Listen to co-curator Erica Ciallela talk about the history of race and the United States Census.
In the 1860 and 1870 US Censuses, the Fleets were designated “M” for “mulatto,” and the value of their personal property and real estate, the latter appreciating over the decade, are listed. The 1880 Census, taken after Genevieve had married Richard, finds the young Greener family living next door to Genevieve’s mother and siblings, with Belle, aged six months, appearing for the first time. Curiously, everyone in both households is listed as “W” for “white,” but this does not necessarily mean the family was passing at this time. Census records are highly mediated documents, and it is possible that the enumerator simply looked in the door, saw people with a light skin complexion, and assumed they were white.
Census Records Wall (reproductions). Detail from 1880 census, showing Belle Greene and her family listed.
ERICA: So many of us come to know our family histories through census records, a form of primary source material made accessible and familiar through resources like Ancestry.com and Family Search, or the popular television show Finding Your Roots. When we use the census to trace families impacted by enslavement and immigration, the records tell us as much about America’s relationship to race and ethnicity as they do about our personal histories. While Belle Greene’s mother’s family would be designated “M” for “Mulatto” in the 1860 and 1870 censuses, by 1930 Greene’s family could only select “White” or “Negro,” reflecting the advent of racial categories influenced by the one-drop rule. Until 1970, individuals counted in the census could not self-report their race but were assigned a category by census workers known as enumerators. When the young Greener family was counted for the 1880 census, the enumerator seems to have made a colorist assumption that the family’s light skin color meant they were “W” for “white.”
The racial identities of Americans were and still are impacted by these record-keeping practices. The rules will change once again for the next census in 2030, including for the first time an option to choose Middle-Eastern or North African and combining race and ethnicity into a single question.