The manuscript census is the single fullest record. Every ten years, the government commissioned census takers who visited every house in their district. There, they asked the head of the household a series of personal questions: the age of everyone in the home, his or her race, wealth, occupation, age, literacy, physical state, and birthplace. We have transcribed the entire Augusta County census so that it is searchable by each of these categories. To search the census, click on the picture of the census page below. To see an enlarged image of the census page, click here.
The census taker was not the only person prying into people's lives in Augusta in the late 1850s. The taxman also tallied the worth of all property and recorded the detailed figures in his book each year. To search those records, click on the picture of the tax digest. To see an enlarged image of a tax digest page, click here.
Augusta County in the late 1850s was very much a slave society. So important was slavery that the census takers maintained a separate book to list all the slaveowners and their property. Chillingly enough, the census takers were not interested in the names of individual slaves but only in their age, sex, and skin shade. The slaveowner census records show that a large number of slaves in Staunton were hired out by people other than their owners. To search the slaveowner census, please click on its picture. To see an enlarged image of the slaveowner census, click here.
In a slave society, white people kept a close eye on free black people, who had to register with the county government. Those records have been transcribed by Katherine Bushman and generously made available for this archive. To see a portion of the free black registry, please click on its picture.
We have compiled some summary statistics drawn from these records that may help to guide your searches and to put individuals into context. To see those figures, please click here.
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