Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The long-run economic and demographic consequences of the American Revolution are inseparable, because economic well-being is measured in the lives of individuals. In the eighteenth century, economic prosperity translated into longevity, good health, having children and grandchildren, and ensuring they were settled as adults in their own independent households. By this yardstick, the political economy of revolutionary America was born a stunning success, and a dismal failure. For the majority of British America, the period saw prosperity unknown elsewhere. The century between 1740 and 1840 also saw the emergence of the modern phenomenon of economic growth whereby each generation has available not only as much as the previous one, but more - the kernel of truth behind the myth of the “American dream.” The population of the United States doubled between 1776 and 1800, the space of one generation, despite the interference of a very serious, long, and hard-fought war. At the same time, however, one out of five Americans lived a cruel mockery of this household-centered economy - possessing no rights to even form a household, let alone have any say in its disposition. The end of the Revolution also signaled the beginning of the Hundred Years' War of conquest, death, and banishment of Amerindian nationals. The same political economy that enabled a spectacularly successful agrarian economy ... log in or subscribe to read full text