Candidate: Xi Mao

Dissertation Title: “The Crowning of King Cotton in the American South: Evidence from 1840 to 1975”

Abstract: This is an episode of Southern cotton kingdom across the antebellum and postbellum periods. The study includes two events to explore the importance of cotton during the antebellum and postbellum periods. The study first uses the repeal of the British Corn Laws in the antebellum period to causally estimate the relationship among overseas cotton demand, cotton production, slavery, and political affiliation on pro-slavery in the American South. The results suggest that a single episode of trade liberalization can explain slaves' growth in cotton suitable land in the South, as well as the realignment of the political affiliation of pro-slavery in the antebellum South. The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 appeared to be an internal conflict caused by slavery. In fact, it was an irreconcilable conflict between the North and South political affiliations in the resource distribution of cotton production. The study estimates the causal relationship between cotton production and the polarization of landholding, using the magnitude of the Boll Weevil infestation in the agricultural South. The impact of the cotton economy lasted a long time after the Civil War in the South. The thesis evidence cotton significantly affected the land redistribution and land inequality in the South by the Boll Weevil infestation. Together, the repeal of the Corn Laws and the arrival of Boll Weevil allow us to causally explain the role of cotton in shaping the United States today.

Committee:

Tibor Besedes, PhD (advisor), GA Tech

Laura Taylor, PhD, GA Tech

Olga Shemyakina, PhD, GA Tech

Willie Belton, PhD, GA Tech

Juan Moreno-Cruz, PhD, University of Waterloo

Location: https://bluejeans.com/953098388

Time: July 10, 3pm