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Title: When the Levee Breaks: Black Migration and Economic Development in the American South

Citation Type: Journal Article

Publication Year: 2014

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Abstract: In the American South, post-bellum economic development may have been restricted in part by white landowners' access to low-wage black labor. This paper examines the impact of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 on black out-migration and subsequent agricultural development. Flooded counties experienced an immediate and persistent out-migration of black population. Over time, landowners in flooded counties modernized agricultural production and increased its capital intensity relative to landowners in nearby similar non-flooded counties. Landowners resisted black out-migration, however, benefiting from the status quo system of labor-intensive agricultural production. 

Url: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.104.3.963

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Authors: Hornbeck, Richard; Naidu, Suresh

Periodical (Full): AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW

Issue: 3

Volume: 104

Pages: 963-90

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Migration and Immigration

Countries: United States