TY - BOOK ID - 135876545 TI - When the Levee Breaks : Black migration and economic development in the American South AU - Hornbeck, Richard AU - Naidu, Suresh PY - 2012 PB - Cambridge, MA : National Bureau of Economic Research, DB - UniCat KW - African American agricultural laborers KW - African Americans KW - Agricultural innovations KW - Floods KW - History. KW - History UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:135876545 AB - In the American South, post-bellum economic stagnation has been partially attributed to white landowners' access to low-wage black labor; indeed, Southern economic convergence from 1940 to 1970 was associated with substantial black out-migration. This paper examines the impact of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 on agricultural development. Flooded counties experienced an immediate and persistent out-migration of black population. Over time, landowners in flooded counties dramatically mechanized and modernized agricultural production 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. ER -