ABSTRACT
Economic opportunity plays a prominent role in explanations of nuptiality. Scholars concerned with both historic and contemporary periods have proposed that marriage occurs earlier and is more prevalent where economic opportunity is relatively abundant. The rural American South during the early twentieth century is an excellent example of a society in which the nature and extent of economic opportunity varied markedly across groups, especially racial groups. Ruth B. Dixon has suggested a useful conceptual framework for understanding geographic variation in marriage behavior. During the late nineteenth century the southern caste system shaped all institutions of southern society, from the voting booth to the marketplace. The agricultural system of the South was shaped by a complex set of circumstances that arose after Emancipation. Rural black males also faced bleak prospects for employment outside of agriculture due to the relatively retarded development of an industrial economy in the South and the exclusion of blacks from many of those industrial enterprises that did exist.
