The Political Legacy of American Slavery

We show that contemporary differences in political attitudes across counties in the American South in part trace their origins to slavery’s prevalence more than 150 years ago. Whites who currently live in Southern counties that had high shares of slaves in 1860 are more likely to identify as a Repub...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of politics 2016-07, Vol.78 (3), p.621-641
Main Authors: Acharya, Avidit, Blackwell, Matthew, Sen, Maya
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affirmative action
African Americans
Civil war
Counties
Domestics
Incentives
Norms
Political attitudes
Political institutions
Racism
Slavery
Whites
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Summary:We show that contemporary differences in political attitudes across counties in the American South in part trace their origins to slavery’s prevalence more than 150 years ago. Whites who currently live in Southern counties that had high shares of slaves in 1860 are more likely to identify as a Republican, oppose affirmative action, and express racial resentment and colder feelings toward blacks. We show that these results cannot be explained by existing theories, including the theory of contemporary racial threat. To explain the results, we offer evidence for a new theory involving the historical persistence of political attitudes. Following the Civil War, Southern whites faced political and economic incentives to reinforce existing racist norms and institutions to maintain control over the newly freed African American population. This amplified local differences in racially conservative political attitudes, which in turn have been passed down locally across generations.
ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1086/686631