comparison data, U.S. Civil War

Prices of slaves on the eastern shore of Maryland before the Civil War.

Harriet Tubman Memorial Statue in Harlem, New York. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Watched the uplifting and depressing movie Harriet last night. Second time I’ve seen it. Fabulous tale about the efforts of Harriet Tubman in liberating herself from slavery, then liberating most of her family, eventually freeing about 70 people from slavery.

After watching the movie again, wanted to pull together a recap of the posts on this site which discuss slavery. Most of this discussion is based on Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero, by Kate Clifford Larson, which is the first adult biography of Harriet Tubman published since 1943.

A thin sliver of highlights from the book, primarily about the pricing of slaves:

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Viking Era

Tidbits on money and fighting in the Viking Age

Viking coin replica based on archaeological findings. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Fun article on Viking coinage and more tidbits on fighting techniques.

Coins in the Viking Era

Some background on striking coins during the Viking era can be found at The Viking Network. Article dated 6/21/15 explained Vikings in Norway make their own Coins.

First silver coins flowing into Scandinavia were Arabic dirhems. Later pennies from England and the continent were a bigger portion of the coins. Even later, various kings in Scandinavia minted their own coins.

A large horde dated to 1010 A.D. or earlier contains three coins with an inscription of “ONLAF REX NOR”, which the article translates as “Olav King of the Norwegians.” Article points out it is unknown whether this is Olav Tryggvason or Olav Haraldsson.

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Middle Ages, Viking Era

Norwegian Forest Cat – cute, handy pet of the Vikings

Isn’t that Norwegian Forest Cat a cutie? Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

 

Yes, there is such a breed.  The Norwegian Forest Cat runs on the large size, with males ranging from 13 to 22 pounds.

No visible date – i iz cat (yes, that’s the website’s name) – Some facts about the Norwegian forest cat, the pet of Vikings.

Tradition holds that Vikings carried them along on raids to hold down the number of mice on board and thus minimize the lost grain.

Legend hold that Freya, the Norse goddess, used six large cats to pull her chariot.

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Other eras

More thoughts about life on a farm in 1946

1916: Ranghild Gunderson, Randi Gunderson Venn, Lydia Venn Ulvog, Gilbert Ulvog. Copyright has long since expired. Photo courtesy of Sonia Strand Pooch.

Been thinking more on what life was like on the farm after my grandfather passed away.

Consider the cash expenses again – notice there are no bills for electricity, telephone, water, or sewer. Such things weren’t in place.

I’ll guess seed and other critical farm supplies were purchased on credit from Yankton Production Credit. The payment of $2,104 on 9/1/45 would have cleared the loan balance for the year, and perhaps any carryover balance from prior years.

Speculation on non-cash transactions

A few thoughts come to mind on non-cash transactions outside the probate document.

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Other eras

A wild guess on the parts of King Solomon’s wealth that can be quantified – part 4

What would that stack of gold have been worth 1,000 or 3,000 years ago? Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Let’s try bringing together the previous guesses (can’t even call them estimates) of the value of those portions of King Solomon’s wealth that are mentioned in scriptures which we can make a feeble attempt to quantify.

An estimate of the value of chariots, horses, 200 large gold shields, 300 small gold shields, and place settings made of gold:

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Other eras

Observations of life on a farm in 1946

1895: Rachel Josephine (left) and Lydia Johanna Venn – daughters of Jens & Randi Venn. Copyright has long since expired. Photo courtesy of Sonia Strand Pooch.

Life was hard after my grandfather passed from this vale of tears. Any way you look at the income and expenses it is obvious life was hard. Must have been really difficult for my dear paternal grandmother to raise the four kids still at home.

The narratives from my aunts and uncles make that very obvious and the dollar transactions prove it.

Farm was essentially self-contained

It is amazing how self-contained the farm was.

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Other eras

Guess at value of 1946 estate expressed in 2019 dollars

 

The values assigned to my grandfather’s estate when it was probated are listed here.

My determination of a adjustment factor of 13 to bring 1946 prices forward to today is shown here.

The extended string of assumptions I’ve made shows a rough guess of the estate:

  • 1946-  worth $8,085 gross, with $7,785 after the administratrix fee due to my grandmother.
  • 2019 – worth about $105,000 gross and about $100,000 after the only listed liability.

Detail of the assets are:

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Other eras

Consumer price index from 1940 through 2019

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

For an indicator of the changes in prices from the World War 2 era through today I pulled CPI information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This info will roll into my comments on the probate document for my grandfather’s estate.

It is also useful for general information.

The furthest into the table I can link is here: https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?cu

The data is the CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from 1940 through 2019 from Series Id: CUUR0000SA0.

Select data:

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