 39, 141 as overseers, 141
;
107, 108-109, 130-138. See prices of, 75, 77, 131 produc- ;
abolished by, T33, T34, 36. See Helper, Hinton Rowan, 160-169,
also West Indies 170, 176, 177, 182, 189, 190,
Franklin, John Hope, 170 227, 247, 250 errors and mis-
;
13, 14, 249, T250, T256 95, 97, 185; management of,
278 / INDEX
202-209, 211, 262; redistribu- to females, 26-27, 83, 156. See
tion of (1 790-1 860), 43, 253 also labor, slave; slave(s)
(see also redistribution of management. See overseers; plan-
population, interregional); re- tations; slaveowners and slav-
gional location of, 81-82, 199; ocracy
and task method, 206; and role Manigault, Charles (plantation
of women in, 35, 177; working owner), 214
hours of, 208; work rhythms Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice,
of, 208-209, 222-223. See also T33
force, use of; labor, gang; oc- manufacturing. See industry
cupations and opportunity manumission, 37, 150-151
land: cotton and, 96-97; fertil- markets for slaves. See slave
ity and depletion of, 47-48, 63, trade
64, 103, 159-160, 169, 183- marriage of slaves, 202; and
184, 185-186, 188, 196, 197- childbirth patterns, 139; and
199; ratio of labor to, 95, 97, divorce, 128; economic induce-
185; values of, North and ments for, 84-85, 128; fallacies
South, 162, 163, 167, 168, 169, concerning, 139; interference
178, 197 with, 49; legal basis for, 128-
landowner ship, 40, 57 129. See also children and in-
laws and legal structure, 37, 52, fants, slave; demographic ex-
55; and chronology of eman- perience and evidence; family,
cipation, T33-T34; duality of, slave
128-129, 263; and free Ne- Martinique, 23
groes, 37, 243-244, 262, 263; Marx, Karl, 170
and overseers, 212, 214; and Maryland, 22, 44, 47, 221-222;
slave women, 85, 130, 133 study of slave sales in, 53, 55
leadership among slaves, 40 Massachusetts, T33, 162
Levant, 14, 17 masters. See slaveowners and
Leven (slave), 77, 260 slavocracy
liberation. See emancipation; material conditions of Negroes,
manumission 5, 9, 202, 226, 260-263; cloth-
life expectancy, 126, 155, 260- ing, 116, 117; diet, 109-115,
261. See also demographic ex- 127, 147, 151, 202, 261; dis-
perience and evidence ease and immunity, 26, 121-
Lincoln, Amos (former slave), 122, 124; family life, 127-129
138 (see also family, slave); health,
Locke, John, 31 122-124, 126, 225, 260, 261;
Louisiana, 20, 44, 47, 197, 199, housing, 115-116, 127, 151,
222, 241 202; medical care, 1 17-126,
Louisville, Kentucky, 98 151, 155
Luther, Martin, 31 mathematics and statistics in his-
torical analysis, 6-7, 9
McBride (plantation owner), 214 medical care of slaves, 1 17-126,
Madeira islands, 15, 17, 19, T33 225; and disease theory, 121-
male slave(s): and age, 73-75, 122; expenditure on, 151, 155;
77, J 39, 220; clothing issued of infants, 123-126; and physi-
to, 116, 117; as head of fam- cians' services, 120, 121, 123;
ily, 141, 142; in labor and so- and plantation hospitals, 119-
ciety, 141-142, 220-221; prices 120; during pregnancy, 122-
of, 73-75, 77; productivity of, 123. See also disease and
68, 69; rates of return on, 35, immunity; health of Negroes
68-70, 71, 73, 74-75, 78; ratio Memphis, Tennessee, 99
INDEX / 279
Mexico, 7, 17, T34, 249, T250 187-188, 226; of matriarchal
Meyer, John R., 6, 67-70, 78-79 slave family, 1 41-143; of mi-
Middle Ages, 14 gration and soil depletion, 48,
migration. See redistribution of 64, 183-186, 188; of promis-
population, interregional cuity and polygamy, 5, 83, 108,
mineral resources. See resources 130-131, 135-136, 138, 156;
mining, 20 of punishment, 41 of slave
;
task method on, 206, 213; util- 48; ratio of cotton to, 60-61,
ization of labor on, 5, 75, 141- 89-91, 96; ratio of wages of
142, 202-209; work rhythms free labor to, 102, 235; and
on, 208-209, 222-223. See also self -purchase, 151, 152; and
agriculture; cotton; farms and skills, 152, 233
farming; land; slaveowners productivity of slaves. See effi-
and slavocracy ciency and quality of slave
planters. See slaveowners and labor
slavocracy professions, slaves in, 38, 40, 241,
politics: and abolitionism, 32, 260. See also occupations and
34-35, 37, 2 46; closed to slaves, opportunity
152; and Republican presiden- profiles.See earnings of slaves;
tial campaign, 161 and slave-
; prices, slave
282 / INDEX
sentee, 211, 212, 225; and af- nomic criticisms of, 158-190,
fection for slaves, 77; as 191-196, 212, 226; and econ-
businessmen, 73-78, 129, 142, omy of South, 5, 6, 159-160,
243; and cost of slavery (see 162-163, 187-188, 225, 228,
cost); deliberateness of, 200- 260-262 (see also slave econ-
203; and expropriation, 5, 56, omy); evolution of, in U.S.,
107, 153-157; historical image 20-29; and force, used in, 102,
of, 108-109, 200, 212; income 232, 237-241, 243; "freedom"
of (see income); and instruc- vs., 243-244; gang labor in,
tions to overseers (see over- 141, 203-206, 209, 210, 213,
seers); and labor management, 236-238, 244-245; ideological
202-209, 2ii f 262; morality campaign against, 35, 158-
of, 85-86, 108-109, 129-130, 160, 161, 178, 216; interna-
133-134, 135, 142, 159, 229; tional context of, 13-38; living
myths concerning, 108-109, standards under, 5, 9, 202,
200, 212; opinions of, on la- 226, 260-263 (see also material
bor, 174-175, 231; paternalism conditions of Negroes); moral
of, 73, 77, 129; and politics, crusade against, 158-159; most
65, 186-187; poverty of, 171, restrictive for talented, 40, 57-
184; power and cruelty of, 78, 58, 152-153, 244; in 1962, 13;
184, 229-232; and prestige, 61, origin of, 13, 31 persistence
;
Society of Friends, 32, T33, 158 stereotypes. See myths and mis-
soil fertility and depletion. See conceptions of slavery
land suffocations, infant death from,
South, antebellum: and British 124-126, 137
sympathy for Confederacy, sugar, 169, 176, 185, 198; indus-
181-182; as "colonial depen- try in U.S., 20-22; shift in pro-
dency," 247; economy of, 5, duction of, 17, 19-20, 200; as
6, 65, 103-106, 159-160, 162- slave crop, 16-20, 41
163, 164-167, 173, 187-188, suicide, 31, 124-125
207-209, 225, 234, 247-257; supply of and demand for slaves,
and federal policies, 250 ; fer- 5, 88, 101-102, 174, 234-235
rate in, 29, 79-84, 137,
tility Surinam, 19. See also Dutch
155-156; free Negroes in, 155, Guiana
243-244, 260-263; health con- Swabian serfs, 31
ditions in, 124, 126, 225, 260- Sweden, 15, T250, 251, T256
261; industrial lag in, 254-255, Switzerland, T250, T256
T256; legal structure in, 128- Sydnor, Charles, 170
129; life expectancy in, 126, systematic data. See data, use of
155, 260-261 Negro popula-
;
tion in, 22, 251-252; per capita Tait, Charles (plantation owner),
income in, 6, 102, 134, 148, 122, 134
165-167, 247, T248, 249, T250, task method. See labor, slave
252, 253, 256-257; "pre-bour- tax benefits and burdens, 84, 156
geois" character of, 129; and team labor. See labor, gang
property rights in man, 232- technology, 7, 168, 199, 252, 255,
234, 237-241 prosperity and
;
261
expectations of, 103-106, 249— Tennessee, 99, 195
254; resources and land values territorial expansion, 48, 63, 64
of, 162-163, 167-169, 172, Texas, 47, 148-149, 151, 186,
255; transportation in, 44, 62, 251; cotton production in, 44,
70, 178, 199, 254-255, T256. 62, 173, 198-199
See also agriculture; cotton; textilemarket, 70, 89-91, 252,
industry; slavery; slave trade 255, T256 See also cotton
South America, 13, 19 Thirteenth Amendment, T34
South Carolina, 44, 47, 162, 197 tobacco, 60, 176, 185, 198, 200;
southern colonies. See colonies, as factor in slave traffic, 15-
British North American 16, 199; production and slave
Southwest, 186 labor time, 41, 43, 44
Soviet Union. See Russia Tocqueville, Alexis de, his De-
Spain, 15, 17, 19-20, 36, T256 mocracy in America, 182
specialization. See labor, slave transportation, 44, 93, 199, 254-
speculation. See slave trade 255, T256
Stampp, Kenneth, 66, 170, 228- Treaty of 1783, 60, 86
232 Tredegar Iron Works, 235
standards of living. See material True American (newspaper), 159
conditions of Negroes Tucker, George, 163
states: free and slave compared, Turner, Nat, 55
286 / INDEX
"Uncle Toms," 260, 264 groes, 237-238, 260; slave vs.
United Kingdom, 251. See also free labor, 229, 236-237, 241,
England; Great Britain 260; -slave price ratio, 102, 235
United States: and abolition, 32, Wasatch Mountains, 8
T33, T34, 34-35; Constitution, Washington, George, 43, 86, 88
T34; demographic experience Washington, D.C., 98
of slaves in, 25-29, 57, 69, 126, water power, 168
154; economic development of, wealth :of nonslaveholding
7, 192, 251, 252; and interna- whites, 254; of slaveowners
tional slave trade, 20, 24, 29, (see slaveowners and slavoc-
T33; as leading slave power, racy); of slaves, 127, 152. See
29; life expectancy in, 126, also earnings of slaves; income
!55; population and per capita Wesley, Charles H., 63
income, 165, 251-252; savings- West and westward migration, 7,
income ratio in, 253-254; and 48, 189, 199, 262
slave imports, 15, 23, 24, 27, West Indies: demographic expe-
29, 89; slave resistance in, rience of, 25-26, 29; and
230-231; and sugar trade, 20- emancipation, T33, T34; and
22; tax benefits and burdens Haitian slave revolt, 19, 32, 36,
in, 84, 156. See also North; 88-89; rates of return in, 36;
South, antebellum; individual and slave population, 21-22,
states 23, 29; and sugar trade, 19-20,
United States colonies. See colo- 22
nies, British North American Weston, P. C. (plantation owner),
urban society: and aged, 75; 118-119, 122, 146
clothing allotments in, T118; wheat, 164, 169, 172, 199, 200;
and demand for slaves, 5, 101- plantation visited by Olmsted,
102, 234-235; housing in, 116; 221-222
life expectancy in, 126; mulat- whipping. See punishment
toes in, 132; nonpecuniary dis- white(s), 135, 155, 180; age of,
advantages and benefits of, 211-212, 219; demographic ex-
238; and occupational oppor- perience of, 26, 123-126, 137,
tunity, 38; slave labor and, 63, 154; as "heroes," 259; males,
64, 94, 95, 97-IQ2, 235; slave ratio to slaves, 242; men as
population in, 38, 64, 187-188; fathers of slave children, 131,
and slave rental, 56; wealth 133; Negroes isolated from,
distribution in, 254. See also 217; overseers, 200—201, 211-
industry 212, 215, 241, 260; slaves, 17;
Uruguay, T34 wealth distribution among,
254; westward migration of,
Venetians, 17 48; women, 123, 130-131, 135.
Venezuela, T34, 34 See also labor, free; slave-
Vermont, T33 owners and slavocracy
Virginia, 22, 44, 47, 48, 178, 196, Wisconsin, 167
197, 200 compared with New
; women: white, 123, 1 30-1 31,
Jersey and New York, 162, 166, 135. See also female slave(s)
172-173; Olmsted in, 174-175; work ethic. See incentives and
slave population in, 44, 99 motivation
vocational training. See occupa- work hours, 208, 229
tions and opportunity; skills work rhythms, 208-209, 222-223
W.P.A. (Works Progress Admin-
Wade, Richard C, 63 istration), 128, 133, 146
wages, 177, 261 ; of freed Ne-
326
Fog Fogel, Robert Wil-
liam
Time on the cross
DATE DUE
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