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Running Head: ANNOTATED GRAPHS: SLAVE TRADE VALUES

Annotated Graphs: Slave Trade Values, Mean Price by Gender and Origin, Age Categories, and All
Slaves by Gender

Jazmine Norwood

SOWK 300

McArthur

Tuskegee University
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Mean Price by Gender

Mean Price by Gender

40
35
30
25
% Value

Male
20
Female
15
10
5
0
1$ to 501$ to 1,001$ to 5,001$ to 10,001$ 50,001$ 100,001$
500$ 1,000$ 5,000$ 10,000$ to to and Up
50,000$ 100,000$
Price of Slaves

This graph is showing the mean price of males and females. The prices range from one dollar to
more than one hundred thousand. The amount for females being bought between one dollar and one
thousand dollars were higher than males. All other price categories were higher for males. Of course more
slaves were bought at a lower price but some slaves were bought at a very high price. The percentage of
slaves that were bought at one hundred thousand dollars and higher was 0.7% for males and 0.6% for
females. As the price rises the amount of slaves being purchased at these prices decrease.

Females at this time may have been bought at lower prices because they would also be
good in the reproduction of more slaves for a plantation. Females that were bought at a higher
price may be lighter of skin and good to be slaves that work within the house; women with
extremely fair skin also may catch the eye of a plantation worker and be kept as a sex slave or
wife. Males bought at a lower price will most likely be younger boys and maybe infants and the
elderly. The males that were bought at higher prices may have been slaves that were stronger
which could allow for more work to be done around the plantation; they would be of much more
value than a young male.
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Mean Price by Origin

This graph represents the mean price of slaves by their origin. In the price range one to
five hundred dollars the percentage was the same for Senegambia and Sierra Leone. The
percentage was also the same for Sierra Leone and Central Africa for the price range of five
hundred to one thousand dollars. For all countries the price was low with the percentages 0.3%
for Senegambia, 0.2% for Sierra Leone, and 0.1% for Central Africa. The highest range for
Central Africa was between one thousand to five thousand dollars and ten thousand to fifty
thousand dollars.

Upon viewing the results it looks as though it was cheaper to purchase slaves form
Senegambia and Sierra Leone. Although the percentages lowered as the prices rose, Central
Africa had the highest purchase percentage at the higher prices. This shows that slaves who
originated from Central America were at a higher value than from any other country. Sierra
Leone was also at a high value for slaves who originated from there. When looking at the price
range of one hundred thousand and up the highest percentage was 0.3% for Senegambia. This
shows that all though the percentage was higher for Central America at a lower price, purchasing
a slave from Senegambia at such a high price was rare and the slave must have been high in
value.
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Age Categories

This graph looks at the age categories of slaves from three different countries. Looking at
Africans only, the percentage was highest for Young, Adult and Old. There were many more Old
Africans only with a percentage of 76.3%. More Infants were from Senegambia showing the
highest percentage for this country. The percentage for pregnant were high for every country and
if a mother was nursing the percentage was the highest for Senegambia. For Central Africa the
lowest percentage was 0.7% for the Old category. Slaves in the categories of Infant and Child
were more likely to be from Central Africa.

The results show that more slaves were Africans only and the reason may be due to the
fact that slaves were first bought from Africa. Perhaps it was later that slaves were brought from
other countries which would cause the percentages to be so low. Infants may have been a
beneficial purchase because they were so young. A possible reason why nursing infants had the
high percentage was because plantation owners were more likely to purchase two slaves for the
price of one. Because slaves were originally brought from Africa would cause slaves in the
Young, Adult, and Old categories to have such high percentages.
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All Slaves by Gender

This graph represents all slaves by gender and by age. Females had the highest
percentage at 50.7% for ages .1 to 20 yrs. For every other age category males was highest and
the highest percentage was 45.2% for the ages of 21 to 40 yrs. By the ages of 81 to100 yrs. there
were no females and barely any men. The percentages decrease dramatically after the age of 40
to below half. As the ages increase, the amount of slaves still living decrease.

The percentage for females may be as high as they were due to the fact that females could
reproduce for plantations and the younger a female was the more opportunities she had to
reproduce more children. Males that were between the ages of 21 to 40 had high percentages
possibly because they were more likely to be able to do more work on the plantations. As the
ages increase, the number of slaves decreased and this may be due to disease and the simple fact
that more slaves at these ages were beginning to get old. Because slaves had to begin work at
such an early age reaching to be 40 would be good but when adding in the fact that hard labor
had to be done every day, their bones were more brittle and their ability to work as well was
diminished. The percentages were so low for the older ages because as slaves got older they may
have just been placed somewhere to die or placed in a job that required little work. Another
reason the percentages were so low was possibly due to disease as stated earlier.
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Summary and Conclusion

When looking at all the research that was collected and viewing the results once crosstabs
were completed it was interesting to see what the results would be. When looking at the mean
price by gender it was interesting to see the prices range from one dollar to over one hundred
thousand dollars. In looking at the mean price by origin, one could see from what country would
cost the most to purchase a slave from. One could also see the age categories of the slaves and
from what country they were from. In the last graph the percentages represent the gender of
slaves and what ages they were. Looking at all the graphs show how slaves were treated by
showing at what prices slave owners believed that another human being was worth. It also
showed how slaves came from other countries other than Africa and the history of African
Americans today. The results of each graph paint very different pictures from one another but
each have a sense of truthfulness in how slaves were looked at as property and merchandise. It
would be important for anyone to know and understand what their ancestors went thorough and
how much has changed since then.