Record guide

Slave schedules of 1850 and 1860

The 1850 and 1860 slave schedules list slaveholders by name and the people they held by age, sex, and color only, so they work as clues to be matched with other records.

In 1850 and 1860 the federal census used two population forms. Schedule 1, Free Inhabitants, named every free person. Schedule 2, Slave Inhabitants, counted enslaved people under the name of the person who held them. The census instructions said plainly that for enslaved people, numbers were to be substituted for names.

That makes the slave schedules hard records to use, and important ones. For descendants of enslaved people they can place a family on a particular farm in a particular county in 1850 or 1860. For descendants of slaveholders they record the number of people an ancestor held. In both cases the schedule is rarely the answer by itself; it points you toward the estate, court, and plantation records where names may survive.

What the schedule asked

The assistant marshals who took the census filled in the place and date at the top of each page, then the name of each slaveholder. Under each name every enslaved person was entered on a separate line by number, starting at 1, with age, sex, and color. Color was recorded as B for black or M for mulatto, and the 1860 instructions defined mulatto as anyone in any degree of mixed blood. Ages were to be exact if known and estimated if not, with fractions of a year for babies, all as of the census day, June 1.

Other columns asked how many people had escaped within the year and not been recovered, entered as fugitives from the state; how many the holder had manumitted, or freed, during the year; and whether anyone was deaf and dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic, the census's own terms. Imprisoned convicts were noted in the same column. In 1860 a new column counted the slave houses on each farm, and the instructions asked marshals to give the names of anyone 100 years old or more, one of the few cases where a name was requested.

What the schedule does not tell you

It does not name the enslaved, except rarely. It does not show families: people are listed under each holder in numerical order, and the 1860 instructions said to begin with the oldest, so a mother and her children may not be next to each other. It gives no birthplace and no relationships.

The name in the holder column is not always the owner. In 1850 the instructions said the person in whose family or on whose plantation the enslaved person was employed was to be treated as the owner, because the goal was to count the enslaved, not their masters. In 1860 marshals were told to enter the actual owner and the person who had them in charge as employer, and people held in trust could appear under one name with a note such as John Smith and two others. So a person who was hired out may be listed under the hirer, and an estate's enslaved people may be under an executor or guardian.

Where the schedules exist

Schedule 2 was used only where slavery was legal; in the free states it was omitted. According to the National Archives, 1850 slave schedules survive for Alabama, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. The 1860 list is the same except that Delaware appears and New Jersey does not.

Utah is a special case. The National Archives explains that the federal copy of the 1851 Utah enumeration listed known enslaved Black people on the free schedule, apart from a page of 26 people bound for California, while the original enumeration identified all of them. In 1870, after the Thirteenth Amendment, the slave schedule was dropped and everyone was enumerated on the same population schedule.

Using the schedules to trace an enslaved ancestor

Begin in 1870 with the family as it was recorded by name, and note the ages of every member, the county, and the white households living nearby. Then turn to the 1860 slave schedule for the same county and look for holders whose lists include people of matching age and sex. Nearby households from 1870 are a sensible place to start, but a shared surname is only a lead, not proof of a connection.

Treat any match as a working theory. Ages in both censuses were often estimates, and one holder may have dozens of entries that fit. The National Archives points out that because enslaved people were treated as property, the records that name them are usually the holder's estate and business papers, held at the county level: wills, inventories, estate divisions, deeds, and bills of sale. If a probate inventory lists a woman named Hannah, about 30, with children of the right ages, and the slave schedule shows a female about 30 under the same holder, the two records together say far more than either alone. Freedmen's Bureau and U.S. Colored Troops records from the Civil War and Reconstruction years may add names and details as well.

Reading the schedules alongside the free schedule

Look up the holder on Schedule 1 as well. The free schedule shows the household, the value of real estate, and in 1860 the value of personal estate, which the instructions said included the value of enslaved people. Free people of color are on the free schedule by name, not on the slave schedule, so a free ancestor in 1850 or 1860 should be searched there.

Each page of the slave schedule carries the place, the date of the enumeration, and the assistant marshal's signature, which helps you match it to the free schedule for the same district. Read the column headings on your actual page before interpreting a mark.

On the page, look for

Find the family by name in the 1870 census and record ages, county, and neighbors.
Search the 1860 and 1850 slave schedules for the same county, starting with nearby households.
For each possible holder, list every entry with its age, sex, and color.
Note fugitive, manumitted, and slave house entries, and any named person aged 100 or more.
Check whether the name given may be an employer, executor, or trustee rather than the owner.
Look up the holder on the free schedule for household and property values.
Search the holder's wills, inventories, estate divisions, and deeds for names that match the ages you found.
Write down each match as a theory with its evidence, and keep looking for a record that confirms it.

Where to see them for free

The National Archives, which holds the 1850 and 1860 census schedules and explains which states and counties survive.
FamilySearch and Ancestry as places where the slave schedules have been digitized and indexed, usually by the holder's name; Ancestry can be used free at National Archives research rooms.
County courthouses and state archives for the probate, deed, and court records that may name the people counted on the schedule.

Sources

How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "Slave schedules of 1850 and 1860." Record guides. https://dailyancestor.com/records/slave-schedules. Last checked 2026-10-10.