Slave 1
Louisiana Slave Database
The Louisiana Slave Database Project #3
Nicole Dickerson
SOWK 300
Ms. McArthur
March 20, 2010
Slave 2
Abstract
This paper is a summary and an analysis of the selected data in the Louisiana slave database.
Five charts will be analyzed various topics include, runaways, race of the slaves, labor skills,
country of origin, and various languages that the slaves speak.
Slave 3
This chart deals with runaways, slaves that consorted with runaways and slaves that complained
about running away. As with a lot of the data in the Louisiana slave database a considerable
amount of data was missing. However, there is still a lot of data that computed a lot that of facts.
94.9% of the slaves in the Louisiana database have runaway. 3.3% has consorted with a runaway
meaning that they have probably either talked to a runaway or seen around a runaway. 1.8% of
slaves have been heard complaining of runway. 98.9% of the data, a considerable amount, is
missing.
Slave 4
This chart shows the various races of the slaves in the Louisiana slave database. Black, Indian,
Métis, Grif, Mulatto, Quadroon, Octoroon, and Other are the races represented here. The Metis
being a mix of White and Indian. There is a category for “missing” data as well.
The largest race represented is Black with 84% of all the races. Mulatto is 5 % being the second
largest racial group enslaved. Indian, Grif, and Quadroon all have considerable percentages
represented even though they are still considerably smaller than Black and Mulatto. “Missing”
data category has a large percentage with 9.7%.
Slave 5
This chart shows the various skills of the slaves. Security, fishing & hunting, horse/cattle,
domestic, agriculture, forestry/limber, land transport, water transport, industry, marketing, crafts,
and health are all jobs represented. The three largest skilled labor jobs were agriculture, domestic
and crafts.
The domestic category has the largest percent with 31.1% while crafts are second with 22.5%.
Agriculture is a close third with 22.6% of the total percentage. Land transport is 10.2,
forestry/lumber 5.8%, horse/cattle 4% with a considerable decline in percentage afterwards. In
total there were 100,666 slaves accounted for.
Slave 6
This chart shows the various countries of origin that the Louisiana slaves came from.
Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, West Central Africa,
and Mozambique, are all the countries represented. Also, unidentified, African only and coastal
origins only are also represented.
The coastal regions have the largest percentage with 38.5%. African only has 24.6%, West
central Africa 12.9%, Senegambia 9.8%, and Bight of Benin 7.8%. Bight of Biafra, Sierra Leone,
Gold Coast and Mozambique all has considerable lower percentages. 24.6% of the slaves were
from Africa only and 75.8% of the data was missing.
Slave 7
This chart represents the various languages spoken by the slaves in Louisiana. Mande, Gur, Kwa,
Gbe, Adamawa ,Afro-Asiatic, Benue-Congo, Bantu-Mozambique, West Atlantic,
Typonym/unclear are the categories represented. Benue-Congo, Mande, West Atlantic and Kwa
are the largest language groups represented.
36.6% is the largest percent, Benue-Congo is the largest. Mande is second with 19.8% and Kwa
is third with 13.5% of the total. West Atlantic, Gbe and Gur also have significant percentages
represented. All others are considerably lower than the others, ranging from 1.5% to .2% of the
total population.
Slave 8
Summary and Conclusion
This paper is a summary and an analysis of the selected data in the Louisiana slave
database. Five charts will be analyzed various topics include, runaways, race of the slaves, labor
skills, country of origin, and various languages that the slaves speak. Black, Indian, Metis, Grif,
Mulatto, Quadroon, Octoroon, and Other are the races represented. The Louisiana slaves came
from. Senegambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, Bight of Biafra, West Central
Africa, and Mozambique, are all the countries represented. Security, fishing & hunting,
horse/cattle, domestic, agriculture, forestry/limber, land transport, water transport, industry,
marketing, crafts, and health are all jobs represented. The three largest skilled labor jobs were
agriculture, domestic and crafts. Mande, Gur, Kwa, Gbe, Adamawa ,Afro-Asiatic, Benue-Congo,
Bantu-Mozambique, West Atlantic, Typonym/unclear are the categories represented. Benue-
Congo, Mande, West Atlantic and Kwa are the largest language groups represented.
The Louisiana slave database is a fairly expansive one that has way more data than what
we had to deal with. The database includes a lot of good information. The data was broken down
into many categories the categories range from country of origin to owner. The information
given in the codebook was easy to read and made the data very understandable.
Slave 9
References
http://ibiblio.org/laslave/downloads.php
http://ibiblio.org/laslave/downloads/Slaves_DB_Codes.txt
