Earlier abolition correlates with smaller African-descended populations today in Latin America

Evidence

Notwithstanding the challenges of enumeration, there is a revealing correlation across Latin America between a state’s date of abolition and the relative size of the African-descended population remaining today. With all the relevant qualifications for counting by race, the earlier abolition by a state in the region, the lower tends to be the black or mixed black proportion of the respective state demographic today – or even a century ago. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1071

Categorization

• QUESTION: The correlation is striking and counterintuitive — one would expect early abolition to leave a larger free black population, yet the opposite holds. Worth verifying the underlying demographic data.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1071
• XREF: connects to: Post-abolition states deliberately decimated freed black populations, especially in Argentina — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1074