Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:58:53.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Health during Industrialization

Evidence from the Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania State Prison System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Scott Alan Carson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article considers the relationship among race, stature, and proximity to Pennsylvania's nineteenth-century dairy-producing regions. Previous studies demonstrate a positive relationship between stature and access to dairy products. However, Pennsylvania's dairy-producing region was also close to urbanized Philadelphia. Here a new dataset is used from the Pennsylvania state prison system to track the heights of black and white males incarcerated from 1829 to 1909. It is documented that both blacks and whites living in southeastern Pennsylvania near both dairy-producing counties and urbanized Philadelphia were consistently shorter than individuals born and incarcerated elsewhere, indicating that the effects of urbanization dominated proximity to dairy production. Black inmates were consistently shorter than their white counterparts. The well-known midcentury height decline is confirmed among white men and is extended to blacks as well.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Fall 2008 , pp. 347 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2008 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andriot, Diana (1993) Population Abstract of the United States. McLean, VA: Documents Index.Google Scholar
Atack, Jeremy, and Bateman, Fred (1980) “The ‘egalitarian ideal’ and the distribution of wealth in the northern agricultural community: A backward look.” Review of Economics and Statistics 63: 124–29.Google Scholar
Atack, Jeremy, and Bateman, Fred (1987) To Their Own Soil: Agriculture in the Antebellum North. Ames: Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Barondess, David A., Nelson, Dorothy A., and Schlaen, Sandra E. (1997) “Whole body bone, fat, and lean mass in black and white men.” Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 12: 967–71.Google Scholar
Baten, Jörg, and Murray, John (2000) “Heights of men and women in nineteenth-century Bavaria: Economic, nutritional, and disease influences.” Explorations in Economic History 37: 351–69.Google Scholar
Blackett, R. J. M. (1997) “Freedom, or the martyr's grave: Black Pittsburgh's aid to the fugitive slave,” in Trotter, Joe William and Smith, Eric Lendell (eds.) African Americans in Pennsylvania: Shifting Historical Perspectives. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press: 148–65.Google Scholar
Bodenhorn, Howard (1999) “A troublesome caste: Height and nutrition of antebellum Virginia's rural free blacks.” Journal of Economic History 59: 972–96.Google Scholar
Bogin, Barry (1991) “Measurement of growth variability and environmental quality in Guatemalan children.” Annals of Human Biology 18: 285–94.Google Scholar
Bogue, Donald J. (1985) The Population of the United States: Historical Trends and Future Projections. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Carlino, Gerald, and Sill, Keith (2001) “Regional income fluctuations: Common trends and common cycles.” Review of Economics and Statistics 83: 446–56.Google Scholar
Carson, Scott Alan (forthcoming) “African-American and white inequality in the nineteenth century American South: A biological comparison.” Journal of Population Economics. Google Scholar
Conrad, Alfred, and Meyer, John (1964) The Economics of Slavery, and Other Studies in Econometric History. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
Costa, Dora (1993) “Height, wealth, and disease among the native-born in the rural, antebellum North.” Social Science History 17: 355–83.Google Scholar
Craig, Lee, Goodwin, Barry, and Grennes, Thomas (2004) “The effect of mechanical refrigeration on nutrition in the United States.” Social Science History 28: 325–36.Google Scholar
Craig, Lee, and Weiss, Thomas (1998) “Nutritional status and agricultural surpluses in the antebellum United States,” in Komlos, John and Baten, Jörg (eds.) The Biological Standard of Living in Comparative Perspective: Contributions to the Conference Held in Munich, January 18–22, 1997, for the Twelfth Congress of the International Economic History Association. Stuttgart: Steiner: 190–207.Google Scholar
Cuff, Timothy (2005) The Hidden Cost of Economic Development: The Biological Standard of Living in Antebellum Pennsylvania. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Dickens, Charles (1842) American Notes for General Circulation. Paris: Baudry's European Library.Google Scholar
Easterlin, Richard (1971) “Regional income trends, 1840–1850,” in Fogel, Robert and Engerman, Stanley (eds.) Reinterpretations of American Economic History. New York: Harper and Row: 38–49.Google Scholar
Eveleth, Phyllis B., and Tanner, James M. (1966) Worldwide Variation in Human Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ferrie, Joseph P. (1997) “The entry into the U.S. labor market of antebellum European immigrants, 1840–1860.” Explorations in Economic History 34: 295–330.Google Scholar
Fletcher, Stevenson Whitcomb (1955) Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life. Vol. 2, 1840–1940. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.Google Scholar
Floud, Roderick, Wachter, Kenneth, and Gregory, Annabel (1990) Height, Health, and History: Nutritional Status in the United Kingdom, 1750–1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fogel, Robert (1986) “Nutrition and the decline in mortality since 1700: Some preliminary findings,” in Engerman, Stanley and Gallman, Robert (eds.) Long-Term Factors in American Economic Growth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 439–527.Google Scholar
Fogel, Robert, Engerman, Stanley, Trussell, James, Floud, Roderick, Pope, Clayne, and Wimmer, Larry (1978) “Economics of mortality in North America, 1650–1910: A description of a research project.” Historical Methods 11: 75–108.Google Scholar
Godoy, Ricardo, Goodman, E., Levins, R., and Leonard, W. R. (2005) “Anthropometric variability in the USA.” Annals of Human Biology 32: 469–85.Google Scholar
Haines, Michael (2004) “Growing incomes, shrinking people—can economic development be hazardous to your health?” Social Science History 28: 249–70.Google Scholar
Haines, Michael, Craig, Lee, and Weiss, Thomas (2003) “The short and the dead: Nutrition, mortality, and the ‘antebellum paradox’ in the United States.” Journal of Economic History 63: 382–413.Google Scholar
Hershberg, Theodore (1997) “Free blacks in antebellum Philadelphia: A study of exslaves, freeborn, and socioeconomic decline,” in Trotter, Joe William and Smith, Eric Lendell (eds.) African Americans in Pennsylvania: Shifting Historical Perspectives. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press: 123–47.Google Scholar
Komlos, John (1987) “The height and weight of West Point cadets: Dietary change in antebellum America.” Journal of Economic History 47: 897–927.Google Scholar
Komlos, John (1998) “Shrinking in a growing economy? The mystery of physical stature during the Industrial Revolution.” Journal of Economic History 58: 779–802.Google Scholar
Komlos, John, and Baten, Jörg (2004) “Looking backward and looking forward: Anthropometric research and the development of social science history.” Social Science History 28: 191–210.Google Scholar
Komlos, John, and Marieluise, Baur (2004) “From tallest to (one of) the fattest: The enigmatic fate of American population in the twentieth century.” Economics and Human Biology 2: 57–74.Google Scholar
Komlos, John, and Coclanis, Peter (1997) “On the puzzling cycle in the biological standard of living: The case of antebellum Georgia.” Explorations in Economic History 34: 433–59.Google Scholar
Margo, Robert (2000) Wages and Labor: Markets in the United States, 1820–1860. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Margo, Robert, and Steckel, Richard (1982) “The heights of American slaves: New evidence on slave nutrition and health.” Social Science History 6: 516–38.Google Scholar
Margo, Robert, and Richard, Steckel (1983) “Heights of native-born northern whites during the antebellum era.” Journal of Economic History 43: 167–74.Google Scholar
Metzer, Jacob M. (1975) “Rational management, modern business practices, and economies of scale in antebellum southern plantations.” Explorations in Economic History 12: 123–50.Google Scholar
Nelson, Dorothy, Kleerekoper, M., Peterson, E., and Parfitt, A. M. (1993) “Skin color and body size as risk factors for osteoporosis.” Osteoporosis International 3: 18–23.Google Scholar
Riggs, Paul (1994) “The standard of living in Scotland, 1800–1850,” in Komlos, John (ed.) Stature, Living Standards, and Economic Development: Essays in Anthropometric History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 60–75.Google Scholar
Rosenbloom, Joshua (2002) Looking for Work, Searching for Workers: American Labor Markets during Industrialization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ruggles, Steven, Sobek, Matthew, Alexander, Trent, Fitch, Catherine A., Goeken, Ronald, Hall, Patricia Kelly, King, Miriam, and Ronnander, Chad (2004) Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 3.0 [machine-readable database]. Minneapolis: Minnesota Population Center.Google Scholar
Sokoloff, Kenneth, and Villaflor, Georgia (1982) “Early achievement of modern stature in America.” Social Science History 6: 453–81.Google Scholar
Soltow, Lee (1975) Men and Wealth in the United States, 1850–1870. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard (1983) “Height and per capita income.” Historical Methods 16: 1–7.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard (1995) “Stature and the standard of living.” Journal of Economic Literature 33: 1903–40.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard (2004) “New light on the ‘Dark Ages’: The remarkably tall stature of northern European men during the medieval era.” Social Science History 28: 211–29.Google Scholar
Steckel, Richard, and Haurin, Donald (1994) “Health and nutrition in the American Midwest: Evidence from the height of Ohio National Guardsmen, 1850–1910,” in Komlos, John (ed.) Stature, Living Standards, and Economic Development. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 117–28.Google Scholar
Tanner, James M. (1977) “Hormonal, genetic, and environmental factors controlling growth,” in Harrison, G. A., Weiner, J. S., Tanner, J. M., and Barnicot, N. A. (eds.) Human Biology: An Introduction to Human Evolution, Variation, Growth, and Ecology. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 335–51.Google Scholar
Teeters, Negley K. (1937) They Were in Prison: A History of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, 1787–1937. Chicago: Winston.Google Scholar
Walker, Donald R. (1988) Penology for Profit: A History of the Texas Prison System, 1867–1912. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.Google Scholar
Wannamethee, S. Goya , Whincup, Peter, Shaper, Gerald, and Walker, Mary (1996) “Influence of father's social class on cardiovascular disease in middle-aged men.” Lancet 348: 1259–63.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffrey, and Lindert, Peter (1980) American Inequality: A Macroeconomic History. New York: Academic.Google Scholar