The next complete figures are those of Dr. George Milligan, in 1763, from 30,000 to 40,000 whites and about 70,000 slaves.1 Ten years later the militia were about 13,000 (implying five times as many whites) and the

249,073.

before the Revolution, still under 200,000. One result of the war was that, whereas for generations previous the blacks had outnumbered the whites so largely, the wholesale exodus of negroes under the auspices of the British reversed this proportion of the races in the census of 1790, which gave 140,178 whites and 108,895 blacks. North Carolina and Virginia had suffered in the same manner, though scarcely to the same degree.

Georgia, last in geographical order, had also the briefest history, and the most sparsely settled territory. Twenty years under the Trustees who projected it, failed to bring the permanent population up to 5,000;3 but with the lapse to the Crown in 1752 began a healthier growth. The new administration fostered slavery, and Governor Wright found in 1760 less than 6,000 whites and perhaps half as many blacks; in 1766 he reported near 10,000 whites and 8,000 blacks; and in 1773 over 18,000 whites and 15,000 blacks.6 At this rate of increase the total in 1776 was probably

least 40,000 blacks. as many negroes.

Bancroft (ii., 390, 391) says in 1754 40,000 whites and full

1 Description of S. C., in Carroll's Hist. Coll., ii., 478, 479. There was 5,500 militia (whites) in 1756 (Gov. Lyttleton, in Winsor's Hist. of Amer., v., 335), and 6,200 in 1758 (Gov. Lyttleton, in Pres. Ezra Stiles' MSS.). Hewatt estimates in 1765 near 40,000 whites and 80-90,000 negroes (Carroll's Hist. Coll., i., 503).

2 Wells's S. C. Register for 1774, quoted in Winsor's Hist., v., 335.

3 Whites about 2,700 and blacks about 1,700, in 1752 (Jones's Hist. of Ga., i., 460). 4 do., ii., 73.

5 do.. i., 460.

do., ii., 522.

1740

1750

1760

1770

82,548.

2

from 45,000 to 50,000, or double the number of seven years before. before. In the times of invasion Georgia like her neighbors suffered a diminution of her negroes, and the war reduced her grand total below the figures of 1776; but she rallied by 1790 to the much higher sum of 82,548, of which the whites made near two-thirds. In one respect, however, she was singularly misrepresented, being overestimated in the Federal Convention of 1787 at nearly half as much again as her real amount of population, while the rest of the colonies were underestimated considerably,-the total of the Convention's figures falling short of the reality by more than half a million.

A summary of these results gives us a reasonably approximate view of the growth of population in the whole country for the period before 1790.

In the first third of a century, or by 1640, when Parliament gained the ascendency in England, British America contained a little over 25,000 whites,-60 per cent. of them in New England, and the most of the remainder in Virginia. At the Restoration of monarchy in 1660, the total was about 80,000, the greatest gain being in the most loyal divisions, Virginia and Maryland, which now comprehended cue-half the whole. At the next epoch, the Protestant Revolution of 1689, Mr. Bancroft concludes3 that our numbers were not much beyond 200,000, and the figures I have presented give about 206,000; in this increase one large factor was due to the Middle Colonies, which now for the first time assumed importance, numbering already nearly half as many as New England.

A round half-million appears to have been reached about 1721, with the Middle Colonies showing again the largest percentage of growth, and New England the least. A million followed in twenty-two years more, or 1743, this

1 Bancroft estimates (iv., 181) in 1775 about 17,000 whites and 15,000 blacks. 2 Jones's Hist. (ii., 522) queries whether in 1782 she had over 35,000 inhabitants. a i., 608.

figure being doubled in turn twenty-four years later, or in 1767,-the latter reduplication being delayed a little, doubtless by the effect of intervening wars.

In the Congress of 1774 the colonists ventured for the first time on a guess at their own strength, their estimate being a little over three millions; but the true number cannot have been much more than two millions and a half, and this in turn was the double of the figure reached about twenty-three years before, which period is the usual time of doubling shown by our later censuses down to the date of the Civil War.

These results differ slightly from those approved by Mr. Bancroft in his last edition, who exceeds my estimates from

4,000,000.

25

15

10

1660

1670

1680

1750 to 1770 by amounts varying from 50,000 to 100,000, or from 4 to 5 per cent. of the totals.

With the limited time at my disposal, I refrain from entering on the many interesting deductions to which these statistics open the way.

2 Bancroft (ii., 390) quotes Chalmers's estimates of 434,600 in 1714, 580,000 in 1727, 1,485,634 in 1754; I should assume at these dates, 400,000, 600,000, and 1,360,000, respectively. For himself he gives 1,260,000 in 1750, 1,425,000 in 1754, 1,695,000 in 1760, 2,312,000 in 1770, and 2,945,000 in 1780; for this last date, E. B. Elliott, in Walker's Statistical Atlas of U. S. (1874), computes the total as in round numbers 3,070,000. My own figures are, for 1750, 1,207,000; for 1760, 1,610,000; for 1770, 2,205,000; for 1775, 2,580,000; and for 1780. 2,780,000. The published figures of the census of 1790 (3,929,214) do not include Vermont or the Territory northwest of the Ohio, which would bring the total above 4,000,000.

REPORT OF THE TREASURER.

THE Treasurer of the American Antiquarian Society herewith submits his semi-annual report of receipts and disbursements for the six months ending October 1, 1887.

Under the direction of the Finance Committee the Treasurer has carried to each fund, from the income of the investments, two and one-half per cent. on the amount of each fund as it stood April 1, 1887.

A detailed statement of the investments is given as a part of this report, showing the par and market value of the various stocks and bonds.

The total of the investments and cash on hand October 1, 1887, was $103,906.17, divided among the several funds as follows:

The income of the Tenney Fund for the past six months and the gift from Rev. R. C. Waterston of one hundred dollars, have been transferred to the Librarian's and General Fund.

The cash on hand, included in the following statement, is $2,626.32.

essentially wrong, which would imply at the beginning of the Revolution about 550,000 in all, Massachusetts, the

next largest government, having less than two-thirds of this number. In 1782 an incomplete census was made, the result of which, conjecturally modified, gives 567,000,2 and the census of 1790 mounts up for Virginia proper, with the newly organized district of Kentucky, to a total of over 820,000,3 in which the blacks still held nearly their old ratio of 40 per cent. It is noticeable that although elsewhere much more in excess of the whites, in no other colony did the colored element increase in that century with anything like the rapidity shown here.

820,687.

1640

1650

1660

1670

1680

1690

1700

In

North Carolina, most backward in many respects of the original colonies, there was no enumeration of the inhabitants before 1790. We grope our way, therefore, in much uncertainty.

When a charter was secured by Clarendon and his associates in 1663, it is supposed that there may have been 300

1The extravagant estimate of Congress in 1774 was 640,000 (J. Adams's Works, vii., 302); J. F. D. Smyth, in his Tour in U. S. (1., 72), suggests about 500,000 as more correct, but supposes that of these near two-thirds were blacks. 2 Jefferson's Notes, in Works, viii., 332, 333.

3 Virginia, 747,610, and Kentucky, 73,077.

1790