The Height and Weight of West Point Cadets: Dietary Change in Antebellum America

Abstract

A decline in nutritional status is inferred from data on the height and weight of West Point cadets in the antebellum period. The decline was geographically widespread and affected farmers and blue-collar workers the most; middle-class cadets did not experience a decline in nutritional status until the Civil War. Nutritional status declined because meat output did not keep pace with population growth. Urbanization and the expansion of the industrial labor force increased the demand for food. However, the agricultural labor force grew at a slower pace, and productivity growth in food production was insufficient to redress the imbalance.

A Three-Decade 'Kuhnian' History of the Antebellum Puzzle: Explaining the Shrinking of the US Population at the Onset of Modern Economic Growth

“…However, a new sample drawn from the West Point Military Academy did corroborate the general decline in heights beginning with the cohorts born in the 1830s, i.e., those who reached adulthood prior to the outbreak of the Civil War and therefore whose height would not have been affected by the war (Komlos 1987). So it became evident that white male heights did, in fact, decline during the prosperous antebellum decades and did so nationally.…”

“…Most importantly, Fogel also disputed vigorously the evidence presented in the West-Point paper that food consumption was decreasing. The argument was placed in two footnotes: " Komlos (1987) has argued for a slight decline in caloric intake between 1839 and 1859, but this result is based on the assumption that human corn consumption was just 4 bushels per capita throughout the period, despite the rise in output per capita and in output per consuming unit (including livestock) of about 56 percent (Fogel 1965, p. 206). An increase of human corn consumption by about half a bushel per capita annually between 1840 and 1860 wipes out the small decline in calories postulated (sic) by Komlos.…”

“…Steckel was the first to take Komlos' (1987) argument seriously and concluded that "If this line of argument is correct then stature should have diminished in response to a higher relative price of food.… consistent with the height decline, the relative price of food rose from the 1820s through the 1830s. However, the relative price reached a peak in the late 1830s, declined in the early 1840s and fluctuated moderately thereafter.…”

Living standards in Black and White: Evidence from the heights of Ohio Prison inmates, 1829–1913

“…Industrialization and modernization bring about rising incomes, wages and life expectancy in the long run (Komlos 1987; Floud, Wachter and Gregory 1990, pp. 272-273).…”

“…A growing body of evidence indicates that the net effect was negative for free Northern whites in the US in the early stages of industrialization. In the second quarter of the 19 th century, the average stature of males began a sustained diminution that may not have ended until the 4 th quarter of the 19 th century (Komlos, 1987(Komlos, , 1996.…”