ABSTRACT
The distribution of wealth in antebellum America was grossly unequal. Historians associate the inequality of this period especially with eastern urban centers, where maldistribution had been developing since the 17th century. The Black Hawk War of 1832 caused the removal of the region’s Indians and the spread by returning soldiers of favorable accounts of its soils. Meanwhile, the opening of the Erie Canal meant northern Illinois produce could be marketed in New York City by way of the Great Lakes and the canal, and the Illinois Legislature was promising a feeder canal from the interior to Lake Michigan. Edward Pessen has discussed the short-comings of the tax rolls he used to analyze inequality in eastern cities, and his observations fully apply to Chicago’s rolls. The most troublesome features are that assessors undervalued all real estate and overlooked much personal estate.
