1790 United States census

Contemporary perception

Both Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and President George Washington expressed skepticism 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.

Questions

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 (excluding slaves)
6. Number of slaves

Loss and availability of data

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. 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.

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.

Data

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 (the northeastern portion of present-day Tennessee). 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.) No enumeration at all was taken of the Northwest Territory, apparently because of logistical difficulties covering the territory (which was vast but sparsely populated by enumerated American Whites), as well as the continued presence of British Army garrisons in the forts along the Great Lakes.

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.

Urban centers

References

References

1. "1790 Fast Facts - History".
2. "1790 Overview - History - U.S. Census Bureau".
3. Lunt, Edward C.. (1888). "History of the United States Census". Publications of the American Statistical Association.
4. "1790 Overview - History - U.S. Census Bureau".
5. "U.S. Marshals Overcame Hardships and Challenges to Count 3,929,214 People in a Young America".
6. "1790 Census: Heads of Families". U.S. Census Bureau.
7. Dollarhide, William. (2001). "The Census Book: A Genealogists Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes". HeritageQuest.
8. "1790 Census". 1930 Census Resources for Genealogists.
9. "About IPUMS NHGIS {{!}} IPUMS NHGIS".
10. (1909). "A Century of Population Growth from the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790–1900".
11. "Slave, Free Black, and White Population, 1780-1830".
12. (1907). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Vermont". U.S. Government Printing Office.
13. "Slavery in Vermont".
14. [https://archive.org/details/headsoffamiliesa00nort Heads of families at the first census of the United States taken in the year 1790 : records of the State enumerations: 1782–1785, Virginia]
15. (1907). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: New Hampshire". Clearfield Company, Incorporated.
16. (1908). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maine". U.S. Government Printing Office.
17. (1908). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Massachusetts". U.S. Government Printing Office.
18. (1907). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Rhode Island". U.S. Government Printing Office.
19. (1908). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Connecticut". U.S. Government Printing Office.
20. (1908). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: New York". U.S. Government Printing Office.
21. (1907). "Heads of families at the first census of the United States taken in the year 1790: New York ..". Washington, Govt. Print. Off..
22. (1908). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Pennsylvania". U.S. Government Printing Office.
23. (1907). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Maryland". U.S. Government Printing Office.
24. (1908). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: Virginia". U.S. Government Printing Office.
25. (1909). "A Century of Population Growth from the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790–1900".
26. (1908). "Heads of Families at the First Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1790: North Carolina". U.S. Government Printing Office.
27. (1998). "Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990". U.S. Census Bureau.
28. "Population of Connecticut Towns 1756–1820". State of Connecticut.
29. "Regions and Divisions". U.S. Census Bureau.
30. In present day Maine.