1840 United States census#City rankings
{{Use American English|date = March 2019}}
{{Short description|Sixth US census}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2013}}
{{Infobox census
| name = 1840 United States census
| logo = Seal of the United States Marshals Service.svg
| logo_caption = Seal of the United States Marshals Service, which administered the census
| image =
| image_caption =
| country = United States
| date = {{start date|1840|06|01}}
| population = 17,069,453
| percent_change = {{increase}} 32.7%
| region_type = state
| most_populous = New York
2,428,921
| least_populous = Delaware
78,085
| authority = Office of the United States Marshal
| previous_census = 1830 United States census
| previous_year = 1830
| next_census = 1850 United States census
| next_year = 1850
}}
The 1840 United States census was the sixth census of the United States. Conducted by U.S. marshals on June 1, 1840, it determined the resident population of the United States to be 17,069,453 – an increase of 32.7 percent over the 12,866,020 persons enumerated during the 1830 census. The total population included 2,487,355 slaves. In 1840, the center of population was about 260 miles (418 km) west of Washington, D.C., near Weston, Virginia (now in West Virginia).
This was the first census in which:
- A state recorded a population of over two million (New York)
- A city recorded a population of over 300,000 (New York)
- Multiple cities recorded populations of over 100,000 (New York, Baltimore, and New Orleans)
This was the last census conducted by U.S. marshals, as starting in 1850 a temporary office would be set up for each census under the purview of the Department of the Interior. This was due to the Northern members of the Whig Party opposing the controversial claim in the 1840 census that free Black Americans in the Northern United States suffered from a higher degree of "insane" or "idiotic" behavior compared to enslaved Black Americans.Hephzibah V. Strmic-Paul, Brandon A. Jackson, and Steve Garner, “Race Counts: Racial and Ethnic Data on the U.S. Census and the Implications for Tracking Inequality,” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity 4, no. 1 (2018): 1–13.
Controversy over statistics for mental illness among Northern blacks
The 1840 census was the first that attempted to count Americans who were "insane" or "idiotic". Published results of the census indicated that alarming numbers of black persons living in non-slaveholding States were mentally ill, in striking contrast to the corresponding figures for slaveholding States.
Pro-slavery advocates trumpeted the results as evidence of the beneficial effects of slavery, and the probable consequences of emancipation.{{Citation
| title = The Federal Government and the Free Negro, 1790–1860
| jstor = 2716144
| year = 1958
| author = Leon F. Litwack
| journal = Journal of Negro History
| pages = 261–78, 263–68
| volume = 43
| issue = 4
| doi = 10.2307/2716144
| s2cid = 150261737
}}, and sources there cited. Anti-slavery advocates contended, on the contrary, that the published returns were riddled with errors, as detailed in an 1844 report by Edward Jarvis of Massachusetts in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, later published separately as a pamphlet,{{cite book | author = Edward Jarvis | title = Insanity Among the Coloured Population of the Free States | publisher = T.K. & P.G. Collins, Printers | year = 1844 | location = Philadelphia | url = http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101475758 | access-date = May 31, 2013}} and in a memorial from the American Statistical Association to Congress, praying that measures be taken to correct the errors.{{cite book|author1=Edward Jarvis|author2=William Brigham|author3=J. Wingate Thornton|title=Memorial of the American Statistical Association Praying the Adoption of Measures for the Correction of Errors in the Returns of the Sixth Census|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYEFAAAAQAAJ|access-date=May 31, 2013|series=Public Documents Printed by Order of the Senate of the United States, Second Session of the Twenty-Eighth Congress|volume=I|number=5|year=1844}}
The memorial was submitted to the House of Representatives by John Quincy Adams, who contended that it demonstrated "a multitude of gross and important errors" in the published returns.{{cite book|author=John Quincy Adams|editor=Charles Francis Adams|title=Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: comprising portions of his diary from 1795 to 1848|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsjohnquin00adamgoog|access-date=May 31, 2013|year=1877|publisher=J. B. Lippincott & Co.|location=Philadelphia|pages=[https://archive.org/details/memoirsjohnquin00adamgoog/page/n35 27]–28, 61, 119–20}} In response to the House's request for an inquiry, Secretary of State John C. Calhoun reported that a careful examination of the statistics by the supervisor of the census had fully sustained their correctness.Litwack (1958), 267{{cite book|author1=John Caldwell Calhoun|author2=South Carolina General Assembly|editor=Richard K. Crallé|title=The Works of John C. Calhoun: Reports and Public Letters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzUTAQAAMAAJ|access-date=May 31, 2013|volume=V|year=1859|publisher=D. Appleton and Company|location=New York|page=458}} Calhoun engaged William A. Weaver, the superintendent of the 1840 census, to review the figures and check them against related data from the 1830 census. Ibid. Weaver reported that he had examined "each specification of error" and concluded that the memorialists had themselves erred in their claims. While there doubtless had been minor errors, he said, there had been no glaring methodological mistakes as charged. See William Edwin Hemphill, ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=3xKqzUctxPsC&dq=%22sixth+census%22+united+states+william-weaver&pg=PA156 The Papers of John C. Calhoun: 1845], Columbia: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1993, vol. 21, p. 156. The returns were not revised.Litwack (1958), 268
Census questions
The 1840 census asked these questions:{{cite web|url=http://purl.org/net/nysl/nysdocs/9643270|title=Library Bibliography Bulletin 88, New York State Census Records, 1790-1925|year=1981|publisher=New York State Library}} Several pages on U.S. federal web sites incorrectly assert that the 1840 census questionnaire closely followed that from the 1830 census, which did not include questions concerning mental illness.
- Name of head of family
- Address
- Number of free white males and females
- in five-year age groups to age 20
- in 10-year age groups from 20 to 100
- 100 years and older
- number of slaves and free colored persons in six age groups
- number of deaf and dumb, by race
- number of blind, by race
- number of insane and idiotic in public or private charge, by race
- number of persons in each family employed in seven classes of occupation
- number of schools and number of scholars
- number of white persons over 20 who could not read and write
- number of pensioners for Revolutionary or military service
Data availability
No microdata from the 1840 population census are available, but aggregate data for small areas, together with compatible cartographic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System. A compendium of data from the sixth census, organized by States, counties, and principal towns is available [http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1840b-01.pdf on the web site of the Census Bureau].
State rankings
City rankings
References
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External links
- [https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/10/17/1840-census-slavery-insanity/ "1840 census: False count on insanity showed slavery was good for Blacks"] by Peter Whoriskey, The Washington Post, October 17 2020
- [http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1840b-01.pdf Compendium of the Enumeration of the Inhabitants and Statistics of the United States . . . from the Returns of the Sixth Census .... (Washington, D.C., 1841)]
- [https://www.census.gov/history/www/through_the_decades/overview/1840.html Overview of the 1840 Census] on www.census.gov.
- [https://www.cyndislist.com/us/census/1840/online/ 1840 U.S. Federal Census {{hyphen}} Online Records and Indexes] on www.cyndislist.com (21 Links) Includes links to sites with any or all of the following: digitized images, indexes, transcriptions, extractions, abstracts, and partial or whole copies of census materials.
- [https://guides.loc.gov/census-connections/decennial-census/1840-1880#s-lib-ctab-22509999-0 Library of Congress research guide for 1840 census] - links to primary documents
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