The interregional slave trade was the trade of slaves within the United States that reallocated slaves across states during the antebellum period. The direction of this trade occurred primarily from states of the Old South (Georgia, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia) to states of the Deep South and the West Territories (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida). Transactions in the interregional slave market were driven primarily by interregional differences in the marginal productivity of labor, which were given by the relative advantage between climates for the production of staple goods. This disparity in productivity created arbitrage opportunities for traders to exploit and ultimately facilitated regional specialization in labor production. Due to a lack of data, particularly with regard to slave prices, land values, and export totals for slaves, the true effects of the interregional slave trade on both the economy of the Old South and general migration patterns of slaves into southwestward territories remain uncertain and have served as points of contention among economic historians.
Read more about Interregional Slave Trade: Economics of The Interregional Slave Trade
Famous quotes containing the words slave and/or trade:
“... where there is one slave there are always two—he who wears the chain and he who rivets it.”
—Jeanne De Hericourt (1809–1875)
“The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercised in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)