Foreword
The first census took place a year after George Washington became President. In 1790, Congress dispatched marshals to visit every household in the 13 States, as well as a few areas that had yet to become States. The marshals recorded the number of free white males over and under the age of 16, free white females, all other free persons, and slaves. The first census turned up 3.9 million (non-Indian) Americans, including nearly 700,000 slaves. Washington, as well as Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, dismissed the results as an undercount, blaming negligent censustakers as well as “the religious scruples of…
