The Effects of Federal Wealth Transfers to Black Sailors during Reconstruction

• In Event: Southern Reconstruction and Its Aftermath: APD and HPE Perspectives

Abstract

Following Emancipation, former slaves were never given reparations: “40 acres and a mule” did not materialize. Yet, during Reconstruction, Black Americans were granted de jure rights. And while these rights proved limited in scope and duration, they had durable benefits for Black communities. What sorts of social, economic, and political benefits might have accumulated to freed people had the Federal government paid reparations after 1865? This paper examines the individual and family-level effects of one-time cash transfers from the Federal government to Black Union Navy sailors. Because these transfers were payouts from “prizes”—Confederate vessels captured during the war—conditional on when and where sailors served, these payouts were as-if random. Linking Black sailors to captured prizes and the 1870 and 1880 US Censuses, we examine the intent-to-treat effects of prize eligibility. Preliminary results show that prize money increased real estate wealth, literacy, and mobility out of the former Confederacy.

Author

• Michael Weaver, The University of British Columbia