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Development, Health And Race Differences In Fertility At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century In The U.S. South, Cheryl Elman, Andrew S. London, Robert A. Mcguire
Development, Health And Race Differences In Fertility At The Turn Of The Twentieth Century In The U.S. South, Cheryl Elman, Andrew S. London, Robert A. Mcguire
Cheryl Elman
Mid-twentieth century demographers were puzzled to find that, between 1880 and 1910, fertility rates had dropped more precipitously among African American than U.S. white women. Since then, demographic research has focused on historical fertility differentials in the South, where most African Americans lived before 1920. Under a multiple causes model, two major sources of race differences have found some empirical support. One stresses that timing differences in voluntary fertility control, due to a high demand for child labor in tenant farming, sustained both high overall southern rural fertility rates and race differences, to about 1940. A second mechanism stresses that …