Census (1860 & 1870)
Population Census (1860 & 1870)
Search the manuscript population census to discover basic information on every individual in Augusta and Franklin counties.
Agriculture Census (1860 & 1870)
The agricultural census contains data on all free persons who operated farms which produced goods valued at more than $100 a year.
Manufacturing Census (1860 & 1870)
Search the manufacturing census to discover detailed information about all phases of industrial production—from the raw materials businesses consumed, to the amount of labor they utilized, to the finished goods they produced.
Slaveowners Census (1860)
The Census of Slave Inhabitants is more accurately called the slaveowners census because it only recorded the names of the slaveowners and not their slaves.
About the Census Records
Every ten years, the United States government performs a census of the country. During 1860 and 1870 information for the census was gathered by census takers who visited every house in their district. They asked each head of every household a series of questions about everyone who lived there such as their age, race, wealth, occupation, literacy, physical condition, and birthplace. We have transcribed the 1860 and 1870 U.S. Census for Augusta County, VA and Franklin County, PA.
In addition to the better-known population census we also have transcribed the Agriculture, Manufacturing, and Slaveowner Census. Augusta County in the late 1850s was very much a slave society. So important was slavery that the census takers maintained a separate book to list all the slaveowners and their property. Chillingly enough, the census takers were not interested in the names of individual slaves but only in their age, sex, and skin shade. The slaveowner census records show that a large number of slaves in Staunton were hired out by people other than their owners.
Article 1, Section 2, of the U.S. Constitution mandates that Congressional representatives and direct taxes be apportioned among the states according to their respective populations and that these populations be measured every ten years. The United States was the first nation in the world to institute an inclusive national census and to use it as an apportionment tool. These population records are an invaluable source for historians, allowing them to learn about individual as well as community characteristics like wealth or racial background. The topics below present a brief overview of the evolution of the U.S. census, a discussion of its value and limitations as a historical source, and provide access to the complete aggregated census data from 1820 through 1860 for Augusta and Franklin counties and their respective states and regions. You can also search the 1860 population, agricultural, slaveowner, and manufacturing manuscript schedules for Augusta and Franklin counties.