"The Actual Enumeration..."
In 1787, the Constitution of the United States was adopted by the Constitutional Conv
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the primary concerns for the founding fathers was
used to determine representation and taxation from the states. The Virginia Plan prop
Madison and Randolph suggested that representation be determined by the populatio
while the New Jersey plan proposed by Paterson discussed equal representation for
states. Finally, a compromise was reached by designing a two house or bicameral sy
representation. However, concerns and questions remained about the slaves in Amer
from the states with large slave populations wanted the slaves considered as persons
purpose of determining representation. If the new government were to raise taxes from
the slaveholding states wanted to count the slaves as property rather than as populat
decision was reached by determining that slaves would be counted as three-fifths of a
for the purpose of representation and direct taxation. This is called the "three-fifths co
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution adopted in 1868 would eventually elim
method of the computation.
The census material included in this exercise will allow students to investigate the pop
households as well as gathering mathematical data about the time periods. Another p
will be the housing needs of the numbers of individuals in each "family." Students will
own concerns for personal space while discussing some of the requirements that they
numbers of people in each household would need in the 1850s.
Activity 1: Gathering Data
Upon completion of this activity, students should be able to:
1. Identify some of the ages, sexes and races of the individuals in a given house
census.
2. Compare and contrast the methods of counting individuals for the census usi
fifths compromise."
3. Make historic assumptions based upon census data.
QCC Objectives:
Grade 4: Skills: A1, A2, A3, B12, B13, D24, D29,
Grade 8: Topics/Contents: D20, Skills: A1, A6, A9, A10, D34, D38, D39, H40, H41, H
For this Lesson you will need the following images:
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1840 Census of Baldwin County, Georgia, page 1
1840 Census of Baldwin County, Georgia, page 2
1840 Census of Baldwin County, Georgia, page 3
1840 Census of Baldwin County, Georgia, page 4
1840 Census of Baldwin County, Georgia, page 5
1840 Census of Baldwin County, Georgia, page 6
1850 Census of Baldwin County, Georgia
1850 Slave Schedule of Milledgeville, Georgia, page 1
1850 Slave Schedule of Milledgeville, Georgia, page 2
Suggested Lesson:
13. Make copies of the census documents for the students.
14. Using the 1840 and the 1850 census, ask the students to tally the total numb
included in Governor McDonald's and Governor Towns' household.
15. Answer the following questions:
a. How many white males were there in each household?
b. How many of the white males were below the age of eighteen in each
c. How many white females were there in each household?
d. How many of the white females were below the age of eighteen in ea
e. How many slaves were counted in each household?
f. How many of the slaves were male in each household?
g. How many of the slaves were female in each household?
h. How many of the slaves were below the age of eighteen in each hous
i. What are "free colored persons?"
j. What other kinds of information can one find using these documents?
b.