<p>History 454/654 Oct. 8, 1999 Prof. Oberly Tracking the American Industrial Revolution through the U.S. Census, 1840-1870</p><p>[Note: Our database searching this week takes us to the online version of the U.S. Census. Thanks to the work of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), we have access to a Web version of the aggregrate census of manufacturing starting in 1840. ]</p><p>1. Access—call up Netscape or Internet Explorer and point your browser to www.history.uwec.edu which is the home page for the UW Student History Network. Follow the links to “History by the Numbers” and from there to the “Historical Census Browser.” You will be taken to the ICPSR online census dataset at the University of Virginia. The home page offers you a choice of censuses for online analysis.</p><p>2. Variables—unfortunately, the census varies each decade in the questions that Congress wanted asked and answered. The first usable census of manufacturing was not taken until 1840, so go ahead and call up that census from the home page. Next, click on the “Economy” button for a set of variables. Go ahead and select all the variables for employment, as well as for capital invested in manufacturing. To get the output, go down the page to “Browse 1840 data” and click that button. You should get a table, arranged alphabetically by state, with the data in column format. I suggest you either print this output or save it to a file. Now you are ready to do the same procedure for the 1850, 1860, and 1870 censuses. You will note that on these latter three, there is a “Manufacturing” button that takes you to the collection of variables from the manufacturing census. At a minimum, I suggest you select the variables for capital invested in manufacturing; employment (including women and children, when available); and for value of output. Go ahead and do the data run for the three censuses by state. </p><p>3) County-level analysis—The Historical Census Browser allows you to select a state or states and ask for data at the county level. Go ahead and try a state for each of the four censuses and look at the output for the county level. Note that the Territory of Wisconsin had few counties in the 1840 census, and Minnesota the same for 1850. </p><p>4) Big questions—</p><p> a) One of the issues in comparative economic history, discussed by Atack & Passell, is the level of capital investment in the U.S. compared to Great Britain (review Chapter 7, page 203 for this one). You can calculate the ratio of capital/worker in manufacturing for each census. Do you see any change or movement in that ratio? If so, how do you interpret it?</p><p> b) By analyzing data at the county level, you should be able to locate the geographical centers of the American Industrial Revolution. You can use the “Graph States” feature on the Historical Census Browser to find the distribution of any variable by state. Next, try to determine the leading counties for manufacturing, either by employment, capital invested, or output. Is there change that you see between 1840 and 1870?</p><p> c) The women workers of Lowell are of great interest to historians. Using the Historical Census Browser, see if you can track women’s work in manufacturing in the 1860 and 1870 censuses. What is the geographical distribution? Was Lowell (located in Essex County, Mass.) typical? How do you explain the patterns you see?</p><p> d) Did the Civil War speed manufacturing in the North? Compare the 1870 census with those that came before in determining your answer.</p>