From ‘20. and odd’ to 10 million

The growth of the slave population in the United States

Bibliographic Data

ID9384332
AuthorsJason Daniel Hacker (0000-0002-5971-955X, University of Minnesota, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume41
Issue4
Pages840-855
Publication date2020-05-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSlavery and Abolition (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0144-039X • E-ISSN: 1743-9523
PublisherFrank Cass & Co (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/0144039x.2020.1755502
PMID33281246
OpenAlexW3025137947
LanguageEN
Citations received10

This research note describes the growth of the slave population in the United States and develops several new measures of its size and growth, including an estimate of the total number of slaves who ever lived in the United States. Estimates of the number of births and slave imports are provided in ten-year increments between 1619 and 1860 and in one-year increments between 1861 and 1865. The results highlight the importance of natural increase to the rapid growth of the U.S. slave population and indicate that approximately 10 million slaves lived in the United States, where they contributed 410 billion hours of labor. A concluding discussion highlights a few descriptive statistics historians might find useful, including the cumulative number of slaves who lived in the United States by decade and the proportion of slaves who were living at various moments in U.S. history, including shortly after the ratification of the Constitution in 1788 and at the start of the American Civil War in 1861

Census · Constitution · Economic history · Geography · History of the United States · Political science · Politics · Population · Population growth · Population statistics · Ratification · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society · Demography · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society

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Open DOIOpen Access