Facts by Decade

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Facts by Decade

Censuses are not conducted in a vacuum. They occur amidst internal and external crisis, shifts in cultural interests, and events that become "defining moments" for each generation. Census data reflect the growth of the population as well as the changing values and interests of the American people.

Fast Facts provides a portrait of the United States both statistically and culturally. In addition to census-related statistics, the innovations, events, and icons of each decade are highlighted. Each page illustrates the thought and culture of the population counted during each decade's census.

1860

ICONS: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Transcontinental Railroad

Population

31,443,321	U.S. Resident Population
10.6	Population per square mile of land area
35.6	Percent increase of population from 1850 to 1860
33	Number of States

10 Largest Urban Places

Rank	Place	Population
1	New York City, NY	813,669
2	Philadelphia, PA	565,529
3	Brooklyn, NY	266,661
4	Baltimore, MD	212,418
5	Boston, MA	177,840
6	New Orleans, LA	168,675
7	Cincinnati, OH	161,044
8	St. Louis, MO	160,773
9	Chicago, IL	112,172
10	Buffalo, NY	81,129

The 1860 Census

Cost	$1,969,000
Cost per Capita (cents)	6.3
Total Pages in Published Reports	3,189
Number of Enumerators	4,417 (184 office staff)
Census Bureau Director	Joseph C.G. Kennedy
Number of Questions on the Questionnaire	14
Number of Questions on the Long Form	N/A

Pop Culture

The Pony Express leaves Sacramento, CA, for St. Joseph, MO, on April 3, 1860.
On February 9, 1861, after resigning from the U.S. Senate, Jefferson Davis is selected to be the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
Confederate forces begin bombarding Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 12, 1861.
Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow publishes Paul Revere's Ride in 1861.
President Abraham Lincoln signs the Homestead Act into law on May 20, 1862, giving applicants freehold title to land, typically 160 acres, of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River.
On September 17, 1862, the bloodiest single-day battle in American history is fought near Sharpsburg, MD, and Antietam Creek.
The "New York City Draft Riots" rage from July 13 to July 16, 1863, following the passage of a draft law to supply men to the Union Army.
Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne dies on May 19, 1864, in Plymouth, NH.
On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth during the play Our American Cousin. Lincoln died the following morning at 7:22.
Mark Twain publishes his first successful short story, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog," in The Saturday Press on November 18, 1865.
Russia finalizes its sale of Alaska to the United States, on March 30, 1867.
Louisa May Alcott publishes Little Women in 1868.
Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant beats New York Governor Horatio Seymour in the 1868 presidential election.
Ceremonies at Promontory, UT, celebrate completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869.