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

Neil Canaday and Matthew Jaremski

Explorations in Economic History, 2012, vol. 49, issue 3, 291-302

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: Postbellum Agriculture; Cotton production; Land–labor ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J15 J71 N31 N51 Q12 Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:exehis:v:49:y:2012:i:3:p:291-302

DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2012.05.002

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