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In the spring of 1865 the Confederacy made a last, desperate gamble for victory when it decided to use African-Americans as soldiers in the Army. Given the plantation history of the South, the strong proslavery arguments developed in the previous decades, and that preservation of slavery was one of the principal war aims of the South when it seceded, the decision to arm slaves called for a major re-evaluation of the philosophy upon which the Confederacy had based its existence. For who would have guessed that the South would ever voluntarily give up the very institution that had created the turmoil and confrontation with the North for decades. Was not the South stubbornly attached to slavery? How could they change their minds? What produced those changes? Who was behind those changes? No doubt the choice was made easier by the logic of desperation, the humiliation and dishonor of a possible defeat, and the realization that slavery was to be doomed regardless of what decision the South made. None of this however, makes the fact less astonishing. This paper uses the Southern Confederacy as a case study that shows that states, when confronted with self-preservation, can make political decisions in direct contradiction with even their initial war goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the role that the former Confederate States of America have on the entry of black-owned firms in the southern United States. Elected officials holding onto vestiges of southern slavery maintain a racist culture revealing a "taste for discrimination" and implement biased policy (Becker, 1971). Consequently, these biased elected officials who have some authority over the distribution of public contracts and policies continue to encourage anti-competitive and discriminatory practices in credit and capital markets. The results reveal that the former Confederate States of America through public policy create a market environment that has a significant and negative effect on black-owned firm entry. This suggests that among the various explanations for the dearth of black entrepreneurs, political entry barriers in the old south also appear to be important. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]