From Slavery to Freedom

This chapter discusses changes introduced by three Reconstruction-era amendments and their consequences for the census. These amendments include the suppression of slavery by the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865; the redefinition of American citizenship at the federal and state levels by the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868; and guaranteeing black men’s right to vote under the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. These amendments had two major consequences for the census: on the one hand, the end of the Three-Fifths Compromise; on the other, the development of the census itself into the instrument of control and sanction of the limitation of former slaves’ right to vote. The 1870 census thus had to measure with much difficulty both the distribution of the population for the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives and the enforcement of these amendments. States where the voting rights of blacks were denied would see their representation diminished accordingly.