88 



AMERICAN MEN OF LETTERS 



[88 



TABLE XXVI 



A — Percent Distribution of American Literati Born in the United 



States, Classified According to the Nationality Strain of their 



Origin, as Indicated by Surnames. 

 B — Percent Distribution of the White Population of the United 



States (1790), Classified According to the Nationality Strain 



OF THEIR Origin, as Indicated by Surnames.^ 



A Literati 



Nationality strain 



British 



French 



Irish 



German .... 



Dutch 



Spanish . . . . 

 Colored . . . . 



Jewish , 



Scandinavian 



Total 



Per cent 



93.8 

 1.8 

 1.4 



0.8 



0-3 

 0.2 

 0.2 

 0.2 



B White population ( 1 790) 



For purposes of comparison the table also includes 

 the analysis of nationality of the total white population 

 of the United States in 1790. The estimate for this 

 particular year is given because it is the only estimate 

 of the kind ever made by the Bureau of the Census. It 

 is probable that this distribution by nationality is fairly 

 representative of that of the entire colonial period, and 

 of the first half-century of the republic as well, for not 

 until after 1840 did as many as one hundred thousand 

 immigrants per annum came to our shores, and the aver- 



The Romance of Names (London, 1914), by Ernest Weekley, and Die 

 deutschen Familien-namen (Halle a. S., 1903), by Albert Heintze. The 

 accuracy of the classification was increased by assistance received 

 from colleagues in the departments of English and German in Ham- 

 ilton College. 



1 A Century of Population Growth in the United States, table 48. 



