Whitelashing: Black Politicians, Taxes, and Violence

Logan, Trevon D.

doi:10.1017/s0022050723000050

Cited by 9 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 52 publications

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“…20 Our data allows us to grasp the historical nature of this public finance shock: in Southern states, effective rates almost tripled in about five years, reaching a peak of 1.2% in 1870. This sudden increase in property taxes was met by a major backlash, triggering political violence, especially against black politicians (Logan, 2019). As Democrats regained control of the South, ending the Reconstruction Era's political experiment and enabling the institution of the Jim Crow regime, tax rates quickly reverted to around 0.6%, a much lower level than in Northern states.…”

Section: The Civil War and Southern Wealthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wealth and Property Taxation in the United States

Dray¹,

Landais²,

Stantcheva³

2023

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We study the history and geography of wealth accumulation in the US, using newly collected historical property tax records since the early 1800s. The US General Property Tax was a comprehensive tax on all types of property (real, personal, and financial), making it one of the first "wealth taxes." Drawing on many historical records, we construct long-run, consistent, high-frequency wealth series at the county, state, and national levels.We first document the long-term evolution of household wealth in the US since the early 1800s. The US experienced extraordinary wealth accumulation after the Civil war and until the Great Depression. Second, we reveal that spatial inequality in the US has been large and highly persistent since the mid-1800s, driven mainly by Southern states, whose long-run divergence from the rest of the US predated the Civil War. Before the Civil war, enslaved people were assessed as personal property of the enslavers, representing almost one-half of total taxable property in Southern states. This system is morally abhorrent and implies wrongly counting forced labor income as capital. The regional distribution of wealth and the effects of the Civil war appear very different if enslaved people are not included in the property measure. Third, we investigate the determinants of long-term wealth growth and capital accumulation. Among others, we find that counties with a higher share of enslaved property before the Civil War or higher levels of wealth inequality experienced lower subsequent long-run growth in property.

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Section: The Civil War and Southern Wealthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wealth and Property Taxation in the United States

Dray¹,

Landais²,

Stantcheva³

2023

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Gordon Tullock and the economics of slavery

Magness,

Carden,

Murtazashvili

2023

Public Choice

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Black Americans’ Landholdings and Economic Mobility after Emancipation: Evidence from the Census of Agriculture and Linked Records

Collins,

Holtkamp,

Wanamaker

2024

J. Econ. Hist.

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Large and persistent racial disparities in land-based wealth were an important legacy of the Reconstruction era. To assess how these disparities were transmitted intergenerationally, we build a dataset to observe Black households’ landholdings in 1880 alongside a sample of White households. We then link sons from all households to the 1900 census records to observe their economic and human capital outcomes. We show that Black landowners, relative to laborers, transmitted substantial intergenerational advantages to their sons, particularly in literacy and homeownership. However, such advantages were small relative to the racial gaps in measures of economic status.

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Whitelashing: Black Politicians, Taxes, and Violence

Cited by 9 publications

References 52 publications

Wealth and Property Taxation in the United States

Wealth and Property Taxation in the United States

Gordon Tullock and the economics of slavery

Black Americans’ Landholdings and Economic Mobility after Emancipation: Evidence from the Census of Agriculture and Linked Records

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