IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/14281.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Preserving Slave Families for Profit: Traders' Incentives and Pricing in the New Orleans Slave Market

Author

Listed:
  • Charles Calomiris
  • Jonathan Pritchett

Abstract

We investigate the determinants of slave family discounts, using data from the New Orleans slave market. We find large price discounts for families which cannot be explained by scale effects, childcare costs, legal restrictions, or transport costs. Because family members cared for each other, sellers found it advantageous to keep some families together. Evidence from the manifests of ships carrying slaves to be sold in New Orleans provides direct evidence for our model of selectivity bias in explaining slave family discounts. Children likely to have been shipped with their mothers are 1-2 inches shorter than other children.

Suggested Citation

  • Charles Calomiris & Jonathan Pritchett, 2008. "Preserving Slave Families for Profit: Traders' Incentives and Pricing in the New Orleans Slave Market," NBER Working Papers 14281, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14281
    Note: DAE LS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w14281.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laurence J. Kotlikoff & Daniel E. Smith, 1983. "Description of Data," NBER Chapters, in: Pensions in the American Economy, pages 20-26, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Pritchett, Jonathan B. & Freudenberger, Herman, 1992. "A Peculiar Sample: The Selection of Slaves for the New Orleans Market," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(1), pages 109-127, March.
    3. Kotlikoff, Laurence J, 1979. "The Structure of Slave Prices in New Orleans, 1804 to 1862," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 17(4), pages 496-518, October.
    4. Jonathan B. Pritchett & Richard M. Chamberlain, 1993. "Selection in the Market for Slaves: New Orleans, 1830–1860," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(2), pages 461-473.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Charles W. Calomiris & Jonathan Pritchett, 2016. "Betting on Secession: Quantifying Political Events Surrounding Slavery and the Civil War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(1), pages 1-23, January.
    2. Schneider, Eric B., 2018. "Sample selection biases and the historical growth pattern of children," Economic History Working Papers 87075, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    3. Richard C. Sutch, 2018. "The Economics of African American Slavery: The Cliometrics Debate," NBER Working Papers 25197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Eric B. Schneider, 2017. "Children's growth in an adaptive framework: explaining the growth patterns of American slaves and other historical populations," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(1), pages 3-29, February.
    5. 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.
    6. Bodenhorn, Howard & Guinnane, Timothy W. & Mroz, Thomas A., 2013. "Problems of Sample-Selection Bias in the Historical Heights Literature: A Theoretical and Econometric Analysis," Working Papers 114, Yale University, Department of Economics.
    7. Howard Bodenhorn & Timothy Guinnane & Thomas Mroz, 2014. "Caveat Lector: Sample Selection in Historical Heights and the Interpretation of Early Industrializing Economies," NBER Working Papers 19955, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Eric B. Schneider, 2017. "Children's growth in an adaptive framework: explaining the growth patterns of American slaves and other historical populations," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(1), pages 3-29, February.
    9. Logan, Trevon D. & Pritchett, Jonathan B., 2018. "On the marital status of U. S. slaves: Evidence from Touro Infirmary, New Orleans, Louisiana," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 50-63.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 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.
    2. Richard C. Sutch, 2018. "The Economics of African American Slavery: The Cliometrics Debate," NBER Working Papers 25197, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Bodenhorn, Howard & Guinnane, Timothy & Mroz, Thomas, 2013. "Problems of Sample-selection Bias in the Historical Heights Literature: A Theoretical and Econometric Analysis," Center Discussion Papers 148749, Yale University, Economic Growth Center.
    4. Howard Bodenhorn & Timothy Guinnane & Thomas Mroz, 2014. "Caveat Lector: Sample Selection in Historical Heights and the Interpretation of Early Industrializing Economies," NBER Working Papers 19955, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hoyt Bleakley & Joseph Ferrie, 2016. "Shocking Behavior: Random Wealth in Antebellum Georgia and Human Capital Across Generations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(3), pages 1455-1495.
    6. Anagol, Santosh, 2017. "Adverse selection in asset markets: Theory and evidence from the Indian market for cows," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 58-72.
    7. Schneider, Eric B., 2018. "Sample selection biases and the historical growth pattern of children," Economic History Working Papers 87075, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    8. Scott A. Carson, 2006. "African-American and White Living Standards in the 19th Century American South: A Biological Comparison," CESifo Working Paper Series 1696, CESifo.
    9. Eric B. Schneider, 2017. "Children's growth in an adaptive framework: explaining the growth patterns of American slaves and other historical populations," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 70(1), pages 3-29, February.
    10. Saito, Tetsuya, 2006. "Shipping the Good Apples Out: Alchian-Allen Theorem of Various Qualities," MPRA Paper 883, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Nov 2006.
    11. Scott A. Carson, 2008. "Nineteenth Century Black and White US Statures: The Primary Sources of Vitamin D and their Relationship with Height," CESifo Working Paper Series 2497, CESifo.
    12. Conor Lennon, 2016. "Slave Escape, Prices, and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 669-695.
    13. Scott A. Carson, 2008. "Geography, Insolation, and Institutional Change in 19th Century African-American and White Stature in Southern States," CESifo Working Paper Series 2434, CESifo.
    14. Steckel, Richard H., 2009. "Heights and human welfare: Recent developments and new directions," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-23, January.
    15. Jenny Bourne, 2022. "Double take: Abolition and the size of transferred property rights," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(7), pages 1706-1718, December.
    16. Charles W. Calomiris & Jonathan Pritchett, 2016. "Betting on Secession: Quantifying Political Events Surrounding Slavery and the Civil War," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(1), pages 1-23, January.
    17. Scott Carson, 2009. "African-American and white inequality in the nineteenth century American South: a biological comparison," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(3), pages 739-755, July.
    18. Esposito, Elena, 2015. "Side Effects of Immunities: the African Slave Trade," Economics Working Papers MWP2015/09, European University Institute.
    19. Chenny, Shirley & St-Amour, Pascal & Vencatachellum, Desire, 2003. "Slave prices from succession and bankruptcy sales in Mauritius, 1825-1827," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 419-442, October.
    20. Hoyt Bleakley & Joseph P. Ferrie, 2013. "Up from Poverty? The 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery and the Long-run Distribution of Wealth," NBER Working Papers 19175, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy
    • N31 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14281. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.