Urban Slavery in the American South 1820-1860: A Quantitative History.
GOLDIN, Claudia Dale.
Urban Slavery in the American South 1820-1860: A Quantitative History.
First Edition of Urban Slavery in the American South 1820-1860; Inscribed by Claudia Dale Goldin
Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1976.
$3,800.00
In Stock
Item Number: 150746
First edition of the Nobel Prize-winning economist’s classic first book, an economic analysis of enslaved labor in Southern cities during the 1800s. Octavo, original publisher’s cloth, illustrated with maps and graphs. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, “Nov. 2024 For Ruth – My first book! Regards – Claudia Goldin.” Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Rare and desirable signed and inscribed.
'Urban Slavery in the American South, 1820–1860: A Quantitative History' by Claudia Dale Goldin is a pioneering economic history that uses demographic, occupational, and price data to analyze the patterns and dynamics of enslaved labor in Southern cities during the antebellum period. Challenging earlier assumptions about the decline of urban slavery, Goldin applies quantitative methods to assess how demand for enslaved workers in urban markets changed relative to rural areas and how factors such as labor elasticity, rising slave prices, and competition with free labor influenced urban slave populations. Her careful statistical modeling and use of probate, census, and wage records provide a nuanced understanding of how slavery interacted with processes of urbanization and economic change in the American South between 1820 and 1860.
