The Real Wages of Whiteness: Non-slaveowners in the Slave South

John Clegg, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Social Sciences, University of Chicago

Historians and social scientists have typically assumed that “poor whites” in the Antebellum South suffered from competition with slave labor. Using real and nominal wage and wealth data from newly digitized 1850 and 1860 census schedules, I show that non-slaveowning white Southerners actually garnered significant economic benefits from their interactions with the slave economy. In this talk I will first examine four possible explanations for these apparent benefits. I will then explore their legacy for regional politics and racial formation.