Tax lists

Three kinds of tax

A poll tax, also called a capitation or head tax, was a fixed amount charged on certain people rather than on property. Who counted changed with time and place. In colonial Virginia the taxable people, called tithables, included white males, enslaved people, agricultural laborers, and others, and the list of who was tithable changed over the colonial period. The State Archives of North Carolina describes a poll as a fixed tax levied on adult males, female heads of households, and enslaved people.

A land tax was charged on acreage and value. Virginia's land tax books, which begin in 1782, record the owner's name, how much land, where it lay, the tax, and changes in ownership. From 1820 they also have a column for the value added by buildings.

A personal property tax was charged on things other than land. In Virginia, also from 1782, it covered livestock, sources of income, and a range of household goods, and before 1865 enslaved people were counted for this tax. The Library of Virginia notes that the early lists, from 1782 to 1786, often name the enslaved people identified as taxable, and that women who were heads of household were listed by name and taxed on their property.

Tax lists as a census substitute

The 1790 census schedules do not survive for Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, or Virginia. For Virginia, the Census Bureau later published a partial substitute built from state enumerations of 1782 to 1785 and Greenbrier County tax lists of 1783 to 1786. You can do the same for your own county: a run of tax lists places a person in a particular place in particular years.

Early censuses before 1850 named only the head of household. Tax lists name only taxpayers too, but they name them every year, and a poll count can show how many taxable people were in the house. North Carolina lists sent to the state usually give the head of household, acreage, valuation, and the number of white and black polls, and some note horses, cattle, and carriages.

What to look for in a run of years

Read the same district for every year you can find, and copy each entry exactly. A young man appearing for the first time as a taxpayer, or a household's count of taxable males going up by one, may mark a son reaching the taxable age. The Library of Virginia notes that children may be listed by name or counted among the male tithables in a household, and that the lists can help establish parentage. Check the law for the year, since taxable ages changed.

A name that stops appearing may mean a death or a move. When land passes from one name to another in the land tax books, especially to several people with the same surname, look for a will, an estate settlement, or a deed. The Library of Virginia lists establishing a year of death and identifying who inherited land as common uses, and suggests land tax books as a substitute where deeds and wills were destroyed.

Tax lists are also good at separating two men of the same name: one may own 200 acres and five horses, the other no land at all. Keep both columns of evidence apart until something else joins or separates them.

Enslaved and free people of color on tax lists

Because enslaved people were taxed, tax lists record the number held by each taxpayer, and the earliest Virginia personal property lists sometimes give their names. For most years, though, only numbers appear, which makes tracing individuals hard. Free people of color can appear on the lists too, and the Library of Virginia names documenting both enslaved and free Black people among the uses of these records. Read these entries alongside wills, inventories, and deeds for the same household.

Gaps and limits

Not every year survives, and some years never existed. Virginia has no land or personal property tax records for 1808 or 1864. The State Archives of North Carolina's digital collection of tax lists is mostly from the colonial and Revolutionary War years, with some as late as 1809. People too poor to own anything, or not of taxable age or sex, may never appear at all, and women appear mainly when they headed a household.

Spelling varies from year to year, and the same family may be entered under several forms of the name, so search every variant. If a year is missing for your county, check whether it survives at the state archives or in the county office before assuming it is lost.