The price of a slave was generally thought to be ten thousand times the price of cotton. Thus 10 cents per pound for cotton would yield a slave value of $1,000. “The old rule of pricing a negro by the price of cotton by the pound… does not seem to be regarded. Negroes are 25 per cent higher now with cotton at ten and a half cents than they were two or three years ago when it was worth fifteen and sixteen cents…. A reversal will come soon”. The price of a slave in Virginia was lower than that for a slave in New Orleans, reflecting the closeness of the slave to actual cotton production.