How the international slave trade underdeveloped Africa

The Journal of Economic History • Vol/Iss. 82(2) • Cambridge University Press • • Published In • Pages: 403-441 •
By Whatley, Warren

Abstract

The goal of the paper is to demonstrate how international slave trade spread the institution of slavery throughout Africa, resulting in long-term effects of the continent’s income and political centralization. The author first estimated the travel time to slave ports from each society in the Ethnographic Atlas to determine predicting factors for the adoption of slave trade in African societies. The author reported that societies with high exposure to slave capture in the past were more likely to have the custom of slavery and the custom of polygyny. The author further suggested that slavery institutions emerged in West Africa through local, politically centralized aristocratic systems while emerging in East Africa through the preservation of wealth within the nuclear family over generations.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
Ethnographic Atlas (EA)Combination

Hypotheses (4)

HypothesisSupported
The international slave trade will be positively correlated with the spread of slavery in Africa.Supported
Proximity to an international slave port may increase the spread of slavery and polygyny jointly.Supported
In East Africa, proximity to an international slave port predicts a greater probability that a society will be organized around preservation of intergenerational slave wealth in nuclear-polygynous families, independent of political institutions.Supported
In West Africa, proximity to an international slave port predicts a greater probability that a society will be organized around preservation of slave wealth in nuclear polygynous families under inherited local political aristocracies.Supported
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: matthew.g.roth  danielle.russell  jacob.kalodner