Trump Won South Carolina Because the Legacy of 'Plantation Economics' Endures

After a pivotal primary weekend for this year’s presidential elections, many are wondering how Donald Trump was able to win South Carolina. It’s a Deep South, Bible Belt state, packed with evangelical voters—and this just days after His Holiness questioned Trump’s Christianity.

Given the large margin by which Trump conquered South Carolina, it’s safe to say that voters there are influenced by more than just what their Bible tells them. As it turns out, white voters in the state, like others across the South, are also heavily moved by what white supremacy tells them, as it’s been dating all the way back to slavery. This is particularly true in counties that had the largest concentrations of slaves across the South—the “Black Belt”—in the 19th century, according to a new study published in the Journal of Politics by the Harvard and Stanford political scientists Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen.