I wish to construct a time series charting the estimates of the neo-classical rates of exploitation of slave workers as done by Fogel & Engerman in "Time on the Cross." The period that I am studying is between 1830-1865, and I wish to break down the exploitation rates and study changes which take place in the rate at intervals of 5 years. I cannot seem to find the requisite data and would be grateful if you kindly point out what sources I should look at.
The Answer
My response to this question is that it seems rather ambitious. As I recall the rate of income expropriation estimated by Fogel and Engerman was for the entire life of a slave. This required slave prices and estimates of maintainence costs by age (I am assuming you are interested in reproducing the estimates found on pages 119 and on in vol. 2 of TOTC). The slave price data is described in Table B.1 of vol. 2. I believe that the actual samples of prices and the data used to estimate maintainence costs are available through the ICPSR at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. They can be downloaded from their website: www.icpsr.umich.edu.
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