Rönnbäck, KlasGalli, StefaniaTheodoridis, DimitriosFaust Larsen, Kathrine2024-03-042024-03-042024-021653-1000 online version1653-1019 print versionhttps://hdl.handle.net/2077/80217It has been proposed that slave societies were the most unequal societies in recorded human history. What little evidence there is shows an ambiguous picture. We contribute with a study on the wealth distribution in a Caribbean society, based on individual-level data for the full population, combining tax and census records into the largest comparable historical dataset from the Global South. Our results show a distribution of wealth shockingly close to perfect inequality. Our results also show a remarkable degree of persistence: even after slavery was abolished, the freedmen never managed to accumulate physical wealth to any measurable degree.engInequalitywealthslaveryCaribbeanmancipationlong-termText