Ransom, Roger L. and Richard Sutch. One Kind of Freedom: The Economic Consequences of Emancipation. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977).

The authors began this project when they noticed the scarcity of scholarship concerning the economic institutions which took the place of slavery in the South; they felt it necessary for the understanding of the Negro experience to understand the manner in which said Negro entered into a nonbinding economic lifestyle. Another concern of the authors was the economic malaise of the South agriculturally and certainly industrially in the period from 1865 to 1914, a time of impressive economic growth elsewhere in the nation. In essence, this is an economic interpretation of Southern history in the late nineteenth century. In terms of methodology, this involved the use of much statistical data, which are necessary for comprehension.

The authors devote much of their study to a region they define as the Cotton South, wherein they see homogeneous development. They stress the fact that they are economists and not historians. Demographic, political, social, and cultural history are beyond the scope of this book. While the authors may at times refer to economic effects of noneconomic forces, they make no attempt to do anything more than offer an economic interpretation of the post-emancipation South; that alone signifies their contribution to the historical field. In the end, they give their ideas as to evolution of a Southern economy that exploited farmers--white and Negro--and allowed for little or no industrial development.