1850 United States census explained

1850 United States census
Country:United States
Population:23,191,876
Percent Change: 35.9%
Region Type:state
Most Populous:New York
3,097,394
Least Populous:Florida
87,445
Authority:Census Office
Previous Census:1840 United States census
Previous Year:1840
Next Census:1860 United States census
Next Year:1860

The 1850 United States census was the seventh decennial United States CensusConducted by the Census Office, it determined the resident population of the United States to be 23,191,876—an increase of 35.9 percent over the 17,069,453 persons enumerated during the 1840 census. The total population included 3,204,313 enslaved people.

Although the official date of the census date was June 1, 1850,[1] completed census forms indicate that the surveys continued to be made throughout the rest of the year.[2] [3]

This was the first census where there was an attempt to collect information about every member of every household; women and children were named. Slaves were included by gender and estimated age on Slave Schedules, listed by the name of the owner. Prior to 1850, census records had recorded only the name of the head of the household and broad statistical accounting of other household members (three children under age five, one woman between the age of 35 and 40, etc.). This was also the first census to ask about place of birth of free residents.

Hinton Rowan Helper made extensive use of the 1850 census results in his influential anti-slavery book The Impending Crisis of the South (1857).

Census questions

The 1850 census, Schedule 1, Free Inhabitants, collected the following information:[4]

Full documentation for the 1850 population census, including census forms and enumerator instructions, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series.

Economy

The 1850 United States census collected a great amount of data that gave insight into the state of the U.S. economy in 1850. Some of the data revealed the growth of the economy with regard to agricultural and manufactured production, international trade, federal debt, taxation, transportation, education, and land expansion.

Agricultural Production: This census calculated the total land by state (in square miles), the total production of major goods and livestock per state (in respective units), the total value of each good produced, the total number of plantations per state, and various other statistics. The total agricultural production between in 1850 was calculated at about 1.3 billion dollars.
Manufactured Production: This census included the total manufactured production (in dollars), the total amount of capital invested, the total value of wages paid, the percent of profit (by state and total), the profit by state of major industries (cotton, wool, various iron work, breweries, fishing, salt), and other less significant statistics. Total manufactured production was valued at just over one billion dollars. This is a great increase over the totals estimated in 1820 and 1840. Also, in total, the manufacturing industry recorded an overall profit of 43%.
International Trade: The 1850 census contains the total value of imports and exports by state, statistics and names of the major imports and exports, the total values of shipping by state, and the value of imports and exports with various individual countries. The United States traded most with the United Kingdom. The imports and exports with the United Kingdom were both valued around 145 million dollars.
Federal Debt: This census contains yearly federal debt totals, total federal revenues, and total expenditures from 1790 to 1853. The total debt of the United States on July 1, 1854, was roughly 47.2 million dollars.
Taxation: The census contains some calculation of total annual federal taxes, but it is incomplete. It does however, give state taxation totals.
Transportation and Communication: This census calculates the total cost, size, and quantity of railroads and canals. The funded debt for railroads and canals in 1853 was 130 million. Their gross earnings were more than 38 million dollars. This census also contains estimates for growth in mileage of telegraphic lines in the United States. In 1853 the country contains 89 telegraph lines that stretched 23261miles. When published in 1854, the country had an estimated 30000miles of telegraphic lines, a drastic increase.
Education: This census displays the advances of the United States in education and literacy by documenting the number of libraries, the number of schools (public, private, and colleges), state literacy rates, the total newspaper production and consumption, the educational levels of differing races, the total value of tuition costs, the amount of federal land given for education, and other various statistics.
Land Expansion: The 1850 census shows the great amount of territorial expansion that took place in the United States, following the Admission of Texas, the Oregon Treaty, and the Treaty with Mexico following the war in 1848. These three pieces of territory totaled an addition of more than a million square miles to the nation. In 1850, the United States contained 31 states and 4 organized territories (Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah).
Significance: The 1850 United States census can be seen as a historical document that gives insight into the state of the nation's economy in 1850. It is much more detailed and provides more information than the 1840 census.This census was conducted during a very important period of growth and innovation in the United States, the Industrial Revolution. The statistics in this census provide data on the rate of growth that was taking place in 1850, which resulted in the emergence of the United States as an economic world power. Many of the statistics were compared to those of Great Britain and other world powers. This shows where the United States stood economically relative to the rest of the world.

Data availability

Microdata from the 1850 population census are freely available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with compatible cartographic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System.

State rankings

Rank State Population
01 New York 3,097,394
02 Pennsylvania 2,311,786
03 Ohio 1,980,329
04 Virginia [5] 1,421,661
05 Tennessee 1,002,717
06 Massachusetts 994,514
07 Indiana 988,416
08 Kentucky 982,405
09 Georgia 906,185
10 North Carolina 869,039
11 Illinois 851,470
12 Alabama 771,623
13 Missouri 682,044
14 South Carolina 668,507
15 Mississippi 606,526
16 Maine 583,169
17 Maryland 583,034
18 Louisiana 517,762
19 New Jersey 489,555
20 Michigan 397,654
21 Connecticut 370,792
22 New Hampshire 317,976
23 Vermont 314,120
24 Wisconsin 305,391
X West Virginia [6] 302,313
25 Texas 212,592
26 Arkansas 209,897
27 Iowa 192,214
28 Rhode Island 147,545
29 California 92,597
30 Delaware 91,532
31 Florida 87,445
X New Mexico 61,547
X District of Columbia [7] 51,687
X Oregon 12,093
X Utah 11,380
X Minnesota 6,077
X Washington 1,201

City rankings

Rank City State Population Region (2016)[8]
01 515,547 Northeast
02 169,054 South
03 136,881 Northeast
04 121,376 Northeast
05 116,375 South
06 115,435 Midwest
07 96,838 Northeast
08 77,860 Midwest
09 58,894 Northeast
10 50,763 Northeast
11 47,223 Northeast
12 46,774 Northeast
13 46,601 Northeast
14 43,194 South
15 42,985 South
16 42,261 Northeast
17 41,513 Northeast
18 40,001 South
19 38,894 Northeast
20 38,799 Northeast
21 36,403 Northeast
22 33,383 Northeast
23 30,780 Northeast
24 29,963 Midwest
25 28,785 Northeast
26 27,570 South
27 26,979 Northeast
28 22,271 Northeast
29 21,262 Northeast
30 21,019 Midwest
31 20,815 Northeast
32 20,515 South
33 20,345 Northeast
34 20,264 Northeast
35 20,061 Midwest
36 18,364 Northeast
37 17,882 Midwest
38 17,565 Northeast
39 17,216 Northeast
40 17,049 Northeast
41 17,034 Midwest
42 16,443 Northeast
43 15,743 Northeast
44 15,312 South
45 15,215 Northeast
46 14,432 Northeast
47 14,326 South
48 14,257 Northeast
49 14,190 South
50 14,010 South
51 13,979 South
52 13,944 Northeast
53 13,932 Northeast
54 13,555 Northeast
55 12,369 Northeast
56 12,323 Northeast
57 12,205 Northeast
58 11,766 Northeast
59 11,524 Northeast
60 11,500 Northeast
61 Virginia[9] 11,435 South
62 11,415 Northeast
63 11,334 Northeast
64 10,977 Midwest
65 10,441 Northeast
66 10,265 Northeast
67 10,232 Northeast
68 10,165 South
69 10,019 Northeast
70 9,738 Northeast
71 9,572 Northeast
72 9,563 Northeast
73 9,548 Northeast
74 9,479 Northeast
75 9,448 South
76 9,408 South
77 9,240 Northeast
78 8,991 Northeast
79 8,939 Northeast
80 8,921 Northeast
81 8,841 South
82 8,811 Northeast
83 8,734 South
83 8,734 Northeast
85 8,728 South
86 8,626 South
87 8,595 Northeast
88 8,576 Northeast
89 8,505 Northeast
90 8,452 Northeast
91 8,366 South
92 8,291 Northeast
93 8,282 Northeast
94 8,225 Northeast
95 8,196 Northeast
96 8,181 Midwest
97 8,166 Northeast
98 8,159 South
99 8,109 Northeast
100 8,091 Midwest

Controversy

The Utah Territorial census was taken in 1851. Secretary Broughton Harris refused to certify the census of Utah territory. Harris complained that Brigham Young had conducted the census without him, claimed several irregularities, and consequently withheld funds reserved for the census.[10] The controversy contributed to Harris' decision to join other Runaway Officials of 1851 and abandon his post in Utah Territory. Relationships with the federal government continued to sour and eventually resulted in the Utah War.

Local government officials feared having an enslaved population might impede the territory's quest for statehood, since certain members of Congress were concerned about expansion of slavery into the western territories.[11] The 1850 census slave schedule for Utah Territory reported only 26 slaves, with a note that all of them were heading to California, and did not include any enslaved people remaining in the territory.[12] John David Smith estimates that there were 100 blacks in Utah by 1850, with two-thirds of them enslaved.[13]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: What day was the census taken each decade? . U.S. Census Bureau . May 16, 2019.
  2. Web site: United States Census 1850, Maryland, Washington county Film Viewer – Image 127 of 529. familysearch.org. May 16, 2019.
  3. Web site: United States Census, 1850, Tennessee, Bedford county Film Viewer – Image 250 of 389. familysearch.org. May 16, 2019.
  4. Web site: Library Bibliography Bulletin 88, New York State Census Records, 1790–1925. 44 (p. 50 of PDF). October 1981. New York State Library.
  5. Includes population in future state of West Virginia.
  6. Until 1863, the state of West Virginia was part of Virginia; the data for each state reflect the present-day boundaries.
  7. The District of Columbia is not a state but was created with the passage of the Residence Act of 1790.
  8. Web site: Regions and Divisions . U.S. Census Bureau . September 9, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161203020637/http://www.census.gov/econ/census/help/geography/regions_and_divisions.html . December 3, 2016 . dead .
  9. Is located in present day West Virginia
  10. Book: Mormonism: A Historical Encyclopedia. 26. W. Paul Reeve. Ardis E. Parshall. W. Paul Reeve. Ardis E. Parshall. 978-1-59884-107-7. 2010.
  11. A Peculiar Place for the Peculiar Institution: Slavery and Sovereignty in Early Territorial Utah. Nathaniel R. Ricks. MA thesis. Brigham Young University. 1877/etd1909. 2007.
  12. Book: The Peoples of Utah . Blacks in Utah History: An Unknown Legacy. Ronald G. Coleman . Helen Z. Papanikolas . 1976 . Utah State Historical Society . Salt Lake City . 115–140 . https://historytogo.utah.gov/blacks-utah-history/ . 978-0-913738-26-9 .
  13. Book: Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery. Randall M. Miller. John David Smith. Greenwood Publishing. 1997. 506. 978-0-275-95799-5.

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