Slavery's Transgenerational Effect on White and Black Interracial Homicides in the Southern United States

Over the last three decades, a steady flow of research has explored the factors that explain the spatial distribution of interracial homicides in America. However, despite the many advances made in the interracial homicide literature, few studies have assessed the cultural sources of such violence. In order to address this gap in the literature, the current study examines the influence of past slavery on interracial homicide levels within the contemporary Southern United States. Drawing upon literature relating to a Southern culture of violence and the dehumanizing effects of Black enslavement, this study hypothesizes that the proportion of slaves in the population in 1860 will be positively related to contemporary White perpetrated killings of Blacks but have no relationship to Black perpetrated killings of Whites. I also hypothesize that interracial competition in the political and economic domains will increase slavery's effect on levels of White interracial killings. The results gleaned from county-level negative binomial regression analyses are generally consistent with expectations. The measure of slavery is associated with significantly higher rates of White interracial homicide offending, but slavery demonstrates no connection to Black interracial homicide offending. Results also reveal that contextual factors related to racial competition fail to moderate slavery's effect on White interracial killings. At a general level, findings from the current study highlight the relevance of historical context for understanding variation in contemporary levels of lethal interracial violence.