Racial Segregation under Slavery

dc.contributor.author

Ruef, Martin

dc.date.accessioned

2023-05-22T14:18:31Z

dc.date.available

2023-05-22T14:18:31Z

dc.date.issued

2022

dc.date.updated

2023-05-22T14:18:30Z

dc.description.abstract

Social demographers and historians have devoted extensive research to patterns of racial segregation that emerged under Jim Crow and during the post-Civil Rights era but have paid less attention to the role of slavery in shaping the residential distribution of Black populations in the United States. One guiding assumption has been that slavery rendered racial segregation to be both unnecessary and impractical. In this study, I argue that apart from the master–slave relationship, slavery relentlessly produced racial segregation during the antebellum period through the residential isolation of slaves and free people of color. To explain this pattern, I draw on racial threat theory to test hypotheses regarding interracial economic competition and fear of slave mobilization using data from the 1850 Census, as well as an architectural survey of antebellum sites. Findings suggest that the residential segregation of free people of color increased with their local prevalence, whereas the segregation of slaves increased with the prevalence of the slave population. These patterns continue to hold after controlling for interracial competition over land or jobs and past slave rebellions or conspiracies.

dc.identifier.issn

0037-7732

dc.identifier.issn

1534-7605

dc.identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/27399

dc.language

en

dc.publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

dc.relation.ispartof

Social Forces

dc.relation.isversionof

10.1093/sf/soab012

dc.title

Racial Segregation under Slavery

dc.type

Journal article

duke.contributor.orcid

Ruef, Martin|0000-0002-8134-1514

pubs.begin-page

935

pubs.end-page

960

pubs.issue

3

pubs.organisational-group

Duke

pubs.organisational-group

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

pubs.organisational-group

Sociology

pubs.organisational-group

Institutes and Provost's Academic Units

pubs.organisational-group

Initiatives

pubs.organisational-group

Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship

pubs.publication-status

Published online

pubs.volume

100

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
2022_SF_Ruef.pdf
Size:
1.61 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Accepted version