(11-08-2018, 02:04 AM)jj82284 Wrote: Was the cost of retaining and keeping slaves solely on the part of the slave owner, or was there some form of state subsidy?

The costs were on the owner.  There was a sort of subsidy in that slaves were property and property taxes were generally not collected in those days in the South.  The Southern state governments were funded by fees and, later, by income taxes.
You read that right.  The slave owning planter class that controlled Southern politics was so tax averse that they passed income taxes rather than property taxes.  The opposite of what Florida does today.

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