Enslaved Population Data Description
The data include all records transcribed from the census slave schedules in the respective years. The 1850 file includes 3,203,109 enslaved persons in 358,095 holdings; 1860 includes 3,936,602 enslaved persons in 400,898 holdings.
Each record in the data represents a single enslaved person. Person records are organized into holdings identified by the variable HOLDNUM. The combination of HOLDNUM and SLAVENUM constitutes a unique ID for each record in a census year.
The censuses collected only limited demographic information on enslaved persons. Names of enslaved persons were not recorded. The data are described in detail in this working paper, where their limitations and potential applications are discussed. See the variables page for a detailed listing of the available data fields.
Whenever possible, IPUMS links the records of enslaved persons to the holder in the full count population census file. In 1850, HISTID provides the linking key. In 1860, there can be as many as three holders associated with a record. The linking keys are HISTID, HISTID2, and HISTID3. The proportion of slaves linked to a holder is 75.9% in 1850 and 78.9% in 1860.
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