Black Demographic Data, 1790-1860: A Sourcebook

(Hardback)

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Description

An excellent resource on the changing population distribution of antebellum Black Americans, this book covers census data by region and state. Two-thirds of the book consists of tables and graphs providing dimensional representations of black populations, both free and slave, in pre-Civil War America. The book opens with a discussion of the limitations of the census data, then goes on to provide an overview of the progress of manumission, abolition, and restrictions on black migration. The book also examines the 1840 census controversy. It will be a particularly useful resource for scholars concerned with changes in the black population.

Reviews

"Researchers, teachers, and students have long needed a reliable source of information about African American demography in the decades before the Civil War. Clayton Cramer provides us with just such a book."-Steven Mintz Professor of History University of Houston
Antebellum population statistics concerning African Americans are scattered in a variety of census reports and monographs. This work collects much statistical data, displayed in specially designed tables and graphs, including percentages and raw counts of free blacks. About half the volume comprises noteworthy essays citing sources for black demographic information. The author has done an outstanding job in compiling and critically assessing these sources.... Highly recommended for libraries wih strong US history collections.-Choice
"Antebellum population statistics concerning African Americans are scattered in a variety of census reports and monographs. This work collects much statistical data, displayed in specially designed tables and graphs, including percentages and raw counts of free blacks. About half the volume comprises noteworthy essays citing sources for black demographic information. The author has done an outstanding job in compiling and critically assessing these sources.... Highly recommended for libraries wih strong US history collections."-Choice

Author Bio

CLAYTON E. CRAMER is a graduate student at Sonoma State University. He has published extensively in the areas of history and criminology and is the author of For the Defense of Themselves and the State: The Original Intent and Judicial Interpretation of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (Praeger, 1994) and By the Din and Flaring Lamps: The Civil War Diary of Samuel McIlvaine (1990).