For a book I'm writing, need a bibliographic citation for this.  I
heard someone say that at the time of the American Revolution, 75% of
the Colonists were Puritans, or were of "Puritan Descent."  I think
the guy who made this assertion was David Barton, of "Wall Builders",
a non-profit organization.

I doubt that any such proportional division of the colonial population
can be justified.

Approximately 25 per cent of the colonists were slaves. Pennsylvania
was English Quaker, German, Dutch, Swedish, etc. The white population
of Virginia was largely English, but not Puritan.

See:

Population and Social Rank
http://www.usahistory.info/colonial/population.html

hlabadie-ga

I can't guarantee you'll find it there, but you might try America's
Providential History by Beliles and McDowell which covers the colonial
and revolutionary periods in some detail. If not in the text, perhaps
its endnotes and bibliography will be helpful.

The Census of 1790 shows that 35 per cent of the Southern population
were Black.

Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals By Race, 1790 to
1990, and By Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, For The United States,
Regions, Divisions, and States
http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056.html

hlabadie-ga

To hlabadie-ga... Thanks for info on black population, but
unfortunately what I'm looking for is documentation of the population
(at the time of the Revolution)  that was of  _Puritan_  descent,
i.e., descended from Puritan settlers or their descendants.  Tx
anyway!
Issachar

To shikibobo-ga:
Thanks for the info on _America's Providential History._   I live in
Washington, DC and believe it or not, our library system does not
carry this book!  I looked it up on Amazon.com and it looks
interesting.  The index lists the word "Puritans" many times. If
anyone can get their hands on a copy, maybe this book will have a
citation for the claim about 75% of the Colonists being from Puritan
descent.
Thank you!
Issachar

If the question is refined to exclude all of the colonies outside New
England, where the Puritans formed the core founding population, the
answer would probably be, yes. (Vermont excepted, it being mainly
Congregationalist.)

However, the total White population of the former English colonies in
1790 was just over 3,170,000, of which 2/3 lived outside New England
in the Middle Atlantic and Southern states.

For instance:

42 percent of the population of Pennsylvania was non-English, and of
the majority 58 percent, some were Welsh. Of the English in PA,
Quakers and other denominations predominated.

Pennsylvania’s Population:
1790-1990
http://pasdc.hbg.psu.edu/pasdc/Products_and_Services/Publications/
population_and_estimates/PaPopulation.pdf


New York was Dutch and English, but not Puritan.

Virginia was mostly Cavalier, as opposed to Puritan, in descent.

Maryland was founded as a refuge for Roman Catholics.


From the Census Bureau page referred to earlier, the White population
in 1790:


Table 7.Middle Atlantic Division -Race and Hispanic Origin:1790 to
1990

1790 908,195


Table 6.New England Division -Race and Hispanic Origin:1790 to 1990

1790 992,421


Table 4.South Region -Race and Hispanic Origin:1790 to 1990

1790 1,271,390


Table 1. United States - Race and Hispanic Origin: 1790 to 1990

1790 3,172,006

I don't see how 75 percent of the colonials (even the White colonials)
can have been of Puritan descent.

HWL

This tends to support the earlier reservations regarding the 75% and
the implications drawn from the Census.

Chapter Three
The English Colonial South to 1750
Cynthia A. Kierner
http://www.history-compass.com/Pilot/northam/boles/003.pdf


Based on the statements in the above, which presents the assessment
that the Chesapeake colonies, Maryland and Virginia, had very diverse
populations of English immigrants that were to a great degree united
by adherence to the Anglican Communion of the Established Church of
England, among other factors, and the appraisal of the the strong
Anglican and Baptist (not to mention Irish and Scottish) populations
in the more southern colonies of the Carolinas and Georgia, I think
that it is safe to say that the Puritan ancestry of the white Colonial
population of the Revolutionary Era was predominantly (if not
exclusively) found in New England.

Given that estimate, the facts about population distribution provided
by the first Census, and the analysis of the population of
Pennsylvania, and not forgetting the Roman Catholic population, it is
reasonable to state that persons of Puritan ancestry probably
represented no more than one third of the total white population of
the English Colonies at the time of the American Revolution. (It would
be well to consider, also, that the Black population, although
forcibly transported to America, were colonists.)

I think that this conclusion is the best that can be reached on the
available data. There is a large degree of uncertainty in the
estimates, due to the relative paucity of data.

See also:

Volume LVII, Number 3 William and Mary Quarterly Review of Books
A Population History of North America. Edited by Michael R. Haines and
Richard H. Steckel. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Pp.
xxiv, 736. $75.00.)

"Despite confidence about the general pattern, much remains unknown
and some details are unknowable. How historians decades ago arrived at
the population estimates for each colony at ten-year intervals is a
mystery. These estimates suggest, among other things, an implausibly
high rate of population growth during the 1780s."


hlabadie-ga

Hello Hlabadie-ga!

Wow...thank you for the hard work you've put into finding the truth
about this assertion.  Your research is very thorough!

I wonder...when it says the population was "English but not Puritan,"
how does one tell?  Do you supposed there are records of how many
churches and places of worship there were of each type?  And if so,
how could one tell by the name of a church whether it was "Puritan" or
not?  Things that make ya go "Hmmm...."

Best regards,
Issachar

One of the researchers mentioned in the .pdf cited in the comment did
a survey of churches and church architecture. Anglican churches could
easily be identified in any case.

hlabadie-ga