United States Census of 1870
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| United States Census of 1870 | |
|---|---|
| Name | 1870 United States Census |
| Country | United States |
| Population | 38,555,983 |
| Percent change | 22.62% |
| Year | 1870 |
| Previous census | United States Census of 1860 |
| Next census | United States Census of 1880 |
United States Census of 1870 The 1870 decennial census counted 38,555,983 persons in the United States and marked the first enumeration after the conclusion of the American Civil War and the abolition of chattel slavery. Conducted under the auspices of the United States Census Bureau and authorized by acts of United States Congress, the enumeration intersected with major national developments including Reconstruction era, the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, and the political transformations affecting the former Confederate States.
Background and Legislative Framework
Legislation authorizing the 1870 census derived from statutes enacted by the Forty-first United States Congress and oversight by the Department of the Interior prior to establishment of permanent professionalized census practices, with implementation shaped by antecedent enumerations such as the United States Census of 1860 and the congressional debates surrounding the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Presidential administrations of Ulysses S. Grant and cabinet officials coordinated with census marshals appointed from prominent political figures and local notables in states including New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia. The legal framework addressed enumeration of newly emancipated populations and sought conformity with precedents from the U.S. Constitution and statutes governing federal statistical returns.
Methodology and Enumeration Procedures
Enumerators applied schedules developed by the Superintendent of the Census under instructions influenced by statisticians and officials conversant with earlier work by figures associated with the Statistical Society of London and contemporaries in state censuses such as those of Massachusetts and New Jersey. Enumeration employed household visitation, door-to-door interviewing, and submission of returns to county clerks and state marshals; principal forms included population and mortality schedules paralleling instruments used in previous decennial efforts like the 1860 census. Data collection coded categories for race referencing terms used in contemporary laws and legal opinions from cases such as Ex parte Milligan and doctrines debated in the Supreme Court. Special enumerator directives addressed counting in urban centers like New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, and San Francisco and rural parishes and counties across the former Confederacy and the expanding western territories such as Montana Territory, Wyoming Territory, and Dakota Territory.
Population Results and Demographic Findings
The census reported a national population of 38,555,983, a 22.6% increase over the 1860 figure, with notable regional divergences: rapid growth in states such as California, Iowa, Kansas, and Michigan contrasted with population losses or stagnation in parts of the South, including Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana. The enumeration provided counts by race categories then used in legislation and jurisprudence—capturing populations identified as African Americans, Whites, Native Americans in limited contexts—and recorded nativity and immigration patterns tied to ports of entry including Castle Garden and the emerging Ellis Island era precursors, with large immigrant-origin cohorts from Ireland, Germany, England, and Scandinavia. Urbanization trends appeared in growth metrics for municipalities like Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Baltimore, while migration to western gold and railroad boomtowns such as Virginia City and Sacramento influenced regional demographic shifts.
Social and Economic Data (Housing, Agriculture, Industry)
Census schedules gathered details on housing occupancy, dwelling characteristics, and agricultural and industrial production that informed assessments of postwar recovery. Agricultural returns documented acreage, crop production, and livestock in leading farming states including Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana, reflecting commodity patterns for corn, wheat, and cotton in the South. Industrial and manufacturing data detailed factory counts, wages, and outputs in industrializing centers such as Pittsburgh, Paterson, and Lowell, while transportation statistics recorded expansion of railroad lines under corporations like the Union Pacific Railroad and Central Pacific Railroad that affected internal migration and market integration. Housing entries captured tenancy and ownership patterns, revealing high tenancy rates and sharecropping arrangements prevalent in southern states like Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi that linked to labor regimes shaped by emancipation and local ordinances.
Impact on Reconstruction and Political Significance
Results of the 1870 enumeration carried weight for congressional apportionment, taxation, and representation debates in the U.S. House of Representatives, influencing the political balance between Republicans and Democrats during the Reconstruction era and the presidencies of Ulysses S. Grant and subsequent national elections. Population totals affected redistricting in states readmitted to representation such as Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, and informed federal policy discussions involving Reconstruction legislatures, the Freedmen's Bureau, and amendments including the Fourteenth Amendment and Fifteenth Amendment as they related to suffrage and civil rights of formerly enslaved persons.
Data Quality, Limitations, and Controversies
Scholars and contemporaries identified limitations including incomplete coverage of Native American populations, undercounts in remote western territories and urban neighborhoods, and inconsistencies in racial classification and occupational coding that complicated historical analysis. Political pressures in former Confederate states, resistance from local officials, and logistical challenges in places like Louisiana and South Carolina produced disputes over accuracy, while subsequent historiography involving researchers at institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and university-based demographers has debated the reliability of mortality statistics and enumerator training. The 1870 schedules nevertheless remain a foundational primary source for historians studying postwar reconstruction, migration, industrialization, and demographic change in the late nineteenth-century United States.