The Political Legacy of American Slavery

[Godot51]

http://www.mattblackwell.org/files/papers/slavery.pdf

We show that contemporary differences in political attitudes across counties in the American South trace their origins back to the influence of slavery’s prevalence more than 150 years ago. Whites who currently live in Southern counties that had high shares of slaves population in 1860 are less likely to identify as Democrat, more likely to oppose to affirmative action policies, and more likely to express racial resentment toward blacks.

These results are robust to accounting for a variety of attributes, including contemporary shares of black population, urban-rural differences, and Civil War destruction, and strengthen when instrumenting for the prevalence of slavery with agricultural cotton suitability.

The results suggest that political attitudes were at least in part determined by the local prevalence of slavery and the political and economic incentives that emancipation created for Southern whites. In turn, these attitudes have been passed down from one generation to the next.

[JEFF9K]

1. How to explain? ...

Then how to explain the fact that the South was Democratic up until Nixon's Southern Strategy?

[nikto]

2. The Southern Dems were some of the most racist and regressive people in US Gov't at that time

This is just US History that I am old enough to remember.

Many Republicans were Liberal and supported the Civil Rights movement in the 50s/early 60s.

Nixon recognized the regressive/Conservative tendency in those southern Dems (George Wallace, Lester Maddox, etc),
as they fought the civil rights movement tooth, nail & claw. The south had been Dem since,
and in reaction to, Lincoln's administration.

Nixon campaigned slyly via his subtly and skillfully racist-tinged rhetoric in '68 and '72,
and won the support of former massively-Democratic areas
that hated the civil rights movement.

Nixon successfully "flipped" the south to GOP, where it has pretty much stayed since.

Many of the former areas in the Northeast/West that elected Liberal GOPers
went to electing Dems.

In the meantime, the GOP has purged itself of all Liberals and most moderates.

There still are some conservative "blue dog" Dems in the midwest and heartland.
But there are no GOP liberals anymore.

It actually feels funny to even say the phrase, "Liberal Republican" nowadays.
Kind of like, "Jewish-Nazi"--2 opposing groups that hate each other.

If you are young, then you never lived in an age of Liberal Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller,
Mayor John Lindsay of NYC, Jacob Javitz (he rocked!),
Kenneth Keating, and many others.

There was far more split-ticket voting back in those days, but not so much now.

America is really polarized now.

Like I say, this is not my opinion, this is just US History.

[Godot51]

3. Don't forget...

This is true. I lived in the South from 1960 until 1979 and witnessed many of the early Democratic resistance to change, especially on the local level in the small towns and in the country-side. These were a people who's families had been Democrats since before the Civil War and who credited the Democrats with replacing the post-war reconstruction era "carpetbagger" and Black governments with white supremacy.

Don't forget that Lincoln was the progressive Republican whom the Democrats reviled and created secession over. The Republican party gradually evolved into the party of the corporation and big business but even up to Theodore Roosevelt it held onto some of it's progressive roots.

During the early days of the Civil Rights movement Democrats in the South were either completely against it or slowly shifting with the tides. Soon the transformation took place from Democrat to Dixiecrat to Republican. Look up Strom Thurmond and John Connelly. Check the history of Robert Byrd.

This phase of U.S. history is conveniently forgotten in many circles. The attitudes of the south have never really changed, just the names.

[nikto]

4. In some ways...

The South is still, deep in its heart, The Old Confederacy.