University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER II.

POPULATION.

The following tables give the aggregate population of the
several states in 1790, 1820, and 1850. (For a table showing
the population at each decennial census, see Appendix.) In
connection with this are also here given, the area, the number
of inhabitants to a square mile in 1850, and the population at
the present time, the last being taken from a late communication
to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury:

TABLE II.
Statement of the Area, and Aggregate Population in 1790, 1820, 1850, and
1856, with the Number of Inhabitants to a Square mile, in 1850, of the
several Slave States.

                                 

SLAVE STATES.	Area in Sq. Miles.	Population in 1790.	Population in 1820.	Population in 1850.	Density in 1850.	Population in 1856
Alabama	50,722		127,901	771,623	15.21	835,192
Arkansas	52,198		14,273	209,897	4.02	253,117
Delaware	2,120	59,096	72,749	91,532	43.18	97,295
Florida	59,268			87,445	1.48	110,725
Georgia	58,000	82,548	340,987	906,185	15.62	935,090
Kentucky	37,680	73,077	564,317	982,405	26.07	1,086,587
Louisiana	41,255	319,728	153,407	517,762	12.55	600,387
Maryland	11,124		407,350	583,034	52.41	639,580
Mississippi	47,156		75,448	606,326	12.86	671,649
Missouri	67,380		66,586	682,044	10.12	831,215
North Carolina	50,704	393,751	638,829	869,039	17.14	921,852
South Carolina	29,385	249,073	502,741	668,507	22.75	705,661
Tennessee	45,600	35,791	422,813	1,002,717	21.99	1,092,470
Texas	237,504			212,592	0.89	500,000
Virginia	61,352	748,308	1,065,379	1,421,661	23.17	1,512,593
Total	851,448	1,961,372	4,452,780	9,612,769	11.28	10,793,413

TABLE III.
Statement of the Area, and Aggregate Population in 1790, 1820, 1850, and
1856, with the Number of Inhabitants to a Square Mile, in 1850, of the
several Free States.

                                   

FREE STATES.	Area in Sq. Miles.	Population in 1790.	Population in 1820.	Population in 1850.	Density in 1850.	Population in 1856.
California	155,980			92,597	.59	335,000
Connecticut	4,674	238,141	275,202	370,792	79.33	401,292
Illinois	55,405		55,211	851,470	15.37	1,242,917
Indiana	33,809		147,178	988,416	29.24	1,149,606
Iowa	50,914			192,214	3.78	325,014
Maine	31,766	96,540	298,335	583,169	18.36	623,862
Massachusetts	7,800	378,717	523,287	994,514	127.50	1,133,123
Michigan	56,243		8,896	397,654	7.07	509,374
New Hamps'ire	9,280	141,899	244,161	317,976	34.26	324,701
New York	47,000	340,120	1,372,812	3,097,394	65.90	3,470,059
New Jersey	8,320	184,139	277,575	489,555	58.84	569,499
Ohio	39,964		581,434	1,980,329	49.55	2,215,750
Pennsylvania	46,000	434,373	1,049,458	2,311,786	50.26	2,542,960
Rhode Island	1,306	69,110	83,059	147,545	112.97	166,927
Vermont	10,212	85,416	235,764	314,120	30.76	325,206
Wisconsin	53,924			305,391	5.66	552,109
Total	612,597	1,968,455	5,152,372	13,434,922	21.93	15,887,399

From these tables it will be seen that, in 1790, the population
in the present non-slaveholding States was 1,968,455; and
in the present slaveholding States, 1,961,372; showing a difference
of 7,083 in favor of the non-slaveholding States. This
difference, at first so slight, only 7,000, we find constantly
increasing, until in 1820 (thirty years from that time) it becomes
699,592; the population of the slaveholding States
being at that time 4,452,780, and that of the non-slaveholding
States 5,152,372. In thirty years more (1850), the population
of the fifteen Slave States is 9,612,769, and of the sixteen
Free States 13,434,922; a difference of 3,822,153 in favor of
the Free States. Thus, from having a majority of less than
four-tenths of one per cent in 1790, the Free States had in

1850 a majority of more than thirty-nine per cent. And this,
notwithstanding 87,000 inhabitants were added to the Slave
States by the annexation of Louisiana and Florida, and a large
population by the annexation of Texas.

The average number of inhabitants to a square mile, in the
Slave States, is 11.28, and in the Free States 21.93; almost
exactly two to one.

On examining this table a little in detail, we notice the following,
among many other interesting facts:

The area of Virginia is 61,352 miles; that of New York is
47,000, or over 14,000 square miles less than that of Virginia.
The population of Virginia, in 1790, was 748,308, and in 1850
it was 1,421,661. It had not doubled in sixty years. The
population of New York in 1790 was 340,120, in 1850 it was
3,097,394; thus, New York had multiplied her population more
than nine times in the same period. Kentucky has an area of
37,680 square miles, and Ohio 39,964, a little over two thousand
miles greater. Kentucky had in 1850 a population of 982,405,
and Ohio 1,980,329, or nearly a million more than Kentucky.
Kentucky was admitted into the Union in 1792, and Ohio in
1802. The area of Mississippi is 47,156 square miles, that
of Pennsylvania, 46,000. The population of Mississippi was,
in 1850 (in round numbers), 606,000, that of Pennsylvania,
2,300,000. The number of inhabitants to a square mile in
North Carolina was, in 1850, a little over seventeen, and in
New Hampshire thirty-four; in Tennessee twenty-one, and in
Ohio forty-nine; in South Carolina twenty-two, and in Massachusetts
one hundred and twenty-seven.

These comparisons are based upon the population as it was
in 1850. The tables likewise show the present population, as
given in a recent communication to Congress, by the Secretary
of the Treasury. By this it will be seen that the ratio of increase
still continues; there being now a majority of 5,093,986
or over forty-seven per cent, in favor of the Free States

According to the same ratio, in less than three years more
than two-thirds of the entire population of the Union will be
found in the Free States.

The entire white population of the two sections, at each
decennial census, from 1790 to 1850, is as follows (for a
statement of white population at each census, see Appendix):

               

Slaveholding States.		Non-slaveholding States.
In 1790	1,271,488	In 1790	1,900,976
1800	1,692,914	1800	2,601,509
1810	2,192,706	1810	3,653,219
1820	2,808,946	1820	5,030,377
1830	3,633,195	1830	6,871,302
1840	4,601,873	1840	9,557,065
1850	6,184,477	1850	13,238,670

The difference of increase here may perhaps seem more
remarkable than in the aggregate population. The white population
of the present Slave States was, in 1790, 1,271,448,
and of the present non-slaveholding States, at the same time,
1,900,976, a difference of 629,488; not quite fifty per cent. in
favor of the non-slaveholding states. In 1850 that difference
had become 7,054,193, or over one hundred and fourteen per
cent. In other words, the white population in the Free States
had become 869,716 more than double that in the Slave States.
The population of the latter being 6,184,477, and that of the
former 13,238,670.

How far this difference, both of population and its increase,
in the two sections, is due to foreign immigration, may be seen
from the following statement (Census Compendium, p. 45):
"There are now 726,450 persons living in slaveholding States,
who are natives of non-slaveholding States, and 232,112 persons
living in non-slaveholding States, who are natives of slaveholding
States. There are 1,866,397 persons of foreign birth in

the non-slaveholding States, and 378,205 in the slaveholding."
There are then 494,338 more natives of non-slaveholding
States in slaveholding States, than there are of slaveholding
in the non-slaveholding States; while there are 1,488,192 more
persons of foreign birth in the non-slaveholding than in the
slaveholding States; which gives less than a million more persons
residing in non-slaveholding States, who were not born
there, than in the slaveholding States, nearly all of whom are
white inhabitants. The difference is nearly 4,000,000 in the
aggregate, and more than 7,000,000 in the white population,
and is not therefore due to this cause.

The following tables show the white population of the
several States in 1790, 1820, and 1850:

TABLE IV.
White Population of the Slave States in 1790, 1820, and 1850.

                                 

SLAVE STATES.	1790.	1820.	1850.
Alabama		85,451	426,514
Arkansas		12,579	162,189
Delaware	46,310	55,282	71,169
Florida			47,203
Georgia	52,886	189,566	521,572
Kentucky	61,133	434,644	761,413
Louisana		73,383	255,491
Maryland	208,649	260,223	417,943
Mississippi		42,176	295,718
Missouri		55,988	592,004
North Carolina	288,204	419,200	553,028
South Carolina	140,178	237,440	274,563
Tennessee	32,013	339,927	756,836
Texas			154,034
Virginia	442,115	603,087	894,800
Total	1,271,488	2,808,946	6,184,477

TABLE V
White Population of the Free States in 1790, 1820, and 1850.

                                   

FREE STATES.	1790	1820	1850
California			91,635
Connecticut	232,581	267,161	363,099
Illinois		53,788	846,034
Indiana		145,758	977,154
Iowa			191,881
Maine	96,002	297,340	581,813
Massachusetts	373,254	516,419	985,450
Michigan		8,591	395,071
New Hampshire	141,111	243,236	317,456
New Jersey	169,954	257,409	465,509
New York	314,142	1,332,744	3,048,325
Ohio		576,572	1,955,050
Pennsylvania	424,099	1,017,094	2,258,160
Rhode Island	64,689	79,413	143,875
Vermont	85,144	234,846	313,402
Wisconsin			304,756
Total	1,900,976	5,030,377	13,238,670

The whole number of slaveholders in the Slave States, in
1850, was 346,048; and of this number 173,204 hold less than
five slaves each, leaving 172,844 who are holders of more than
four slaves; and, if we deduct the numbers holding less than
ten slaves each, there will remain 92,215. The whole number
of slaveholders, then, is less than 350,000, including females
and minors. The number of voters in this class is therefore
much smaller. But, counting them all as voters, they are less
than the number of freemen who voted at the last Presidential
election in New England, even without including Vermont.
They are less than the number who voted in either Pennsylvania
or Ohio, and less than two-thirds the number who voted
in New York.

The annexed table shows the free colored population of the
United States. It will be seen that the number of free colored
inhabitants in the Free States is 196,016, and in the Slave States

228,128, mingled with a white population of less than half that
of the Free States. This, of course, does not include the District
of Columbia, in which there are over 10,000 free colored
persons; while the number in the Free States includes those in
New Jersey, in which there are over 23,000, of whom 20,000
were born in the State. Indeed, if we examine the table
giving the nativities of the free colored persons, we shall see
that the number who still reside in the States where they were
born is 354,470, out of the whole number, 454,495, which is
over eighty-one per cent.

On page 81 of the Census Compendium, in connection with
a table showing the occupation of the free colored males over
fifteen years of age, it is stated that in New York city there is
one in fifty-five engaged in pursuits requiring education; while
in New Orleans one in eleven is engaged in similar pursuits.
In Connecticut, one in a hundred is thus employed, and
in Louisiana one in twelve.

These are the only cities and States compared in this way in
the Census. It may be a fact a little surprising to some, that,
while the ratio of the free colored inhabitants engaged in pursuits
requiring education in Louisiana is one-twelfth of the
whole, the ratio of the entire white male population engaged in
the pursuits in the same State is less than one-eighteenth of
the whole.

The increase in the present slaveholding States, from 1840
to 1850, is 10.49 per cent., and in the non-slaveholding States
14.98 per cent.; being four and a half per cent. greater in the
Free than in the Slave States. The proportion of free colored
persons to the total population, in some of the States, is quite
considerable; being greatest in Maryland and Delaware,—
in the former twelve, and in the latter nineteen per cent.

Had we not the example of De Bow's Compendium, we
might be uncertain how to regard the slaves, whether as men,

TABLE VI.
Free Colored Population of the United States in the years 1790, 1820, 1850

                                   

SLAVE STATES.	1790	1820	1850	FREE STATES.	1790	1820	1850
Alabama		571	2,265	California			962
Arkansas		59	608	Connecticut	2,801	7,844	7,693
Delaware	3,899	12,958	18,073	Illinois		457	5,436
Florida			932	Indiana		1,230	11,262
Georgia	398		2,931	Iowa			333
Kentucky	114	2,759	10,011	Maine	538	929	1,356
Louisiana		10,476	17,462	Massachusetts	5,463	6,740	9,064
Maryland	8,043	39,730	74,723	Michigan		174	2,583
Mississippi		458	930	New Hampshire	630	786	520
Missouri		347	2,618	New Jersey	2,762	12,460	23,810
North Carolina	4,975	14,612	27,463	New York	4,654	29,279	49,069
South Carolina	1,801	6,826	8,960	Ohio		4,723	25,279
Tennessee	361	2,727	6,422	Pennsylvania	6,537	30,202	53,626
Texas			397	Rhode Island	3,469	3,554	3,670
Virginia	12,766	36,889	54,333	Vermont	255	903	718
				Wisconsin			635
Total	32,357	128,412	228,128	Total	27,109	99,281	196,016

to be enumerated as so many inhabitants, or as so much property,
estimated at so much per head; or, taking a middle course,
to consider them three-fifths intelligent man, and two-fifths unintelligent
property; thus realizing what was anciently but a
fabulous monster, the Centaur, having the head of a man and
the body of a horse. These three plans are all adopted in the
Census Compendium. The number of slaves in the present
slaveholding States was as follows:
             

In 1790	657,527
" 1800	853,851
" 1810	1,158,459
" 1820	1,512,553
" 1830	2,001,610
" 1840	2,481,632
" 1850	3,200,304

From this it will be seen that there has been a constant increase,
until there were, in 1850, over three millions; being
almost one-third of the entire population of the Slave States,—
more than double the population of either Norway or Denmark,

—greater than that of Netherlands, Switzerland, Scotland,
or Sweden,—and not quite three hundred thousand less
than that of Portugal.

Some very interesting facts may be gathered from the census
tables with regard to this class. If we examine, for instance,
the table with regard to the "Increase and Decrease per cent.
of the Slave Population of the several States at each census"
(see Appendix), we shall see, what is indeed remarked in the
Census Compendium, that "the increase of slaves in the southern
Atlantic States has only averaged about two per cent per
annum in fifty years, though averaging eighteen per cent per
annum in the Gulf States, etc., for the last twenty years."
Thus, in South Carolina this increase diminished from thirty-six
per cent in 1790 to seventeen per cent in 1850; and,
indeed, in 1840 it was but three per cent. In North Carolina
it is about the same. In Maryland, from an increase it has
become a decrease, and that, too, at a rapid rate. In Virginia
the ratio of increase has diminished from seventeen to five per
cent, and generally the ratio of increase has been of late less
than that of the white population. In the Gulf States, on the
other hand, the increase has in many instances been immense,
and much more rapid than that of the white population. The
cause of this is given by those who have the best opportunity
to know the facts, as follows:

Hon. Henry Clay of Kentucky, in a speech, in 1829, before
the Colonization Society, says: "It is believed that nowhere
in the farming portion of the United States would slave labor
be generally employed, if the proprietors were not tempted to
raise slaves by the high price of the southern markets, which
keeps it up in his own."

Professor Dew, once President of William and Mary College
in Virginia, in his review of the debates in the Virginia Legis
lature in 1831–2, says: "From all the information we can
obtain, we have no hesitation in saying that upwards of six

thousand [slaves] are yearly exported [from Virginia] to
other States." Again: "A full equivalent being thus left in
the place of the slave, this emigration becomes an advantage
to the State, and does not check the black population as much
as, at first view, we might imagine; because it furnishes every
inducement to the master to attend to the negroes, to encourage
breeding, and to cause the greatest number possible to be
raised. *  * Virginia is, in fact, a negro-raising State for
other States."

The extent of this domestic slave trade is not given in De
Bow's census tables, but we may, by an easy computation
from the tables, arrive at something near the truth, so far as
they are reliable in such matters.

On page 87 of the Compendium, we find the decennial increase
of Slaves in the United States to be as follows: between
1790 and 1800, 27.9; between 1800 and 1810, 33.4; between
1810 and 1820, 29.1; between 1820 and 1830, 30.6; between
1830 and 1840, 23.8. The average of these ratios is 28.96.
In 1840, the slave-exporting States, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
North and South Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee,
contained 1,479,601 slaves. Had they increased in the ratio
of 28.96 per cent., the number in 1850 would have been
1,908,093. The actual number given is 1,689,158, being a
difference of 218,935, or 21,893 for each year, to be accounted
for. Applying the same rule to the slave-importing states, we
have the following result: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana,
Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri contained in 1840
1,002,031 slaves. Increasing in the ratio of 28.96 per cent, their
number in 1850 would have been 1,292,219. The number
given in the census is 1,453,035; a difference the other way of
160,816, or 16,081 per year, which they had received by importation.

The difference of nearly 6,000 between the import and
export may be accounted for by the following: A writer in

the New Orleans Argus, in 1830, says: "The loss by death in
bringing slaves from a northern climate, which our planters are
under the necessity of doing, is not less than twenty-five per
cent." And the planters in those States, when advertising for
sale a plantation and a lot of negroes, always mention distinctly
the fact that they are "acclimated" (if that be the case),
as enhancing their value.

The number which the figures would seem to indicate as sold
from the North to the South is no doubt very low; it certainly
is so, if we take the estimate of Southern men. The Virginia
Times, in 1836, estimates the number of slaves exported for
sale during a single year at forty thousand.

In 1837, a committee was appointed, by the citizens of
Mobile, to investigate the causes of the existing pecuniary
pressure. In their report they say: "So large has been the
return of slave labor, that purchases by Alabama of that species
of property from other States, since 1833, have amounted
to ten millions of dollars annually."

Rev. Dr. Graham, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, said in
1837: "There were nearly seven thousand slaves offered in
New Orleans market last winter. From Virginia alone, six
thousand were annually sent to the South; and from Virginia
and North Carolina there had gone to the South, in the last
twenty years, three hundred thousand slaves."

Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, in a speech in the Legislature of
that State, January 18, 1831, says: "It has always (perhaps
erroneously) been considered, by steady and old-fashioned
people, that the owner of land had a reasonable right to its
annual profits; the owner of orchards to their annual fruits;
the owners of brood mares to their product; and the owners
of female slaves to their increase. We have not the fine-spun
intelligence nor legal acumen to discover the technical
distinctions drawn by some gentlemen. The legal maxim
of partus sequitur ventrem is coeval with the existence
of the right of property itself, and is founded in wisdom and

justice. It is on the justice and inviolability of this maxim
that the master forgoes the service of the female slave, has her
nursed and attended during the period of her gestation, and
raises the helpless infant offspring. The value of the property
justifies the expense, and I do not hesitate to say that in its
increase consists much of our wealth."

The following, copied from a recent number of the Richmond
Dispatch, will show the present condition of the trade:

"High Price For Slaves.—There has been a greater
demand for slaves in this city, during the months of May, June
and July, than ever known before, and they have commanded
better prices during that time. The latter is an unusual thing,
as the summer months are generally the dullest in the year for
that description of property. Prime field hands (women) will
now bring from $1,000 to $1,100, and men from $1,250 to
$1,500. Not long since, a likely negro girl sold in this city, at
private sale, for $1,700. A large number of negroes are
bought on speculation, and probably there is not less than
$1,000,000 in town, now, seeking investure in such property."

From the above, and similar sources of information, we may
safely estimate the number of slaves annually sold from the
Northern Slave States to the Southern at 25,000. An interesting
feature of this traffic will appear on examination of the Census
Table, showing the "ratio of ages of the slaves in 1850."[1]

In the States of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and
South Carolina, the average number of slaves between twenty
and thirty years of age is 16.72 per cent. In the States of
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, Arkansas, Louisiana,
and Texas, the number between the same ages is 19.29
per cent. In like manner, in the four first-mentioned States the
average number between thirty and forty years of age is 10.27
per cent, and in the seven last mentioned it is 11.94 per cent.

On the other hand, the number between sixty and seventy
years of age is, in the four exporting States, 2.76 per cent,
and in the seven importing States, 1.94 per cent; also, between
seventy and eighty years old, the number is, in the first four
1.16, and in the others but .55 per cent. Showing that in the
slave-importing States the number of slaves between twenty
and forty years of age is at least fifteen per cent greater than
in the exporting; while, on the other hand, in the slave-exporting
States, the number of slaves between sixty and eighty
years of age is more than fifty per cent greater than in the
importing. This is the more remarkable, since exactly the
reverse is true of the free colored population in those same
States, as will be seen by a similar analysis of the table on
page 75 of the Compendium.

Another fact with regard to the slave population of the
South, and one which must soon become of great interest, is
the increasing ratio of the slave to the free population. By a
table on the 85th page of the Compendium[2] it will be seen
that, in the words of the Census Report, "while the proportion
has been increasing for the slaves in the Southern States generally,
it has decreased in Virginia, Maryland, the District
of Columbia, and Missouri." Indeed, it has increased in most,
until it has become in Arkansas (omitting fractions), 22 per
cent; in Alabama and Florida 44 per cent; in Louisiana 47
per cent; in Mississippi 51 per cent; and in South Carolina
57 per cent of the whole population; whereas it was, in 1800
in Mississippi but 39 per cent, and in South Carolina but 42
per cent; and a similar increase of the ratio of the slave to
the entire population will be found in all the Southern Slave
States.