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Project #3 THE LOUISIANNA SLAVE

Project #3 THE LOUISIANNA SLAVE DATABASE

Clinton Ferguson

SOWK 300-01 Spring

Ms. McArthur

March 18th, 2010

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Descriptive: In this graph we see the percentage of males and females from the 100,000
slave’s who were brought to Louisiana and documented during the 18th and 19th century. This
pie chart shows us that there were more male slaves than female slaves. Male slaves were more
valuable to slave owners than female slaves as indicated by price differential. I believe the reason
behind this is that in majority agriculture industry male slaves can have more output in the fields
than female slaves based sole on physical superiority. Many of the male slaves hold the jobs that
profit the owners more thus the demand by the slave owners for more male slaves than female
slaves. Female slaves are more likely to work in the house of the slave owner’s family than
male slaves. Being that plantation owners had more field than house it makes sense that there are
more recorded male slaves than female.

Interpretive: My interpretation of this data is that there was a greater demand for male slaves
because they can profit the owner more in an agricultural business than female slaves. With
56.43% of the slave sample population male and 43.57% female this is a very unequal
population and is cause for an investigation into why these figures are so uneven. Physical labor
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was what the slave owner pushed on their slaves and the better or more able to perform these
duty’s a slave was determined his or her value. By no means am I downplaying the women’s
role in the labor that was forcefully imposed on these slaves but I am interpreting this data as
suggesting that male slaves are stronger which means they produce more which ultimately means
more profit for the slave owner. Considered as property plantation owners profited heavily from
the labor of many enslaved Africans and it is evident through this data the value that these slaves
had for the owners.

Descriptive: This data graph gives the race of the 100,000 documented slaves from the 17th and
18th century. Here we can see the specific race of the slaves and shows the various races that
comprised these 100,000 slaves to clarify a couple of terms that might be foreign I found
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definitions on grif, mulatto, octoroon and quadroon. A grif was a name that originated during this
time in 1715 it’s derived from the Spanish word grifo which means curly hair. Grif is one who
has one black parent and one mulatto parent of Indian and black ancestry and as we see there are
851 grief’s in this sample. A quadroon is one who is one fourth black having one biracial parent
of African and Caucasian decent and one parent of just Caucasian decent. An octoroon is one
who is one eighth black and as we see there was only one documented octoroon of the 100,000
slave sample.

Interpretive: This data shows us the racial makeup of the 100,000 slaves. Nearly 85% of the
slave sample is 100% considered black. Those who made up the half black population were
called mulattos and there were 5,038 mulattos that are documented this is 5% of the sample.
There are 253 quadroon slaves that are documented and to point out a trend the more white
ancestry that an individual has the less likely they will be enslaved as the data suggests. Of the
100,000 slaves that we are sampling there are only 295 American Indians that were documented
as enslaved this is a significant find. The presence of so many mixed races with Caucasian
indicates the inter racial mating that was taking place.
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Description: This graph shows the African region that the sampled 100,000 slaves are originally
from or enslaved at. There are many countries in Africa and Africa is a very big continent so it is
enlightening to see where many of these enslaved Africans are from or taken from. We see here
that many slaves were taken from Senegambia and the bright of Benin. Consistent with the time
period and the routes of the Trans Atlantic slave trade many of these slaves were captured
towards the western coast of Africa. As the years progressed and the slave trade increased the
capturing of Africans moved inward towards central Africa. Many Africans didn’t have a
chance of escaping capture as their chiefs and leaders sold them to white slave traders this is one
of the horrific dimensions of the slave trade of this era.

Interpretive: 30.05% of the sampled slaves were from the Senegambia region of Africa and
24.6% are listed as from Africa only. The data highlights the areas where the seeking of slaves
took place in most instances Africans are taken from the eastern coast of Africa as this was a stop
in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This data shows us that the further inland of the continental
Africa you go the number of slaves declines significantly. I also believe that physically bigger
Africans comprise the specific regions seen here as the white slave capturers were seeking strong
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slaves and the bigger a slave was the more profit they could turn for the trader. All this means
that slave capturers were seeking big Africans and the correlation between this and the individual
regions that we see here are purposeful.

Description: Here we see the various skills that the sample slaves are categorized under. We see
jobs such as agriculture, domestic, crafts, transportation and many others. This graph gives us
insight into the different skills and jobs that these slaves had. As stated earlier a lot of the duties
of the slaves were considered physically strenuous and to support this we see jobs like
agriculture which generally means field or farm work and crafts which are both considered
physical work this I believe is the reason there are more males than women slaves. Jobs that I
assume are female dominated are domestic, land transport, water transport, health care and
crafts. Many if not all of these duties are demanding physically and mentally not to mention they
are done forcibly this makes me very grateful for how things are today.
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Interpretive: Adding agriculture and crafts which are assumed to be male dominated we have
46% physically strenuous jobs to choose from. Domestic means house and this alone makes up
31.1% of jobs alone this is where I think most of the women were categorized as having. Women
played a strong role in the house and were close to if not as hard as the male jobs. Things like
cooking, cleaning, washing, child rearing, and maintain the house were duties listed under the
skill title domestic. Though slave owners beat and exploited their slaves they also charged them
with the duties of raising their children an ironic twist of the time it just goes to show the
completely stupid logic and reasoning behind the slave owning culture. This graph goes to show
the versatility and skill that these slaves had and were capable of even though history some
books only show slaves in the field picking cotton.

Descriptive: This graph shows us the percent of the sampled slaves listed as runaway and gives
us the different categories. Of the data that I have examined this seems to be the most surprising.
Here it shows that of the 100,000 slaves sampled 95% have ran away. In investigating runaway
category the method of the runaway slave catcher is they would catch then interrogate the
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runaway slaves in attempt to gain knowledge of conspirators thus we see the consorted with
slaves category. 95% of these slaves ran away that means that 95,000 slaves attempted to run
away. 1.8% of these slaves complained about runaways who show the Uncle Tom percentage of
these slaves or in other words the slaves who would inform the masters of infractions of the rules
by other slaves.

Interpretive: This data is striking suggesting that nearly 95% of these slaves ran away this is a
testament to the harsh treatment and conditions these slaves were subject to. 95,000 slaves ran
away of the 100.000 and of the remaining 5 percent 3percent conspired with the runaway slaves
this gives a 98% rate. To me this data speaks volumes about the will of these enslaved people to
seek freedom that they are obviously not getting where they were as suggested in many
American history books and lectures. To ignore or downplay the facts of the inhumane treatment
that these people went thru is a testament to the strong feelings of racism that are still being held
onto in this country as well as the strength this racism has now in this day the fact that people are
still clutching to this racist thinking is preposterous.

Conclusion
In conclusion I would like to note the enlightening and useful information that we observed all
due to the documents found of these 100,000 slaves. That said I would like to conclude that these
slaves that we have been so lucky to analyze are amazing of different races, talents, skills,
genders, and regions. The shear diversity of the sampled slaves is astounding the skill ranges of
these enslaved people is amazing and the stress they endured is un thinkable but I am happy to be
able to see this data and be able to analyze it so quickly with the spas. As a history major I was
particularly interested in this project topic I learned a lot of new information about the topic as
well as a valuable tool to help me with my future experiments and research. The first graph
shows us the makeup between the sexes of the 100,000 sampled slaves with 56% male and 43%
female. The second graph gives the race of the 100,000 documented slaves from the 17th and 18th
century. Here we can see the specific race of the slaves and shows the various races that
comprised these 100,000 slaves. Here we see the different degrees of black and mulatto that were
among the 100,000 slaves. The third graph shows the African region that the sampled 100,000
slaves are originally from or enslaved at. This data shows us that the further inland of the
continental Africa you go the number of slaves captured declines significantly. So we get a
glimpse into the region where these Africans are from as well as the region that slave capturers
targeted to find potential slaves. Graph 4 this graph gives us insight into the different skills and
jobs that these slaves had. When thinking about slave duties we are only told of the house jobs
and the field jobs here we get to see the many jobs and talents that slaves had during this time.
The fifth and final graph shows us the staggering figures of slaves that runaway nearly 95% of
the 100,000 sampled slaves actually ran away. I have concluded through this data that life was so
bad for these slaves that nearly every one of them tried to escape the horrors they were being
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subject to. The gruesome physical and mental pain that was endured was tremendous I am
thankful for this data and the chance to be able to take a look into this information. What is
important to see about this data is the fact that 85% of slaves are blacks while 45% are female. In
making my conclusions I have considered all the data in the graphs as well as information given
to us in our required readings for this project.
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