Quantitative Estimates of the United States Interregional Slave Trade, 1820–1860

Abstract

The selective buying habits of traders provide a method for estimating the share of sales in the interregional movement of slaves within the southern United States. Estimates are derived by comparing information about the slaves chosen by traders with information about all migrants. To derived their estimate, Fogel and Engerman (1974) used information about the sex of the migrants; Tadman (1989) used information about their ages. In this paper, I show how their estimating equations are algebraically equivalent. Using regression analysis and additional data originally published by Tadman, I estimate that the slave trade accounted for approximately one-half of the interregional movement of slaves.

The Economics of African American Slavery: The Cliometrics Debate

“…However, recent research by Johnathan Pritchett and Michael Tadman seem to have settled the issue with a more sophisticated analysis of the changing age and sex composition of the slave population. Pritchett calculated that approximately 50 percent of slaves transported across state lines had been sold to traders who resold them [Pritchett 2001]. Michael Tadman put the percentage even higher at 60 to 70 percent [Tadman 1989: 29-31 and Appendix 3].…”

Productivity Growth and the Regional Dynamics of Antebellum Southern Development

“…Researchers estimated the interregional flows of the free and slave populations, focusing on ascertaining the fraction of slaves that went west with slave traders versus with their masters (Fogel and Engerman 1974, vol. 1, p. 48;McClelland and Zeckhauser 1983;Tadman 1989, p. 45;Pritchett 2001). A related literature has explored how property rights in slaves sped the expansion of slavery to the more productive Southwest.…”

Price Transmission in the Antebellum Slave Markets: A Time Series Analysis

“…68-83) for a different view. Additionally, Pritchett (2001) discusses estimates of owner-directed slave movements, while Russell (1993) provides more information on the sale of slaves. llThere were other major slave markets that developed as the antebellum economy moved west, such as Natchez, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee, but these were not active and organized throughout the antebellum period.…”