This paper investigates the impact of Reconstruction-era amnesty policy on the officeholding and wealth of planter elites in the postbellum U.S. South. Amnesty policy restricted the political and economic rights of the planter class for nearly three years during Reconstruction. The paper estimates the effects of being excepted from amnesty on elites' future wealth and political power using a regression discontinuity design  . Results on a sample of delegates to Reconstruction conventions show that exclusion from amnesty substantially decreases the likelihood of holding political office . I find no evidence that exclusion from amnesty impacted later census wealth for Reconstruction delegates or for a larger sample of known slaveholders who lived in the South in 1860. These findings are in line with previous studies evidencing  changes to the identity of the political elite and continuity of economic mobility for the planter elite across the Civil War and Reconstruction.
This paper investigates the impact of Reconstruction-era amnesty policy on the officeholding and wealth of elites in the postbellum South. Amnesty policy restricted the political and economic rights of Southern elites for nearly three years during Reconstruction. I estimate the effect of being excluded from amnesty on elites' future wealth and political power using a regression discontinuity design that compares individuals just above and below a wealth threshold that determined exclusion from amnesty . Results on a sample of Reconstruction convention delegates show that exclusion from amnesty significantly decreased the likelihood of ex-post officeholding . I find no evidence that exclusion impacted later census wealth for Reconstruction delegates or for a larger sample of known slaveholders who lived in the South in 1860. These findings are in line with previous studies evidencing both changes to the identity of the political elite , and the continuity of economic mobility among the planter elite across the Civil War and Reconstruction.
D
planter
D
U.S.
R
the planter class
Southern elites
R
The paper estimates the effects of being excepted
I estimate the effect of being excluded
A
that compares individuals just above and below a wealth threshold that determined exclusion from amnesty
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delegates to Reconstruction conventions
Reconstruction convention delegates
R
substantially decreases
significantly decreased
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holding political office
ex-post officeholding
D
from amnesty
A
both
R
and
, and the
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for
among