Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/242680 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
African Economic History Working Paper Series No. 51/2019
Publisher: 
African Economic History Network (AEHN), s.l.
Abstract: 
According to western observers, slavery was almost universal in Africa by the end of the slave trade era. I investigate the extent to which the international slave trades transformed the institutions of slavery in Africa. I use newly-developed data on travel time to estimate the inland reach of international slave demand. I find that societies in decentralized catchment zones adopted slavery to defend against further enslavement. More generally, I find that the international slave trades incentivized the evolution of aristocratic slave regimes characterized by slavery as a property system, polygyny as a family organization, inheritance of property within the nuclear family and hereditary succession in local politics. I discuss the implications for literatures on long-term legacies in African development.
Subjects: 
Slavery
Slave Trade
Slave Regimes
Institutions
Africa
JEL: 
J47
N17
N37
N47
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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