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Report on Census, 24 October 1791

Report on Census

SCHEDULE of the whole number of Persons within the several Districts of the United States, taken according to “An Act providing for the Enumeration of the Inhabitants of the United States;” passed March the 1st, 1790.

districts. Free white
Males of
sixteen years
and upwards
including heads
of families.		 Free white Males under sixteen years. Free white Females including heads of families. All other free persons Slaves. Total.
*Vermont 22,1351 22,328 40,505 2552 16  85,539 
New-Hampshire 36,086  34,851 70,160 630  158  141,885 
{ Maine 24,384  24,748 46,870 538  none  96,540 
Massachusetts 95,453  87,289 190,582 5,463  none  378,787 
Rhode-Island 16,019  15,799 32,652 3,407  948  68,825 
Connecticut 60,523  54,403 117,448 2,808  2,764  237,946 
New-York 83,700  78,122 152,320 4,654  21,324  340,120 
New-Jersey 45,251  41,416 83,287 2,762  11,4233 184,139 
Pennsylvania 110,788  106,948 206,363 6,537  3,7874 434,373 
Delaware 11,783  12,143 22,384 3,899  8,887  59,094 
Maryland 55,915  51,339 101,395 8,043  103,036  319,728 
{ Virginia 110,936  116,135 215,046 12,866  292,627  747,610 
Kentuckey 15,154  17,057 28,922 114  12,430  73,677 
North-Carolina 69,988  77,506 140,710 4,975  100,572  393,751 
South-Carolina – – – – – – 5
Georgia 13,103  14,044 25,739 398  29,264  82,5486
Free white
Males of
twenty-one years
and upwards
including heads
of families.		 Free Males under twenty-one years of age. Free white Females including heads of families. All other Persons. Slavecs. Total.
S. Western Territory 6,271  10,277 15,365 361  3,417  35,691 
N. Do. - - - - - -7

Truly stated from the original Returns deposited in the Office of the Secretary of State.

Th: Jefferson

October 24, 1791.

* This return was not signed by the marshal, but was enclosed and referred to in a letter written and signed by him.

MS not found; text taken from first printed copy by Childs and Swaine, 1791, consisting of 56 pages, the last page bearing TJ’s signature; delayed returns from South Carolina have been tipped in as page 54, dated 5 Feb. 1792, showing a total of 249,073 persons (copy in NjP: Rare Books). Tr (DNA: RG 59, MLR); copy of MS prepared some time after 5 Feb. 1792 with significant differences described in textual notes below.

These returns had been arriving at the President’s office all summer and were normally transferred to the Secretary of State upon receipt (Tobias Lear to TJ [Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, and districts of Kentucky and Maine], 12 July 1791, RC in DNA: RG 59, MLR; FC in DNA: RG 59, SDC; Lear to TJ [Maryland, New York, North Carolina], 5 Aug. 1791; RC and FC in same; Lear to TJ [Rhode Island], 6 Aug. 1791, RC and FC in same; Lear to TJ [Virginia], 18 Aug. 1791, RC and FC in same; Lear to TJ [New Jersey], 20 Aug. 1791, RC and FC in same; Lear to TJ [Pennsylvania], 22 Aug. 1791, RC and FC in same; and William Blount to TJ [Southwest Territory], 19 Sep. 1791). South Carolina requested and was granted an extension by an act of Congress adopted on 2 Nov. 1791. Washington sent the final return from South Carolina, dated 5 Feb. 1792, to Congress on 3 Mch. 1792 (JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , i, 446–7, 526; JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820–21, 5 vols. description ends , i, 336–7, 404).

TJ sent this summary to the President, who announced the completion of the census “excepting in one instance in which the return has been informal, and another in which it has been omitted or miscarried” in his annual message to Congress on 25 Oct. 1791, the day after the session began. He transmitted the summary to Congress two days later (Fitzpatrick, Writings description begins John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, Washington, 1931–1944, 39 vols. description ends , xxxi, 400, 407; JHR description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends , i, 437; and JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820–21, 5 vols. description ends , i, 329–30).

1. In Tr: 22,435.

2. In Tr: 252.

3. In Tr: 11,453.

4. In Tr: 3,737.

5. The Tr includes the figures for South Carolina as follows: 35,576, 37,722, 66,880, 1,801, 107,094, and 249,073.

6. In Tr after this figure in this column a total is calculated as follows: “3,893,635, from below 42,691, 3,936,326.”

7. The Tr contains “supposed total 7,000” at this point. Judging from Washington’s comment in his annual message, the original MS TJ submitted to him probably had contained this figure as well.

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    Jefferson Papers
    Title
    Report on Census, 24 October 1791
    Author
    Jefferson, Thomas
    Recipient
    Washington, George
    Date
    24 October 1791

    Reference

    Cite as
    “Report on Census, 24 October 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-22-02-0216. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 22, 6 August 1791 – 31 December 1791, ed. Charles T. Cullen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986, pp. 227–228.]

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