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Condition of the American Colored Population, and of the Colony at Liberia — John Shaqi

Condition of the American Colored Population, and of the Colony at LiberiaAmerican Colonization Society

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Condition of the American Colored Population, and of the Colony at Liberia

Name: Condition of the American Colored Population, and of the Colony at Liberia
Author: American Colonization Society

American Colonization Society

African Americans -- Colonization -- Africa; Enslaved persons -- United States -- Social conditions

-------------------+---------------+-----------
                     | Free colored  |  Increase
                     | Pop. in 1830. | 1820-1830.
                     +---------------+-----------
  Maine,             |     1,190     |     261
  New Hampshire,     |       604     |
  Vermont,           |       881     |
  Massachusetts,     |     7,048     |     308
  Rhode Island,      |     3,561     |       7
  Connecticut,       |     8,047     |     177
  New York,          |    44,870     |  15,591
  New Jersey,        |    18,303     |   5,843
  Pennsylvania,      |    37,950     |   7,828
  Delaware,          |    15,855     |   2,627
  Maryland,          |    52,938     |  13,208
  Virginia,          |    47,348     |  10,459
  North Carolina,    |    19,543     |   4,931
  South Carolina,    |     7,921     |   1,207
  Georgia,           |     2,486     |     723
  Alabama,           |     1,572     |   1,001
  Mississippi,       |       519     |      61
  Louisiana,         |    16,710     |   6,234
  Tennessee,         |     4,555     |   2,008
  Kentucky,          |     4,917     |   1,158
  Ohio,              |     9,568     |   4,745
  Indiana,           |     3,729     |   2,399
  Illinois,          |     1,637     |   1,180
  Missouri,          |       569     |     222
  Michigan Ter.      |       261     |      87
  Arkansas Ter.      |       141     |      82
  Florida Territory, |       844     |
  Dist. of Columbia, |     6,152     |   2,124
  -------------------+---------------+-----------

By this table it appears that the total number of free blacks in 1830,
was 319,599. The number in 1820 was, according to Niles’s Register,
233,398, yielding an increase during the intervening ten years, of
86,201. This last statement will be found to vary a little from the
sum total of the third column above, owing to discrepancies in the
published documents. Blanks are left in the third column opposite to
New Hampshire and Vermont, as in those states the numbers, instead of
increasing, actually _diminished_. In the latter state they diminished
37, and in the former, 182. Some tables make the diminution in New
Hampshire amount to 321. It is worthy of particular inquiry to
ascertain the causes of this rapid diminution. It will be perceived
that the progress of this population in the middle and some of the
southern states, is very rapid, compared with its increase in New
England. This is to be attributed to the progress of emancipation.
For instance, in New York there were more than 10,000 slaves in 1820,
which number was reduced in 1830 to 75. The increase of free blacks in
Maryland, and Virginia, is to be attributed partly to the same cause.
Their very small increase in the New England States, while the whites
are gaining very rapidly, forcibly illustrates the misery of their
condition.


II. _Civil Disabilities._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Condition of the American Colored Population, and of the Colony at Liberia

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