Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-wxhwt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T12:07:25.093Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Turnover Cost and the Distribution of slave Labor in Anglo-America

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Christopher Hanes
Christopher Hanes
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the eighteenth-century British Empire and the antebellum South, slaves were concentrated in domestic service and rural enterprises like agriculture and ironworks. I argue that employers in these sectors chose to employ slaves rather than free labor because they faced especially high turnover costs—that is, costs of searching for a worker and going without labor when a free worker quit or was fired. In the absence of slavery, these sectors were marked by other institutions designed to deal with turnover costs: indentured servitude, employment agencies, and deferred compensation.

Type
Papers Presented at the Fifty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 307 - 329
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, Ralph V., and Gailman, Robert E.. “Slaves as Fixed Capital: Slave Labor Southern Economic Development.” Journal of American History 64, no. 1 (1977): 24–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bartlett, John Russell. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations New England. Vol. 5. Providence, RI: Knowles, Anthony & Co., 1860.Google Scholar
Becker, Gary. “Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis.” Journal of Political Economy 70 supplement, no. 5, pt. 2 (1962): 9–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, Kenneth N., and Morrell, W. P.. Select Documents on British Colonial 1830–1860, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928.Google Scholar
Burgwyn, Henry King. Diary. North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, NC.Google Scholar
Catterall, Helen Tunnicliff. Judicial Cases Concerning American Slavery and the Negro. Vol. 5. Washington: Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1937.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D.The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Channing, Edward. “The Narragansett Planters.” In Johns Hopkins University Studies Historical and Political Science, 4th Ser., no. 3 (1883): 109–27.Google Scholar
Clemens, Paul G. E., and Simler, Lucy. “Rural Labor and the Farm Household in Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1750–1820.” In Work and Labor in Early America, edited Stephen, Innes, 106–43. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Cloud, Patricia, and David, W. Galenson. “Chinese Immigration and Contract Labor in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Explorations in Economic History 24, no. 1 (1987): 22–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coase, R. H. “The Nature of the Firm.” Economica 4 (11 1937).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reprinted in The Firm, the Market and the Law, by Coase, R. H.33–56. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Coase, R. H. “The Problem of Social Cost.” Journal of Law and Economics 3 (11 1960).Google Scholar
Reprinted in The Firm, the Market and the Law, by Coase, R. H., 95–156. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Cooley, , Henry, Scofield. “A Study of Slavery in New Jersey.” Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, no. 14 (1896).Google Scholar
Conrad, Alfred H., and John, R. Meyer. “The Economics of Slavery in the Antebellum South.” In The Economics of Slavery and Other Studies in Econometric History, edited by Alfred, H. Conrad and John, R. Meyer, 43–114. Chicago: Aldine, 1964.Google Scholar
Copeland, R. Morris. “Notes From the South.” New England Farmer 8 (04 1856): 173–74.Google Scholar
Danhof, Clarence H.Change in Agriculture: The Northern United States, 1820–1870. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.Google Scholar
DeBow, J. D. B. The Industrial Resources Etc. of the Southern and Western States. Vol. 2. New Orleans: DeBow's Review, 1852.Google Scholar
Dew, Charles B.. “Disciplining Slave Ironworkers in the Antebellum South: Coercion, Conciliation and Accomodation.” American Historical Review 79, no. 2 (1974): 393–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eaton, Clement. The Growth of Southern Civilization, 1790–1860. New York: Harper and Row, 1961.Google Scholar
Engerman, Stanley L. “Contract Labor, Sugar, and Technology in the Nineteenth Century.” this Journal, 43, no. 3 (1983): 635–59.Google Scholar
Erickson, Charlotte. “Why Did Contract Labour Not Work in the Nineteenth-Century United States?” In International Labour Migration: Historical Perspectives, edited Shula, Marks and Peter, Richardson, 34–56. London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 1984.Google Scholar
Fenoaltea, Stefano. “Slavery and Supervision in Comparitive Perspective: A Model.” this Journal 44, no. 3 (1984): 635–68.Google Scholar
Finkelman, Paul. “Evading the Ordinance: The Persistence of Bondage in Indiana and Illinois.” Journal of the Early Republic 9 (spring 1989): 21–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleisig, Heywood. “Slavery, the Supply of Agricultural Labor, and the Industrialization the South.” this Journal 36, no. 3 (1976): 572–97.Google Scholar
Fogel, , Robert, William. Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1989.Google Scholar
Fogel, , Robert, William, and Stanley, L. Engerman. Time on the Cross: The Economics American Negro Slavery. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1974.Google Scholar
Galenson, David W.White Servitude in Colonial America: An Economic Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Galenson, David W. “The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic Analysis.” this Journal 44, no. 1 (1984): 1–26.Google Scholar
Gates, Paul W.Landlords and Tenants on the Prairie Frontier. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Goldin, , Claudia, Dale. Urban Slavery in the American South, 1820–1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Gordon, Thomas F.A Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey. Trenton, NJ: Daniel Fenton, 1834.Google Scholar
Gray, , Lewis, Cecil. Histoiy of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860. New York: Peter Smith, 1941.Google Scholar
Greene, , Lorenzo, Johnston. The Negro in Colonial New England. New York: Columbia University Press, 1942.Google Scholar
Gregg, William. Essays on Domestic Industry. [1845]. Reprinted in Cotton Mill, Commercial Features, by Tomkins, D. A., 203–40. Charlotte, NC: D. A. Tomkins, 1899.Google Scholar
Hansen, L. A. “Farming Prospects in the South.” The American Farmer, 1 (11 1866): 138.Google Scholar
Harper, Chancellor. “Chancellor Harper's Memoir on Slavery.” DeBow's Review 10 (01 1851): 47–65.Google Scholar
Higman, B. W. “Population and Labor in the British Caribbean in the Early Nineteenth Century.” In Long-term Factors in American Economic Growth, Studies in Income and Wealth, vol. 51, edited by Stanley, L. Engerman and Robert, E. Gallman, 605–39. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Holbrook, Jay Mack. Rhode Island 1782 Census. Oxford, MA: Holbrook Research Institute, 1979.Google Scholar
Irwin, James R. “Exploring the Affinity of Wheat and Slavery in the Virginia Piedmont.” Explorations in Economic History 25 (1988): 295–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
, J. S., “Slavery.” Southern Planter 1 (08 1841): 137–39.Google Scholar
Jacoby, Sanford M.Employing Bureaucracy: Managers, Unions, and the Transformation of Work in American Industry, 1900–1945. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Jacoby, Sanford M., and Sunil, Sharma. “Employment Duration and Industrial Labor Mobility in the United States, 1880–1980.” this Journal 52, no. 1 (1992): 161–79.Google Scholar
Keyssar, Alexander. Out of Work: The First Century of Unemployment in Massachusetts. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Kulikoff, Alan. Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680–1800. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Lander, Ernest M. “The Iron Industry in Ante-bellum South Carolina.” Journal of Southern History 20, no. 3 (1954): 337–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lazear, Edward P. “Agency, Earnings Profiles, Productivity and Hours Restrictions.” American Economic Review 71, no. 4 (1981): 606–20.Google Scholar
Lewis, Ronald L.Coal, Iron and Slaves. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Liancourt, Duc de la Rochefoucault. Travels through the United States of North America, the Country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. London: R. Phillips, 1799.Google Scholar
Lyell, , Sir, Charles. A Second Visit to the United States of North America. Vol. 2. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1849.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKee, Samuel. Labor in Colonial New York; 1664–1776. New York: Columbia University Press, 1935.Google Scholar
Miller, , Randall, Martin. The Cotton Mill Movement in Antebellum Alabama. New York: Amo Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Broadus, William, Gregg: Factory Master of the Old South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1929.Google Scholar
Moohr, Michael. “The Economic Impact of Slave Emancipation in British Guiana, 1832–1852.” Economic History Review 25, no. 4 (1972): 588–607.Google Scholar
Montgomery, James. A Practical Detail of the Cotton Manufacture of the United States of America. Glasgow: John Niven, 1840.Google Scholar
Morgan, Phillip D. “Task and Gang Systems: The Organization of Labor on New World Plantations.” In Work and Labor in Early America, edited by Stephen, Innes, 189–220, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Nelson, Daniel. Managers and Workers. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Oi, Walter Y. “Labor as a Quasi-Fixed Factor.” Journal of Political Economy, 70 supplement (1962): 538–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, John F. “Clock Time Versus Real Time: A Comparison of the Lengths of the Northern and Southern Agricultural Work Years.” In Without Consent or Contract: Technical Papers. Vol. 1, edited by Robert, W. Fogel and Stanley, Engerman, 216–40. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1992.Google Scholar
Parker, William N. “Agriculture,” in American Economic Growth, edited by Lance, E. Davis, Richard, A. Easterlin, and William, N. Parker, 369–417. New York: Harper and Row, 1972.Google Scholar
Philips, Ulrich B.American Negro Slaveiy. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1918.Google Scholar
Price, William S. “Commercial Benefits of Slavery.” Hunt's Merchants Magazine and Commercial Review 29 (09 1853): 326–31.Google Scholar
Pritchett, Jonathan B., and Richard, M. Chamberlain. “Selection in the Market for Slaves: New Orleans, 1830–1860.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 108, no. 2 (1993): 461–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prude, Jonathan. The Coming of Industrial Order. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Ransom, Roger L., and Richard, Sutch. One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Rees, Albert. “Information Networks in Labor Markets.” American Economic Review 56, no. 2 (1966): 559–66.Google Scholar
Reid, , Joseph, D. Jr. “Sharecropping as an Understandable Market Response: The Post-Bellum South.” this Journal 33, no. 1 (03 1973): 106–30.Google Scholar
Robert, , Joseph, Clarke. The Tobacco Kingdom. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1938.Google Scholar
Rosenbloom, Joshua L. Employment Agencies and Labor Exchanges Before the First World War: An Examination of the Methods of Labor Market Adjustment. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Kansas, 1990.Google Scholar
Rosenbloom, Joshua L. “Employer Recruitment and the Integration of Industrial Labor Markets, 1870–1914.” NBER Historical Paper 53, Cambridge, MA, 01 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothenberg, , Winifred, Barr. From Market-Places to a Market Economy: The Transformation of Rural Massachusetts, 1750–1850. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Salinger, Sharon V.To Serve Well and Faithfully”: Labor and Indentured Servants in Pennsylvania, 1682–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Salmon, , Maynard, Lucy. Domestic Service. New York: MacMillan, 1897.Google Scholar
Saluda, . “Negroes in the Workshop.” Southern Cultivator 18 (07 1860): 204–05.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Hubert G.Agriculture in New Jersey: A Three Hundred Year Histoty. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Schob, David E.Hired Hands and Plowboys: Farm Labor in the Midwest, 1815–60. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Shlomowitz, Ralph. “Plantations and Smallholdings: Comparative Perspectives from the World Cotton and Sugar Cane Economies, 1865–1939.” Agricultural History 58, no. 1 (1984): 1–16.Google Scholar
Sitterson, , Carlyle, J.. Sugar Country: The Cane Sugar Industry in the South, 1753–1950. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1953.Google Scholar
Stampp, Kenneth. The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Antebellum South. New York: Knopf, 1965.Google Scholar
Starobin, Robert S.Industrial Slavery in the Old South. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Steinfeld, Robert J.The Invention of Free Labor: The Employment Relation in English and American Law and Culture, 1350–1870. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Stigler, George J.Domestic Servants in the United States, 1900–1940. NBER Occasional Paper 24, New York, 04 1946.Google Scholar
Stigler, George J. “Information in the Labor Market.” Journal of Political Economy 70 supplement (1962): 94–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutherland, Daniel E.Americans and Their Servants. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Terrill, Tom E. “Eager Hands: Labor for Southern Textiles, 1850–1860.” this Journal. 36, no. 1 (1976): 84–99.Google Scholar
Turner, , Edward, Raymond. The Negro in Pennsylvania. Washington, DC: American Historical Association, 1911.Google Scholar
Walton, , , J. C. “Coolie.” In Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed. Vol. 6, 375–77. London: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1929.Google Scholar
Ware, Caroline F.The Early New England Cotton Manufacture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931.Google Scholar
Way, Peter. Common Labour: Workers and the Digging of North American Canals 1780–1860. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weeden, William B.Early Rhode Island. New York: Grafton Press, 1910.Google Scholar
Whatley, Warren. “Labor Contracts and Mechanization.” this Journal 46, no. 1 (1987): 45–70.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. “The Vertical Integration of Production: Market Failure Considerations.” American Economic Review 61, no. 2 (1971): 112–23.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E.The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting. New York: MacMillan, 1985.Google Scholar
Woody, R.H. “The Labor and Immigration Problem of South Carolina during Reconstruction.” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 18 (09, 1931): 195–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Gavin. The Political Economy of the Cotton South. New York: Norton, 1978.Google Scholar
Wright, Gavin. Old South, New South: Revolutions in the Southern Economy Since the Civil War. New York: Basic Books, 1986.Google Scholar