EconTalk Stanley Engerman on Slavery
30 snips
Nov 21, 2006 
Stanley Engerman, economist and co-author of Time on the Cross, offers deep historical perspective on slavery worldwide. He traces how people became enslaved, legal codes and incentives used to manage labor, manumission practices, and the economic value and profitability of slavery before the Civil War. The conversation also covers methodology, regional persistence into the 19th century, and the war’s connections to slave wealth.
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Slavery Was A Global Persistent Institution
- Slavery has been the most ubiquitous human institution across time and cultures.
- Stanley Engerman cites Biblical codes, global legal protections, and the UN noting slavery persisted into the 20th century as evidence.
Three Defining Features Of Slavery
- Core features define slavery: buy/sell status, near-lifetime status, and matrilineal inheritance.
- Engerman notes Old Testament variations (seventh-year frees, 50-year frees) but stresses those three shared characteristics.
Slaves Came From War Captivity And Voluntary Sales
- Many slaves were acquired as war captives but voluntary enslavement existed when the desperate sold themselves.
- Engerman highlights both coercive kidnappings and low-income people selling themselves to survive.
