Population change and the legacy of slavery

Spatiotemporal Changes in the Slavery-Inequality Relationship: The Diffusion of the Legacy of Slavery

Despite the persistence of relationships between historical racist violence and contemporary Black-White inequality, research indicates, in broad strokes, that the slavery-inequality relationship in the United States has changed over time. Identifying the timing of such change across states can offer insights into the underlying processes that generate Black-White inequality. In this study, we use integrated nested Laplace approximation models to simultaneously account for spatial and temporal features of panel data for Southern counties during the period spanning 1900 to 2018, in combination with data on the concentration of enslaved people from the 1860 census. Results provide the first evidence on the timing of changes in the slavery-economic inequality relationship and how changes differ across states. We find a region-wide decline in the magnitude of the slavery-inequality relationship by 1930, with declines traversing the South in a northeasterly-to-southwesterly pattern over the study period. Different paces in declines in the relationship across states suggest the expansion of institutionalized racism first in places with the longest-standing overt systems of slavery. Results provide guidance for further identifying intervening mechanisms-most centrally, the maturity of racial hierarchies and the associated diffusion of racial oppression across institutions, and how they affect the legacy of slavery in the United States.

(Un)safe Spaces: The Relationship Between Slavery and Sexual Victimization of Black Women

Research exploring the correlates of sexual victimization has found sexual victimization to be associated with both individual- and contextual-level factors, including age, gender, poverty, and size of the female population. However, to date, research has been limited in exploring how historical factors, such as slavery, may be associated with the contemporary prevalence of sexual victimization of women. Historical accounts have often suggested that enslaved women often experienced sexual victimization during their enslavement. Despite these accounts, research has been limited in empirically exploring the relationship between slavery and the sexual victimization of Black women. Using the 1860 U.S. Census and the 2019 National Incidence-Based Reporting System, multilevel logistic regression analyses are employed to explore whether slavery is consequential for contemporary instances of Black female sexual victimization. In line with the "legacy effect" framework, the findings from the current study suggest that Black women are significantly more likely to be sexually victimized in counties characterized by larger enslaved populations in 1860. These findings illuminate how historical institutions, despite being outlawed, have contemporary consequences, particularly for Black women. These findings, discussions, avenues for future research, and policy implications are discussed below.

Application of the Weathering Framework: Intersection of Racism, Stigma, and COVID-19 as a Stressful Life Event among African Americans

The disproportionate impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on African American communities necessitates an increased focus on the intersectional roles of racism, stigma, and other social determinants of health in influencing disease and mortality risk. The Weathering Framework is applied to demonstrate the dynamic interrelationships between these factors and to conceptualize COVID-19 as a stressful life event that will have profound health implications over the life course for African Americans. Recommendations for population health research, interventions and policies aimed at reducing COVID-19 incidence and mortality, and mitigation of the long-term impacts of the pandemic on communities of color are discussed.