In a new working paper, we dig deeper into history to offer a necessary prequel, focused on the smaller-scale—but no less important—influence of the earliest postbellum movers out of the South. Unlike the Southern whites who moved en masse during the 20th century, these early migrants often had direct, personal ties to the institution of slavery. This proximate exposure to slavery, together with antebellum nostalgia and animosity towards federal intervention, would play an important role as they put down roots across America at a critical juncture of nation building and post-war reconciliation.
Figure 1: Waves and Legacies of Southern White Migration
In our analysis, we track the nearly 1 million Southern whites who left the former Confederacy and allied territory—including an estimated 60,000 former enslavers and another 120,000 of their kin—for the country’s nascent frontier in the three decades after the Civil War. By sorting into positions of authority in local public life, these migrants were able to entrench “Confederate culture” in locales across the United States, with persistent consequences for racial inequity.
Figure 2: % Southern Whites in Non-Southern Counties, 1900
We explore the impacts of Southern white migrants on symbolic and material expressions of Confederate culture in the early 20th century: Confederate memorialization; chapters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC); Ku Klux Klan (KKK) chapters; and lynchings of Black people. We combine these into a single index, as seen below. While Confederate culture was widespread in the South, it was not exclusive to it. We show that the “Confederate diaspora” carried and transmitted these norms across the United States.
Figure 3: The Diffusion of “Confederate Culture”
These different dimensions of Confederate culture were interrelated. They initially gained prominence within the postbellum South, with shared roots in “Lost Cause” ideology, a set of revisionist narratives that aimed to redeem the image of the South. The UDC was instrumental in the development and diffusion of the Lost Cause through various activities, including its support for Confederate statues and other memorials (e.g., schools and streets named after Confederate generals). Lost Cause narratives offered noble rationalizations for secession and the war, downplaying slavery and emphasizing the defense of states’ rights against Northern aggression. They were full of white supremacist tropes, touting the supposed contentment of slaves and the inferiority of Black people, as just causes for slavery. The UDC and other advocates advanced these narratives across the country, and their symbolic efforts complemented the spread of more overt and violent expressions of racial animus, such as KKK mobilization and lynchings.