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Transcribed by Tom Blake, September 2001

PURPOSE. Published information giving names of slaveholders and numbers of slaves held in West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, in 1860, is either non-existent or not readily available. It is possible to locate a free person on the West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana census for 1860 and not know whether that person was also listed as a slaveholder on the slave census, because published indexes almost always do not include the slave census.





SOURCES. The 1860 U.S. Census Slave Schedules for West Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana (NARA microfilm series M653, Roll 427) reportedly includes a total of 5,340 slaves. Unfortunately, the ink used for this Parish seems to have faded by the time it was microfilmed as it is quite faint compared to the other Parishes on the film. Also, the method of slave numbering and style of number writing used in the enumeration is somewhat confusing. This transcription includes the 37 slaveholders who held 50 or more slaves in West Baton Rouge Parish, accounting for 3,620 slaves, or 68 % of the Parish total. The rest of the slaves in the Parish were held by a total of 170 slaveholders, and those slaveholders have not been included here. Due to variable film quality, handwriting interpretation questions and inconsistent counting and page numbering methods used by the census enumerators, interested researchers should view the source film personally to verify or modify the information in this transcription for their own purposes. The handwriting in this Parish was more difficult to decipher than most. Census data for 1860 was obtained from the Historical United States Census Data Browser, which is a very detailed, searchable and highly recommended database that can found at . Census data on African Americans in the 1870 census was obtained using Heritage Quest's CD "African-Americans in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census", available through Heritage Quest at . In comparing census data for different years, the transcriber was not aware of any relevant changes to Parish boundaries.

FORMAT. This transcription lists the names of those largest slaveholders in the Parish, the number of slaves they held and the first census on which they were listed. Following the holder list is a separate list of the surnames of the holders with information on numbers of African Americans on the 1870 census who were enumerated with the same surname. The term "Parish" is used to describe the main subdivisions of the State by which the census was enumerated.




MIGRATION OF FORMER SLAVES: According to U.S. Census data, the 1860 West Baton Rouge Parish population included 1,859 whites, 113 "free colored" and 5,340 slaves. By the 1870 census, the white population had declined 8% to 1,710, while the "colored" population had dropped more than 37% to 3,404. (As a side note, by 1960, 100 years later, the Parish was listed as having 7,502 whites, a four fold increase, but the 1960 total of 7,294 "Negroes"was only about one third more than what the colored population had been 100 years before.) Where did these freed slaves go? Orleans Parish saw an increase in colored population of almost double between 1860 and 1870, growing to over 50,000, so likely that is where many went. No other Louisiana Parish showed such a significant increase. Between 1860 and 1870, the Louisiana colored population only increased by 4%, about 13,000. States that saw more significant increases in colored population during that time, and were therefore more likely possible places of relocation for colored persons from West Baton Rouge Parish, included the following: Georgia, up 80,000 (17%); Texas, up 70,000 (38%); Alabama, up 37,000 (8%); North Carolina, up 31,000 (8%); Florida, up 27,000 (41%); Ohio, up 26,000 (70%); Indiana, up 25,000 (127%); and Kansas up from 265 to 17,000 (6,400%).


ALLAIN?, Jasthene?, 159 slaves, page 210

BABEN, Est. Paul, 113 slaves, page 202

BARROW, B. M., 100 slaves, page 214

BARROW?, ? And mother, 135 slaves, page 214

BATON ROUGE, GROSSE TETE & OPELOUSAS R.R. CO., 68 slaves, page 205

BIRD, John M.?, 136 slaves, page 203B

BIRD, Thompson M., 85 slaves, page 211B

BUHLER,H.?, 109 slaves, page 213

CAIN, D. P., 69 slaves, page 200

CHINN, Conrad, 124 slaves, page 201B

CLARKE, Mdm.? M. P., 55 slaves, page 201

COURTNEY, M., 71 slaves, page 213B

DAIGLE, J.?, 62 slaves, page 210B

DOUGLURTZ?, J.? P., 81 slaves, page 212

DUVALL, James? C., 53 slaves, page 201B

FLYNN, S. &? C., 58 slaves, page 214B

HAMILTON, Allen, 64 slaves, page 202

HEREFORD, Mdm.? C. M., 138 slaves, page 214B

HICKEY, Daniel, 74 slaves, page 209B

LEBLANC, Eulalie Melaly? And Brothers, 75 slaves, page 203

LOBDELL, John L., 122 slaves, page 200B

LUERGUE?, ?. ?., 62 slaves, page 210B

MINTER?, ?. D., 125 slaves, page 215

NOLAN, J. T. & M., 138 slaves, page 212B

PATRICK, Jesse C. Sr., 120 slaves, page 206

PATRICK, Jesse C. Jr., 87 slaves, page 206

PIPER?, ??chlun?, 90 slaves, page 212

PIPER?, David, 62 slaves, page 205

ROBERTSON, William B., 98 slaves, page 213B

SL??l?, W.?, 163 slaves, page 201

SOMCHARD?, N.? B. Co., 86 slaves, page 206

STEWART, M. E. M., 167 slaves, page 205

TRINIDAD, Emile B., 77 slaves, page 204B

WILLIAMS, Alfred, 83 slaves, page 203

WILLIAMS, M.? M.?, 140 slaves, page 205B

WOOD??L, M. C., 117 slaves, page 213

WOODS, James C., 54 slaves, page 208




ALLAIN?, 23, 22, 4, 17, 17, 4

BABEN,0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

BARROW?, 216, 40, 6, 29, 29, 5

BIRD, 1401, 95, 0, 57, 51, 0

BUHLER, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

CAIN, 445, 26, 0, 15, 15, 0

CHINN, 98, 8, 0, 3, 3, 0

CLARKE, 641, 28, 0, 19, 12, 0

COURTNEY, 115, 15, 0, 11, 9, 0

DAIGLE, 19, 19, 0, 17, 17, 0

DOUGLURTZ?, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

DUVALL, 110, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0

FLYNN, 60, 2, 1, 1, 1, 0

HAMILTON, 2446, 254, 0, 157, 127, 0

HEREFORD, 22, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0

HICKEY, 41, 6, 1, 2, 2, 1

LEBLANC, 72, 72, 0, 67, 67, 0

LOBDELL, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

LUERGUE?, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

MINTER?, 205, 7, 0, 0, 0, 0

NOLAN, 101, 11, 0, 3, 1, 0

PATRICK, 448, 33, 1, 24, 19, 1

PIPER?, 115, 10, 0, 8, 8, 0

ROBERTSON, 2878, 408, 17, 249, 220, 14

SL??l?, [name not legible enough to search]

SOMCHARD?, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0

STEWART, 3648, 342, 3, 201, 177, 2

TRINIDAD, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0

WILLIAMS, 28865, 3171, 37, 1987, 1686, 22

WOOD??L, [name not legible enough to search]

WOODS, 2026, 209, 15, 128, 112, 13

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