Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-17T03:51:23.629Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Race, Literacy, and Real Estate Transactions in the Postbellum South

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2010

Neil Canaday  and
Charles Reback
Neil Canaday*
Affiliation:
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Wesleyan University, 222 Church Street 021, Middletown, CT 06459. E-mail: ncanaday@wesleyan.edu.
Charles Reback*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina Upstate, Johnson College of Business and Economics, 800 University Way, Spartanburg, SC, 29303. E-mail: creback@upstate.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines barriers that impeded the accumulation of land by African Americans in the postbellum South with a new data set of real estate transactions from 1880 Tennessee. We find that rates of purchase by African Americans differed little between plantation and non-plantation regions. We also find that parcels sold in plantation regions were relatively small, suggesting that African American accumulation of land was not hindered by plantation owners refusing to subdivide their properties. Additionally, we find blacks paid more than whites per acre of quality-constant land, although literacy at least partially mitigated the racial price discrimination.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 70 , Issue 2 , June 2010 , pp. 428 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anderson, James D.The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of Chapel Hill Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Bergeron, Paul H., Ash, Stephen V., and Keith., JeanetteTennesseans and Their History. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Bodenhorn, Howard.“The Complexion Gap: the Economic Consequences of Color Among Free African Americans in the Rural Antebellum South.” Advances in Agricultural Economic History 2 (2003): 41–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bodenhorn, Howard.“Colorism, Complexion Homogamy, and Household Wealth: Some Historical Evidence.” The American Economic Review 96, no. 2 (2006): 256–60.Google Scholar
Bodenhorn, Howard, and Ruebeck, Christopher S.. “Colorism and African American Wealth: Evidence from the Nineteenth-Century South.” Journal of Population Economics 20, no. 4 (2006): 599–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boles, John B.Black Southerners, 1619–1869. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Bonekemper III, Edward H.“Negro Ownership of Real Property in Hampton and Elizabeth City County, Virginia, 1860–1870.” The Journal of Negro History 55, no. 3 (1970): 165–81.Google Scholar
Bruce, Philip A.The Plantation Negro as a Freeman. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1889.Google Scholar
Canaday, Neil.“The Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks and Whites: Individual-level Evidence from a South Carolina Cotton County.” Explorations in Economic History 45, no. 1 (2008): 51–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, William J., and Margo, Robert A.. “Race and Homeownership: a Century-long View.” Explorations in Economic History 38, no. 1 (2001): 68–92.Google Scholar
Couch, William T. “The Negro in the South.” In Culture in the South, edited by Couch, William T., 432–77. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1934.Google Scholar
Cutler, David M., and Glaeser, Edward L.. “The Rise and Decline of the American Ghetto.” Journal of Political Economy 107, no. 3 (1999): 455–506.Google Scholar
Du Bois, William E. B. “The Negro Landholder of Georgia.” In Contributions by W. E. B. Du Bois in Government Publications and Proceedings, edited by Aptheker, Herbert, 95–228. Millwood, NY: Kraus-Thompson, 1901.Google Scholar
Fishback, Price V., and Baskin, John H.. “Narrowing the Black-white Gap in Child Literacy in 1910: the Roles of School Inputs and Family Inputs.” Review of Economics and Statistics 73, no. 4 (1991): 725–28.Google Scholar
Gittleman, Maury, and Wolff, Edward N.. “Racial Differences in Patterns of Wealth Accumulation.” The Journal of Human Resources 39, no. 1 (2004): 193–227.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Pinelopi K.“Dealer Price Discrimination in New Car Purchases: Evidence from the Consumer Expenditure Survey.” Journal of Political Economy 104, no. 3 (1996): 622–54.Google Scholar
Heckman, James J.“Detecting Discrimination.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 12, no. 2 (1998): 101–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgs, Robert.Competition and Coercion: Blacks in the American Economy, 1865–1914. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977 [reprinted 1980].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgs, Robert.“Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks before World War I.” The American Economic Review 72, no. 4 (1982): 725–37.Google Scholar
Higgs, Robert.“Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks before World War I: reply. The American Economic Review 74, no. 4 (1984): 777–81.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Wilbert L.Climbing up to Glory. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 2002.Google Scholar
Lamon, Lester C.Blacks in Tennessee, 1791–1970. Knoxville: Tennessee Three Star Books, 1981 [reprinted 1993].Google Scholar
Mandle, Jay R.The Roots of Black Poverty: the Southern Plantation Economy after the Civil War. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Mandle, Jay R.Not Slave, Not Free: The African American Experience since the Civil War. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Margo, Robert A.“Accumulation of Property by Southern Blacks before World War I: Comment and Further Evidence.” The American Economic Review 74, no. 4 (1984): 768–76.Google Scholar
Margo, Robert A.“Educational Achievement in Segregated School Systems: the Effects of ‘Separate but Equal.’” The American Economic Review 76, no. 4 (1986): 794–801.Google Scholar
Margo, Robert A.Race and Schooling in the South, 1880–1950. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990.Google Scholar
McKenzie, Robert T.One South or Many? New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menchik, Paul L., and Jianakopolis, Nancy A.. “Black-white Wealth Inequality: Is Inheritance the Reason?” Economic Inquiry 35, no. 2 (1997): 428–42.Google Scholar
Orazem, Peter.“Black-white Differences in Schooling Investment and Human-capital Production in Segregated Schools.” The American Economic Review 77, no. 4 (1987): 714–23.Google Scholar
Prunty, Merle.“The Renaissance of the Southern Plantation.” The Geographical Review 45, no. 4 (1955): 459–92.Google Scholar
Ransom, Roger L., and Sutch., RichardOne Kind of Freedom: the Economic Consequences of Emancipation. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1977 [reprinted 2001].Google Scholar
Raper, Arthur F.Preface to Peasantry: A Tale of Two Black Belt Counties. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1936.Google Scholar
Ruggles, Steven, et al. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 4.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: Minnesota Population Center [producer and distributor], 2008.Google Scholar
Schweninger, Loren.Black Property Owners in the South, 1790–1915. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990. State of Tennesse. Constitution of the State of Tennessee, 1870.Google Scholar
Schweninger, Loren. Microfilmed deed records. Tennessee State Archives and Libraries. Nashville, TN, 1880 (primarily).Google Scholar
Schweninger, Loren. Microfilmed tax rolls. Tennessee State Archives and Libraries. Nashville, TN, 1881.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Manuscript Agriculture Census, 1880.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Manuscript Population Census, 1880 (primarily).Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Census of Population and Housing. Vol. 1 (Statistics of the Population of the United States), Vol. 3 (Agriculture), Vol. 5–6 (Report on Cotton Production). Washington, DC: GPO, 1880.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Census of Population and Housing. Vol. 1–3 (Population), Vol. 5–7 (Agriculture). Washington, DC: GPO, 1910.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Plantation Farming in the United States. Washington, DC: GPO, 1916.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Negro Population in the United States, 1790–1915. Washington, DC: GPO, 1918.Google Scholar
Virts, Nancy.“The Efficiency of Southern Tenant Plantations, 1900–1945.” The Journal of Economic History 51, no. 2 (1991): 385–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooldridge, Jeffrey M.Introductory Economics: A Modern Approach. United States: Thomson South-Western, 2006.Google Scholar
Yinger, John.“Measuring Racial Discrimination with Fair Housing Audits: Caught in the Act.” The American Economic Review 76, no. 5 (1986): 881–93.Google Scholar