At the center of the upheavals brought by emancipation in the American South was the economic and social transition from slavery to modern capitalism. In Between Slavery and Capitalism, Martin Ruef examines how this institutional change affected individuals, organizations, and communities in the late nineteenth century, as blacks and whites alike l

List of Illustrations vii List of Tables ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xv 1. Institutional Transformation and Uncertainty 1 2. Constructing a Free Labor Market 21 3. Status Attainment among Emancipated Slaves 50 4. Class Structure in the Old and New South 75 5. The Demise of the Plantation 103 6. Credit and Trade in the New South 131 7. Paths to Development 156 8. Emancipation in Comparative Perspective 181 Appendix A. Data Sources and Sampling 195 Appendix B. Idiosyncrasy 203 Notes 209 References 253 Index 277

"It would seem difficult to add any new knowledge to the history of the southern economy after the Civil War. But Martin Ruef has done just that. By arguing that the reconstruction of the southern economy was an uncertain and conflict-riven process, he suggests that the options that were pursued were a complex social construction that reflected the relative power of planters and their former slaves. Put simply, producing a labor market involved the construction of a new model of racial employment in the South. Ruef's book uses previously unexploited data sources to examine the construction of this market from the bottom up and shows how this affected the life chances of African Americans for at least two generations."—Neil D. Fligstein, University of California, Berkeley

"Ruef has written a marvelously clear and compelling account of the profound transformation of the South's economy after the Civil War, explaining how former slaves and former slaveholders and other whites navigated the uncertain terrain left after the abolition of slavery. This is a model for how to triangulate among multiple historical sources—government censuses, credit ratings, archives on Southern plantations, and interviews with former slaves."—Heather A. Haveman, University of California, Berkeley

"Ruef's book is an absolute must read. His novel analysis—deploying economic sociology's concepts of classical uncertainty (unknown probabilities of known outcomes) and categorical uncertainty (unknown outcomes) to analyze the transitions to capitalism after the U.S. Civil War—can be fruitfully applied to countless situations of profound institutional change, past and present."—Rebecca Jean Emigh, University of California, Los Angeles

"Between Slavery and Capitalism tells a masterful, authoritative, and previously untold story about how pervasive uncertainty shaped the economy of the South following emancipation. Using an impressive array of data to test theory and draw conclusions, Martin Ruef takes up for empirical consideration what most have only speculated and theorized about."—Enobong Hannah Branch, University of Massachusetts, Amherst