1800 QUESTIONNAIRE

From 1800 to 1820, the states provided schedules of varying size and typeface. The 1800 schedule of inquiries called for the name of the county, parish, township, town, or city where the family resides; the name of the head of the family; a statement for each family of the number of free White males and females under 10 years of age, of 10 and under 16, of 1 6 and under 26, of 26 and under 45, and 45 years and upward; the number of all other free persons (except Indians not taxed); and the number of slaves.

1810 QUESTIONNAIRE

The 1810 schedule of inquiries was identical to that of 1800, collecting the name of the county, parish, township, town, or city where the family resides; the name of the head of the family; a statement for each family of the number of free White males and females under 10 years of age, of 10 and under 16, of 16 and under 26, of 26 and under 45, and 45 years and upward; the number of all other free persons (except Indians not taxed); and the number of slaves.

1820 QUESTIONNAIRE

The schedule of inquiries for 1820 called for the same age distribution of the free White population, as in 1 800 and 1810, with the addition in 1820 of the number of free White males between 16 and 1 8 years. It also provided for a separation of the number of free colored persons and of slaves, respectively, by sex, according to the number under 14 years of age, of 14 and under 26, of 26 and under 45, and of 45 years and upward, with a statement of the number of "all other persons, except Indians not taxed." Additionally, inquiries were made to ascertain the number of foreigners not naturalized, and the number of persons (including slaves) engaged in agriculture, commerce, and manufactures.

Instructions to Marshals

The interrogatories to be put at each dwelling house, or to the head of every family are definitely marked in relation to the various classes of inhabitants discriminated in the several columns of the schedule, by the titles at the head of each column. That of the name of the head of each family, must indeed be varied according to its circumstances, as it may be that of a master, mistress, steward, overseer, or other principal person therein. The subsequent inquiries, How many free white males under 10 years there are in the family? How many of 10 and under 16? etc., will follow in the order of the columns. But, to facilitate the labor of your assistants, a printed list of all the interrogatories for enumeration, believed to be necessary, is enclosed; (No. 5) in which all the questions refer to the day when the enumeration is to commence; the first Monday in August next. Your assistants will thereby understand that

they are to insert in their returns all the persons belonging to the family on the first Monday in August, even those who may be deceased at the time when they take the account; and, on the other hand, that they will not include in it, infants born after that day. This, though not prescribed in express terms by the act, is the undoubted intention of the legislature, as manifested by the clause, providing that every person shall be recorded as of the family in which he or she shall reside on the first Monday in August.

It will be necessary to remember, that the numbers in the columns of free white males between 16 and 18—foreigners not naturalized—persons engaged in agriculture persons engaged in commerce persons engaged in manufactures must not be added to the general aggregates, of which the sum total is to be opposed. All the persons included within these columns must necessarily be included also in one of the other columns. Those, for instance, between 16 and 18, will all be repeated in the column of those between 16 and 26. The foreigners not naturalized, and those engaged in the three principal walks of life, will also be included in the columns embracing their respective ages. In the printed form of a schedule herewith enclosed, the description at the top of these columns is printed, in italics, and the division lines between the columns themselves are double ruled, with a view to distinguish them from the other columns, the sums of which are to go to the general aggregate. In preparing their schedules from this form, your assistants will find it useful, for convenience and accuracy, to distinguish thosecolumns, by ruling them with red ink, or in some other manner, which may keep them separate from the others, by a sensible impression constantly operating upon the mind.

The discrimination between persons engaged in agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, will not be without its difficulties. No inconsiderable portion of the population will probably be found, the individuals of which being asked, to which of those classes they belong, will answer, to all three. Yet, it is obviously not the intention of the legislature that any one individual should be included in more than one of them—of those whose occupations are exclusively agricultural or commercial, there can seldom arise a question, and in the column of manufactures will be included not only all the persons employed in what the act more specifically dominates manufacturing establishments, but all those artificers, handcraftsmen, and mechanics whose labor is preeminently of the hand, and not upon the field.

By persons engaged in agriculture, commerce, or manufactures, your assistants will understand that they are to insert in those columns, not whole families, including infants and superannuated persons, but only those thus engaged by actual occupation. This construction is given

Measuring America