The substitutability of slaves : Evidence from the Eastern frontier of the Cape Colony
The substitutability of the economic institution of slave labour is oftenassumed as a given. Apart from some capital investment to retrain slaves for a different task,essentially their labour could be substituted for any other form of labour. This paper questions that assumption by using a longitudinal study of the Graaff-Reinet district on the eastern frontier of South Africa’s Cape Colony. We ca
