in the United States in Fifty Years. 139 



States, correspondent to that in the British enumeration, we must 

 deduct, from the whole number returned by the census of 1840, the 

 slaves comprehended under that class, the free coloured persons, 

 the white females, the white males under twenty years of age, and 

 the professional men, for none of which deductions, except the last, 

 have we any data at once precise and authentic. The following 

 conjectural estimate, however, is probably not wide of the truth. 

 1. The slaves. As, in this part of the population, both women and 

 children are employed in field labour, especially in the cotton- 

 growing States, we are led to assign to the labouring class a far 

 greater proportion of the whole number than is usual ; but, on the 

 other hand, that proportion must be greatly reduced when we re- 

 collect that nearly 34 per cent of the whole number are under ten 

 years of age ; and that much the larger part of the females, as well 

 as a considerable number of the males, both adults and boys, are 

 employed as household servants, who were not reckoned in this 

 part of the census. When, to these deductions, we make a fair al- 

 lowance for the infirm and superannuated, two-fifths of the whole 

 number would seem to be a liberal estimate for the slave labour 

 comprehended in the census ; and this rough estimate receives con- 

 firmation from a careful inspection of the returns, and a comparison 

 between the number of productive labourers in the slaveholding and 

 other States. 2. The free coloured. The occupations of persons of 

 this class being nearly the same as those of the slaves, we will also 

 deduct two-fifths of their whole number. 3. The white females. 

 These are not employed in great numbers in any branch of industry 

 noted in the census, except in the manufactories of cotton, and other 

 woven fabrics. The whole number thus employed, in doors and out 

 of doors, was, according to the census of 1840, 109,612. If, in some 

 of these establishments, the females are most numerous, in others, 

 there are few or none. We will, therefore, suppose one-half of the 

 whole number to be females. 4. The white males under twenty 

 years of age. In the absence of all other data, let us suppose that 

 the number of this description is equal to the whole number of 

 white males between fifteen and twenty years of age, (756,022,) 

 after deducting the scholars attending the colleges and grammar 

 schools, (180,503.) This would make the boys, comprehended in 

 the industrious classes, 575,519. 



If the several deductions be made, in conformity with the preced- 

 ing views, the result will be as follows : 



