Research article summary (published 20 Oct 2007):

Inequality in the American South: evidence from the nineteenth century missouri state prison.

Full Abstract

The use of height data to measure living standards is now a well-established method in economic history. Moreover, a number of core findings in the literature are widely agreed upon. There are still some populations, places and times, however, for which anthropometric evidence remains thin. One example is 19th century African-Americans in US border-states. This paper introduces a new data set from the Missouri state prison to track the heights of comparable black and white men born between 1820 and 1904. Modern blacks and whites come to comparable terminal statures when brought to maturity under optimal conditions; however, whites were persistently taller than blacks in the Missouri prison sample by two centimetres. Throughout the 19th century, black and white adult statures remained approximately constant, while black youth stature increased during the antebellum period.

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Author information

Author/s: Carson, Scott Alan (SA);

Affiliation: University of Munich, CESifo, Germany.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Historical Article; Journal Article

Journal: Journal of biosocial science (J Biosoc Sci), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 40 (issue 4) : pp 587-605

Dates: Created 2008/06/02; Completed 2008/08/14;

PMID: 17949512, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent Adult African Americans - history; statistics & numerical data Anthropometry European Continental Ancestry Group - history; statistics & numerical data Health Status History, 19th Century Humans

Male Middle Aged Missouri Nutritional Status Prejudice Prisons - history; statistics & numerical data Social Class United States

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