1790 United States census
1790 United States census | ||
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![]() Title page of 1790 United States census | ||
General information | ||
Country | United States | |
Authority | Office of the United States Marshal | |
Results | ||
Total population | 3,929,214 | |
Most populous | Virginia (747,610) | |
Least populous | Delaware (59,094) |
The 1790 United States census was the first United States census. It recorded the population of the whole United States as of Census Day, August 2, 1790, as mandated by Article 1, Section 2, of the Constitution and applicable laws. In the first census, the population of the United States was enumerated to be 3,929,214 inhabitants.[1][2]
Congress assigned responsibility for the 1790 census to the marshals of United States judicial districts under an act, which with minor modifications and extensions, governed census taking through the 1840 census. "The law required that every household be visited, that completed census schedules be posted in 'two of the most public places within [each jurisdiction], there to remain for the inspection of all concerned...' and that 'the aggregate amount of each description of persons' for every district be transmitted to the president."[3]
Contemporary perception
[edit]Both Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and President George Washington expressed skepticism[4] over the results, believing that the true population had been undercounted. If indeed an undercount was the result, possible explanations for it include dispersed population, poor transportation links, limitations of contemporary technology, and individual refusal to participate.[5]
Questions
[edit]Column | Title[2] |
---|---|
1 | Name of the head of family |
2 | Number of free white males age 16 and over |
3 | Number of free white males under age 16 |
4 | Number of free white females |
5 | Number of all other free persons |
6 | Number of slaves |
Loss and availability of data
[edit]Although the census was proved statistically factual, based on data collected, the records for several states (including Delaware, Georgia, New Jersey, and Virginia) were lost sometime between 1790 and 1830.[6] Almost one-third of the original census data have been lost or destroyed since their original documentation. These include some 1790 data from Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Vermont; the validity and existence of most of these data, though, can be confirmed in many secondary sources pertaining to the first census.[7]
No microdata from the 1790 population census are available, but aggregate data for small areas, together with compatible cartographic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System.[8]
Data
[edit]Under the direction of the Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, marshals collected data from all thirteen states (Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts including the District of Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia), and from the Southwest Territory.[3] The census was not conducted in Vermont until 1791, after that state's admission to the Union as the 14th state on March 4 of that year. (From 1777 until early 1791, and hence during all of 1790, Vermont was a de facto independent country whose government took the position that Vermont was not then a part of the United States.)
At 17.8 percent, the 1790 census's proportion of slaves to the free population was the highest ever recorded by any census of the United States.[9]
State or territory
|
Free white males of 16 years and upward[a]
|
Free white males under 16 years
|
Free white females[a]
|
All other free persons
|
Slaves
|
Slaves % of state population
|
Total
|
% of U.S. population
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vermont[10][11] | 22,435 | 22,328 | 40,505 | 255 | 16[b][12][13] | 0.0% | 85,539[c] | 2.2% |
New Hampshire[14][11] | 36,086 | 34,851 | 70,160 | 630 | 158 | 0.1% | 141,885 | 3.6% |
Maine[15][11] | 24,384 | 24,748 | 46,870 | 538 | 0 | 0.0% | 96,540 | 2.4% |
Massachusetts[16][11] | 95,453 | 87,289 | 190,582 | 5,463 | 0 | 0.0% | 378,787 | 9.8% |
Rhode Island[17][11] | 16,019 | 15,799 | 32,652 | 3,407 | 948 | 1.4% | 68,825 | 1.7% |
Connecticut[18][11] | 60,523 | 54,403 | 117,448 | 2,808 | 2,764 | 1.2% | 237,946 | 6.0% |
New York[19][20][11] | 83,700 | 78,122 | 152,320 | 4,654 | 21,324 | 6.3% | 340,120 | 8.6% |
New Jersey[11] | 45,251 | 41,416 | 83,287 | 2,762 | 11,423 | 6.2% | 184,139 | 4.6% |
Pennsylvania[21][11] | 110,788 | 106,948 | 206,363 | 6,537 | 3,737 | 0.9% | 434,373 | 11.0% |
Delaware[11] | 11,783 | 12,143 | 22,384 | 3,899 | 8,887 | 15.0% | 59,094[d] | 1.5% |
Maryland[22][11] | 55,915 | 51,339 | 101,395 | 8,043 | 103,036 | 32.2% | 319,728 | 8.1% |
Virginia[23][11] | 110,936 | 116,135 | 215,046 | 12,866 | 292,627 | 39.1% | 747,610[e][24][11] | 18.9% |
Kentucky[11] | 15,154 | 17,057 | 28,922 | 114 | 12,430 | 16.9% | 73,677 | 1.9% |
North Carolina[25][11] | 69,988 | 77,506 | 140,710 | 4,975 | 100,572 | 25.5% | 393,751 | 9.9% |
South Carolina[11] | 35,576 | 37,722 | 66,880 | 1,801 | 107,094 | 43.0% | 249,073 | 6.3% |
Georgia[11] | 13,103 | 14,044 | 25,739 | 398 | 29,264 | 35.5% | 82,548 | 2.1% |
Southwest Territory[11] | 6,271 | 10,277 | 15,365 | 361 | 3,417 | 9.6% | 35,691 | 0.9% |
Total | 813,365 | 802,127 | 1,556,628 | 59,511 | 697,697 | 17.8% | 3,929,326 | 100% |
- ^ a b Heads of families were included.
- ^ 0 is the correct figure, and the 16 here should be added to the "All other free persons" column. When the census of 1790 was published in 1791, it reported 16 slaves, which were illegal in Vermont. Subsequently, and up to 1860, the number is given as 17. An examination of the original manuscript by the Census Bureau superintendent found that there never were any slaves in Vermont. The original error occurred in preparing the results for publication, when 16 persons, returned as "Free colored," were classified as "Slave" in Bennington County. See the history of slavery in Vermont.
- ^ Corrected figures are 85,425, or 114 less than figures published in 1790, due to an error of addition of several towns.
- ^ Corrected figures are 59,096, or 2 more than figures published in 1790, due to error in addition.
- ^ The figures for Virginia do not include the population of Kentucky. Though Kentucky was then a part of Virginia, the Kentucky figures were compiled separately, and are shown on the line for Kentucky. The Virginia figures do include the portion of Virginia that later became the state of West Virginia.
City rankings
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Census History Staff. "1790 Fast Facts - History". US Census Bureau. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ a b "1790 Census: Heads of Families". U.S. Census Bureau.
- ^ a b Census History Staff. "1790 Overview - History - U.S. Census Bureau". US Census Bureau. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census History Staff. "1790 Overview - History - U.S. Census Bureau". US Census Bureau. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ "U.S. Marshals Overcame Hardships and Challenges to Count 3,929,214 People in a Young America". Census.gov. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Dollarhide, William (2001). The Census Book: A Genealogists Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes. North Salt Lake, Utah: HeritageQuest. p. 7.
- ^ "1790 Census". 1930 Census Resources for Genealogists.
- ^ "About IPUMS NHGIS | IPUMS NHGIS". www.nhgis.org. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ "Slave, Free Black, and White Population, 1780-1830". userpages.umbc.edu. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1907). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Vermont. U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-87152-015-9.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Free and Slave Populations by State (1790)". Teaching American History. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ "Slavery in Vermont". slavenorth.com. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Heads of families at the first census of the United States taken in the year 1790 : records of the State enumerations: 1782–1785, Virginia
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1907). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: New Hampshire. Clearfield Company, Incorporated.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1908). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maine. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1908). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Massachusetts. U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-87152-021-0. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1907). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Rhode Island. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1908). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Connecticut. U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-87152-362-4. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1908). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: New York. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Heads of families at the first census of the United States taken in the year 1790: New York . Washington, Govt. Print. Off. 1907.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1908). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Pennsylvania. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1907). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maryland. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1908). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Virginia. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Census Office, United States (1909). "A Century of Population Growth from the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790–1900". p. 47.
- ^ Census, United States Bureau of the (1908). Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: North Carolina. U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
- ^ Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990, U.S. Census Bureau, 1998
- ^ "Population of Connecticut Towns 1756–1820". Connecticut Secretary of the State. State of Connecticut. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
- ^ "Regions and Divisions". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on December 3, 2016. Retrieved September 9, 2016.
- ^ a b c d In present day Maine.
External links
[edit] Media related to 1790 United States Census at Wikimedia Commons