page_title: Hunger in the United States
section_title: Pre-19th century
hierarchical_section_title: Hunger in the United States / History / Pre-19th century
caption_attribution_description: English: based off his wood carving from 1861, currently on display in the Art Museum of Western Virginia. Smithsonian Inventory information is available, as is an article from The Roanoke Times.
context_page_description: Hunger in the United States of America affects millions of Americans, including some who are middle class, or who are in households where all adults are in work.
  In 2018, about 11.1% of American households were food insecure. Surveys have consistently found much higher levels of food insecurity for students, with a 2019 study finding that over 40% of US undergraduate students experienced food insecurity. Following the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak, indicators suggested the prevalence of food insecurity for US households has approximately doubled, with an especially sharp rise for households with young children.
  The United States produces far more food than it needs for domestic consumption—hunger within the U.S. is caused by some Americans having insufficient money to buy food for themselves or their families. Additional causes of hunger and food insecurity include neighborhood deprivation and agricultural policy. Hunger is addressed by a mix of public and private food aid provision.
context_section_description: British Colonists attempting to settle in North America during the 16th and early 17th century often faced severe hunger. Compared with South America, readily available food could be hard to come by.  Many settlers starved to death, leading to several colonies being abandoned.  Other settlers were saved after being supplied with food by Native Americans, with the intercession of Pocahontas being a famous example.  It did not take long however for colonists to adapt to conditions in the new world, discovering North America to be a place of extraordinary fertility. According to author Peter K. Eisinger, the historian  Robert Beverley's portrayal of America as the "Garden of the World" was already a stock image as early as 1705.
  By the time of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, hunger was already considerably less severe than in Western Europe. Even by 1750, low prevalence of hunger had helped provide American Colonists with an estimated life expectancy of 51 years,  while in Britain the figure was 37, in France 26  - by 1800, life expectancies had improved to 56 years for the U.S., 33 years for France and dropped to 36 years for Britain. The relative scarcity of hunger in the U.S. was due in part to low population pressure in relation to fertile land, and as labor shortages prevented any able-bodied person from suffering from extreme poverty associated with unemployment.
caption: Early settlers to North America often suffered from hunger, though some were saved from starvation thanks to aid from Native Americans such as  Pocahontas.
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