39] 



ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 



TABLE II 



39 



ABSOLUTE AND RELATIVE NUMBERS OF AMERICAN LITERATI OF WHITE 

 RACE, BORN WITHIN THE PRESENT TERRITORIAL LIMITS OF CONTI- 

 NENTAL UNITED STATES PRIOR TO 1851, CLASSIFIED BY 

 PERIOD OF BIRTH l 



1 The eighteen Canadian writers can not be considered in this table, 

 as there was no adequate census of Canada before 1850 on which to 

 base comparisons. The two men of African descent are also omitted. 



3 For the period since 1790 the figures are taken from the decennial 

 census of the United States. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 

 1909. Table 20. For the period prior to 1790 the figures are based 

 on estimates in or derived from A Century of Population Growth in 

 the United States. Bureau of Census (Washington, 1909). The very 

 small population figures for mountain and pacific states are omitted 

 to make this table comparable with Table XII. In estimating the 

 white population for the colonial period it was assumed that, during 

 the entire period prior to the first census, the colored population bore 

 the same relation to the white population in each colony that it did in 

 1790. This assumption did not entirely accord with the facts, but data 

 on which to base more accurate estimates were not available. As a 

 result of this assumption the period before 1771 was credited with a 

 slightly larger number of literati per million of population than it 

 really deserved. It is extremely unlikely, however, that the error was 

 large enough to change the index figure given for the period even as 

 much as from ten to nine. 



* It will be noted that, with the exception of the period before 1771, 

 the number of literati born in each decade was compared with the 



