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Title: The One Thing Needful: Land and Black Mobility, 1880 to 1900
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2012
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Abstract: Unlike southern freedmen, former slaves in the Cherokee Nation had the opportunity to claim free land after they were emancipated. In previous work, I found that their access to free land was associated with higher levels of average income and wealth than that of southern freedmenand lower levels of racial inequality than in the postbellum South. In this paper, I look more closely at a linked sample of three cohorts of Cherokee freedmen families to examine the extent to which individuals and their descendents were able to maintain high levels of income and wealth. I also examine potential mechanisms by which the economic success of Cherokee freedmen in 1880 could be transmitted to their children and grandchildren. I find remarkable persistence in economic status of those who were adults in both 1880 and 1900. Additionally, I find that the next generation of Cherokee freedmen largely exhibited the ability to either maintain or improve their social status vis-a-vis their parents. Evidence suggests that one mechanism through which parental income and wealth was transmitted across generations was related to human capital acquisition. The children and grandchild of freedmen in the upper income quartile in 1880 were more likely to be literate or attend school than the children and grandchildren of freedmen in the lower income quartile.
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Authors: Miller, Melinda C.
Publisher: U.S. Naval Academy
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Other
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