Showing papers by "Jane Humphries published in 2007"

Cities, Market Integration and Going to Sea: Stunting and the standard of living in early nineteenth-century England and Wales

Abstract: A new source, 1840s Admiralty seamen’s tickets, is used to explore three anthropometric issues. First, did being born in a city, with its associated disamenities, stunt? Second, did being born near a city, whose markets sucked foodstuffs away, stunt? Third, did child labour stunt? Being born in a city stunted although the effect was limited except in the largest cities. In contrast, opportunities to trade did not stunt. Finally although adults who went to sea young were shorter than those who did not enlist until fully grown, going to sea did not stunt. Rather the prospect of plentiful food at sea attracted stunted adolescents, who reversed most of their stunting as a result. But child labour at sea was unique: wages were largely hypothecated to the child as food and shelter, rather than paid in cash that might be spent on other family members.

Hard labour: the forgotten voices of Latvian Migrant “Volunteer” workers

Abstract: Beside the low stone walls, lay many little, cold bundles, now unsuffering. The ground was frozen to an impenetrable depth and no-one had time to dig graves. Someone counted thirty-five bodies. These unfortunate people had not been prepared, having taken neither the warm clothing nor the provisions needed for survival. The agonies and miseries of those who found no shelter were indescribable, and I thought of the countless children who had already frozen and starved to death. —Martha von Rosen

Cities, Market Integration and Going to Sea: Stunting and the standard of living in early nineteenth-century England and Wales

Abstract: A new source, 1840s Admiralty seamen’s tickets, is used to explore three anthropometric issues. First, did being born in a city, with its associated disamenities, stunt? Second, did being born near a city, whose markets sucked foodstuffs away, stunt? Third, did child labour stunt? Being born in a city stunted although the effect was limited except in the largest cities. In contrast, opportunities to trade did not stunt. Finally although adults who went to sea young were shorter than those who did not enlist until fully grown, going to sea did not stunt. Rather the prospect of plentiful food at sea attracted stunted adolescents, who reversed most of their stunting as a result. But child labour at sea was unique: wages were largely hypothecated to the child as food and shelter, rather than paid in cash that might be spent on other family members.