Was freedom road a dead end? Socio‐economic effects of Reconstruction in the American South

Bibliographic Data

ID8852944
AuthorsJeffry Frieden (0000-0003-0285-9284, Columbia University), Richard S Grossman (Quantitative BioSciences, corresponding author), Daniel Lowery (Harvard University)
Year2026
Publication date2026-01-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Economic History Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0013-0117 • E-ISSN: 1468-0289
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/ehr.70085
OpenAlexW7125803127
LanguageEN
References cited21

We investigate how Reconstruction affected Black socio‐economic advancement after the American Civil War. We use the location of federal troops and Freedmen's bureau offices to indicate more intensive federal enforcement of civil rights. We find that Black people made greater socio‐economic advances where Reconstruction was more rigorously enforced, and that these effects persisted at least until the early twentieth century, although these advances were weaker in cotton‐plantation zones. We suggest a mechanism leading from greater Black political power to higher local property taxes through to higher levels of Black schooling and greater Black socio‐economic achievement

Black Power · Civil rights · Enforcement · Law enforcement · Politics · Property (philosophy · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Economic Policies and Impacts · Historical Economic and Social Studies

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