Black Cargoes: A History of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1518–1865: Difference between revisions

Several more scholarly and quantitative treatises followed ''Black Cargoes''. A reviewer in Reviews of American History in 1982 highlighted some flaws in Mannix and Cowley's analysis. For example, Mannix and Cowley estimated 50 million Africans were moved to the new world as slaves. [[Philip D. Curtin]] in his "pathbreaking" 1969 book ''The Atlantic Slave Trade'' as well as other scholars estimated the total was closer to ten million. Mannix and Cowley estimated that up to approximately 30% of the captured Africans died. More refined estimates averaged less than 20%. Mannix and Cowley claimed that in England and France "it created greater accumulations of wealth than had been known in previous centuries." Subsequent analysis indicated that the return on investment was about 10% or less, about what could be expected from other investments. Nevertheless, the critic concluded that despite its statistical inaccuracies, ''Black Cargoes'' presented a "vivid and compelling picture of the trade, in the process capturing its broader moral significance".<ref>{{cite journal

and ''The Atlantic Slave Trade'' (1994) edited by [[David Northrup (historian)|David Northrup]].<ref>{{cite book