1840 Federal Census
of
Washington County, North Carolina

Introduction and Instructions

NOTE: Pages 19 through 25 are missing from this transcription. Microfilm roll 372, which was suppose to contain pages 19 - 25, contained pages from the Warren County census instead. Every effort will be made to obtain the missing pages so this transcription can be completed.

The following schedule is the whole number of persons within the division, Washington County, allotted to Charles Blount, assistant to the Marshall for the District of North Carolina. Every attempt was made to enter the data here exactly as recorded by the census taker. Even obvious spelling errors were not corrected. Overall the handwritting was excellent, thus easy to transcribe, however there were cases where it was difficult to distinguish between "e" and "i".

In order to make this census easier to read, blank entry fields were replaced with zeros, and the entries were arranged into several parts (tables), all on the same page. The parts contain the following census data:

  • Part A - Number of White Males and Females
  • Part B - Number of Slave Males and Females
  • Part C - Number of Free Colored Males and Females
  • Part D - Persons Employed in Mining/Agriculture/Commerce/Navigator/Professional
  • Part E - Number of Persons Deaf and Dumb/Blind/Insane and School Information

    Each part includes only heads of families for which there is data, except the white data which includes all of the household heads. Thus in the example below, "Barnes, John" is not included in Parts B and C.

    The index has been set up so you can click on the part you wish to view. In the index below, for example,

    Barnes, JohnWhites  Occupation 
    Basnight, JosephWhitesSlaves Occupation 
    Kelley, WilliamWhites FreeOccupation 
    Spruill, JohnWhitesSlavesFreeOccupationNotes

    you could view the Part C schedule of free colored persons in the household of John Spruill by merely clicking on "Free" beside Spruill, John. This will automatically take you to the appropriate page, table and line in that table. To then view the number of whites in the household of John Spruill you would return to the index and then click on "Whites" beside Spruill, John. Alternatively, you could scroll up to the Part A table containing whites since all four parts are on the same page.

    The summation of the totals provided here was transcribed from the microfilm. There are some obvious errors in the totals but they are transcribed exactly as they appeared. The totals page can be referenced by going to page "Totals".

    GO TO SURNAME INDEX
    A - B C - F G - L M - R S - Z

    GO TO PAGE
    001 002 003 004 005 006 007 008 009 010 011 012 013
    014 015 016 017 018 019 020 021 022 023 024 025 Totals
    Return to Washington Co 1840 Census Introduction Return to Washington Co Census Page