Why Two States Counted All Their Black People

The Special Counts of Black People After Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Photo by Chris Lawton at Unsplash

I entered a rabbit hole in Charlottesville, Virginia, and came out in Liberia. Sometimes I have to see a thing a few times for it to register. During my research, I’d run across a few times the fact Sally Hemings had been counted as a “free-mulatto” during a special census in 1833. Every time I read that, I focused on “free-mulatto,” when I should have been looking at “special census.”

It wasn’t clear why a special census was required in 1833, but the information supplied at www.monticello.org clearly stated it was tied to the Nat Turner Rebellion in 1831.

“[1830] Sally Hemings and her sons Madison and Eston are listed as free white people in the 1830 census. Three years later, in a special census taken following the Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831, Hemings described herself as a free mulatto who had lived in Charlottesville since 1826.”

I tried every combination of search words on the Internet to find out about this special census. I found nothing for Virgi…