I90 / ORIGINS OF THE ECONOMIC INDICTMENT OF SLAVERY

Perhaps the most substantial new additions of economic
information during the intervening century were made by
Ulrich B. Phillips and by the authors of the various state
studies of slavery. But Phil1ips’s series on slave prices were
more relevant to the issue of the profitability of slavery to
planters than to the issues of efficiency and growth posed
by Clay, Helper, Olmsted, and Caimes. While Phillips and
the authors of the state studies did much to unearth in
formation on the operations of the very large plantations —
generally those with more than one hundred slaves — these
findings pertained mainly to the question of the material
conditions of the lives of slaves, although some light was
shed on the managerial qualities of planters. Other sig-
nificant precliometric additions to the underlying corpus
of knowledge about the operation of the slave economy
are described in appendix C. These other additions, like
those discussed here, did not fundamentally alter the case
for the deleterious effects of slavery on efficiency and growth
made by the architects of the economic indictment.

As a consequence, the writings of these men, particularly
those of Olmsted and Cairnes, have never been allowed to
slip into the category of intellectual history. Continual re-
liance on their arguments and their evidence by modern
writers has kept their indictment alive, has maintained
their position as the principal antagonists on the issues of
efficiency, growth, and even on the issues of the profitability
‘and viability of slavery. Their work is the core around which
the traditional interpretation of slavery has been molded.

Six.

Paradoxes of
Forced Labor

The Relative Efficiency
of Slave Agriculture

Since 1968 a group of cliometricians has been working ofl

the measurement of the relative efliciency of input'utiliza- 

tion in the agricultural sectors of the North and South for
the year 1860. The construction of an appropriate measure
is an arduous and complex task, both because the raw dafi
which enter into such a measure are diificult to obtain, and
because of the many adjustments which need to be made
in the raw data, Despite more than five years of work, this
project, which now involves over a score of economists and
their assistants, is still less than half complete. Neverthe-
less, even at this stage, a number of important findings have
emerged which directly contradict the central assertions in
the economic indictment of slavery. While some of these
findings are still preliminary and subject to change, it is
Unlikely that future revisions will overturn the main interim
Conclusions.

-v~':I‘1,1*e primary instrument used to measure and compare