Teasing the most information possible out of a census report proved to be a most difficult process. When just a few sparse pages are available for analysis the task of making assertions of any validity becomes cumbersome. The households examined in this portion of the Fredericksburg census were all located on Main Street, which the Sanborn maps also termed Caroline Street. This lack of clarity made locating the specific area of Main Street that my residents lived on nearly impossible. The census report did not provide street addresses for each individual household. Rather the administrator simply scribbled “Main Street” in that block of the census form. At first I thought that perhaps the homes simply were not numbered and that this street numbering had not become a standard feature of some cities. The presence of a block for this category on the census form for however raises serious questions about the efforts of the enumerator of the census. To compensate for this lack of data I did my best to match occupations of those on the census with the businesses depicted on the Sanborn map. Although imprecise, this tactic gives at least some idea as to the location of those studied.
On the basis of race for instance my area of examination was fairly diverse but still predominantly white. Most of the non-whites were fully black and occupied positions as servants of white families. Some of these were live in servants and were registered under the proprietor of the home. There existed one Mulatto family which resided as its own household. Lastly, there were a group of non-white paupers that inhabited Main Street which added to the variety of economic status. The mix of white households that employed servants with a Mulatto family living next door suggests a diverse class setting on Main Street. This makes sense as this street served as a center of commerce in what the Sanborn maps show to be a vibrant local economy.
The education level of Main Street Fredericksburg was very high. There were only seven
people on the three pages examined that were beyond school age years and could
not read and write. Every single one of
the declared pauper’s had no basic education. The last two were young blacks that were domestic servants of a white
household. They were the exception
rather than the rule, as most of the blacks listed as domestic servants had
these basic skills. The occupations of the
people of
Fredericksburg display a great deal about gender roles and also the spread of industrial
market forces. Small artisans slightly outnumbered
large scale manufacturing and industry intensive jobs on the pages examined. If one were to examine previous census years
they would see a great upswing in industrial work. The census most explicitly highlights gender
roles. The propensity of women simply
stayed at home or "kept house." For
those that sought work teaching school, domestic servant and pauper. It would make a very interesting study to
examine the trend of women’s employment as the United States matured in terms
equality for its citizens.
