United States Census Slave Schedules

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Availability
The National Archives has retained and microfilmed all of the original manuscripts for applicable states.

Slave schedules were kept for: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia.

1850 United States Census Slave Schedules—A free Internet index and images to the 1850 United States Census Slave Schedules can be viewed on the FamilySearch Record Search – Pilot Site listing each slave owner's name and residence. It also show the age, gender, and color of the slaves. Slave names are not normally listed.

Ancestry has images and every name indexes for 1850 and 1860 slave schedules.

Historical Background
1850-1860--Slaves were ususally not named, but enumerated separately and usually only numbered under the slave owners name.

Contents
City, town, or subdistrict of slave owner                        Name of slave owner                         Number of slaves listed by age, sex, color                         Fugitive                         Manumitted (freed)                         Deaf, dumb, insane, or idiotic

Value
                        Name -- Sometimes an enumerator chose to list the first names of individual slaves. Each countywide slave schedule must be searched to see if there are names of slaves or not.

                        Number -- The number of slaves enumerated could help determine if the owner had a plantation or  not, and its size.

Indexes
Few slave schedules have been indexed. Ancestry has indexes for 1850.

Web Sites
Ancestry.com (1850): http://content.ancestry.com/

Sources of This Collection

 * Dollarhide, William. The Census Book: A Genealogist's Guide to Federal Census Facts, Schedules and Indexes. (Bountiful, Utah: Heritage Quest, 1999.) FHL Book 973.X27d.
 * Szucs, Loretto Dennis and Wright, Matthew. Finding Answers in U.S. Census Records. (Orem, Utah: 2001 Ancestry) FHL Book 973 X27s.

How to Cite Your Sources

An example of citing these records is: United States. Census Office. 7th census, 1850. United States Census (Slave Schedule), 1850. Census page. From FamilySearch Internet (www.familysearch.org), April 23, 2010. Thomas Smith, Kent County, Kent, Delaware, image number 00603.

Instructions for citing this source can be found at: How to Cite FamilySearch Collections