This paper investigates the impact of Reconstruction-era amnesty policy on the officeholding and wealth of planter elites in the postbellum U.S. South. Amnesty policy restricted the political and economic rights of the planter class for nearly three years during Reconstruction. The paper estimates the effects of being excepted from amnesty on elites' future wealth and political power using a regression discontinuity design. Results on a sample of delegates to Reconstruction conventions show that exclusion from amnesty substantially decreases the likelihood of holding political office. I find no evidence that exclusion from amnesty impacted later census wealth for Reconstruction delegates or for a larger sample of known slaveholders who lived in the South in 1860. These findings are in line with previous studies evidencing changes to the identity of the political elite and continuity of economic mobility for the planter elite across the Civil War and Reconstruction.
翻译:本文调查了重建时代大赦政策对美国后贝卢姆南方的占有权和占有权精英财富的影响。特赦政策在重建期间将规划阶层的政治和经济权利限制近三年。本文件利用回归中断的设计估计了免于大赦对精英阶层未来财富和政治权力的影响。重建公约代表的抽样结果显示,被排除在大赦之外会大大降低担任政治职务的可能性。我没有发现任何证据表明,被排斥在大赦之外会影响后来为重建代表或1860年居住在南方的已知奴隶拥有者进行的人口普查财富。这些调查结果与以往关于证明政治精英阶层特性发生变化以及计划精英阶层在整个内战和重建中经济流动性的连续性的研究是一致的。