1860 Cotton Production and the 2008 Vote

by John Sides on December 12, 2008 · 5 comments

in Uncategorized

Red and blue denote McCain and Obama counties. The dots denote cotton production.

[Via Chris Blattman]

5 comments

{ 5 comments }

Jim December 12, 2008 at 12:07 pm: I’m glad you reposted this because I’ve been thinking about it since I first saw it and I what I’ve been wondering is this: What happened to that area there on the Alabama/Tennessee border where there’s a collection of dots but no blue counties?
Jim C. December 12, 2008 at 1:07 pm: I would imagine the collection of dots with no blue counties along the Tennessee/Alabama border can be explained by black migration away from those counties. This map demonstrates the amazing lack of black migration since the end of the Civil War throughout Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia while showing a different story about the patterns of migration in South Carolina, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee. Very interesting.
pwapvt December 12, 2008 at 9:55 pm: Great map. I was looking at my purple America map with someone today and they noticed that band of deep blue across the south too. Interesting correlation.
DixieCup December 12, 2008 at 10:03 pm: That band of blue counties in Alabama is called the “Black Belt” supposedly referring to the black soil, but also referring to majority african american population in those areas.
Colin Waters December 16, 2008 at 1:40 pm: This is really something else. What about comparing this map to others dating back several years?

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