Creating Chaos at the Borders

The morbidity and mortality issues likely to arise for geriatric superstars are not unlike those already realized for so-called miracle babies. The therapeutic imperative and other social pressures, the technological imperative, financial interests, and media hyping have driven the overzealous medical-science pursuits of very old individuals and very young fetal infants. This article discusses lessons learned and lessons expected.

English population statistics before 1800

The first national census of the British population was organized in 1801; the civil registration of births, marriages, and deaths commenced in 1837; and the first tentative attempt by the state to compile statistics on migration was included in the census of 1841. Prior to 1801, the chief source of information on the demography of the country was provided by the clergy's registration of baptisms, marriages, and burials that had occurred in their parishes, supplemented by information on mortality in the Bills of Mortality that were published for certain large towns and by inferences drawn from various counts of taxpayers. The article focuses on the reliability of the parochial registration system and the way in which it was exploited by the state as measured against the state's objectives for establishing it in 1538. These objectives were rarely achieved. By the end of the 18th century, the parish registers were falling short of providing a national system of registration. Neither had the registers at any time provided the requisite detail to allow the verification of age, lineal descent, or right of inheritance. They had not been used as a way of raising revenue except briefly between 1694 and 1705. Moreover, the Anglican Church was extremely lax about the enforcement of its own regulations regarding the appropriate time for registering baptisms, burials, and marriages.     

Changes in fertility and mortality around the abolition of slavery in Suriname

In several studies it has been argued that with the abolition of slavery it is impossible to calculate fertility and mortality rates of former slaves and their descendants. The freedmen left the plantations and disappeared from quantitative history. Contrary to this widely held opinion this article aims to expand our knowledge about events of life and death of (former) slaves and their direct descendants around 1863 in Suriname. Birth and death rates of sugar slaves in the last decade before the emancipation (1851–1863) are calculated and compared with the period of indentured labour (1864–1873). Mortality rates among freedmen of the sugar estates Breukelerwaard, Fairfield, Cannewapibo and La Jalousie went up after 1863. It is also demonstrated that child mortality was increasing after the abolition of slavery, indicating deteriorated conditions of daily life. There is also broad evidence of higher fertility rates among former female sugar slaves.