28 Progress of Population and Wealth 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE CENSUS OF 1820, BEING THE FOURTH DECENNIAL ENUMERATION 

 UNDER THE CONSTITUTION. 



This census was the first which made any discrimination in the 

 coloured part of the population, either as to sex or age. It distributed 

 the males and females, both of the free coloured persons and slaves, 

 under the four following divisions, viz : those who were under 

 fourteen ; who were fourteen and under twenty-six ; who were 

 twenty-six and under forty-five ; and who were forty-five and 

 upwards. 



It made no change in the distribution of the whites, except to 

 add a column for those males who were between the ages of sixteen 

 and eighteen. 



The decennial increase, shown by this census, compared with 

 that of 1810, was as follows : 



1820. 1810. 



Of the whole population, . 33.35 per cent, . 36.45 per cent. 



Of the white 34.3 " . . 36.18 



Of the free coloured, . . 27.75 " . . 72. 



Of the slave, .... 29.57 « . . 33.40 " 



Of the whole coloured, . . 29.33 " . . 37.58 



It thus appears that the increase of the whole population was 

 3.10 per cent more in the last ten years than in the ten preceding. 

 But if we make a deduction from the increase shown by the census 

 of 1810, for the extra gain by the purchase of Louisiana, and which 

 may be estimated at II per cent, the difference will be reduced to 

 1.6 per cent — equivalent to 115,837 persons. This falling off is to 

 be attributed partly to the suspension of immigration during the 

 war, partly to the slaves who fled to the enemy during the same 

 period, and lastly to that gradual diminution of natural increase, of 

 which the several enumerations furnish evidences, and. which pro- 

 bably the war slightly increased. 



The result of the census may be seen in the four following tables : 



