Download 1850-1860 Slave PUMS samples

To access the files, users must log in with their IPUMS-USA email address and password. Click here to register for an account.

The 1850-1860 Slave PUMS samples are available below as compressed ASCII text. The data files can be decompressed with various free utilities. The command files below will read any of the five datasets into SPSS, SAS, or Stata.

1850 Samples
1850 Flat sample
1850 Urban/GQ sample
1850 Slave data linked to 1850 Free population data from IPUMS-USA (see below)

1860 Samples
1860 Flat sample
1860 GQ sample
1860 Complete Count sample

Command files
SPSS command file: slavepums.sps
SAS command file: slavepums.sas
Stata command files: slavepums.dct and slavepums.do

1860 Auxilliary data
In the 1860 sample, many slave holdings had multiple owners. Users interested in the names of all owners for all 1860 slaveholdings should consult the 1860 Auxilliary data. The serial variable permits the linking of the 1860 auxilliary data with the main three 1860 samples.

1860 Auxillary command files are available for SPSS (slaveaux.sps), SAS (slaveaux.sas), and Stata (slaveaux.dct and slaveaux.do).

Slaves and slaveholders in the 1850 IPUMS
The following file identifies all individuals in the 1850 IPUMS sample as slaveholders or non-slaveholders. For slaveholding households, this dataset also includes all available data on the individual slaves present in their households. The SERIAL and PERNUM variables make it possible to link this dataset to the 1850 IPUMS sample of the Free Population, available via the IPUMS-USA data extract system.

The dataset is available as an ASCII file (slave1850.dat), and command files are available for SPSS (slave1850.sps), SAS (slave1850.sas), and Stata (slave1850.dct and slave1850.do).