TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mancall,Peter C.
AU  - Rosenbloom,Joshua L.
AU  - Weiss,Thomas
TI  - Slave Prices in the Lower South, 1722-1815
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Historical Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 120
PY  - 2000
Y2  - January 2000
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0120
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/h0120.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Peter Mancall
Department of History
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089
E-Mail: mancall@usc.edu

Joshua Rosenbloom
Department of Economics
University of Kansas
Snow Hall 436
1460 Jayhawk Blvd
Lawrence, KS  66045-2113
Tel: 785/864-2839
Fax: 785/864-5270
E-Mail: jrosenbloom@ku.edu

Thomas J. Weiss
Department of Economics
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS  66045
Tel: 785/840-6878
Fax:  785/864-5270
E-Mail: t-weiss@ku.edu
AB  - Using data from samples of probate inventories we construct a series of slave prices for Low Country South Carolina and Georgia covering the period 1722-1815.  Using these data we examine variations in slave prices by age and sex, as well as geographic variations between and within the two colonies/states.  Nominal slave prices more than doubled between 1722/29 and 1810/15.  In real terms, however, there was essentially no change in slave prices deflated either by a general consumer price index, or the price of rice.  Low Country slave prices were well above those in the West Indies and Maryland prior to the 1740s, but were converging toward the level of prices in these regions.  After 1740 the three series moved roughly in parallel.
ER  -