The ghost of Christmas Past, Demographics Division

The first American census was conducted 231 years ago in 1790. It told the world that the new nation had 3,929,214 inhabitants. Using the definition that a place must have 2,500 persons to be considered urban, there were 24 urban places in the United States of America in 1790. It is interesting to peruse the list:

1. New York city, New York (33,131)
2. Philadelphia city, Pennsylvania (28,522)
3. Boston town, Massachusetts (18,320)
4. Charleston city, South Carolina (16,359)
5. Baltimore town, Maryland (13,503)
6. Northern Liberties township, Pennsylvania (9,913)
7. Salem town, Massachusetts (7,921)
8. Newport town,Rhode Island (6,716)
9. Providence town, Rhode Island (6,380)
10.(tie) Marblehead town, Massachusetts (5,661)
10.(tie) Southwark district, Pennsylvania (5,661)
12. Gloucester town, Massachusetts (5,317)
13. Newburyport town, Massachusetts (4,837)
14. Portsmouth town, New Hampshire (4,720)
15. Sherburne town (Nantucket), Massachusetts (4,620)
16. Middleborough town, Massachusetts (4,526)
17. New Haven city, Connecticut (4,487)
18. Richmond city, Virginia (3,761)
19. Albany city, New York (3,498)
20. Norfolk borough, Virginia (2,959)
21. Petersburg town, Virginia (2,828)
22. Alexandria town, Virginia (2,748)
23. Hartford city, Connecticut (2,683)
24. Hudson city, New York (2,584)

The state of Georgia, where I live, was one of the 13 original states, but according to the 1790 census it did not have a single "urban place" even though the towns of Darien and Savannah had existed for decades.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, the first modern census of England took place in 1801. The total population was 8,287,907 and the most populous places were:

1. London (959,000)
2. Manchester (90,000)
3. Liverpool (80,000)
4. Birmingham (74,000)
5. Bristol (64,000)
6. Leeds (53,000)
7. Plymouth (45,000)
8. Bath (40,000)
9. Norwich (35,633)
10. Portsmouth (32,160)
11. Sheffield (31,000)

In the history of the world, in the overall scheme of things, 1801 and even 1790 are not that long ago. But looked at another way, it is so long ago that it is an era we cannot fathom. They did have Christmas, of course, but since Charles Dickens would not even be born until 1812, there was no A Christmas Carol. No Ebenezer Scrooge; no Marley's ghost; no ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, or Christmas Yet To Come; no Bob Cratchit; no Tiny Tim saying, "God bless us, every one!". There was no Santa Claus as we know him with eight tiny reindeer because Clement Clark Moore didn't write "A Visit From St. Nicholas" until 1823. And Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was a creation of the 20th century, appearing for the first time in 1939.

Speaking of Christmas Yet To Come, those very nice people of 1790 in America amd 1801 in England couldn't possibly have imagined in their wildest dreams what living in the year 2021 would be like either.

Whoever said "the more things change the more they remain the same" couldn't have been more wrong.