First US Census Records 700,000 Enslaved People

The first United States Census, conducted in 1790, enumerated approximately 697,681 enslaved people — roughly 17.8 percent of the total US population. Virginia held the largest enslaved population (292,627), followed by South Carolina (107,094) and Maryland (103,036). Free Black Americans numbered approximately 59,000. The census data was used to apportion Congressional seats under the Three-Fifths Clause, giving slaveholding states disproportionate political representation for the next seventy