Loren Schweninger

In the following viewpoint, Loren Schweninger asserts that the economic status of southern blacks, as measured by land and property ownership, improved significantly after the Civil War. According to Schweninger, southern African Americans—primarily former slaves—increased their land ownership by as much as 744 percent during the 1860s. He explains that economic growth occurred in both rural and urban areas and was influenced by a variety of factors, including increased black political power, the end of the plantation system, and the rising demand for black workers in the urban lower South. Schweninger is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the author of several books, including Black Property Owners in the South, 1790–1915.

Following emancipation, former slaves confronted many obstacles in their efforts to become economically self-sufficient...