General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: CNN: "Walter Scott was shot dead like a runaway slave" [View all]OldRedneck
(1,397 posts)As best can be determined, in 1861, the average value of a slave was $400. Depending on how you calculate it, in today's money, that's $12,000 to $170,000.
My Great-great-grandaddy owned 83 slaves in the Wilkinson County, Mississippi, 1860 federal slave census. At an average value of $400, that's over $33,000 -- that's a LOT of money in 1861.
Here's a good article discussing the worth of a slave.
One point this article makes is the value of a slave was: Value of what his/her work produced MINUS what it cost to support the slave. Because slaves received the bare minimum of food, clothing, housing, and medical care, the costs were minimal. Compared to free labor, slaves produced more because they could be compelled to produce 24/7/365 whereas free labor wants time off.
I think I am correct in saying that beginning in the early 1840's, the most valuable export from Virginia was slaves who were exported to other states, mostly to the deep South.
While it's true slaves were beaten, tortured, and sometimes killed, they generally were kept alive because of their monetary value. A slave owner could use the value of his slaves as collateral for loans to support his plantation, his sons enrolled in Eastern universities, his wife's shopping trips to Europe -- I know -- I have plantation journals from my g-g-granddaddy and from his cousin's sugar plantation in Louisiana.