Free Blacks in Augusta County, 1860

Free blacks in Augusta County owned on average more real and personal property than their counterparts in Franklin. A few black men in both places managed to gain significant wealth.

View Data

U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census [1860]. Population of the United States in 1860, Compiled from the Original Returns of the Eighth Census. Washington, D.C., 1864. U.S. Census of Population, 1860. Augusta County, Virginia and Franklin County, Pennsylvania. In U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860. Washington: National Archives and Records Administration (Augusta: Reels 1333 and 1387. Franklin: Reels 1111 and 1112).

Edward L. Ayers and William G. Thomas, III
Free Blacks in Augusta County, 1860
2001

"In Franklin black residents lived clustered in towns and segregated from whites, their position in the county secure only in their tightly defined communities."

"Free blacks of Augusta County lived in tenuous circumstances surrounded by slavery, but they managed to find work, and some acquired significant property in the community."