Party Affiliation in the County

The Eve of War

Fall 1859–Spring 1861

1860 Census and Summaries

We identified a total of 406 party activists in Augusta County through the newspapers—72 percent Whig and 28 percent Democrat.

	Frequency	Valid Percent
Whig	75	72.1
Democrat	29	27.9
Total	104	100

Household Wealth Cohorts

	0 - $975	$976 - $4,187	$4,188 - $9,625	$9,262 - $21,999	$22,000 +	Total
No Record	155	143	131	126	109	664
Whig	0	6	14	24	26	70
Democrat	0	3	4	8	14	29
Total	155	152	149	158	149	763

Farm Value

	0 - $1,999	$2,000 - $3,999	$4,000 - $7,570	$7,571 - $12,000	$13,000 +	Total
No Record	66	80	72	55	65	338
Whig	3	6	11	18	14	52
Democrat	1	3	3	6	3	16
Total	70	89	86	79	82	406

Farm Size (in acres)

	0 - 99	100 - 299	300 - 499	500 - 999	1,000 +	Total
No Record	66	173	54	34	11	338
Whig	3	22	13	12	2	52
Democrat	1	8	6	0	1	16
Total	70	203	73	46	14	406

Number of Slaves Held

	0	1	2 - 5	6 - 10	11 - 20	21 - 30	31 +	Total
No Record	551	36	49	33	32	1	1	703
Whig	31	6	12	11	15	0	0	75
Democrat	18	2	3	4	2	0	0	29
Total	600	44	64	48	49	1	1	807

Soil Ratings

	Best	Medium	Worst	Total
No Record	571	76	56	703
Whig	60	6	9	75
Democrat	25	2	2	29
Total	656	84	67	807

Proximity of Household to Town

	Greater than 1 Mile	Less than 1 Mile	Total
No Record	546	157	703
Whig	53	22	75
Democrat	18	11	29
Total	617	190	807

The data are based on the GIS of Augusta and Franklin households—maps are derived from a D. H. Davison map of Franklin County, published in 1858, and Jedediah Hotchkiss map of Augusta County, published in 1870 and based on surveys completed "during the war." The maps have been georeferenced at the Virginia Center for Digital History, using ESRI Arc Info to produce a Geographic Information Systems map and database of households based on U. S. census data from the population, agricultural, and slaveowners’ schedules.