Variation in the age composition of the slave trade

The demographic composition of the population of slaves carried from Africa to America is a topic that has attracted considerable attention from historians of the slave trade. Variation in the age and sex composition of the slave trade has been discussed as a factor with significant implications for such issues as the potential for slave populations in the Americas to be able to sustain stable families, the economic productivity of American slave populations, and the potential for black populations to grow in both the sending regions of Africa and the receiving regions of America. Yet in spite of the recognition of its significance, the demographic composition of the slave trade has received little systematic analysis. This chapter presents an economic model of the age composition of the slave trade, and explores some of its implications in light of evidence drawn both from the records of the Royal African Company and from earlier research on the structure of internal African markets for slaves.

The age composition of the slaves carried by the Royal African Company varied considerably within the period covered by the account books. Table 5.1 presents listings by colony of destination of the numbers of slaves carried annually by the company within each of the four enumerated demographic categories. These figures show that the share of boys and girls in total annual deliveries to Barbados, Jamaica, and Nevis ranged from negligible levels of 4 percent or less for each colony to maximum levels of more than 25 percent in each case; in 1725 children made up fully one-third of all slaves carried to Jamaica.