Censuses of the Enslaved Population: 1850 and 1860
IPUMS provides full count datasets of the enslaved population of the United States in 1850 and 1860. The data were collected in separate slave schedules as part of the national censuses of 1850 and 1860. The underlying data were provided by Ancestry.com and FamilySearch and were processed and encoded by IPUMS.
Data description. An overview of how the data were collected and processed.
Variables. Variable availability, descriptions, and codes.
Get data. Download the data files.
Citation
Version 2: April 2026
A new version of the 1860 data was released in spring 2026. This release added disability data and improved the variables that report fugitive and manumitted status of enslaved persons. Details are available on the data description page and in the descriptions of the relevant variables.
Funding
Development of these data was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant R01HD082120.
Contact us
For questions about the IPUMS enslaved population data, contact ipums@umn.edu.
Supported By
