Dover County of Strafford, Cotton Factory - Questions to be Addressed
ca. 1820 - ca. 1821
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The U.S. Constitution, in Article I, Section 2, provides for a population count to be conducted every ten years. However, it has left to Congress to determine what specific information should be gathered in a census. Often Congress is influenced by economic factors, and this was the case in 1920. The economic changes experience by the nation's economy during the period 1810-1820 include the panic of 1819 (caused in part when thousands of New England farmers default on their loans). Subsequent appeals for aid to manufacturers and trade led Congress to provide for a Census of Manufactures to be taken as part of the fourth census. The legislators believed that if they knew more about the various industries in the country, they would be in a better position to legislate for agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing interests. Because there was no Bureau of the Census at the time, Secretary of State John Quincy Adams directed a team of marshals and assistants to gather information on manufactures. Information from each manufacturer about raw materials, employees, machinery, expenditures, and production in their establishment was recorded primarily on printed forms. Unfortunately, the results of the census were incomplete and far from uniform. Some manufacturers refused to furnish the desire information for fear of being taxed, and the census takers often interpreted their instructions. Due to the negative reaction to the apparent inaccuracies of the 1820 returns, Congress made no provision for an account of manufactures in 1830.
Text adapted from “The 1820 Census of Manufactures” in the September 1999 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.
This primary source comes from the Records of the Bureau of the Census.
National Archives Identifier:
5730497Full Citation: Dover County of Strafford, Cotton Factory - Questions to be Addressed to the Persons Concerned in Manufacturing Establishments, by the Marshals and Their Assistants, in Taking the Accounts of Manufact; ca. 1820 - ca. 1821; Rockingham and Strafford Counties, New Hampshire; Schedules of Census of Manufacturing Establishments, 1820 - 1820; Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29; National Archives Building, Washington, DC. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/dover-county-strafford-cotton-factory-questions-addressed, May 4, 2024]