|
|
To begin
your search, click on the initial letter of your research subject's surname to
see a list of slaves and owners recorded under that surname (No
surnames beginning with 'I', 'Q', or 'X' were recorded by the census
takers
in the 1850
U.S. Slave Schedule of Boone Co., Ky.)
By 1850, there were a
total of thirty-one states in the Union, with California, Florida, Iowa, Texas,
and Wisconsin having just recently been admitted to the Union since the 1840
decennial enumeration. In 1850
a special
schedule was used for the first time for the sixteen slave-owning states to
record the slave populations (Those
sixteen were: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia).
This web page and those linked to it focus on the results of those special
schedules created to record the number of slaves who were residents of Boone County, Kentucky in the
census year of
1850.
The 1850 Slave
Schedule did not enumerate each individual slave by name, but by his/her
owner’s name, and so the slave schedules are a rather incomplete tool in
building a family tree, much like the 1790 thru 1840 U.S. Censuses are in
general, which
list only the head of household by name, and then the family members by their
gender and age. The slave schedules list the slave by the owner’s name (who
usually was the head of household of his own family), the age, gender, and
race of the slave (black or mulatto), as well as notes regarding their manumition or their fugitive status. It has been reported that some slaves'
names have occasionally been entered into the 1850 & 1860 slave schedules, however, it has
been but rarely, such as when a
slave was one hundred years or older, when even a short biographical
sketch may have been included, or the exception of the 1860 U.S. Slave Schedule
for Hampshire County, Virginia which includes the names of all the slaves
enumerated that year. On occasion an occupation, such as blacksmith or
carpenter would be included. However, no names or occupations of any Boone
County, Kentucky slaves were entered into the slave schedules for the county.
Although it may appear that family groupings
can be identified under each owner's name, no instruction or effort was made to
record the slaves of a particular owner as a family or a group of individual
families, and most slaves listed under the owner's name were generally listed in the
order of their age, from the oldest to the youngest. Nevertheless, as
slaveholdings were rather small in Boone County, it seems rather clear that what
are apparent families are, indeed, real families of slaves.
As quite a few slaves took
their former owner’s surnames after the Civil War, although not as many as is
commonly supposed, this alphabetized index can be very
useful in identifying a former slave family that did so, most easily by
comparing their 1870 U.S. Census enumeration with those slaves owned by people
of the same surname in 1850 & 1860. For example, the surname of one Boone County family,
'Utz,' was
adopted by a large number of African-American families after Emancipation, if
not perhaps even earlier, as
can readily be seen in the 1870 U.S. Census of Boone County, Kentucky.
For those
descendants of slaves, their owners, or for anyone researching African-American history
in Boone Co., Ky. the slave schedules and this index can help to fill in one’s family history or reveal
truths about the nature of slavery in Boone County in general.
Notes on This Index of
Slaves & Owners
Enumerated in the 1850
U.S. Census of Boone County, Kentucky
As stated earlier, the 1850 & 1860
enumerations were not really much more than had been done in the years before to
count the slave population; it is just that a separate record with preformatted
printed pages was created from the
general population schedule of the white and “free colored” population.
In 1850 the categories which
were recorded were as follows:
By 1860 little more was
demanded of the census enumerators, and only one category was added to those of
1850, the number of slave houses provided by each owner for his/her slaves.
These same named categories form the column
headings of each table of slaves linked to this web page. As
very few of the spaces for
“Fugitive,” “# Manumitted,” & “Deaf, Dumb, & Idiot,” & # Slave Houses”
were filled in, and
in order to facilitate printing and to make less-cluttered web pages, I have combined these statistics into a single
column entitled “Other Statistics Recorded,” which is the only change in the
overall record made between these web pages and the original schedules.
The names on the pages are in alphabetical
order, and then in the order as the slaves were recorded on each page of the
slave schedules. No effort was ordered to record each owners slaves as
families, if they were known to exist to the census taker, and instead were
recorded in the order of their age. However, rather than resorting the
statistics by any other order than they were originally recorded, I left them in
the original order as it cannot be said with certainty that no effort was made
to record the slaves as families in Boone County, Kentucky. Plus, it makes a comparison with the
1870 and later U.S. Census records much easier, when the former slaves were
recorded as free men and women for the first time.
'Good Luck' in your research!
|
The Original
Instructions Given
in Compiling
the
1850 U.S. Census
Slave Schedule
for the United States
Explanation of Schedule 2--
Slave Inhabitants
This schedule is to be
filled up in the following manner:
Insert in the heading the
number or name of the district, town, city and the county or parish, and of
the state in which the slave inhabitants enumerated reside, and the day of
the month upon which the enumeration was taken. This is to be attested on
each page of each set, by the signature of the assistant marshal. The
several columns are to be filled up as follows:
1. Under heading 1,
entitled "Name of slave holders," insert, in proper order, the names
of the owners of slaves. Where there are several owners to a slave, the name
of the one only need be entered, or when owned by a corporation or trust
estate, the name of the trustee or corporation.
2. Under heading 2,
entitled "Number of slaves," insert, in regular numerical order, the
number of all the slaves of both sexes and of each age, belonging to such
owners. In the case of slaves, numbers are to be substituted for names. The
number of every slave who usually resides in the district enumerated is to
be entered, although he may happen to be temporarily absent. The slaves of
each owner are to be numbered separately, beginning at No. 1, and a separate
description of each is to be given. The person in whose family, or on whose
plantation, the slave is found to be employed, is to be considered the
owner—the principal object being to get the number of slaves, and not that
of masters or owners.
3. 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 to it. The age of
every slave, either exact or estimated, is to be inserted. If the slave be a
child which, on the 1st of June, was under 1 year old, the entry is to be
made by the fractional parts of a year, thus: One month, one-twelfth; two
months, two-twelfths; three months, three-twelfths, and so on to eleven
months, eleven-twelfths; keeping ever in view, in all cases, that the age
must be estimated at no later period than the 1st of June.
4. Under heading 4,
entitled "Sex," insert the letter M for male, and F for female,
opposite the name, in all cases, as the fact may be.
5. Under heading 5, "Color,"
insert, in all cases, when the slave is black, the letter B; when he or she
is mulatto, insert M. The color of all slaves should be noted.
6. Under heading 6
insert, in figures, opposite the name of the slave owner, the number of
slaves who, having absconded within the year, have not been recovered.
7. In column 7, insert
opposite the name of the former owner thereof, the number of slaves
manumitted within the year. The name of the person is to be given, although
at the time of the enumeration such person may not have held slaves on the
1st of June. In such case, no entry is to be made in column No. 2.
8. Under the heading 8
entitled "Deaf and dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic," the assistant
should ascertain if any of these slaves be deaf and dumb, blind, insane or
idiotic; and if so, insert opposite the name or number of such slave, the
term deaf and dumb, blind, insane or idiotic, as the fact may be. If slaves
be found imprisoned convicts, mention the crime in column 8, and the date of
conviction before the number in the vacant space below the name of the
owner. The convict slaves should be numbered with the other slaves of their
proper owner.
|