Portrait of an American Mill Town: Demographic Response in Mid-Nineteenth Century Warren, Rhode Island

Abstract

Abstract Utilizing census and vital statistics records, the author demonstrates how low levels of fertility in a nineteenth-century New England mill town are closely interrelated with the economic and social structure of the community. The ready availability of relatively unskilled job opportunities drew large numbers of foreign-born women to this community leading to an imbalance in the sex ratios in the primary marrying ages and a subsequent low percentage of women married. This relative unavailability of marriage partners for the women was further aggravated by a strong unwillingness of men and women to marry outside their own ethnic group. Partly as a result of this unusual marriage pattern, fertility in this nineteenth-century industrial town was well below the level necessary to ensure the long term maintenance of the community. Extremely low levels of marital fertility are also noted for this community and are also attributed to the same economic factors. Thus, a pattern of demographic imbalance is...