The use of the census was to establish the population for representation
purposes. A free black man or a slave was counted as 3/5 of a person. A
white person would be a 5/5 person, so having more mixed blood folks going
down on the census as white would increase the number of representatives
the state could send to Congress. Where might the loyalties of the census
takers have lied?

                                 Anne

At 09:54 AM 2/28/03 -0500, you wrote:
>So could census takers erroneously characterize some white freemen as black
>freemen?  Seems unlikely to me, but I guess possible. It would seem that the
>opposite might be true, however, thereby understating the level of free
>blacks.
>
>JDS
>
>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
>at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html

Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]

http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html