Context

Abraham Lincoln's election produced Southern secession, war, and abolition. This dataset was used to study connections between news and slave prices for the period 1856-1861. By August 1861, slave prices had declined by roughly one-third from their 1860 peak. That decline was similar for all age and sex cohorts and thus did not reflect expected emancipation without compensation. The decision to secede reflected beliefs that the North would not invade and that emancipation without compensation was unlikely. Both were encouraged by Lincoln's conciliatory tone before the attack on Fort Sumter, and subsequently dashed by Lincoln's willingness to wage all-out war.

Calomiris, Charles W., and Jonathan Pritchett. 2016. "Betting on Secession: Quantifying Political Events Surrounding Slavery and the Civil War." American Economic Review, 106(1): 1-23.

Content

Data description: by Jonathan Pritchett These data were collected from the office of the Orleans parish Civil Clerk of Court. The sample includes all slave sales recorded by the register of conveyance from October 1856 to August 1861. The construction of the dataset is similar to that employed previously by Fogel and Engerman (1976). The unit of observation is the individual with the exception of children who were bundled with their mothers. Fields are defined as follows:

• ID number: Unique observation number.
• Conveyance: Number of Conveyance volume.
• Page: Page number of transaction.
• Researcher: Initials of research assistant who transcribed transaction.
• Notary First Name: First name of public notary who recorded transaction.
• Notary Last Name: Last name of public notary.
• Sales Date: Sales date of transaction (MM/DD/YYYY format). This is NOT the date the sale was recorded in conveyance office.
• Sellers First Name: Seller’s First Name.
• Sellers Last Name: Seller’s Last Name.
• Sellers County of Origin: Seller’s county (or city) of origin.
• Sellers State of Origin: Seller’s state of origin.
• Representing Seller: Name of agent representing seller if seller is not present at time of sale (normally blank).
• Relationship to Seller: Agent’s relationship to seller.
• Buyers First Name: Buyer’s First Name.
• Buyers Last Name: Buyer’s Last Name.
• Buyers County of Origin: Buyer’s County (or city) of Origin.
• Buyers State of Origin: Buyer’s State of Origin.
• Representing Buyer: Name of agent representing buyer if buyer is not present at time of sale (normally blank).
• Relationship to Buyer: Agent’s relationship to buyer.
• Slave Name: Slave’s first name; rarely last name also listed.
• Sex: Male (M) or female (F). Gender often inferred from sale record, such as Negro vs. Negress, mulatto vs. mulattress, etc.
• Age: Age in years.
• Color: Description of slave’s skin color, but may also indicate ancestry (such as mulatto).
• Occupation: Slave’s occupation – often blank.
• Family Relationship: Describes family relationship of slaves (if any) sold in groups
• Name Child 1: Name of child 1 (sold with mother). Blank when slaves are listed separately and/or with separate prices.
• Sex Child 1: Gender of child 1 (sold with mother).
• Age Child 1: Age in years of child 1 (sold with mother). Decimal equivalents for age in months.
• Name Child 2: Name of child 2 (sold with mother). Blank when slaves are listed separately and/or with separate prices.
• Sex Child 2: Gender of child 2 (sold with mother).
• Age Child 2: Age in years of child 2 (sold with mother). Decimal equivalents for age in months.
• Name Child 3: Name of child 3 (sold with mother). Blank when slaves are listed separately and/or with separate prices.
• Sex Child 3: Gender of child 3 (sold with mother).
• Age Child 3: Age in years of child 3 (sold with mother). Decimal equivalents for age in months.
• Name Child 4: Name of child 4 (sold with mother). Blank when slaves are listed separately and/or with separate prices.
• Sex Child 4: Gender of child 4 (sold with mother).
• Age Child 4: Age in years of child 4 (sold with mother). Decimal equivalents for age in months.
• Name Child 5: Name of child 5 (sold with mother). Blank when slaves are listed separately and/or with separate prices
• Sex Child 5: Gender of child 5 (sold with mother).
• Age Child 5: Age in years of child 5 (sold with mother). Decimal equivalents for age in months.
• Name Child 6: Name of child 6 (sold with mother). Blank when slaves are listed separately and/or with separate prices
• Sex Child 6: Gender of child 6 (sold with mother).
• Age Child 6: Age in years of child 6 (sold with mother). Decimal equivalents for age in months.
• Name Child 7: Name of child 7 (sold with mother). Blank when slaves are listed separately and/or with separate prices.
• Sex Child 7: Gender of child 7 (sold with mother).
• Age Child 7: Age in years of child 7 (sold with mother). Decimal equivalents for age in months.
• Name C...

A database of all the claims for compensation submitted following the Emancipation Act of 1834 (c. 40,000 claims) and the names of the individuals connected to these claims (c. 47,000 individuals) with more detailed biographical information on those individuals we have identified as living in Britain from the mid-1830s onwards (c. 3,000 individuals). This shows the history of slave-ownership throughout the British Caribbean, tracing the evolution of ownership estate-by-estate in the second half of the long 18th century, derived from the Slave Registers (c. 1815-1834) for all the Caribbean colonies and, for Jamaica, from the Crop Accounts (1740-1803 and the Jamaica Almanacs (1809-1839). The database records some 8000 estates, and identifies an estimated 5000 new absentee slave-owners and their legacies in metropolitan Britain. This project examines the nature and significance of Caribbean slave-ownership in the formation of Britain in the crucial coincident years of the peak of the slave-economy and a decisive period in the industrialisation of Britain. It develops a history of the ownership of the 4,000 estates in the British West Indian colonies between 1763 and the end of slavery in 1834. It identifies those estate-owners and families who resided in or returned to Britain and constructs a prosopography of these slave-owners, tracing their commercial, political, social and cultural presence and impact in Britain. The project develops an integrated analysis of the impact of slave-ownership on the shaping of the British nation and utilises the new data to re-examine the relationship between Empire, slavery and early imperial Britain in the late C18 and early C19. The project created a new public resource which: (1)codifies and makes searchable the ownership and evolution of estates in the British Caribbean between 1763 and 1833; (2)traces the major commercial, political, institutional and cultural legacies of the slave-owners resident in Britain; (3)allows users to link estate-ownership with other extant records on enslaved people, notably the Slave Registers. Compilation of historical records, derived from the Slave Registers (c. 1815-1834) for all the Caribbean colonies and, for Jamaica, from the Crop Accounts (1740-1803 and the Jamaica Almanacs (1809-1839).

Lincoln's election produced Southern secession, war, and abolition. Using a new dataset on slave sales, we examine connections between news and slave prices for the period 1856-1861. By August 1861, slave prices had declined by roughly one-third from their 1860 peak. That decline was similar for all age and sex cohorts and thus did not reflect expected emancipation without compensation. The decision to secede reflected beliefs that the North would not invade and that emancipation without compensation was unlikely. Both were encouraged by Lincoln's conciliatory tone before the attack on Fort Sumter, and subsequently dashed by Lincoln's willingness to wage all-out war. (JEL D72, D74, D83, G14, H77, N31, N41)

Petition: Slave trade Original: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:13909053 Date of creation: 17500000 Top signatures:William Bollan Total signatures: 1 Legal voter signatures (males not identified as non-legal): 1 Identifications of signatories: agent for his Majesty's Province of Massachusetts Bay Prayer format was printed vs. manuscript: Manuscript Additional archivist notes: Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, rum, molasses, Guinea, Newfoundland, southern part of North America, furs, skins, Indian trade, vessels, trade at sea, mackarel, smaller fish, West Indies, cod fishery, whale fishery, gulf and river of St. Lawrence, shipping, bread corn, pork, refuse fish, British bankers, European sale, gold, England, slaves, sugar, bills of exchange, Guadeloupe, Martinico, Martinique, late war, English plantations, English distillery, St. Eustatius, northern colonies, French islands, acts of navigation, Canadian war, parliament, husbandmen, manufacturers, duty, duties, taxes, import, export [with separate list of reasons offered] Acknowledgements: Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-5105612), Massachusetts Archives of the Commonwealth, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University, Institutional Development Initiative at Harvard University, and Harvard University Library.