Joseph P. Ferrie, Northwestern University

Despite the attention devoted by scholars to testing Frederick Jackson TurnerÕs view of the frontier as a Òsafety valveÓ relieving pressure on urban labor markets in the east, few have offered evidence bearing on the central issues in the debate: how many people actually moved to the west, how many of them were poor, unskilled workers, and how did the subsequent economic performance of migrants compare to that of non-migrants? This study fills these gaps in our understanding of the process of American economic development by offering direct evidence on the extent, character, and consequences of migration to the west between 1850 and 1870 using more than 5,000 males linked across the 1850-70 federal censuses. It finds substantial migration to the frontier by urban residents, particularly unskilled workers, and substantial gains in wealth for these migrants. Those who moved to the frontier were generally of lower average quality than those who stayed behind, lending further support to the view of the frontier as a Òsafety valve.Ó Both the rate of migration to the frontier and the size of the benefits enjoyed by frontier migrants appear to have fallen during the 1860s.