Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Graphs, Maps, and Tables
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- Introduction to the First Edition
- 1 Paleo–Indians, Europeans, and the Settlement of America
- 2 Colonization and Settlement of North America
- 3 The Early Republic to 1860
- 4 The Creation of an Industrial and Urban Society, 1860–1914
- 5 The Evolution of a Modern Population, 1914–1945
- 6 The Baby Boom and Bust and the New New Immigrants, 1945–1970
- 7 An Advanced Industrial Society, 1970–2011
- Appendix Tables, Graphs, and Maps
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
3 - The Early Republic to 1860
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Graphs, Maps, and Tables
- Introduction to the Second Edition
- Introduction to the First Edition
- 1 Paleo–Indians, Europeans, and the Settlement of America
- 2 Colonization and Settlement of North America
- 3 The Early Republic to 1860
- 4 The Creation of an Industrial and Urban Society, 1860–1914
- 5 The Evolution of a Modern Population, 1914–1945
- 6 The Baby Boom and Bust and the New New Immigrants, 1945–1970
- 7 An Advanced Industrial Society, 1970–2011
- Appendix Tables, Graphs, and Maps
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
The first 70 years of the new republic brought some very basic changes in thelevels of fertility and mortality from those that had evolved in the 17th and18th centuries. By 1800, a two-century-long pattern of declining fertilitybegan, with each generation of women producing ever fewer children from theextraordinarily high rates of the late colonial period. At the same time, therewas probably a rise in mortality rates, or at least some very sharp shifts, withno clear trends in annual mortality rates until well after the Civil War. Therewere even some clear indications of malnutrition in the immediate pre-Civil Warperiod, a paradoxical finding given the steady and dramatic growth of thenational population. There were also profound changes in migration in thisperiod as the Atlantic slave trade ended in 1808 and the beginnings of massEuropean immigration to North America began to occur after 1840. It is thecauses and consequences of these various factors that I examine in this chapteron the early republic to 1860.
The new republic of the United States began with a census and promised tomaintain a periodical population count as part of its normal governmentoperations. Thus began one of the oldest systematic censuses in World History,the decennial counting of the population of the United States. In the period ofthe 1770s to the 1780s, the political leaders of all the colonies came to therealization that a national census was needed. The movement for independence inthe 1770s was accompanied by a major debate on the form that the newpostcolonial republican government would take. The Articles of Confederation hadalready struggled with issues of representation and taxation. The stateresponsibilities for the public debt as well as of the nature of the staterepresentation in the central government all rested on the question ofpopulation size.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Population History of the United States , pp. 61 - 94Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
References
American Population Before the Federal Census of 1790New YorkColumbia University Press 1932Google Scholar
Demography in Early America. Beginnings of the Statistical Mind, 1600–1800Cambridge, Mass.Harvard University Press 1969 19CrossRefGoogle Scholar
A Century of Population Growth. From the First to the Twelfth Census of the United States: 1790–1900Washington, D.CGPO 1909 4Google Scholar
Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990Population Division Working Paper No. 27Washington, D.C.Population Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census 1998Google Scholar
Birth Rates of the White Population in the United States, 1800–1860: An Economic StudyBaltimoreJohns Hopkins University 1962Google Scholar
Demographic Dimensions of the New Republic: American Interregional Migration, Vital Statistics and Manumissions, 1800–1860CambridgeCambridge University Press 1982Google Scholar
Adult Mortality in America Before 1900: A View from Family HistoriesStrategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic HistoryChicagoUniversity of Chicago Press 1992 267Google Scholar
The White Population of the United States, 1790–1920,A Population History of North AmericaCambridgeCambridge University Press 2000 308Google Scholar
New Estimates of Fertility and Population in the United StatesPrincetonPrinceton University Press 1963 21CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revolutionary Conceptions, Women, Fertility and Family Limitation in America 1760--1820Chapel HillUniversity of North Carolina Press 2009Google Scholar
A Century of Population Growth. From the First to the Twelfth Census of the United States: 1790–1900Washington, D.C.GPO 1909 59Google Scholar
Birth Rates of the White Population in the United States, 1800–1860: An Economic StudyBaltimoreJohns Hopkins University 1962Google Scholar
Land Availability and Fertility in the United States, 1760–1860Journal of Economic History 1982 577CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1986
The Determinants of the Fertility in Antebellum Ohio,Journal of Economic History 1976 359CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Economic Opportunity and White American Fertility Ratios, 1800–1860New HavenYale University Press 1972Google Scholar
1971
A Study of Cohort Life Cycles: Cohorts of Native Born Massachusetts Women, 1830–1920Population Studies 1969 413Google Scholar
Birth Rates of the White Population of the United States, 1800–1860. An Economic StudyBaltimoreJohns Hopkins University Press 1962 55Google Scholar
Growth of the Black Population in Ante Bellum America, 1820–1860Population Studies 1972 283Google ScholarPubMed
Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro SlaveryBoston, Mass.Little, Brown 1974Google Scholar
On the Natural Increase of Slave Populations: The Example of the Cuban Black Population, 1775–1900Race and Slavery in the Western HemispherePrinceton University PressPrinceton 1975Google Scholar
Slave Populations of the British Caribbean, 1807–1834BaltimoreJohns Hopkins University Press 1984Google Scholar
Fertility Differentials Between Slaves in the United States and the British West Indies: A Note on Lactation Practices and their ImplicationsWilliam and Mary Quarterly 1978 357CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
African Slavery in Latin America and the CaribbeanNew YorkOxford University Press 1986Google Scholar
The African American Population of the United States, 1790–1920A Population History of North AmericaCambridgeCambridge University Press 2000Google Scholar
Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970New YorkCambridge University Press 1997Google Scholar
The Demographic Structure of Mexico City in 1811Journal of Urban History 1996 66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Immigration, Mortality and Population Growth in Boston, 1840–1880Journal of Interdisciplinary History 1985 397Google Scholar
Mortality in Quebec During the Nineteenth Century: From the State to the CitiesPopulation Studies 1997 95Google ScholarPubMed
Mortality Rates and Trends in Massachusetts Before 1860The Journal of Economic History 1972 204Google ScholarPubMed
The End of European Immigrant Servitude in the United States: An Economic Analysis of Market Collapse, 1772–1835The Journal of Economic History 1994 794CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Rise and Fall of Indentured Servitude in the Americas: An Economic AnalysisThe Journal of Economic History 1984 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
International Historical Statistics: Europe, 1750–1993New YorkStockton Press 1992 92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wages, Prices, and Labor Markets Before the Civil WarStrategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic HistoryChicagoUniversity of Chicago Press 1992 67Google Scholar
Economic and Social Development of the SouthThe Cambridge Economic History of the United StatesNew YorkCambridge University Press 2000 294Google Scholar
Economic Growth and Structural Change in the Long Nineteenth CenturyThe Cambridge Economic History of the United StatesNew YorkCambridge University Press 2000 7Google Scholar
Fertility in Massachusetts from the Revolution to the Civil WarNew YorkAcademic Press 1981 33Google Scholar
Mortality Trends in Philadelphia: Age-and Cause-Specific Death Rates 1870–1930Demography 1982 100Google ScholarPubMed
The Use of Model Life Tables to Estimate Mortality for the United States in the Late Nineteenth CenturyDemography 1979 307Google ScholarPubMed
On Long-Term Mortality Trends in the United States: 1850–1968Demography 1973 409Google ScholarPubMed
Nutrition and the Decline in Mortality Since 1700: Some Preliminary FindingsLong-Term Factors in American Economic GrowthChicagoUniversity of Chicago Press 1986 454Google Scholar
The Societies of Europe: The European Population 1845–1945New YorkPalgrave-MacMillan 2002 744Google Scholar
The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849 and 1866ChicagoUniversity of Chicago Press 1987CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum AmericaThe Journal of Economic History 1987 897CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anomalies in Economic History: Toward a Resolution of the ‘Antebellum PuzzleThe Journal of Economic History 1996 202CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heights of Native-Born Whites During the Antebellum PeriodJournal of Economic History 1983 167CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shrinking in a Growing Economy? The Mystery of Physical Stature during the Industrial RevolutionThe Journal of Economic History 1998 779CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Height of female Americans in the 19th century and the antebellum puzzleEconomics and Human Biology 2011 157CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Did African Americans experience the ‘Atebellum Pule’? Evidence from the United States Colored Troops during the Civil WarEconomics and Human Biology 2011 45CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
The height of Tennessee convicts: another piece of the “antebellum puzzleEconomics and Human Biology 2004 75CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Upward and onward: High-society American women eluded the antebellum puzzleEconomics and Human Biology 2011 165CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this chapter is currently unknown
and may be updated in the future.