Few institutions have been as ubiquitous as slavery: it has existed in most societies for most of history and has largely disappeared in the last two centuries. Its endurance is surprising given that economic intuition suggests slavery should be less productive than free labor. We explore the economic analysis of slavery as it developed from the time of Adam Smith through the Cliometric Revolution and on to today, and we pay specific attention to the relationship between the economics of slavery and the public choice tradition. Slavery arises and persists because (for the enslavers) its benefits exceed its costs, which include the costs of securing political support. Public choice, therefore, has a lot to contribute to slavery’s economic and political history. We pay special attention to the framing of the US Constitution, as it has attracted considerable interest from scholars in all disciplines interested in slavery’s persistence in a country dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal. Much work remains to be done, so we close by discussing some remaining open questions.

This talk is presented by the Economic History Seminar, sponsored by the Department of Economics with generous gifts given through the Harrison Metal Visiting Scholar Award Fund and the Economics Strategic Fund.