Wayne County, NC - Heritage Series

Reprinted with permission of the Mount Olive Tribune and cannot be 
reproduced without permission. 
Transcribed by Barbara Kawamoto.

                      Census Taken in Wayne in 1790

"Our Heritage"
By Claude Moore

   The first federal census act of the country was passed at the second 
session of the First Congress, and was signed by President Washington on 
1 March 1790.

   As the census counted off free white males over sixteen years of age, 
including head of household and free white males under sixteen years of age,
the census gave some idea of military and industrial strength of the nation.
Also counted were all free white females, including heads of households, all
other free persons (this included free Negroes, Indians), and a count of the
number of slaves.

   It would seem from existing correspondence that the marshals reported 
their returns to the respective governors, who in turn sent the reports to 
the President.

   By the census act the length of time for the enumeration was nine months,
but this was extended to eighteen months (South Carolina took the full 
eighteen months).

   The total population of the United States, as returned in 1790 was 
3,929,214 and the entire cost was $44,377.

   The first census comprised the enumeration of the people in the present 
states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, 
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia.

   Unfortunately the returns for the states of Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, 
New Jersey, Tennessee and Virginia were destroyed when the British burned 
the capital at Washington during the War of 1812.

   These lost census were replaced by tax lists, voter’s lists, etc., but 
of course it is almost a certainty that many names on the 1790 census did 
not appear on these lists.

   Two copies of the returns were made by the assistant marshals.  By the 
law one copy was posted in the immediate neighborhood for the public’s 
information, and the other was transmitted to the marshal in charge, to be 
forwarded to the President.  The President then turned over the census to
the Secretary of State.

   The original schedules of the first census are now contained in 26 bound 
volumes, preserved in the Census Office.  For the most part the headings of
the schedule were written in by hand.  Indeed, up to and including 1820, the
assistant marshals generally used for the schedules such paper as they
happened to have, ruling it, writing in the headings, and binding the sheets
together themselves.  In some cases merchants’ account paper was used, and 
now and then the schedules were bound in wallpaper.

   There were many problems facing the marshals.  They included poor to no 
roads and when existing were often impassable, bridges were often unknown, 
much of the "western" territory was an impenetrable wilderness.  In addition
to the climate and terrain, the marshals had to deal with the suspicions of 
the people, many of who thought the census was a forerunner to increased 
taxation, and so did not give a true accounting of their households.  Others
felt it went against their religious beliefs.

   The total population of Wayne County in 1790 was 6,083.  Breaking the 
figures down, there were 989 free white males over sixteen years of age, 
including heads of households, 1,217 free white males under sixteen years 
of age, 2,265 free white females, including heads of household, 53 other
free people and 1,559 slaves.  There were 253 slave owners in the county 
and of these, Joseph Green, with seventy slaves, was the largest slave owner
in Wayne County.

   The 1790 census, in spite of its omissions and imperfections, form a 
unique inheritance for our country, since it represents a list of heads of 
families in the U.S. at the time of the adoption of the Constitution.  While
the statesmen were the designers of a new nation, it was, for the most part,
the men who appeared on the 1790 census as heads of households, who had 
fought to establish that new concept . . . a government of the people, by 
the people, for the people.

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Barbara Kawamoto <bakawamoto.earthlink.net>

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