Capital and Coercion: Slavery after the 1807 Import Ban in the Cape Colony

The 1807 Slave Trade Act banned slave imports across the British Empire, triggering a sharp supply shock. Using newly digitised tax censuses from the Cape Colony, this article examines slave accumulation patterns in Stellenbosch and Graaff-Reinet following the supply shock. Despite stark ecological and institutional differences, both districts show similar post-abolition trajectories. This challenges models linking coercion to land–labour ratios, supervision costs, or frontier openness. Testing five frameworks, the paper finds the strongest support for the view of slaves as capital assets. Wealthier households continued accumulating slaves, suggesting slavery persisted not only as labour but as an asset strategy amid capital scarcity.