Legacy, location, and labor: Accounting for racial differences in postbellum cotton production

Many postbellum southern farms specialized in cotton, but black-operated farms planted much larger shares of cotton than white-operated farms. This paper tests various explanations for the pattern of specialization using 1879 farm-specific data. We find that the cross-sectional racial variation in cotton share is largely explained by location and on-farm labor supply conditions, consequences of the legacy of slavery, rather than debt constraints.

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Year of publication:	2012
Authors:	Canaday, Neil ; Jaremski, Matthew
Published in:	Explorations in Economic History. - Elsevier, ISSN 0014-4983. - Vol. 49.2012, 3, p. 291-302
Publisher:	Elsevier
Subject:	Postbellum Agriculture \| Cotton production \| Land–labor ratio

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Type of publication:	Article
Classification:	N51 - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913 ; Q12 - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets ; Q15 - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation ; J71 - Discrimination ; J15 - Economics of Minorities and Races ; N31 - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913
Source:	RePEc - Research Papers in Economics

Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10010576535