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The Jurisprudence of American Slave Sales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Jenny B. Wahl
Jenny B. Wahl
Affiliation:
The author is Associate Professor of Economics, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN 55057
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Abstract

An analysis of all appellate cases involving slave-sales reveals that southern courts helped minimize the costs of trading in slaves. Slave-sales law also surpassed other contemporaneous commercial law in sophistication. Why? Greater information gaps between slave buyers and sellers called for more complex institutional support. The enormous property value embodied by slaves also led to more litigation, greater need for settled law, and a more even match of power between plaintiff and defendant. Additionally, legal rules surrounding slave sales substituted for the employment law governing free-labor markets.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 143 - 169
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1996

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