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

Neil Canaday and Charles Reback

The Journal of Economic History, 2010, vol. 70, issue 2, 428-445

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.

Date: 2010
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