Partisan Politics in the 21st Century South: The Fading Impact of Antebellum Slavery

• Author: Irwin L. Morris
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X221121724
• Published date: 01 November 2022
• Date: 01 November 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

American Politics Research

2022, Vol. 50(6) 743–751

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X221121724

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Partisan Politics in the 21st Century South:

The Fading Impact of Antebellum Slavery

Irwin L. Morris

1



Abstract

Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen (2018) argue that antebellum slavery is directly related to racial conservatism and support for the

Republican Party in the modern South. Yet during the last two decades, the South has begun a subtle but still very signif‌icant

partisan shift to the left. Areas where population growth has stagnated (or actually declined) have ten ded to become more

Republican; Democratic support has been bolstered by higher population growth. Signif‌icantly, local population growth and

historic slave populations are largely unrelated. I examine the extent to which antebellum slavery inf‌luences county-level

southern White partisanship and racial resentment during the second decade of the 21st century. Over the course of this time

period, the impact of antebellum slavery evaporates. Not coincidentally, county-level pop ulation growth is strongly associated

with increased Democratic identif‌ication and more progressive racial attitudes at or near the end of this time frame.

Keywords

Southern politics, party politics, political geography

Introduction

In Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics

(2018), Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen

(hereafter, ABS) make a compelling case for the role of

antebellum slavery on the political attitudes of modern-day

White southerners.

1

More specif‌ically, they tie the racial

conservatism of White southerners—as manifest in their

attitudes on issues related to race and their partisanship—to

the localized concentration of slaves in 1860: the prevalence

of slavery is directly related to racial conservatism and

support for the Republican Party and its candidates.

As Deep Roots begins with the comparison of two

southern locales—Greenwood, Mississippi and Asheville,

North Carolina—I do the same. My comparison focuses on

Buchanan County, Virginia and Wake County, North

Carolina—two locations for which the Deep Roots theory

provides clear empirical expectations. Buchanan County—

deep in the southwest corner of the state–had almost no slaves

in 1860.

2

Based on ABS’s data, Buchanan County was less

than 1.1% enslaved—the smallest percentage of any county

in Virginia.

3

In 2020, more than 83% of its overwhelmingly

White voters cast ballots for President Trump. This repre-

sented the most lopsided support for a Republican presi-

dential candidate in this county since the end of

Reconstruction. Wake County, North Carolina, had a much

larger antebellum slave population. In 1860, slaves made up

37.5% of the total county population.

4

In 2020, 62.5% of the

voting population cast a ballot for Presidential candidate Joe

Biden. That was the highest percentage of the vote received

by a Democratic presidential candidate in Wake County in

over 70 years. While the population is far more diverse than in

Buchanan County, White residents were much more likely to

vote Democrat than the White residents in Buchanan County.

Obviously, no theory covers every case. But just as ABS

featured Asheville, NC and Greenwood, MS to illustrate the

relationship between antebellum slavery and modern White

partisanship and racial conservatism, the cases of Buchanan

County and Wake County suggest that the effect of the “deep”

past on modern political attitudes is richer and the rela-

tionship is more complicated than it appears at f‌irst glance.

Beginning with the here and now rather than the ante-

bellum past, it is increasingly clear that the South has begun a

subtle but still very signif‌icant partisan shift to the left.

5

The

increase in Democratic support has, however, occurred un-

evenly. The fastest growth in Democratic support has oc-

curred where the population has grown most dramatically

1

Political Science, North Carolina State University at Raleigh, Raleigh, NC,

USA

Corresponding Author:

Irwin L. Morris, Political Science, North Carolina State University at Raleigh,

School of Public and International Affairs, Campus Box 8102, 215 Caldwell

Hall, Raleigh, NC 27695-8102, USA.

Email: ilmorri2@ncsu.edu