The map we created provides a visual representation of the distribution of the United States population in 1850. The choropleth map offers several insights into politics, culture, and economy of America a decade before the Civil War.
From a political standpoint, the map helps explain contemporary congressional debates. The same year officials collected the census data, Henry Clay introduced the Compromise of 1850. For the North, Clay proposed that California be admitted to the Union as a free state and the slave trade be abolished within Washington D.C.; the South obtained the continuation of slaveholding in Washington D.C., no restrictions to slavery in New Mexico or Utah, and the sustainment of the Fugitive Slave Law. The Compromise of 1850 reflected regional demands in the United States. The North depended on industry and employed scores of immigrants, while the South’s economy relied on agriculture. The 1850 Population map indicates that a majority of the American population lived above the 36°30′ (Missouri Compromise, 1820) line, which is likely because immigrants arrived en masse in the North (as opposed to the South, whose agrarian-based economy saw less immigration). While this may be a likely explanation, another possibility is that the 1850 census numbers are misleading. The Three-Fifths Compromise (1787) declared that the slaves counted as three-fifths of a person. If the census recorded population (or failed to accurately record the number of slaves) in accordance with this law, the population of the southern states may be underrepresented. The 1850 Population Map helps contextualize the American political atmosphere in 1850.
At the same time, the 1850 Population Map supports explanations of 19th-century westward expansion. Two years before the 1850 census, the United States emerged from the Mexican-American War victorious. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) added approximately 525,000 square miles to the United States (including parts of modern-day Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, California, and Arizona), and Mexico relinquished all claims to Texas. The 1850 map shows most of the population living in the northeastern United States, but it also shows a growing migration towards recently acquired lands in the Southwest. If one were to create a series of maps using census data from 1820-1870, this migration trend would likely be more defined. The 1850 Population map provides evidence for the westward migration trend embodied in the contemporary notion of Manifest Destiny.
While the 1850 Population Distribution map simply displays where Americans physically lived at the time of the 1850 census, it provides insights into the cultural and political environment of the time. In particular, the map supports arguments relating population to regional economies (which many argue impacted the result of the Civil War a decade-and-a-half later) and the trend of nineteenth-century westward expansion.