To interpret the entries in the 1850 Census, Schedule 2, Slave Inhabitants, we must review what the census-taker was supposed to record. The official title for the person who collected the census data was “Assistant Marshall” but I will use the more common terms “census-taker” and “enumerator” interchangeably. Lemuel Shattuck (1793-1859), who had been invited to Washington in 1849 to help plan the census, drafted the instructions for enumerators. Shattuck was a Boston bookseller, a founder of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and the author of several historical and statistical books, including Vital Statistics of Boston (1841). It was Lemuel Shattuck who had proposed that the 1850 census take the name of every individual – a suggestion adopted for free persons, but amended by Congress to replace slaves’ names with numbers. Since the census bill was not made law until 23 May 1850, only eight days before the census was to begin, the instructions must have been finalized in a hurry and sent to the printer along with the approved schedule forms.

The source for the following text is from the U. S. Census Bureau publication, Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses from 1790 to 2000, available online at http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/ma.html .

EXPLANATION OF SCHEDULE 2 - SLAVE INHABITANTS
This schedule is to be filled up in the following manner:
Insert in the heading the number or name of the district, town, city and the county or parish, and of the state in which the slave inhabitants enumerated reside, and the day of the month upon which the enumeration was taken. This is to be attested on each page of each set, by the signature of the assistant marshal. The several columns are to be filled up as follows:

1. Under heading 1, entitled "Name of slaveholders," insert, in proper order, the names of the owners of slaves. Where there are several owners to a slave, the name of the one only need be entered, or when owned by a corporation or trust estate, the name of the trustee or corporation.

2. Under heading 2, entitled "Number of slaves," insert, in regular numerical order, the number of all the slaves of both sexes and of each age, belonging to such owners. In the case of slaves, numbers are to be substituted for names. The number of every slave who usually resides in the district enumerated is to be entered, although he may happen to be temporarily absent. The slaves of each owner are to be numbered separately, beginning at No. 1, and a separate description of each is to be given. The person in whose family, or on whose plantation, the slave is found to be employed, is to be considered the owner—the principal object being to get the number of slaves, and not that of masters or owners.

3. Under heading 3, entitled "Age," insert, in figures, the specific age of each slave opposite the number of such slave. If the exact age cannot be ascertained, insert a number which shall be the nearest approximation to it. The age of every slave, either exact or estimated, is to be inserted. If the slave be a child which, on the 1st of June, was under 1 year old, the entry is to be made by the fractional parts of a year, thus: One month, one-twelfth; two months, two-twelfths; three months, three-twelfths, and so on to eleven months, eleven-twelfths; keeping ever in view, in all cases, that the age must be estimated at no later period than the 1st of June.

4. Under heading 4, entitled "Sex," insert the letter M for male, and F for female, opposite the name, in all cases, as the fact may be.

5. Under heading 5, "Color," insert, in all cases, when the slave is black, the letter B; when he or she is mulatto, insert M. The color of all slaves should be noted.

6. Under heading 6 insert, in figures, opposite the name of the slave owner, the number of slaves who, having absconded within the year, have not been recovered.

7. In column 7, insert opposite the name of the former owner thereof, the number of slaves manumitted within the year. The name of the person is to be given, although at the time of the enumeration such person may not have held slaves on the 1st of June. In such case, no entry is to be made in column No. 2.

8. Under the heading 8 entitled "Deaf and dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic," the assistant should ascertain if any of these slaves be deaf and dumb, blind, insane or idiotic; and if so, insert opposite the name or number of such slave, the term deaf and dumb, blind, insane or idiotic, as the fact may be. If slaves be found imprisoned convicts, mention the crime in column 8, and the date of conviction before the number in the vacant space below the name of the owner. The convict slaves should be numbered with the other slaves of their proper owner.

My comments:
The instructions for Schedule 2 provide for a straightforward counting of slaves in the districts where they lived. The following section is one of the most important of the instructions: “The number of every slave who usually resides in the district enumerated is to be entered, although he may happen to be temporarily absent. . . . The person in whose family, or on whose plantation, the slave is found to be employed, is to be considered the owner—the principal object being to get the number of slaves, and not that of masters or owners.” In other words, when the census-taker knocked on a door, the head of household was expected to give an account of all slaves who lived in that household or on that plantation. Presumably, in the case of absentee owners, the overseer would meet the census-taker.

Two parts of this instruction may require interpretation. If a slave was said to be “temporarily absent,” what was the length of time that enumerators considered “temporary”? If a slave were hired out to another person, what length of service would place that slave in the category of one “found to be employed” in the hiring family, as opposed to being merely “temporarily absent” from the owner? Since most hired slaves seem to have been rented on an annual basis, from January through Christmas, I suggest (as my unsupported opinion) that slaves hired by the year were probably enumerated in the household of the person who had hired them. The hiring person’s name would appear in the “Names of Slave Owners” column, rather than the legal owner. Examples of enslaved persons “temporarily absent” might include those out on a short-term hire or on loan, and runaways absent for less than a year.

Any Indians who were slaves are not differentiated in this census. This is consistent with slaveholder ideology that all slaves were Negroes.

(Off Topic) A Note About Schedule 3, Mortality: Although slaves are not named in Schedule 2, they ARE named in Schedule 3, Mortality (all persons who had died during the year ending 1 June 1850). In some districts, both the slavemaster and the slave are named, but in other districts, only the slave is named, which makes identification with a slave owner (for genealogical purposes) difficult. Whenever extracting from the Mortality schedules, ALWAYS include all the names, even those of white people, because the mortality schedule usually follows the order of Schedules 1 and 2, which means you have a better chance of identifying the slave owner by comparing these three lists. For the same reason, NEVER rearrange the names in Schedule 3 in alphabetical order, because you destroy any chance of identifying the deceased with their families or slave owners.

In Part 7, we will examine the Enumerator’s Instructions for 1860, and discuss the significant differences between the 1850 and 1860 Schedule 2, Slave Inhabitants.