Sunday, January 04, 2004 :::
Slave Price Update
From the July 12, 1856 North Carolina Standard:
SALE OF NEGROES. -- We learn that the negroes belonging to the estate of Daniel Ward, dec'd of Martin county, N.C., were sold at public sale at Hamilton, on the 27th ult., and brought the following prices:
Woman, 35 years old, and child, $895; woman, 29 and two children, $1400; girl, 17, $860; boy, 15, $1221; girl, 11, $606; boy, 6, $405; man, 27, $1275; man, 46, $600; man, 22, $1287; man, 30, $1300; woman, 20, and child, $830; boy, 17, $1401; boy, 7, $705; boy, 5, $300.
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A couple comments: I think this kind of thing is interesting as hell. People have gone through old newspapers and done big-ass studies on slave prices and what the fluctuations might mean. Just a couple guesses here - the woman being sold with the children, maybe they were making an attempt to keep some families together. You notice the men get a lot higher prices. The 17-year old was the most expensive: $1401. I guess he was in his prime, already trained at whatever he did, and had a lot of good years left in him, same with the $1221 15-year old. Of course, we don't know what skills these people had, blacksmiths sold for a lot more than field hands. I just kind of guessed and made all that up. I'm going to check and see if these estate papers are at work. Maybe they'll tell us what "man, 30"'s name was. They did have names.
A nice kick in the butt for the purchasers, some of these people, particularly the young ones, were probably purchased with an eye toward the future when they'd become more productive or start having children. Unless the slaves took matters into their own hands sooner, they'd be free in seven years.
Quote of the Day:
Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day. . . I have spoken too long for a writer. A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it. Again I thank you.
--- from Ernest Hemingway's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, December 10, 1954.
::: posted by tom at 12:22 PM
