Data-PASS
This study was originally processed, archived, and disseminated by Data-PASS, a project funded by the Library of Congress' National Digital Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP).
Philadelphia Social History Project: Pennsylvania Abolition Society and Society of Friends Manuscript Census Schedules, 1838, 1847, 1856 (ICPSR 03805)
Principal Investigator(s): Hershberg, Theodore, University of Pennsylvania
Summary:
Initially taken in 1838 to demonstrate the stability and significance of the African American community and to forestall the abrogation of African American voting rights, the Quaker and Abolitionist census of African Americans was continued in 1847 and 1856 and present an invaluable view of the mid-nineteenth century African American population of Philadelphia. Although these censuses list only household heads, providing aggregate information for other household members, and exclude the substantial number of African Americans living in white households, they provide data not found in the federal population schedules. When combined with the information on African Americans taken from the four federal censuses, they offer researchers a richly detailed view of Philadelphia's African American community spanning some forty years.
The three censuses are not of equal inclusiveness or quality, however. The 1838 and 1847 enumerations cover only the "old" City of Philadelphia (river-to-river and from Vine to South Streets) and the immediate surrounding districts (Spring Garden, Northern Liberties, Southwark, Moyamensing, Kensington--1838, West Philadelphia--1847); the 1856 survey includes African Americans living throughout the newly enlarged city which, as today, conforms to the boundaries of Philadelphia County. In spite of this deficiency in areal coverage, the earlier censuses are superior historical documents. The 1838 and 1847 censuses contain data on a wide range of social and demographic variables describing the household indicating address, household size, occupation, whether members were born in Pennsylvania, status-at-birth, debts, taxes, number of children attending school, names of beneficial societies and churches (1838), property brought to Philadelphia from other states (1838), sex composition (1847), age structure (1847), literacy (1847), size of rooms and number of people per room (1847), and miscellaneous remarks (1847). While the 1856 census includes the household address and reports literacy, occupation, status-at-birth, and occasional passing remarks about individual households and their occupants, it excludes the other informational categories. Moreover, unlike the other two surveys, it lists the occupations of only higher status African Americans, excluding unskilled and semiskilled designations, and records the status-at-birth of adults only. Indeed, it even fails to provide data permitting the calculation of the size and age and sex structure of households.
Variables for each household head and his household include (differ slightly by census year): name, sex, status-at-birth, occupation, wages, real and personal property, literacy, education, religion, membership in beneficial societies and temperance societies, taxes, rents, dwelling size, address, slave or free birth.
Access Notes
These data are freely available.
Dataset(s)
ASCII + SAS Setup SPSS Setup Stata Setup
ASCII + SAS Setup SPSS Setup Stata Setup
ASCII + SAS Setup SPSS Setup Stata Setup
Study Description
Citation
Hershberg, Theodore. Philadelphia Social History Project: Pennsylvania Abolition Society and Society of Friends Manuscript Census Schedules, 1838, 1847, 1856. ICPSR03805-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-02-26. doi:10.3886/ICPSR03805.v1
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03805.v1
Export Citation:
- RIS (generic format for RefWorks, EndNote, etc.)
- EndNote XML (EndNote X4.0.1 or higher)
Funding
This survey was funded by:
- United States Department of Health and Human Services. National Institutes of Health. National Institute of Mental Health (MH 16621)
Scope of Study
Subject Terms: African Americans, Black community, ex-slaves, housing, living conditions, nineteenth century, occupations, slavery
Smallest Geographic Unit: Street and house numbers
Geographic Coverage: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, United States
Time Period:
- 1838
- 1847
- 1856
Date of Collection:
- 1968
Unit of Observation: household
Universe: African Americans living in Philadelphia in 1838, 1847, and 1856.
Data Types: census/enumeration data
Data Collection Notes:
Data Producer: Philadelphia Social History Project, University of Pennsylvania
The data include X and Y geographic coordinates, which refer to a specific map used by the Philadelphia Social History Project at the University of Pennsylvania. Users interested in the map should contact the University of Pennsylvania libraries.
Methodology
Data Source:
When converted to machine-readable format in the 1970s, the manuscript censuses of 1838, 1847 and 1856 existed in their original form as bound sheets in business ledger volumes of varying lengths and widths. Access was available through the Pennsylvania Abolition Society Collection of the Manuscript Division of the Historical Society Collection of the Manuscript Division of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Of the three physical forms in which the document could be used -- microfilm copy, transcription into another form such as FORTRAN code sheets, or Xerox reproductions-- the last was selected. (Source: "The Philadelphia Social History Project: A Methodological History", Theodore Hershberg, PhD dissertation, August 1973, pages 77 and 80).
Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Created variable labels and/or value labels.
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Version(s)
Original ICPSR Release: 2009-02-26
Related Publications
- List all ~67 citations associated with this study
- View citations for the entire series
Most Recent Publications
Variables
Instructional Resources
ICPSR has created the following instructional guides that utilize data from this study:
Additional materials can be found on our Resources for Instructors site.
Instructional guides that utilize this dataset are available:
-
Free Blacks in Philadelphia, PA in the mid-19th Century: A Data-Driven Learning Guide - Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
Slavery marked American society in profound ways. Much research has been devoted to documenting and understanding this period of history as well as some of the residual effects that continue to impact social relations in the United States during the almost 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation declared an end to slavery. Less research has been devoted to studying the population of free Blacks in the United States prior to the American Civil War. According to the 1850 Census of the United States, there were approximately 435,000 free Blacks living in the United States in 1850 with more than 53,000 living in Pennsylvania at that time. Some of the free Black population had been born free while others had gained their freedom legally, by buying it or through manumission (when slaved were granted freedom by their owners or by state law). Still others gained freedom "illegally" by running away (which was dangerous and meant living in fear of being captured). Once free, Blacks set out to become part of the larger society.
During the 19th century, Abolition Societies in the Philadelphia area were active in voicing their opposition to slavery and offering support to free Blacks who faced many obstacles to success in a society where some people opposed their freedom. In an effort to demonstrate that freed Blacks could make a positive contribution to the larger community, Abolition Societies conducted a series of censuses that provide valuable (if incomplete/imperfect) information about this population. These censuses are unique: not only do they survey a population about which little is known, but they represent one of the earliest social research efforts to collect data using surveys.
The goal of this exercise is to describe the lives of free Blacks in Philadelphia, PA in the mid-19th century. Crosstabulations and frequency tables will be used.
-
Utilities
Update Notification
Use any of the notification links to add this study to your RSS feed; you will then receive notification if the study is substantively updated.
Metadata Exports
- Citations exports are provided above.
Export Study-level metadata (does not include variable-level metadata)
If you're looking for collection-level metadata rather than an individual metadata record, please visit our Metadata Records page.