title: Racial boundary formation at the dawn of Jim Crow: the determinants and effects of black/mulatto occupational differences in the United States, 1880.
abstract: This article examines variation in the social position of mixed-race populations by exploiting county-level variation in the degree of occupational differentiation between blacks and mulattoes in the 1880 U.S. census. The role of the mixed-race category as either a "buffer class" or a status threat depended on the class composition of whites. Black/mulatto occupational differentiation was greatest where whites had high occupational prestige and thus little to fear from a mulatto group. Furthermore, differentiation increased the risk of lynching where whites had relatively low status and decreased the risk of lynching where whites had relatively high status.
authors.affiliation: Sociology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403, USA. aarong@uoregon.edu
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gullickson
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D009790:Occupations / Q000266:history*; D011287:Prejudice; D011822:Race Relations / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D014481:United States; D044465:White People