The Economics in the Antebellum South

Lafayette College, Easton PA

Investigators

Abstract

A post-Revolutionary relaxation of manumission restrictions in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina brought about a marked increase in the proportion of free African Americans in the antebellum Upper South. While free African Americans made up just 2.4 percent of the free population in Maryland in 1790, they grew to nearly 14.0 percent of the free population by 1860. A similar increase occurred in Virginia; lesser ones in North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri. Although historians provide detailed and valuable accounts of the social, political, literary, artistic and religious lives of these free blacks, the economic status of free blacks remains unclear. This project fills this void. Using modern economic analysis, this project establishes the free African Americans' position on the economic ladder. It first considers the ability of rural free blacks to climb the agricultural ladder, from daily farm laborer to renter to eventual farm owner/operator, and shows that free blacks made unexpected moves up the ladder. Although many free blacks lived in the country, they were the most urbanized ethnic group in late antebellum America, so the second part of the project considers the economic status of free African Americans in Baltimore, Richmond, Petersburg, Louisville and Nashville. It compares wealth accumulation and occupational status of whites and blacks and shows that while whites typically held better jobs, blacks made significant inroads in certain occupations and accumulated substantial wealth. These findings are important because they place current racial differences in occupation, income and wealth accumulation in historical perspective.