[zdw]

Freeing slaves had the effect of taking away "property" from people.

Any change to the status quo that affects someones finances, you'll see some level of opposition.

[gumby]

The federal government paid “reparations” to those former slave owners and they were wealthier by the 1880s than they had been before the war.

[zdw]

Only happened in DC for very few people, so I'm not sure your statement holds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compensated_emancipation#Unite...

[gumby]

Thank you, you caused me to dig up what I had read and I misremembered the causes. But within 15 years the rich were back on top.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/04/04/how-sout... (original study: https://www.nber.org/papers/w25700 )

Slightly different analysis, on wealth mobility on a shorter timescale: https://voxeu.org/article/impact-us-civil-war-southern-wealt...