Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery (1995)

Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman, Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery (1995)

Economists Robert Fogel and Stanly Engerman take a financial look at the practice of slavery. Their main argument is that it makes economic sense for a slaveholder to keep his slaves healthy. A healthy slave can do more work than a sick or beaten one can. Slave owners are in the business of making money and they want to avoid anything that would minimize their profit. This would include beating or harming slaves. In regards to renting out a slave, Fogel and Engerman note that an economic conscious slave owner would either not rent our his slave to someone who has a history of harming slaves. This would allow him to avoid the potential for damages to property. If he were to rent a slave out to someone like this, it would make economic sense to charge a high rate. This logic was taken into account by Thomas Ruffin when he made his decision in State v. Mann.

Fogel, Robert and Engerman, Stanley

1995-XX-XX

Cooper, Blake

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