Economics of American Negro Slavery Series

Investigator(s): Robert W. Fogel, and Stanley L. Engerman

The Economics of American Negro Slavery series was developed by Robert W. Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman at the University of Rochester with data originally obtained from the notarized bills of sale at the New Orleans Notarial Archival Office, and probate records for southern counties obtained from the Genealogical Society library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. These data were also included in the project: "The Relative Efficiency of Slave and Free Agriculture in 1850 and 1860", funded by the National Science Foundation. Data are provided on slave sale transactions, and personal characteristics of individuals appearing in group sale transactions (wherever possible), including characteristics of one "principal slave of record", and characteristics of children sold in a group with the principal slave of record.