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Population of the British Colonies in America Before 1776
A Survey of Census Data
By Robert V. Wells PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Copyright © 1975 Princeton University Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-04616-7
CHAPTER 1
Subject, Sources, and Methods
Between 1607 and 1775 the British empire in America underwent striking growth and diversification. From the first primitive settlement at Jamestown in Virginia, the empire expanded until by the time of the American Revolution it encompassed over thirty colonies stretching from Newfoundland in the north to Barbados and Tobago in the south. Although the over three million people living in these colonies by 1775 were all part of the same empire and shared similar forms of government, important variations in the style of life from one colony to another were produced by different environments, economies, and societies. Virtually all historians of the period would recognize as valid such sectional divisions as Canada, New England, the Middle Colonies, the South, and the West Indies. Indeed, some might argue that important social and economic differences existed within each of these regions. Clearly, the English possessed a complex assortment of colonies by 1775.
In view of this, the demographic characteristics of the various parts of England's American empire are of considerable interest. Was the population in Newfoundland of the same type as that of New York or Jamaica? Did the population of Barbados in 1673 look the same as it did a century later? Any historian with a knowledge of the racial composition of the colonies would quickly answer, "No," to both questions. However, he might be less quick to reply if he were asked to state precisely what the differences were. Furthermore, the fact that the proportions of whites and blacks in America varied considerably from one colony to another tells us little of other demographic characteristics. Was there a common age and sex structure shared by all colonial populations? Or did different times and different places produce different demographic characteristics?
Historians have recently begun to explore a number of interesting questions about population in America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By using lists of births, marriages, and deaths to reconstruct families, students of early American history have greatly increased our knowledge of the size and structure of colonial families, as well as of marriage patterns in early America. Other studies have made use of local censuses to examine the demographic characteristics of small regions, often focusing on family size and structure. Because of the pioneering nature of these works, the emphasis has often been on describing what colonial populations were like. But occasionally attempts have been made to relate population to events such as the Salem witchcraft trials or even to the origins of the American Revolution.
In spite of the interest that this work has generated, it has been difficult to generalize about the population of the colonies. In part, this is a result of using sources and methods which restrict a scholar to studying only one community, or a small group of people at a time. It is also true, however, that differences in questions and definitions have limited the comparisons which can be made from one study to another. Only Sutherland's study of population distribution in colonial America, Moller's survey of sex ratios in early America, and Potter's exploration of population growth between 1700 and 1860 cover a large number of colonies and colonists. However, even these authors have devoted their attention to the provinces which became the United States, ignoring in the process over half of England's colonies in America.
It would obviously be interesting to describe and compare demographic patterns in as many of England's colonies as possible in the period before 1776, and therefore the recent discovery of 124 censuses covering 21 American colonies between 1623 and 1775 is exciting. These documents make it possible, for the first time, to establish some of the basic demographic patterns in the American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Ultimately, a complete knowledge of the demographic history of the colonies will require studies utilizing vital statistics and other sources in addition to censuses. But the emphasis in this book will be on the latter. By concentrating on the censuses, I shall hope to establish the contours of colonial populations and suggest just what demographic patterns need to be explained by further study on the local level. Pragmatic reasons also have helped to limit the scope of this work. The task of analyzing 124 censuses is such as to preclude any time-consuming explorations into other contemporary sources for population history, such as lists of births, marriages, and deaths, tax lists, or estimates of population. Occasionally I will refer to studies which have already been made, or will utilize easily accessible information to substantiate conclusions reached on the basis of data included in the censuses. But my main concern is with the evidence in the censuses.
Before embarking on a full-scale study of what these documents tell us of population in early America, it is necessary to explore their history to gain a fuller understanding of what exactly the censuses contain, as well as of the strengths and weaknesses that may be inherent in them.
At the outset it seems desirable to define what will be meant here by the word "census," for the censuses of the colonial period are far simpler than today's multi-volume productions. Yet one basic fact underlies both: they aim to be counts of every individual living within a given set of boundaries at a particular time. What is specifically excluded by this definition is that vast array of information on colonial populations which comes from guesses, or estimates based on tax or militia rolls. Table I-1 presents a chronological list of censuses for each American colony in which the people were counted before 1776. It shows the type of information included in each census, and a reference to where it may be located. While all these censuses involved attempts to count the total population, there are major differences between them; these arise both from the various categories into which the populations were divided when they were counted, and from the ravages of time and man which have preserved some censuses more fully than others. Information which might be included in a particular census ranged from details on race, sex, age, degree of freedom, and marital status to data on military manpower, household units, and the population of lesser political divisions, whether parish, county, or town. Figures on agriculture, shipping, manufacturing, and arms were sometimes presented with the population totals, and the censuses obviously varied in complexity. Highly specific reports are available on Montserrat in 1729 and New Jersey in 1772; rather brief summaries exist for the Bahamas in 1773, or Georgia in 1753. It is possible, however, to overemphasize the differences among the censuses, for within a given colony like Newfoundland or New York the information reported remained much the same for a century. Undoubtedly the quality of these counts varied as well. But any attempt to assess their accuracy will be postponed until after consideration of why they existed in the first place.
Because England did not begin to count her citizens at home on a regular basis until 1801, it is rather surprising to find that the first English attempts to collect precise data on a colonial population occurred in Virginia between 1623 and 1625. The incipient collapse of the Virginia Company, coupled with the Indian massacre of 1622, had raised serious questions about the strength of that colony. As the royal government became increasingly involved, it sought to inform itself on the state of Virginia; at the same time the Company was seeking information to assist in keeping its charter. The censuses of 1623-24 and 1624-25 were the result of this comprehensive examination of Virginia's affairs. But the Crown continued to be concerned with Virginia's status even after assuming control of the colony. From 1625 until 1635 Governor Harvey was responsible for a series of estimates of population that culminated with another actual census in 1634. With that, however, census taking lapsed for almost seventy years.
Virginia's experience was exceptional. Only rarely before 1670 did the English show an interest in the population of a colony, and in those cases the interest was shortlived. Even though Virginia's censuses were somewhat unusual for the first seventy years of the colonial period, the reasons for taking them were basically the same as for all the counts made in the eighteenth century. On the one hand the English government was seeking to inform itself about a new possession; on the other, it was vitally concerned to know whether Virginia was a viable community, particularly in the military sense. The government wanted to know if Virginia was strong enough to defend itself. This concern with the military strength of the colonies was to remain closely tied to census taking until the outbreak of the American Revolution.
Between 1650 and 1670 the English government (first under Cromwell, and then under Charles II) moved to collect information about the colonies on a more regular basis. Much of the responsibility for this change ultimately lay with Thomas Povey, a London merchant with interests in the West Indies, who in 1654 drew up a list of forty-seven suggested instructions for a proposed council of trade and plantations. An early draft of this proposal makes it clear that Povey's interest was primarily with the West Indian trade, but by the time the document was ready for submission to Cromwell it had been broadened to include American affairs in general. Of interest here is the fact that the council was to be responsible for collecting data from the colonial governors on a variety of subjects, including population. Although there was hope that some of the more lethargic governors might be "rouzd upp" by the request for general reports, the main interest in specifics about population was military. The Council was instructed to find out "what numbers of men" resided in each colony, as a means of judging military strength. This instruction was repeated under Charles II, when the Council for Foreign Plantations was established in 1660.
These instructions presumably directed the Council's attention to all the colonies, but they produced remarkably few results. Only Jamaica received any extensive requests for data, and that was because of her special situation. Jamaica had recently been captured from the Spanish, and hence was both a military risk and an unknown possession. But of equal importance in explaining the fascination with that island is the presence of men like Povey and his business associate, Martin Noel, on the Council. Their financial investments in Jamaica meant that they had little interest in the other colonies, and the Council's activities reflected that fact. Furthermore, the basic trading interests of these men meant that, by 1664, even the Jamaican population was no longer a matter of great concern; commercial matters took precedence. Nonetheless, it was the merchant community in general, and Thomas Povey in particular, who first interested the English government in statistics on colonial affairs.
About 1670 there was a marked change in the government's attitude towards statistics in general and demographic data in particular. After twenty years of following the merchants' advice on colonial policy, the royal government finally gave evidence of wishing to shape its own policy and rule the colonies more strictly. Information was, of course, fundamental to policy formulation. In establishing the machinery to collect the desired reports, the government adopted the old methods first proposed by Povey, but also instituted some new procedures designed to produce a more regular flow of information.
In 1670 a new Council for Foreign Plantations was created to deal with colonial affairs. On the surface, this body was very similar to the earlier Councils created at Povey's suggestion. The instructions of the members of the new Council reflect the old military concern, as they were asked to study the population of the colonies so that they might
better provide for the Defence, Welfare, and Security of the said Plantations.
[Furthermore] if you shall find any of the said Plantations to be so thinly and weakly inhabited as that it may endanger the losse of them, you are to consider how and which way they may most conveniently be supplyed....
But in one important way the new Council was different. Rather than requesting information on an ad hoc basis, as the earlier bodies had done, the Council of 1670 sought to insure regular reports from all the colonies. Starting in 1671 with the Leeward Islands and ending in 1702 with Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey, the governor of virtually every royal colony received instructions to transmit yearly accounts of the population of his colony. This was soon followed by a request for the vital statistics of each colony. Even the type of information to be collected was specified. The numbers of men and women, children and adults, masters and servants, free and not free, the yearly growth, and the number of militia were all to be part of the information forwarded by the governor to London.
Initially, the governors in several of the colonies responded to the new call for demographic data: as Table I-2 shows, ten censuses were taken in the period between 1671 and 1684. Although not every royal colony produced a census in this period, the output was remarkable in contrast to the modest results of the previous fifty years. However, as the Stuart monarchy moved toward the crisis of 1688, and the Privy Councillors sitting on the Council of Trade and Plantations were required to devote their attention to matters more pressing than colonial population, census taking died out. Not a single count was made between 1685 and 1698.
Before examining the reasons behind the renewal of census taking in 1698, it seems necessary to comment on the surge of counting which occurred between 1671 and 1684. There can be little doubt that these censuses were taken because men living in Engand asked for them. Indeed, one historian has suggested (probably correctly) that the colonists, if left to themselves, would never have enumerated each other. Who then, in England, found it desirable to count the colonists?
Had Povey and his associates been alone in seeking data on the colonies, it would seem probable that once interest in Jamaica declined, so too would the efforts to acquire statistics. Fortunately, however, by the middle of the seventeenth century an intellectual climate had developed throughout England that was generally conducive to questions of population The idea of national wealth as measured by the sum total of the country's resources, including people, was on the rise, but this position conflicted with the older idea of measuring wealth strictly in monetary terms. As a result, ideas about population and related government policy were reexamined. The first few years of British colonial expansion had coincided with an attitude that viewed many of England's social problems as a result of overpopulation. By the middle of the century this idea came into conflict with the newer mercantilist position that all population benefited the nation, and was indeed a prime measurement of national wealth. The colonies were a major issue in this debate. As long as England had been seen as having too many people, colonies were clearly a benefit as they siphoned off some of the dangerous excess. However, the concept of people as a prime source of national wealth raised serious questions about the value of colonies. If population was indeed wealth, the nation could ill afford to let any but the most undesirable elements leave for the New World. By the second half of the seventeenth century the atmosphere was favorable for the study of colonial population; all that was needed was someone to suggest it be done.
No one person was clearly responsible for arousing the government to action in collecting demographic data in the 1670's. But a number of men in or close to the government at that time were known to have an interest in what was then called Political Arithmetic. Men like Sir William Petty, John Graunt, or Gregory King were early students of demographic factors, and all had at least limited access to power. Perhaps more important was the fact that the Earl of Shaftesbury, who dominated colonial affairs in the 1670's, took an active interest in colonial population, especially with regard to the Carolinas, of which he was a proprietor. Certainly it is possible to suggest men who might have been instrumental in having colonial censuses taken, even though, at present, no particular individual can be named as the responsible party.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Population of the British Colonies in America Before 1776 by Robert V. Wells. Copyright © 1975 Princeton University Press. Excerpted by permission of PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS.
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