The Effect of Geography and Vitamin D on African American Stature in the Nineteenth Century
Evidence from Prison Records
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4758809 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Scott Alan Carson (0000-0002-1512-065X, The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 68 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 812-831 |
| Publication date | 2008-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Economic History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-0507 • E-ISSN: 1471-6372 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0022050708000648 |
| OpenAlex | W2014886459 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 31 |
| References cited | 69 |
The use of height data to measure living standards is now a well-established method in economic literature. Although blacks and whites today reach similar terminal statures in the United States, nineteenth-century African American statures were consistently shorter than those of whites. Greater insolation (vitamin D production) is documented here to be associated with taller black statures. Black farmers were taller than workers in other occupations, and, ironically, black youth statures increased during the antebellum period and decreased with slavery's elimination
Geography · Insolation · Sociology · Demography · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Intergenerational and Educational Inequality Studies
Net nutrition on the late 19 th and early 20 th century American Great Plains
Black and White Body Mass Index Values in Nineteenth Century Developing Philadelphia County
The relationship between 19th century BMIs and family size
Wealth, inequality, and insolation effects across the 19th century white US stature distribution
Sunshine, fertility and racial disparities
Slavery
Adult height, nutrition, and population health
The height gap in 19th-century America
Height of female Americans in the 19th century and the antebellum puzzle
Late 19th, early 20th century US, foreign-born body mass index values in the United States
Nutrition within the household
A post bellum paradox
Biological Differences between Late 19 th and Early 20 th Century Urban and Rural Residence
A quantile approach to the demographic, residential, and socioeconomic effects on 19th-century African-American body mass index values
Nutrition and signaling in slave markets
Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Physical Activity and Calories by Gender and Race
Unforgotten
Socioeconomic Effects on the Stature of Nineteenth-Century US Women
Demographic, residential, and socioeconomic effects on the distribution of nineteenth-century African-American stature
Nineteenth century African-American and White biological living conditions in Texas
Hog Meat and Hoecake
Biology, Complexion, and Socioeconomic Status
Changing Institutions, Changing Net Nutrition
Nineteenth Century Black and Mixed-Race Physical Activity, Calories, and Life Expectancy
Race, Remarital Status, and Infertility in 1910
A Weighty Issue
Beyond black and white
Heights and human welfare
Geography, insolation, and vitamin D in nineteenth century US African-American and white statures
Sample-Selection Biases and the Industrialization Puzzle
Delayed physical development in a first generation enslaved African woman from Pietermaai, Curaçao
Spatial Correlates of Us Heights and Body Mass Indexes, 2002
The Making of the American South
Worldwide Variation in Human Growth
Skin-Pigment Regulation of Vitamin-D Biosynthesis in Man
Vitamin D Deficiency
The reinterpretation of American economic history.
The Free Negro in Virginia. 1619 to 1865
Competition and Coercion
Looking for Work, Searching for Workers
Another Dimension to the Black Diaspora
The biological standard of living in 19th century Mexico and in the American West
A restricted maximum likelihood estimator for truncated height samples
The height of Tennessee convicts
From the tallest to (one of) the fattest
Measurement of growth variability and environmental quality in Guatemalan children
Anthropometric variability in the USA
African-American and white inequality in the nineteenth century American South
Demographic, residential, and socioeconomic effects on the distribution of nineteenth-century African-American stature
Optimal food allocation in a slave economy
Another Dimension to the Black Diaspora
The Economics of Mortality in North America, 1650–1910
Looking Backward and Looking Forward
Nutrition and Economic Development in Post-Reconstruction South Carolina
Underperformance in Affluence
The Making of the American South
A Troublesome Caste
Shrinking in a Growing Economy? The Mystery of Physical Stature during the Industrial Revolution
Anomalies in Economic History
The Short and the Dead
Strategic Factors in Nineteenth Century American Economic History
The Economics of Slavery and Other Studies in Econometric History
Rational management, modern business practices, and economies of scale in the ante-bellum southern plantations
The reinterpretation of American Economic History
Heights of Men and Women in 19th-Century Bavaria
Geography, insolation, and vitamin D in nineteenth century US African-American and white statures
On the Puzzling Cycle in the Biological Standard of Living
Slave height profiles from coastwise manifests
The Slave Trade
Human Biology
Slave Child Mortality
The evolutionary significance of vitamin D, skin pigment, and ultraviolet light
Worldwide Variation in Human Growth
Stature and Nutrition in the Habsburg Monarchy
The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets
Diets Versus Diseases
Short stature as an effect of economic and social conditions in childhood
The Mulatto Advantage
The Political Economy of the Cotton South
Secular Changes in American and British Stature and Nutrition
The Political Economy of Federalism
The Economics of Antebellum Slave Heights Reconsidered
Changes in the Bodily Form of Descendants of Immigrants
| Unique citing works | 31 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,82 |
| Citation span | 2009 - 2025 (17) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 25 |