When the Levee Breaks: Black Migration and Economic Development in the American South

In the American South, postbellum economic development may have been restricted in part by white landowners' access to low-wage black labor. This paper examines the impact of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 on black out-migration and subsequent agricultural development. Flooded counties experienced an immediate and persistent out-migration of black population. Over time, landowners in flooded counties modernized agricultural production and increased its capital intensity relative to landowners in nearby similar non-flooded counties. Landowners resisted black out-migration, however, benefiting from the status quo system of labor-intensive agricultural production. (JEL J15, J43, N32, N52, N92, Q54, R23)

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When the Levee Breaks: Black Migration and Economic Development in the American South

10.3386/w18296 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Richard Hornbeck ◽

Suresh Naidu

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

American South ◽

Black Migration ◽

The American South

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Research on the Efficiency and Improvement of Rural Development in China: Based on Two-Stage Network SBM Model

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052914 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2914

Author(s):

Xiaohong Zhuang ◽

Zhuyuan Li ◽

Run Zheng ◽

Sanggyun Na ◽

Yulin Zhou

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Rural Development ◽

Agricultural Production ◽

Agricultural Development ◽

Two Stage ◽

Rural Economic Development ◽

Development Level ◽

Low Efficiency ◽

Agricultural Materials ◽

The Impact

China has always been a major agricultural country, and the issues of agriculture, rural areas and farmers have always been fundamental issues of China’s reform and development. First of all, most previous studies did not combine agricultural development with rural economic development to consider the rural development status. Through the network-slack-based measure (SBM) model, agricultural development and rural economic development are taken as the first stage and the second stage, respectively, to determine the overall efficiency of rural development. Secondly, most previous studies directly selected a number of agricultural materials as inputs to evaluate agricultural production efficiency, and did not consider the impact of a variety of agricultural materials comprehensively. We use the entropy method to calculate a comprehensive index including a variety of agricultural materials. Third, most previous studies did not take into account the harmful effects of agricultural production on the environment. We take carbon emissions and agricultural non-point source pollution (ANPSP) as undesirable outputs into the model, and consider the impact of agricultural production on the ecological environment comprehensively. On the basis of the above innovation, we adopt the two-stage SBM-undesirable model to comprehensively and systematically study the efficiency of rural development in China. Furthermore, the gap of rural development efficiency is determined by sigma convergence and a convergence test. All the data are from the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The results show that the development level of China’s rural agricultural eco-efficiency is significantly higher than that of rural economic development, and the low efficiency of the whole rural development is mainly affected by the low efficiency of rural economic development. The distribution of efficiency value shows that the eastern region is the best, and the development level of the remaining three regions is very low. The regional development gap is large, and this gap still exists for a long period of time. Nevertheless, the efficiency of rural development has improved year by year. Based on empirical analysis, we put forward some feasible suggestions to provide reference for policymakers in formulating rural development policies, narrowing the regional gap and rural sustainable development.

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Population - an element of agricultural development in Serbia

Stanovnistvo ◽

10.2298/stnv9904141t ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 37 (1-4) ◽

pp. 141-161

Author(s):

Marina Todorovic ◽

Gordana Vojkovic

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Production ◽

Regional Differences ◽

Agricultural Development ◽

Historical Review ◽

Working Population ◽

Theoretical Level ◽

Level Of Education ◽

Agricultural Producer ◽

The Impact ◽

The Relationship

The author begins by discussing the relationship between agriculture and population at a theoretical level, proceeds with a historical review of changes in the role and significance of an individual as agricultural producer, and finally, analyzes population as an element (potentials - limitations) of agricultural development in Serbia. The overall production results, and particularly the propensity to technical and technological innovation, as well as the ability to adapt to the changed conditions are, as we know well, crucially dependent on the structure of the working population. Hence, the author discusses regional differences in agricultural population by age, sex, level of education and productivity to provide a clear illustration of the impact of this element (indicator) on the population as the factor of agricultural production. The results show significant macroregional differences by this element with respect to the average for Serbia.

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Rural Financial Development Impacts on Agricultural Technology Innovation: Evidence from China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18031110 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 1110

Author(s):

Yuyu Liu ◽

Duan Ji ◽

Lin Zhang ◽

Jingjing An ◽

Wenyan Sun

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Financial Development ◽

Agricultural Development ◽

Technology Innovation ◽

Agricultural Technology ◽

Rural Finance ◽

Rural Economic Development ◽

High Degree ◽

The Impact ◽

Positive Effect

Agricultural technology innovation is key for improving productivity, sustainability, and resilience in food production and agriculture to contribute to public health. Using panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2003 to 2015, this study examines the impact of rural financial development on agricultural technology innovation from the perspective of rural financial scale and rural finance efficiency. Furthermore, it examines how the effects of rural financial development vary in regions with different levels of marketization and economic development. The empirical results show that the development of rural finance has a significant and positive effect on the level of agricultural technology innovation. Rural finance efficiency has a significantly positive effect on innovation in regions with a low degree of marketization, while the rural financial scale has a significantly positive effect on technological innovation in regions with a high degree of marketization. Further analysis showed that improving the level of agricultural technology innovation is conducive to rural economic development. This study provides new insights into the effects of rural financial development on sustainable agricultural development from the perspective of agricultural technology innovation.

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African American Migration from the Colonial Era to the Present

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199766031.013.006 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Joe W. Trotter

Keyword(s):

African Americans ◽

Black Population ◽

Political Life ◽

Deep South ◽

Colonial Era ◽

Population Movements ◽

Black Migration ◽

British North America ◽

Upper South ◽

The Impact

This essay explores several overlapping waves of black population movement from the African background through the early twenty-first century. It shows how enslaved people dominated the first two great migrations—from Africa to the tobacco-producing colonies of British North America and later from the Upper South to the cotton-producing lands of the Deep South. In the wake of the Civil War and the emancipation of some 4 million enslaved people, the great farm-to-city migration gradually transformed African Americans from a predominantly rural southern people into the most urbanized sector of the nation’s population. While massive black population movements resulted in substantial disruption of established patterns of cultural, institutional, and political life, African Americans built and rebuilt forms of community under the impact of new conditions, including the rise of a new wave of voluntary black migration from Africa and elsewhere by the close of the 20th century.

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The American Pastoral and the Conquest of Space

Terraforming ◽

10.5949/liverpool/9781781382844.003.0003 ◽

2016 ◽

pp. 56-97

Author(s):

Chris Pak

Keyword(s):

Science Fiction ◽

Agricultural Production ◽

Final Section ◽

American South ◽

Westward Expansion ◽

Moral Systems ◽

Counter Narratives ◽

The Sublime ◽

Contemporary Science ◽

The American South

This chapter analyses the American Pastoral in the first terraforming boom of the 1950s. Referencing Ernest J. Yanarella’s discussion of terraforming in The Cross, the Plow and the Skyline: Contemporary Science Fiction and the Ecological Imagination, this chapter begins with the image of the pioneer farmer that attracted westward expansion and its obverse, the portrayal of dystopian societies where the promise of the pastoral is co-opted. This section recalls the “Garden of the Chattel” image of American colonialism, in which pastoral themes sublimate and so conceal the historic fact of slavery that underlay agricultural production in the American South. The final section considers the propensity to extend human moral systems to aliens and how the pastoral and elements of the sublime converge to offer counter-narratives highlighting the ecological devastation caused by the human expansion into space.

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Writing violence: John McGahern and Flannery O’Connor

John McGahern ◽

10.7228/manchester/9781526100566.003.0012 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Frank McGuinness

Keyword(s):

American South ◽

Flannery O'connor ◽

Male Violence ◽

The American South ◽

The Impact

This chapter looks in close detail at two stories, written by authors of very different background: ‘The Beginning of an Idea’ by John McGahern, a chronicler of mid to late 20th century rural Ireland, and ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ by Flannery O’Connor, a chronicler of the American South. The chapter traces what correspondence there might arise between these writers from Catholic backgrounds, and the impact faith has on their comprehension of male violence - rape in the Mc Gahern story, and murder in O’Connor’s. The chapter emphasizes what, spiritually and socially, connects and disconnects both authors, and shows how the two stories, diverse in style and approach, but sharing an underlying sense of brutality, illustrate their respective authors’ interest in human inclination for violence and evil.

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Urbanisation and Food Security: An Overview

Sains Humanika ◽

10.11113/sh.v8n4-3.1084 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (4-3) ◽

Author(s):

Muhammad Uzair Azizan ◽

Maryanti Mohd Raid ◽

Khadijah Hussin

Keyword(s):

Food Security ◽

Agricultural Production ◽

Development Process ◽

Land Resources ◽

Agriculture Sector ◽

Economic Progress ◽

The Status ◽

The Impact ◽

National Food Security

Urbanisation has given significant impact to various sectors, particularly in agriculture. Essentially, agricultural production activities depend heavily on land resources. At the same time, land is also needed as vital resources for the country development. Despite of the initiative of urbanism to better the country development process, it has raised concern among the land administrator regarding the status of the national’s food security. Food security has been threatened by the needs of the physical development due to urbanisation. Therefore, this article attempts to study the impact of urbanisation on the agriculture sector and examined the role of urbanism to safeguard the land resources for food security purposes. It is hope that, this article will form an inclusive understanding regarding the idea of urbanism in pursuing the betterment of an economic progress without compromising the needs for the national food security.

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Industrialization and Two-Party Democracy

American Review of Politics ◽

10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1991.12.0.100-112 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

pp. 100-112

Author(s):

Eric M. Mackey

Keyword(s):

Republican Party ◽

Industrial Development ◽

American South ◽

Industrial Change ◽

The South ◽

Congressional Voting ◽

Industrial Employment ◽

Primary Finding ◽

The American South ◽

The Impact

This paper analyzes the impact of industrial change on partisan transitions in the American South. Using aggregate data from the decennial censes from 1940 to 1980 and aggregate election returns for roughly this same period, the primary finding is a weak and often contradictory bivariate relationship between industrial employment and partisan support in the South. The results were usually much worse for a typical economic development thesis when the dependent and independent variables were operationalized dynamically and when presidential voting and congressional voting were analyzed separately. Overall, the evidence in this paper does not suggest that the Republican party is necessarily or often a beneficiary of industrialization. Neither does it speak well for the possibility of pursuing industrial development as a means of promoting partisan democracy in the South or any other geopolitical context.

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