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Forging a New Identity : The Costs and Benefits of Diversity in Civil War Combat Units for Black Slaves and Freemen
Costa, Dora L.; Kahn, Matthew E. - 2021
By the end of the Civil War, 186,017 black men had fought for the Union Army and roughly three-quarters of these men were former slaves. Because most of the black soldiers who served were illiterate farm workers, the war exposed them to a much broader world. The war experience of these men...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013248711
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Betting on Secession : Quantifying Political Events Surrounding Slavery and the Civil War
Calomiris, Charles W. - 2013
Abraham Lincoln's election produced Southern secession, Civil War, and abolition. Using a new database of slave sales from New Orleans, we examine the connections between political news and the prices of slaves for 1856-1861. We find that slave prices declined by roughly a third from their 1860...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013073191
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Start-Up Nation? Slave Wealth and Entrepreneurship in Civil War Maryland
González, Felipe - 2016
Slave property rights yielded a source of collateral as well as a coerced labor force. Using data from Dun and Bradstreet linked to the 1860 census and slave schedules in Maryland, we find that slaveowners were more likely to start businesses prior to the uncompensated 1864 emancipation, even...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012985586
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". . . And Six Hundred Thousand Men Were Dead."
Grossman, Herschel I. - 2021
proximately concerned the geographical expansion of slavery, but ultimately bore on the existence of the institution of slavery … itself. This paper asks why in 1861 after seventy years of artful compromises over slavery civil conflict became unavoidable … historical analysis the paper concludes that in the years leading up to 1861 the outcome of the dispute over slavery had become …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013235263
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Cowards and Heroes : Group Loyalty in the American Civil War
Costa, Dora L.; Kahn, Matthew E. - 2021
What motivated men to risk death in the most horrific war in U.S. history when pay was low and irregular and military punishment strategies were weak? In such a situation creating group loyalty by promoting social capital is of paramount importance and in the Civil War was the cement of both...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013249679
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Social Capital as Good Culture
Guiso, Luigi; Zingales, Luigi; Sapienza, Paola - 2021
To explain the extremely long-term persistence (more than 500 years) of positive historical experiences of cooperation (Putnam 1993), we model the intergenerational transmission of priors about the trustworthiness of others. We show that this transmission tends to be biased toward excessively...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013310596
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The Control of Politicians in Normal Times and Times of Crisis : Wealth Accumulation by U.S. Congressmen, 1850-1880
Querubin, Pablo - 2011
We employ a regression discontinuity design based on close elections to estimate the rents from a seat in the U.S. congress between 1850-1880. Using census data, we compare wealth accumulation among those who won or lost their first race by a small margin. We find evidence of significant returns...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013117869
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Aiding Conflict : The Impact of U.S. Food Aid on Civil War
Nunn, Nathan - 2013
This paper examines the effect of U.S. food aid on conflict in recipient countries. To establish a causal relationship, we exploit time variation in food aid caused by fluctuations in U.S. wheat production together with cross-sectional variation in a country's tendency to receive any food aid...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013091739
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The Net Asset Position of the U.S. National Government, 1784-1802 : Hamilton's Blessing or the Spoils of War?
Grubb, Farley - 2010
The War for Independence left the National Government deeply in debt. The spoils from winning that war also gave it an empire of land. So, post-1783, was the National Government solvent? Was its net asset position, land assets minus debt liabilities, positive or negative? Evidence is gathered to...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012761788
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Bases, Bullets and Ballots : The Effect of U.S. Military Aid on Political Conflict in Colombia
Dube, Oeindrila - 2014
Does foreign military assistance strengthen or further weaken fragile states facing internal conflict? Aid may strengthen the state by bolstering its repressive capacity vis-à-vis armed non-state actors, or weaken it if resources are diverted to these very groups. We examine how U.S. military...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013052120