Trevon Logan, the ENGIE-Axium Endowed Professor of Economics, and Benton Wishart, a recent Ohio State economics alumnus and Dr. Logan’s research assistant, discuss their research into white women’s involvement in the slave trade during the antebellum era. Their work, titled Her Property Transactions: White Women and the Frequency of Female Ownership in the Antebellum Era, shows that white women were involved in 30% of slave transactions as buyers and sellers. Logan and Wishart analyzed data by assigning gender to 30,000 names, revealing the impact of laws that granted women property rights exclusive to enslaved people. This groundbreaking research challenges past misconceptions about women’s roles and highlights the importance of data in historical research.
