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Title: Institutional and Agency Effects on the Status of Free Blacks: Synthesizing Asymmetrical Laws and Social Conditions with Asymmetrical Economic Outcomes

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2002

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Abstract: Leon Litwick (1961) and Ira Berlin (1974) provide the most comprehensive historical accounts of free blacks in the north and south, respectively. This paper attempts to build upon their successes by presenting a national study that combines the legal, demographic and economic experiences of free blacks, with an extended analysis of antebellum wealth inequality. In doing so, I propose the asymmetry hypothesis, which is an investigation of the link between the social conditions and economic outcomes of free blacks relative to whites. For the empirical portion of the study, I employ cross-sectional variables from the IPUMS samples. This paper finds that economic differences between free blacks and whites were intertwined with asymmetrical social constraints. While the legal and social status of free blacks was significantly better than slaves, their status did not equal that of whites. Yet free blacks did attempt to overcome the social conditions by structuring their households to provide a basic foundation for the pursuit of happiness.

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Authors: Curtis, James

Publisher: Ohio State University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Race and Ethnicity

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