Angels' Heads and Weeping Willows: Death in Early America.

Most colonists failed to perceive accurately "the extent of mortality in their society." Urban death rates far exceeded those of rural areas, where survivors of childhood frequently lived to an old age. By 1860 there was little difference in mortality rates between urban and rural regions of Massachusetts, but the early emphasis on death led New Englanders to overestimate its occurrence. Primary and secondary sources; 39 notes.