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

Title

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

Description

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.

Creator

Fogel, Robert and Engerman, Stanley

Source

Fogel, Robert and Engerman, Stanley. Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery. W. W. Norton and Co., 1995.

Date

1995-XX-XX

Contributor

Cooper, Blake

Original Format

Book

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Collection

Citation

Fogel, Robert and Engerman, Stanley, RobertFogel and StanleyEngerman,Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery(1995), Civil War Era NC, accessed December 9, 2024, https://cwnc.omeka.chass.ncsu.edu/items/show/841.