Economics research seminar: Federico Masera, UNSW Sydney

Research topic: The Long Civil War: Battle Exposure and Anti-Black Racism in the US South (joint with Michele Rosenber and Sarah Walker)

Presenter

Federico Masera, UNSW Sydney

Topic

The Long Civil War: Battle Exposure and Anti-Black Racism in the US South (joint with Michele Rosenber and Sarah Walker)

abstract

This paper studies the effect of the US Civil War on the geography of racism in the US South. We construct a new dataset of the universe of soldiers enlisted in the Confederate army, their town of residence before the war, and their military deployment. We show that communities whose soldiers participated in more high-casualty battles increased their support for racially conservative parties and discriminatory laws and induced higher violence against Black Americans for generations to come. These towns developed a stronger cultural attachment to the war heritage and transmitted it to future generations through memorial organizations, Confederate monuments, and Confederate names. The war legacy persists, shaping hate crimes, white supremacist rallies, and Black Americans' police killings to this day.

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