1810 United States Federal Census Transcription Project

Date: 6 Aug 1810 [unknown]
Location: United States

United States Census Transcription Project

1810 Population Schedules of the Third Census of the United States

Overview^[1]

Authorizing Legislation
The authorization act for the third census stipulated that an assistant marshal must actually visit each household, or the head of each family, within his designated enumeration district and should not rely on hearsay or the like to complete his count. The act also mandated that the enumeration commence on the first Monday of August.

Enumeration
An act of May 1, 1810 amended the earlier authorizing legislation to require that, while they were collecting demographic data, assistant marshals also collect available economic data. These men recorded the "several manufacturing establishments and manufactures within their several districts, territories, and divisions." The marshals transmitted the manufacturing data to the secretary of the treasury at the same time they sent the results of the population enumeration to the secretary of state. No schedule was prescribed for the collection of industrial data and the nature of the inquiries were at the discretion of the secretary of the treasury. Because of this, the collection of manufacturing data was so erratic that it was generally considered useless except to identify broad industrial trends.

Intercensal Activity
An act of May 16, 1812, provided for the publication of a digest of manufactures containing data on the kind, quality, and value of goods manufactured, the number of establishments, and the number of machines of various kinds used in certain classes of manufactures. The report containing incomplete returns for more than 200 kinds of goods and including several items that were principally agricultural, was published in 1813.

1810 United States Federal Census Schedule I Questions/Column Headings^[2]

1 - Name of the head of the household

2 - Number of free white males under age 10

3 - Number of free white males of age 10 and under 16

4 - Number of free white males of age 16 and under 26

5 - Number of free white males of age 26 and under 45

6 - Number of free white males of age 45 and over.

7 - Number of free white females under age 10

8 - Number of free white females of age 10 and under 16

9 - Number of free white females of age 16 and under 26

10 - Number of free white females of age 26 and under 45

11 - Number of free white females of age 45 and over.

12 - Number of all other free persons

13 - Number of slaves

First Economic Inquiries
In addition to population inquiries, the 1810 census was the first to collect data about the nation's manufactures. A May 1, 1810, act directed that, "it shall be the duty of the several marshals, secretaries, and their assistants aforesaid, to take, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and according to such instructions as he shall give, an account of the several manufacturing establishments and manufactures within their several districts, territories, and divisions." The act did not outline specific questions or prescribe a schedule, leaving those matters to the Secretary of the Treasury’s discretion.

To facilitate data collection, the Treasury Department divided manufactured products into 25 broad categories, encompassing more than 220 kinds of goods. As the U.S. marshals and their assistants conducted the decennial census, they also visited the manufacturing establishments in their assigned areas to obtain economic data. These data generally consisted of the quantity and value of products manufactured.

In March 1812, Congress authorized $2,000 for the Treasury Department to prepare a statistical report on the kind, quantity, and value of goods manufactured and the number of manufacturing establishments in each state, territory, district, and county. The May 1813 report noted that the economic data were of poor quality because of serious undercounting and omissions during the enumeration.

Sources

1. ↑ "United States Census Bureau", website online, (https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/overview/1810.html); accessed 25 May 2020.
2. ↑ "United States Census Bureau", website online, index of questions; (https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/index_of_questions/1810_1.html), 28 May 2020.