1. Jenny Wahl Economics Department Carleton College
Understanding and Teaching the Roots of the Civil War, part 2 EDS 112 Summer Institute 2009
Jenny Wahl
Economics Department
Carleton College

2. Number of Fugitive Slaves by State, 1850 and 1860
Source: Table Bb , Historical Statistics, Millennial Edition.

3. Prices, Prime Male Slaves, Various Markets, 1830-1860
Source: U.B. Phillips, Life and Labor in the Old South, as estimated by Evans, The Economics of Negro Slavery, corrected by Hummel and Weingast (WP).

4. Effect of Escape Probability Upon Slave Price
Probability of escape Price 0%
0.01%
0.10% 1% 5%
10%
Assumptions: 10% rate of return, constant probability of escape, discount by premium proportional to probability of loss

5. Percent of Permanent Fugitive Prime Males by State, 1850 and 1860

6. [I]t was necessary to offer a greater reward, and such as would probably be sufficient to induce men to consult their own interests, regardless of the public sentiment around them [N]ot only [are] fugitives more frequently now than formerly returned to their owners, but [also] the difficulty of final escape has had some tendency to prevent others from attempting it.
-- Elliott v. Gibson, 10 B. Mon. 438, 442 (Ky. 1850, referring to a statute requiring owners to pay $100 to captors of fugitive slaves.