Hi Judy,

Here is what I have personally observed for Washington County PA at Ancestry.com.

1810 One page lists all heads of household regardless of color and column 11 is All Other Free Persons within that household column 12 is Slaves

1820 Go to West Bethlehem Township - page 8 on Ancestry for all free persons of color by township - I am not sure how Washington County handled "interracial" marriages in the census in 1820

1830 One page lists every head of household by name regardless of color - statistics for Free Colored Persons and Slaves are on the following page but the names are not listed again, just the statistics - the blank census form they offer comes in very handy for this - just click to the next page and count down the number of lines to compare to the head of household on the previous page.

1840 All persons including Free Colored Persons are listed by head of household on each page - Slave statistics are on the following page

1850 Every name in every household is listed and catagorized by color in one column B for Black and M for Mulatto W or a the column left blank was used for those persons who were considered white by the census taker

1860, 1870 and 1880 should be similar to 1850

This may or may not agree with what the official instructions were but this is what I have personally observed. FYI, in Greene County, just to the south I have ancestors that changed colors in alternating census years so there is no true method of finding them by the race indexing at Ancestry.com.

It is also my experience with Ancestry that you might need to view each page within a township because the indexing by name and race is not always correct.
I hope this helps.

Jan