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A Troublesome Statistic: Traders and Coastal Shipments in the Westward Movement of Slaves

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  • Steckel, Richard H.
  • Ziebarth, Nicolas

Abstract

We analyze all slave manifests housed at the National Archives—some 24,400 documents involving approximately 135,000 slaves who were transported in the coastwise trade from 1810 to 1861. The manifests list the name of the owner or shipper, which allows us to match names with traders found in other sources. We also utilize demographic characteristics of the manifests to estimate the probability that a trader organized the shipment. Commercial transactions increased over the antebellum period, and on average were responsible for approximately 55 percent of slaves who migrated from Atlantic to Gulf coast ports. “No one has ever suggested a method for finding what proportion of the slaves transported from one state to another were taken by their original masters or their heirs for their own use.”Bancroft 1931, p. 397

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  • Steckel, Richard H. & Ziebarth, Nicolas, 2013. "A Troublesome Statistic: Traders and Coastal Shipments in the Westward Movement of Slaves," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(3), pages 792-809, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:73:y:2013:i:03:p:792-809_00
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    Cited by:

    1. González, Felipe & Marshall, Guillermo & Naidu, Suresh, 2017. "Start-up Nation? Slave Wealth and Entrepreneurship in Civil War Maryland," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(2), pages 373-405, June.
    2. Pritchett, Jonathan & Freudenberger, Herman, 2016. "A Peculiar Sample: A Reply to Steckel and Ziebarth," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 76(1), pages 139-162, March.
    3. Cook, Lisa D. & Logan, Trevon D. & Parman, John M., 2014. "Distinctively black names in the American past," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 64-82.

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