1860 Census: Instructions to the Marshals
TO THE MARSHALS:
Department of the Interior, Washington, 1860.
1. The appointment of Assistants.? Having determined on the proper subdivision of your district, you will proceed to appoint your Assistants; a duty involving great responsibility, and one which, it is hoped, you will exercise with judgment, as upon the fitness of those whom you appoint will depend, in a great degree, the reliability of the returns.
2. Qualifications of Assistants. ? For your own security, the honor of the Department, and the credit of the Government, it is indispensable that you appoint judicious, temperate, reliable, intelligent, and active men for your Assistants. Each one should be a resident of the district or subdivision and well acquainted with the people. Where a foreign language is spoken to any great extent it is quite essential that you appoint Assistants who can communicate with such persons in their own tongue. Appointments should not be made of persons who do not write a plain neat hand.
3.Nature of Subdivisions.? It is particularly enjoined, while you may find it advisable to assign several townships, wards, villages, or boroughs to one Assistant, that you do not assign parts of townships, wards, etc., to one and parts of the same to another. Such a mode of cutting up small divisions would occasion, very unnecessarily, much inconvenience to this office in combining the returns. You may subdivide any one geographical or municipal district among many assistants, or you may (observing the proper limitation) assign several such districts to one, at your discretion; but you will avoid giving to one Assistant part of two or more subdivisions. In illustration: to John Doe may be assigned a properly defined portion of one ward, town, or county, and to Richard Roe the other part of the same ward, town or county; but you should not also assign to either of these Assistants a portion of any other ward, town, or county.
4. Return and change of Subdivisions.? In making return of your list of appointments you will clearly designate the nature of the subdivision; at the time you will be at liberty, for what may appear a sufficient cause, to change the district; in which case you should immediately notify the Census Office, stating the object of the change.
5. Distribution of Schedules.? As one hundred and sixty names may be entered on one sheet of Population Schedule, No. 1, and as three copies of all the returns are required, it follows, that for every hundred and sixty names three sheets, and for a Subdivision containing twenty thousand free inhabitants three hundred and seventy-five sheets of Schedule No. I would be necessary. To the number, however, which appears to be required on close calculation, there should be made an addition of 25 per cent. to cover errors, losses, etc., so that for a population of 20,000 free inhabitants in any one subdivision you should send 470 sheets of this schedule. You will therefore find it necessary to estimate in advance the number of free persons in each subdivision to determine the proper apportionment of the schedules.
Schedule No. 2.? Of Schedule No. 2. Slave Inhabitants, you will distribute one half the number for a population of equal amount. Entries of 320 slaves may be made to the sheet.
Schedule No. 3.? Five sheets of the Schedule of Mortality, No. 3, should be transmitted to the smallest subdivisions. In distributing this schedule to your Assistants they should be sent in the proportion of five sheets for each thousand of living persons, free or slave.
Schedule No. 4.? Of the Productions of Agriculture, No. 4, four sheets should be distributed for every eighty farms or plantations.
Schedule No. 5.? Of the Products of Industry, No. 5, there should be sent about four sheets for every thirty manufacturers.
Schedule No. 6.? Social Statistics. Of this schedule it is believed that, as a general rule, not more than four sheets will be required by each Assistant. Double that number had better be transmitted to such of the Assistants as an specially charged with the collecting of the Aggregate Statistics of Taxation, Etc.
In any and every case where additional schedules may be required you will not fail, in forming your estimates, to bear in mind the numbers necessary for the copies that are to be made.
6. Commencement of the work and its prosecution.? Having supplied your Assistants with the Schedules and Instructions, you will direct them to enter upon the active discharge of their duties on the 1st day of June, and to notify you of their commencement, and at least once in every two weeks, where mail facilities exist, they should be required to inform you of their progress. Failing to receive such information from any Assistant it will be proper to make inquiries concerning the subdivision so as to be assured that the Assistant is performing his duties, and to enable you to take those efficient steps which the law provides to remedy any evil or inattention which may exist.
7. Power to cancel appointments.? You have, at any time, for cause sufficient, the power to cancel the appointment of an Assistant and to appoint another for the subdivision, and it will be your duty to do so when the public interests suffer from the neglect or inability of any of your subordinates. The successor of a removed Assistant should be placed in possession of so much of the work as may have been executed. Should his predecessor refuse to hand over the records within a reasonable period it will be your duty to direct him last appointed to enumerate the entire subdivision and report all the facts in the case to you, which you will communicate to the Census Office.
8. Duty to retake the Census.? Should you have undoubted evidence that the enumeration has been made with gross carelessness, or that a palpably erroneous census has been taken in any subdivision, it will be your duty to have another enumeration made without tiny unnecessary delay.
9. Description and area of Subdivisions.? By the 7th section of the law it is made your duty to "keep an accurate record of the area, in square miles, of each subdivision, and of the name of each assistant within the district." The main object of this requirement is to enable this office to determine the compensation of the Assistants. It is believed that in all the States and Territories the area of the several subdivisions may be pretty accurately known. It should be ascertained with all the exactness possible. Where the area is estimated on data not altogether reliable, the fact should be stated. Little difficulty can occur in those States and Territories where the county and town divisions are effected by parallel lines, while, generally, the information may and should be obtained from the county surveyor or clerk. or other reliable source, and each Assistant should be required to furnish you with a certificate under the hand of some reliable person of the number of square miles in his subdivision.
10. Return of names of Assistants.? You will be furnished from this office with a tabular form wherein to enter a list of your Assistants, the nature of the district assigned to each, and post office address, which you are desired to fill up and return as early as may be. Ascertain, at as early a moment as possible, the area of each Assistant's subdivision, and, when practicable, make return thereof with the list of your appointments. You will find it of great advantage to keep a record-book of your Assistants, whereby you may make easy reference to the name, area, and progress of the work.
11. Franking Privilege.? The attention of post-masters should be directed to the provision in the 17th section of the law, which authorizes you and your Assistants to frank all packages and letters relating to the Census, and this is rendered the more necessary from the fact of reference thereto being omitted in the abstract of the laws regulating the Post Office Department, last published.
12. Examination of Returns. ? By the 5th section of the law it is made your duty to examine carefully the returns of each Assistant, to see that the work has been executed in conformity with the statute. This examination will enable you to ascertain whether your Assistants have visited every part of their subdivisions and filled up their schedules in accordance with the instructions. You should at once require explanation of any apparent omission or irregularity. It will be the duty of the Assistant to correct errors or supply omissions without any delay, and to correct, in like manner, the copy filed with the clerk of the county.
13. Making return to Census Office.? By the 5th section of the law it is made your duty to transmit one set of the returns, made by your Assistants, to this office. It is of the highest importance that this requirement should be complied with at the earliest moment possible after you have satisfied yourself of the general accuracy of the return. Each set should be put up in convenient sized and well secured packages, and, being plainly directed, should be transmitted by mail. You should preserve an accurate record of the returns forwarded, and of the dates when mailed; and if their receipt is not acknowledged in due course of time, you should notify this office of the emission.
14. Making returns to Secretary of State .? By the 5th section of the law it is made obligatory upon you to transmit one copy of the returns made by each Assistant to the secretary of your State or Territory. This duty you may perform more at your leisure. These returns should be securely put up in packages, and the contents plainly endorsed thereon and transmitted per mail with your frank. It would be well to obtain duplicate receipts for the same, one whereof you will forward to this office.
15. Expediting the Work? You should impress upon the Assistants the absolute necessity of a vigorous prosecution and timely completion of their respective duties, in order to have them performed during the earlier portion of the space allotted for the work. It should be borne in mind that the mere enumeration is to be followed by a great amount of labor in the careful preparation of copies, and that any serious delay with one Assistant will impede the progress of the compilation of the work, and delay the Congressional apportionment; dilatoriness, therefore, on the part of any Assistant should meet with immediate reprehension. Unnecessary procrastination, or any other cause (which might by timely caution be avoided) tending to defeat the proper consummation of duty, involves the abatement of compensation and liability to penalty ? a contingency which it is hoped will never occur.
16. State and Local Reports, Etc. ? You are requested, when you can do so without inconvenience, to obtain and forward to the Census Office any published reports of your State or Territory relating to expenditures, education, pauperism, insanity, or crime; or any publications illustrative of any question in the details of the Census.
17. In all cases where questions arise as to the construction of law, or the instructions of the Department, you will apply at once to the Superintendent of Census for information; and in all your correspondence with that office, you will confer a favor by using letter paper of the ordinary size and whole sheets, for convenience in binding the records.
Finally. ? The duty entrusted for your execution is one of the most important which could be conferred, as upon the result of your labors must depend the establishment of the ratio of representation, and the just and equitable apportionment of members of the House of Representatives, a fair exhibition of the material resources of the country, and true return of the moral and social condition of each State and Territory. That you will execute this trust with fidelity and zeal, is the expectation and hope of the head of the department, by whose orders, in conformity with law, these instructions are issued.
1. Having been duly commissioned and taken the oath prescribed in section 9, law of May 28, 1850, the Assistants will be supplied by the Marshal with the necessary schedules, and a suitable portfolio for their preservation, wherein they should be carried without folding.
2. You will find it necessary to provide a portable inkstand, with good ink and suitable pens. Each portfolio will be accompanied with a sheet of blotting paper with which you will carefully dry all entries made on the schedules.
3. Numbering Pages.? You will not fail to number each page of the schedules in the exact order of their filling up, using care to complete up one sheet before making any entries on another of like character. In the filling up of the sheets, they must not be folded one in another. The first page of each of the six schedules must be number 1, the first page of the second sheet must be number 5, and thus continuously through your work. This order must be preserved with respect to the different classes of schedules, each variety whereof must have the first page number 1.
4. Care of Papers. ? When travelling from house to house you will observe care in preserving your papers from loss, and while at rest protect them from meddling hands. Carry with you as little finished work as possible, and do not encumber yourself with an unnecessary quantity of blank schedules. At all times have this pamphlet of Instructions with you.
5. Distinguish Boundaries. ? When you have completed the enumeration of a town, township, village, ward, or county, leave a blank space of four or five lines, unless such termination occurs at or near the bottom of a page, in which ease write "concluded." Let your work on each schedule clearly indicate the point of completing every geographical or municipal division.
6. Refusal to Answer.? If any person to whom application is made for information should refuse to give it, or should designedly make false representations, you should inform him of the responsibility he incurs thereby, and the penalty to which he becomes liable under the 15th section of the law.
7. Personal Inquiry. ? The 10th section of the law imperatively requires of you to " make the enumeration by actual inquiry at every dwelling-house, or by personal inquiry of the head of every family, and not otherwise.
8. To Verify Returns.? In order to avoid error, or misapprehension, the entries you have made should be read to the party from whom they are obtained, and any error or omission should be promptly corrected or supplied.
9. You will be expected to complete the enumeration without any delay, and once in two weeks advise the Marshal of the progress you are making. Should accident befall you or sickness occur of a nature likely to interfere seriously with the timely prosecution of your duties, you should not on any account withhold information thereof from the Marshal.
10. Attestation.? You will sign your name on each page of the schedules, and certify and make oath or affirmation at the end of each set of the returns, that they were made according to your oath and the instructions, to the best of your knowledge and belief.
11. Disposition of Returns.? As soon as you have made one fair copy of all your returns and carefully compared it with the original, you will forward it without any delay to the Marshal of your district. When you have completed a second copy you will transmit that also to the Marshal, and you will file the original with the clerk of the county or parish, and forward his receipt therefor to the Marshal.
12. Deficiency of Schedules.? Discretion as to what schedules you will require is lodged with the Marshal, to whom you should make immediate representation of any deficiency for your subdivision. Schedule 2, relating to the slave population, will be omitted in the free States.
13. Address.? In the prosecution of your duties you will approach every family and individual of whom you solicit information, with civil and conciliatory manners, and adapt yourself as far as practicable to the circumstances of each, to secure confidence and good will, and as a means of obtaining the information desired with accuracy and despatch. The civil and polite prosecution of your duties you will find indispensable to the success of your efforts and the pleasure of your occupation.
Cause for offence was given by one or two indiscreet assistants engaged in taking the Seventh Census, by the liberty exercised in the unnecessary exposure of facts relating to the business and pursuits of individuals, the communication of intelligence obtained in the discharge of duty to persons who desired it for private advantage or pecuniary profit, or to newspapers. The officers engaged in this service should understand that they have no right to use or promulgate the information obtained for any purpose whatever. Although designed ultimately for the use of the people, the department reserves to itself the privilege of examining into and determining the correctness of the returns and their proper arrangement for publication by Congress, and you are to consider the facts communicated as obtained exclusively for the use of the government, and not in any way to be used for the gratification of curiosity or your private advantage or emolument. You are employed in this service as the agents of the government in a confidential capacity, and you should never betray insensibility to this relation.
The manuscript copies filed with the county and State officers are the property of the government, and while it will doubtless be permitted every citizen to have access to them for the purpose of examining into any details of personal application, or for the purpose of suggesting any errors which may have occurred, no other use of them will be sanctioned. The returns deposited with the county records are thus disposed of to be reclaimed in case of the lose of the copies transmitted to this office, and to enable persons interested to make correction of errors, but for no other purpose, and they continue the property of the government.
In filling up this schedule, first enter on a sheet the pages, then fill up the blanks in the heading in their proper order, commencing with the less division, as town, township, ward, or borough; then the name of the county and State, with the date of taking; after that enter your own name and record the name of the post office of the vicinage. Every day you will change the date and on every page write your name. All the other entries are to be repeated so long as the returns apply, but the moment you enter upon another town, township, ward, borough, or county, you must change the heading to correspond. (Inasmuch as these directions are equally applicable to other schedules, as will appear on their face, they need not be repeated, although to be observed as if they were reiterated.)
1. Dwelling houses unnumbered.-- Under heading 1, insert in numerical order the number of dwelling houses occupied by free inhabitants, as they are visited. The first house you enter is to be No. 1, the second No. 2, and so on to the last house in your subdivision. The numbering of houses is to be continuously maintained, without regard to minor divisions, from the first to the last house included in your work, so that your last entry will express the whole number of dwelling houses in your subdivision. By "dwelling house" is meant a separate tenement, inhabited or uninhabited, and may contain one or more families under one roof. Where several tenements are in one block with walls to separate them, having different entrances, they are each to be numbered separately, but where not so divided they are to be enumerated as one house. Houses which are tenantable but without inhabitants, are to be returned and numbered, but represented as unoccupied, in column 3, while no number is to be entered in column No. 2. If a house is used partly for a store or other purpose and partly for a dwelling, it is to be numbered as a dwelling house. Hotels, poor houses, garrisons, hospitals, asylums, jails, penitentiaries and establishments of kindred character, are to be numbered, and if they consist of a group of several houses, each is to be numbered separately, while you will use particular care to write longitudinally in the column the designation or description of the house, and specify particularly and clearly whether it or they be poor house, hotel, hospital, etc.
2. Families.-- Under heading 2, entitled "Families numbered in the order of visitation," insert the number of families of free persons as they are visited. By the term family" is meant either one person living separately and alone in a house, or a part of a house, and providing for him- or herself, or several persons living together in a house, or part of a house," upon one common means of support and separately from others in similar circumstances. A widow living alone and separately providing for herself, or two hundred individuals living together and provided for by a common head, should each be numbered as one family. The resident inmates of a hotel, jail, garrison, hospital, or other similar institution, should be recorded as one family, unless there be several tenements or distinct families, in which case they should be separated. There may be several families in a garrison, in which case they should be recorded distinct, but should all, by a marginal note, be embraced as of or belonging to such garrison.
3. Individual Names.-- Under heading 3, entitled "The name of every person whose usual place of abode on the 1st day of June, 1860, was in this family," insert the name of every free person in each family, of every age, including the names of those temporarily absent on a journey, visit, or for the purposes of education, as well as those that were at home on that day. The name of any member of a family who may have died since the lst day of June is to be entered and the person described as if living, but the name of any person born since the lst day of June is to be omitted. The names are to be written beginning with the father and mother, or, if either or both be dead, begin with some other ostensible head of the family, to be followed, as far as practicable, with the name of the oldest child residing at home, then the next oldest, and so on to the youngest, then the other inmates, lodgers, and boarders, laborers, domestics, and servants.
All landlords, jailors, superintendents of poor-houses, garrisons, hospitals, asylums, and other similar institutions, are to be considered as heads of their respective families, and the inmates under their care to be registered as members thereof, and the details concerning each, designated in their proper columns, so distinctly as to preclude any doubt as to who for the family proper and who the guests, prisoners, or other inmates, carefully omitting all transient persons.
4. By "place of abode" is meant the house or usual lodging place of persons. Any one who is temporarily absent on a visit or journey, or for other purposes, with the intention of again returning, is to be considered a member of the family to which he belongs, and not of that where he may be temporarily sojourning; and care should be exercised to make full inquiry for such absentees, that none may be omitted on your lists whose names should properly appear there.
5. Indians.-- Indians not taxed are not to be enumerated. The families of Indians who have renounced tribal rule, and who under State or Territorial laws exercise the rights of citizens, are to be enumerated. In all such cases write "Ind." opposite their names, in column 6, under heading "Color."
6. Eating-houses, Stores, Shops, Etc.-- You will make inquiry at all stores, shops, eating-houses, and all similar places, and take the name and description of every free person who usually slept there previous to or about the Ist day of June, provided such person be not otherwise enumerated.
Ships and vessels.-- Persons on board any description of ships or vessels accidentally or temporarily in port; those who are temporarily boarding at a sailor?s boarding or lodging-house, if they belong to other places, are not to be enumerated in your district. All seafaring people are to be enumerated at their land homes, or usual place of abode, whether they be present or at sea; and if any free persons live on vessels or boats, acknowledging no other home, they are to be enumerated as belonging to the place where they have been engaged, shipped, or hired; and Assistants should make inquiry respecting all vessels employed in the internal navigation of the United States, and thus enumerate all who are not recorded as belonging to some family on shore; and all persons of such description, in any one vessel, are to be considered as belonging to one family and the vessel as their place of abode.
7. Ages.-- Under heading 4, entitled "Age," insert in figures what was the specific age of each person at his or her last birth day previous to the 1st day of June, opposite the name of such person. Where the exact age cannot be ascertained insert a number which shall be the nearest approximation thereto. The exact or estimated age of every individual is to be recorded. If the person be a child under one year old, born previous to the 1st day of June, the entry is to be made by the fractional parts of a year, thus: one month, 1/12; two months, 2/12; and so on to eleven months, 11/12. Omit months in all cases where the person is of one year and upwards.
8. Sex.-- Under heading 5, entitled "Sex," insert the letter "m" for male, and "f" for female, opposite the name, in all cases, as the fact may be.
9. Color.-- Under heading 6, entitled "Color," in all cases where the person is white leave the space blank; in all cases where the person is black without admixture insert the letter "B;"if a mulatto, or of mixed blood, write "M;"if an Indian, write "Ind." It is very desirable to have these directions carefully observed.
10. Profession, Trade, and Occupation-- Under head 7, entitled "Profession, occupation, or trade of each person over fifteen years of age," insert the specific profession, occupation, or trade the individual being enumerated is reputed to follow. The proprietor of a farm for the time being, who pursues agriculture professionally or practically, is to be recorded as a farmer; the men who are employed for wages by him are to be termed farm laborers. The members, or inmates, of a family employed in domestic duties at wages you will record as "servants," or "serving," or "domestic," according to the custom of the vicinage.
A mechanic who employs others under him is to be termed differently from the one employed. The first is a master mechanic, and should be termed "master mason," "master carpenter," etc., as the case may be, and you should be very particular in designating the employers or master mechanics from the workmen or employed. Where persons (over 15) are learning trades or serving apprenticeship, they should be recorded as "apprentices," with the name of the trade whereunto they are apprenticed. The employment of every person over 15, having an occupation, should be asked and recorded. In every case insert the kind of labor and nature of apprenticeship.
When the individual is a clergyman, insert the initials of the denomination to which he belongs -- as Meth. for Methodist; R.C. for Roman Catholic; O.S.P., Old School Presbyterian; P.E., Protestant Episcopal; or other appropriate designation, as the case may require. If a person follows several occupations, insert the name of the most prominent. If the person should be a teacher or professor, state the character of the occupation, as teacher of French, of common school; professor of mathematics, of languages, of philosophy, etc. In fine, record the occupation of every human being, male and female, (over 15,) who has an occupation or means of living, and let your record be so clear as to leave no doubt on the subject.
12. Value of Real Estate. -- Under heading 8, insert the value of real estate owned by each individual enumerated. You are to obtain this information by personal inquiry of each head of a family, and are to insert the amount in dollars, be the estate located where it may. You are not to consider any question of lien or encumbrance it is simply your duty to enter the value as given by the respondent.
13. Value of Personal Estate.-- Under heading 9, insert (in dollars) the value of personal property or estate. Here you are to include the value of all the property, possessions, or wealth of each individual which is not embraced in the column previous, consist of what it may; the value of bonds, mortgages, notes, slaves, live stock, plate, jewels, or furniture; in fine, the value of whatever constitutes the personal wealth of individuals. Exact accuracy may not be arrived at, but all persons should be encouraged to give a near and prompt estimate for your information. Should any respondent manifest hesitation or unwillingness to make a free reply on this or any other subject, you will direct attention to Nos. 6 and 13 of your general instructions and the 15th section of the law.
14. Birth Place. -- Under heading 10, you are to insert the place of birth of every individual whose name you record. If born in the State or Territory of their present residence, insert the name, abbreviation, or initials of such State or Territory. If born out of the United States, insert the name of the country of birth. To insert simply Germany would not be deemed a sufficiently specific localization of birth place, unless no better can be had. The particular German State should be given-- as Baden, Bavaria, Hanover. Where the birth place cannot be ascertained, write "unknown" in the proper column; but it must be of rare occurrence that the place of birth may not be understood. You should ascertain the exact birth place of children as well as of parents, and not infer because parents were born in Baden that so also were the children.
15. Married during the Year.-- Under heading 11, you are to make a dash (1) opposite the name of each person, male and female, married within the year previous to June 1; that is, of all persons who are residents, and whose names are entered on the schedule.
16. At School.-- Under heading 12, entitled "At school within the year," you should insert a (1) opposite the names of all those, whether male or female, who are or have been in educational institutions, or who have been receiving stated instruction in any manner within the year; those whose education has been limited to Sunday schools are not to be included.
17. Number who cannot Read and Write .-- Under heading 13, entitled "Persons over 20 years who cannot read and write," you should be careful to designate every person in the family of this description; and it will be your duty to inquire whether any inmate of the family, being a free person over 20 years of age, is unable to read and write, and opposite the names of all such you will make a mark thus (1). If the person can read and write in a foreign or in our own language, the space is to be left blank.
18. Deaf and Dumb, Blind, Insane, Idiotic, Pauper, Convict.-- It will be your duty to inquire whether there be any persons of the above description in the family you are enumerating, and if any, you must, under heading 14, indicate opposite the name of such person, the fact as it may be. A person is to be noted deaf and dumb who was born deaf, or who lost the faculty of hearing before acquiring the use of speech. If a person be blind from a known cause, it would be well to insert the cause in the column or on the margin. Partial blindness should not be noted. The various degrees of insanity often create a doubt as to the propriety of thus classifying individuals, and demands the exercise of discretion. A person may be reputed erratic on some subject, but if competent to manage his or her business affairs without manifesting any symptoms of insanity to an ordinary observer, such person should not be recorded as insane. Where persons are in institutions for safety or restoration, there can exist no doubt as to how you should classify them. As a general rule, the term Insanity applies to individuals who have once possessed mental faculties which have become impaired; whereas Idiocy applies to persons who have never possessed vigorous mental faculties, but from their birth have manifested aberration. The cases wherein it may be difficult to distinguish between insanity and idiocy are not numerous; should such occur, however, you may rely on the opinion of any physician to whom the case is known. It is to be hoped you will not fail to make record respecting all these classes or persons who may be in your subdivision. In all cases of insane persons, you will write in the space where you enter the word "Insane," the cause of such insanity; and you will in every ease inquire into the cause or origin thereof, and write the word-- as intemperance, spiritualism, grief, affliction, hereditary, misfortune, etc. As nearly every case of insanity may be traced to some known cause, it is earnestly desired that you will not fail to make your return in this respect as perfect as possible. If say person whose name you record be at the time, or within the year, so indigent or destitute of the means of support as to require the support of the community, obtained either by alms-begging or public maintenance, by taxation or poor fund, you are to write the word "pauper" in column 14, on a line with the name of such person. When persons who have been convicted of crime within the year resided, on the lst of June, in any family you enumerate, the fact should be stated by giving in column 14, on a line with the name, the character of the crime; but as such an interrogatory might give offence you had better, where you can do so, refer to the county records for the information, but use care in applying the crime to the proper individual on the schedule. Of course, you are not to insert the name (or crime) of any person who died previous to the lst day of June on this schedule, but may do so on the schedule of mortality. With the county or parish record, and your own knowledge, you will be able to make this return very correctly without occasioning offence by personal inquiry of individuals. Respecting persons in confinement you will experience no difficulty.
Should a poor-house, asylum for the blind, insane, idiotic, or other charitable institution, or a penitentiary, jail, house of refuge or reformation, or other place of punishment be visited, you must number each building or buildings in their regular order, and write in perpendicular column No. 1, the nature of such institution, and in column 14, opposite the name of each inmate, you must state the character of the infirmity or misfortune, in the one case, and in the other the nature of the crime for which each inmate is confined and of which the party stands convicted, and in the column with the name give the year when convicted.
The remaining columns, respecting age, sex, color, etc., you must fill with as much care as in other cases. The prison records of these institutions will generally supply the facts required, and, where they do, may be relied on.
The foregoing schedule will serve as your guide for nearly all the entries you will be required to make on the population sheet, and you are requested to study it carefully.
This schedule is to be filled up to the following manner: The heading is to be filled up in all respects after the manner of Schedule No, 1, omitting only the name of post office.
1. Owners of Slaves.-- Under heading No. I insert, in proper consecutive order, the names of all owners of slaves. When slaves are the property of a corporation, enter the name of the corporation. If held in trust for persons who have attained to their majority, whose names as owners do not elsewhere appear, the names of such persons way be entered, or their number, as "John Smith and two others;" always provided that the "others" do not appear as owners in other places. If held in trust for minors, give the number of such minors. The desire is to obtain a true return of the number of owners.
2. Number of Slaves.-- Under heading 2, entitled "Number of slaves," insert, in regular numerical order, the number of all the slaves, of both sexes. and of every age, belonging to the owner whose name you have recorded. In the case of slaves, numbers are to be substituted for names. The description of every slave, as numbered, is to be recorded, and you are to enumerate such slaves as may be temporarily absent, provided they are usually held to service in your subdivision.
The slaves of each owner are to be numbered separately, beginning with the older at No. 1. The person in whose charge, or on whose plantation the slave is found to be employed may return all slaves in his charge, (although they may be owned by other persons,) provided they are not returned by their proper owner. The name of the bona fide owner should be returned as proprietor, and the name of the person having them in charge as employer.
3. Ages.-- Under heading 3, entitled "Age," insert, in figures, the specific age of each slave opposite the number of such slave. If the exact age cannot be ascertained insert a number which shall be the nearest approximation thereto. The exact or estimated age of every slave in to be inserted. If the slave be a child which on the 1st day of June was less than one year old the entry is to be made by fractional parts of a year, as directed in Rule 7, Schedule 1. Slaves who (born previously) have died since the 1st day of June are to be entered as living, and all details respecting them to be given with as much care as if the slave were living, You an desired to give the names of all slaves whom age reaches or exceeds 100 years.
4. Sex.-- Under heading 4, opposite each number, insert "m" for male, and "f" for female, in all cases, as the fact way be. In the case of slaves it is very essential that the sex be specified, because of the entire omission of name. The compensation for all returns where this fact is omitted will be reduced.
5. Color.-- Under heading 5, entitled "Color," insert, in all cases where the slave is black, the letter "B." When he or she is a mulatto insert "M." You are to note the color of every slave. Those who are in any degree of mixed blood are to be termed mulatto, "M."
6. Fugitives.-- Under heading 6 insert, in figures, opposite the name of the owner, a mark or number designating the fugitives who, having escaped within the year, have not been returned to their owners. Such fugitives are to be described as fully as if in possession of their masters. No allusion is to be made respecting such as may have absconded subsequent to the 1st day of June; they are to be recorded as if in possession of their proper owners.
7. No. Manumitted.-- In column No. 7, insert opposite the name of the former owner thereof the number of slaves manumitted within the year ending on the 1st day of June. The name of the person is to be given although at the time of the enumeration, or on the 1st day of June, such person may have held no slaves. The description of all the slaves manumitted may or may not be given at your pleasure, but the number manumitted must be clearly expressed. If you describe them separately, write "manumitted" under the name of the former owner in a line with each one described. If the former owner of slaves manumitted within the year should have died or removed, such circumstance is not to obviate the necessity of their enumeration as directed.
8. Deaf and Dumb, Blind, Insane, Idiotic.-- You should be particular in every instance to inquire whether any slave comes within the above description, and, if so insert the fact in column 8, opposite the number and general description of such slave. If slaves be found imprisoned convicts, mention the crime in column 8, and the date of conviction in the vacant space No. 1. By carefully observing the following schedule, you will experience no difficulty in making proper returns:
9. Number of Slave Houses.-- In column 9 you will insert the number of slave tenements or dwellings on every farm and plantation, and in every family where slaves are held you will inquire what number of separate tenements are occupied by slaves, and you will insert the number in every instance on a line with the last slave described as belonging to the person or estate whereof you are instituting inquiry. We wish by this column to learn the number of occupied houses, the abode of slaves, belonging to each slaveholder.