I was curious to find out what our first federal census had taught us in 1790. According to the US Census Bureau, the census counted the number of people living in the present states of Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia.

According to Graham Russell Hodges in his essay “Ethnicity in 18th century North America (1701-1788)”, this census provided information about ethnicity among white Americans. Among them, 60 percent were of English descent while the rest were Dutch, German, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, Swedes, French and Spanish.

Ironically, Native Americans were not considered as citizens and were neither counted nor taxed in the first census!