One Kind of Freedom
The Economic Consequences of Emancipation

This economic history classic examines the economic institutions that replaced slavery.

Roger L. Ransom (Author), Richard Sutch (Author)

9780521791694, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 July 2001

486 pages, 21 b/w illus. 7 maps 124 tables
23.6 x 16.1 x 3.2 cm, 0.8 kg

"...clearly written and closely reasoned...One Kind of Freedeom is likely to remain what it has been for a quarter-century now: the single best introduction to the economy of the early postemancipation South." H-Net Reviews

This edition of the economic history classic One Kind of Freedom reprints the entire text of the first edition together with an introduction by the authors and an extensive bibliography of works in Southern history published since the appearance of the first edition. The book examines the economic institutions that replaced slavery and the conditions under which ex-slaves were allowed to enter the economic life of the United States following the Civil War. The authors contend that although the kind of freedom permitted to black Americans allowed substantial increases in their economic welfare, it effectively curtailed further black advancement and retarded Southern economic development. Quantitative data are used to describe the historical setting but also shape the authors' economic analysis and test the appropriateness of their interpretations. Ransom and Sutch's revised findings enrich the picture of the era and offer directions for future research.

Preface
Preface to the new edition
Acknowledgements
A note to the reader
1. What did freedom mean?
2. The legacy of slavery
3. The myth of the prostrate South
4. The demise of the plantation
5. Agricultural reconstruction
6. Financial reconstruction
7. The emergence of the merchants' territorial monopoly
8. The trap of debt peonage
9. The roots of southern poverty
Statistical appendixes
Epilogue
A bibliography of literature on the South after 1977
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Educational: History [YQH], Economic history [KCZ], History of the Americas [HBJK]