We study the economic and political determinants of the Southern secession movement of 1860/61. While economic historians emphasize the importance of slavery to the South’s economy as the primary factor behind the movement, we demonstrate the important role that political inequality among whites played in facilitating secession. In particular, secession was decided in state conventions, which allowed secessionists to exploit biases to representation and may have been pivotal in Alabama and Georgia. Our results suggest that the region’s investment in slavery alone may not be sufficient to explain the electoral success of the movement in the largest Lower South states.

中文翻译：

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南方分裂国家的政治经济地理

我们研究了 1860/61 年南方分裂运动的经济和政治决定因素。虽然经济历史学家强调奴隶制对南方经济的重要性是这场运动背后的主要因素，但我们证明了白人之间的政治不平等在促进分离方面发挥的重要作用。特别是，分裂是在州议会中决定的，这使得分裂主义者可以利用偏见来代表代表，这可能在阿拉巴马州和乔治亚州至关重要。我们的研究结果表明，仅该地区对奴隶制的投资可能不足以解释该运动在最大的下南部州的选举成功。