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Racial Threat or Racial Contact? How Race Affected Third‐Party Presidential Voting in the Antebellum North *
Author(s) -
Chamberlain Adam
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
social science quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.482
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1540-6237
pISSN - 0038-4941
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6237.2011.00774.x
Subject(s) - voting , race (biology) , context (archaeology) , politics , presidential system , racial politics , demographic economics , political science , presidential campaign , racial group , relation (database) , political economy , criminology , sociology , law , geography , economics , gender studies , archaeology , database , computer science
Objective. In this study, the “racial threat” and “racial contact” hypotheses are evaluated in relation to voting for the Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the North during the 1840s. Methods. Regression models are used to predict the effect of county‐level black populations on Liberty and Free Soil vote percentages in relation to types of employment. Results. Racial threat occurred in high manufacturing counties, but racial contact/threat emerged in more agricultural counties. The effects vary by party and region of the North. Conclusion. The effects of racial context on political behavior during this era are mixed, much like modern political studies have uncovered.