United States Southern Cities in 1870 and 1880: A Study of Individuals and Families

This data collection contains individual-level and family-level information collected from the 1870 and 1880 manuscript schedules of the United States Population Census for seven Southern cities: Charleston, South Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, Atlanta, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia, Mobile, Alabama, Norfolk, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Approximately 5,000 individuals and 1,500 families are represented for each of the two census years studied. Part 1 contains data for 1870, and Part 2 contains data for 1880. The data gathered for sampled individuals include age, sex, race, marital status, presence of health defect, school attendance, ability to read, ability to write, occupational classification (female and male), nationality, and real and personal wealth (for 1870 only). Both datasets include a variable that uniquely identifies each family in the sample to facilitate the aggregation of the data for the creation of family-level data for each member, e.g., sex, race, age, marital status, school attendance, member status in the family, occupation, health, unemployment, city of residence, nationality and parents' nationality, and real and personal wealth.