Slave-dealing was an extremely profitable business. Through natural increase, the upper South produced more slaves than its over-worked soil required, while the lower South needed constant recruits for an ever-increasing labor force on its newly developed plantations. When the price of cotton was high, slave-traders could double their investment by leading long coffles of slaves from one section of the South to the other, despite the expenses of fattening up their wares and giving them medical attention.77
A simple example of the profit to be made in a slave sale is given in two bills of sale relating to transactions of B. Mordecai's firm in Charleston. Mordecai purchased a slave named Abram or Abraham, about fifty years old, for $180, from an estate, on Dec. 3, 1851. The slave was sold about six weeks later for $250. The slave must have been fairly undesirable to bring such a small sum of money, but thirty-nine percent profit was a good return on a six weeks' investment.78
73 The Monsanto brothers owned plantations at Natchez and dealt in slaves there and in New Orleans, where they also maintained a residence. There is good reason to believe that they were Dutch-born Marranos, and if so, they were probably the first residents of Jewish birth in Natchez and in New Orleans. AJA has photostats of documents relating to their transactions in slaves during 1787-1794, from the Office of Chancery, Natchez, and the files of the Louisiana Historical Society contain many references to the brothers and their wives. See also, MC, pp. 456-457, and Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. VII (New York, 1942), p. 586, for additional references to the Monsanto brothers.
74 New Orleans City Directories, for 1823, 1824, 1827, and 1835.
75 Bancroft, op. cit., pp. 93-94.
78 Interview with his grand-daughter, Mrs. Hattie E. Genbrun, recorded by Louis Ginsburg, Petersburg, Aug. 29, 1958.