Posted on Reclaiming Kin:
The title of this post refers to an article of his [David Paterson's] called "The 1850 and 1860 Census, Schedule 2, Slave Inhabitants” that I first read many years ago. It opened my eyes in a whole new way to the 1850 and 1860 documents because it discusses at length the political wrangling in Congress over what information these schedules should contain.
The original website is no more... However, Robin N. Smith has an excellent site on African-American research, and has excerpted a lot of the original information.
I was unable to create a direct link to the article, but it can be found by going to her site, Reclaiming Kin - Taking Back What Was Once Lost and clicking the search button. Search for the word Census, and the above article will appear in the results.
Thanks to Robert Davis of Wallace State Community College for passing along this link.
