(in submission)

A common hypothesis is that geographic characteristics were instrumental in determining the historic distribution of wealth. This paper examines that hypothesis empirically using county-level data from the United States in 1860. Controlling explicitly for spatial correlations in inequality across counties, regression results show significant effects of geographic characteristics (growing periods, rainfall patterns, and soil types) on land inequality. The results suggest that geography can account for up to 50% of farm size inequality, while spatial correlations themselves are capable of explaining nearly 40\%. Further results show that for the breadth of land-holding this link is due to crop choice and agricultural productivity, as suggested by Engerman and Sokoloff (1997)