Social Insurance and Public Assistance

722 Series Bf 17–22 Bf SOCIAL INSURANCE AND PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
TABLE Bf 17–22 Tax assessments and expenditures for the poor in Philadelphia: 1800–1854 Continued
Almshouse expenditures
Outdoor expenditures
Poor-tax Total expenditures Percentage of Percentage of
assessment for the poor Total total expenditures Total total expenditures
Fiscal year
Bf17 Bf18 Bf19 2 Bf20 Bf21 Bf22
beginning Dollars Dollars Dollars Percent Dollars Percent
1845 161,025 144,074 105,245 73 38,829 27
1846 197,265 129,345 91,463 71 37,882 29
1847 191,013 144,598 106,207 73 38,391 27
1848 189,425 148,297 100,683 68 47,613 32
1849 191,037 166,346 117,759 70 48,587 30
1850 208,018 167,204 121,485 73 45,719 27
1852 259,583 176,434 120,878 69 55,557 31
1853 — 193,277 127,558 66 65,719 34
1854 3 — 143,771 115,665 80 28,107 20
1 Through 1802, the fiscal year began in March; thereafter in May.
2 Beginning in 1821, expenditures of the children’s asylum and board of youngsters in
the Shelter for Colored Orphans and of the sick in the city hospital are included with
the almshouse expenditures. In the annual accounts, they are included with outdoor
expenditures.
3 May to December.
4 Almshouse figures include the amount paid the Pennsylvania Hospital for boarding
some insane patients.
Source
Priscilla Clement, Welfare and the Poor in the Nineteenth-Century City: Philadelphia,
1800–1854 (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1985), Appendix 1,
pp. 174–7.
Documentation
The underlying sources for the data are many and are documented in detail
in Clement (1985), Appendix 1. There are some discrepancies (though
apparently small in magnitude) in the year-to-year comparability of figures.
Series Bf17. The tax assessment was usually levied in January for the fiscal
year that began in March or May.
Series Bf19. Expenditures are direct costs of caring for the poor in the
almshouse. The figures include salaries paid to almshouse employees and
the cost of materials used in the [almshouse] factory.
Series Bf21. Expenditures include sums spent for outdoor cash aid, medical
attendance, and wood as well as for the amount paid in salaries to employees
of the guardians of the poor.
TABLE Bf 23–27 Public relief recipients in Philadelphia, by type of relief:
1800–1854 1
Contributed by Stephen T. Ziliak
Public relief
Almshouses and Outdoor
Total children’s asylum pensioners Medical aid Fuel aid
Fiscal year
Bf23 Bf24 Bf25 Bf26 Bf27
beginning Number Number Number Number Number
1800 1,390 788 602 — —
1801 — 948 — — —
1802 — 804 — — —
1803 — 1,101 — — —
1804 — 1,196 — — —
1805 1,180 2 1,270 590 — —
1806 2,000 1,455 545 — —
1807 — 1,406 — — —
1808 — 1,581 — — —
1809 — 1,611 — — —
1810 2,500 1,755 745 — —
1811 2,106 1,796 310 — —
1812 — 1,830 — — —
1813 — 1,820 — — —
1814 3,145 1,891 1,254 — —
1815 3,462 2,254 1,208 — —
1816 3,852 2,653 1,199 — —
1817 4,082 2,843 1,239 — —
1818 — — 1,249 — —
1819 5,530 4,049 1,481 — —
Notes appear at end of table
(continued)