in the United States in Fifty Years. 33 



While there was so sensible a difference in the increase of the 

 population shown by the two last enumerations, its distribution 

 among the several classes continued in nearly the same proportions, 

 viz : 



Census of 1820. Census of 1810. 



The whites amount to . 81.55 per cent. . . . 80.07 

 The free coloured . . . 2.4G " .... 2.57 

 The slaves 15.90 " .... 16.46 



The whole free population, 84.01 " .... 83.54 

 The whole coloured, . . 18.45 " .... 10.03 



It thus appeared that the white population had gained on both 

 descriptions of the coloured. 



The proportion between the sexes in the three classes was as 

 follows : 

 In the white population the males exceed the females, as 100 to 



96.77. 

 In the free coloured population the females exceed the males, as 



107.09 to 100. 

 In the slave population the males exceed the females, as 100 to 



95.16. 



This excess of females in the free coloured class is to be ascribed 

 principally to the seafaring and roaming habits of many of the 

 males, and probably in a small degree to the greater number of 

 females who are emancipated. The disproportion is therefore 

 greatest between the ages of 14 and 45. 



In five of the New England States, from the like prevalence of 

 seafaring and migratory habits, the females exceed the males. 

 In Maine, however, there is a small majority of males — the gain 

 from immigration in that thinly settled State more than counter- 

 balancing the loss by the pursuits of fishing and navigation. In 

 the other States of the Union the males, both of the white and 

 coloured population, exceed the females ; and of the whites under 

 ten years of age, the males are most numerous even in the New- 

 England States. 



The excess of males exhibited by the census has doubtless been 

 somewhat enhanced by foreign emigrants, of whom a majority are 

 males, but it is to be referred principally to that curious and admi- 

 rable provision of nature, by which the greater number of males born 

 is sufficient, under ordinary circumstances, to compensate the 

 peculiar casualties to which that sex is exposed. Even in the free 



