kotlikoff1979

@Article{ kotlikoff1979,
    author = {Laurence J. Kotlikoff},
    title = {The Structure of Slave Prices in New Orleans, 1804 to 1862},
    journal = {Economic Inquiry},
    volume = 17,
    month = {October},
    pages = {496-518},
    year = 1979,
}

p. 500: “The 1820’s and 1840’s witnessed depressed slave prices. By 1845 nominal slave prices were trending upward and continued in that direction until the early years of the Civil War.”

p. 502: “Light skin color added over 5.3 percent to the female’s price during the period 1804-1862.”

p. 503: “Slave prices were lowest during September … Traders and owners could expect to obtain a 10.8% higher price on their slaves if they came to market in January rather than September. Indeed the entire late Fall-Winter period from November through April exhibited slave prices at least 7.5% higher than those in September. … Traders bringing slaves from the slave exporting Eastern states to New Orleans were clearly cognizant of the higher winter prices. 81.8 percent of slaves imported from the Eastern slave states were sold during the months of January to June.”

p. 504: “That slave purchases carefully scrutinized their prospective acquisitions is demonstrated by the guarantee coefficients. Eighty-four percent of the individual slaves in our sample were fully warranted; the average period of warranty appears to have been about a year.”

p. 506: “Throughout the ante-bellum 1800’s, positive premia were paid for males, skilled slaves, slaves with guarantees, and children sold with their mothers. The seasonal patterns of prices and the implicit imputation of interest were familiar features of the New Orleans market from 1804 to 1862.”

p. 512: “From the information available there is clearly no proclivity on the part of slave transactors to sell entire slave families together.”

p. 511: guarantee premiums: 84.3 percent fully guaranteed in the sample, but difficult to tell whether the premium associated with a full guarantee was as high as Kotlikoff’s regression implies: 34-39%.