United States Census, Slave Schedule, 1850 - FamilySearch Historical Records

This wiki article describes a collection that is available for free online at FamilySearch Record Search – Pilot Site. To access the collection, see

Collection Time Period
U.S. Census Slave Schedule, 1850

Collection History
Census enumerators created slave schedules at the same time as population schedules. Slave schedules exist for the following states: 1850: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia While nearly one-third of Southern families owned slaves, the number of slave owners named in the slave schedules is 1.7 percent of the total population (in 1860). Depending on the state, slaves numbered less than one to nearly 50 percent of the population (12.5 percent of the total population in 1860).

Collection Reliability
Census slave schedules are usually reliable, depending on the knowledge of the informant and the care of the census enumerator.

Collection Description
The schedules consist of large preprinted forms with two columns on each page.

Record Content
Slave schedules include the following genealogical information:


 * Name of slave owner
 * Age, color, and sex of slave
 * Very few schedules list the names of the slaves

How To Use The Collection
Use slave schedules to identify the slave holdings of owners. Since they do not provide the slaves’ names, they can be used only in conjunction with other sources to identify individuals and families who were slaves.

Related Articles
United States Census Slave Schedules