The average price of a prime slave from 1860 was about $1,500. Using the consumer price index, that's the equivalent of about $44,100 in 2014. The raw US average wage in 2014 was $44,569 according to the Social Security Administration.
The annual mean price of the labor of a slave from 1860 brought a return on investment of about 12%, and on a month to month basis about 14%. In 2014, corporate profits before taxes came to 12.7% of GDP.
Total slave population in 1860 is estimated to be 3.95 million, 14.7% of the total white population.
The annual mean price of the labor of a slave from 1860 brought a return on investment of about 12%, and on a month to month basis about 14%. In 2014, corporate profits before taxes came to 12.7% of GDP.
Total slave population in 1860 is estimated to be 3.95 million, 14.7% of the total white population.
See The Economics of American Negro Slavery by Robert Evans Jr. of MIT (1962), here.
