Collins Holtkamp and Wanamaker Black Americans’ Landholdings and Economic Mobility after Emancipation

<span><b>Abstract:</b><span> 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, including an 11 pp advantage in literacy. But such
advantages were small relative to the racial gaps in metrics of economic
status. </span></span><br><br><br><br><br>