Amnesty Policy and Elite Persistence in the Postbellum South: Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design

This paper investigates the impact of Reconstruction-era amnesty policy on officeholding and wealth elites in postbellum South. Amnesty restricted political economic rights Southern for nearly three years during Reconstruction. I estimate effect being excluded from elites' future power using a regression discontinuity design that compares individuals just above below threshold determined exclusion amnesty. Results sample Reconstruction convention delegates show significantly decreased likelihood ex-post officeholding. find no evidence impacted later census or larger known slaveholders who lived South 1860. These findings are line with previous studies evidencing both changes to identity elite, continuity mobility among planter elite across Civil War