At 5:04 PM -0500 11/9/00, Bill Crews wrote:
>The African American population, broken down by sex and free/slave, of each
>Virginia county at the 1850 federal census, as well as the total population
>(all races) for the county is available at
>http://www.rootsource.com/bldemo1850.htm


I must take issue.

There was no place in the census to list African-American population.

There was a place for the census to list slaves.

There was also a place for the census to list whites.

There was another place for the census to record other free persons,
which includes both African Americans and Indians. In other words,
every antebellum census lumps free blacks, Indians, and mulattoes of
various types as free persons of color.

Beware of any historian who interprets this column on the census form
as listing African Americans.
--
Ned Heite  ([log in to unmask])
********************************
*                              *
* Don't let your leaves leave! *
* Compost! Compost! Compost!   *
*                              *
********************************

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