DOI: 10.3886/icpsr04284
title: White Attitudes Toward Black Civil Equality in the Nineteenth Century: Iowa's Equal Rights Referenda of 1857, 1868, and 1880
title: Archival Version

description: The primary objective of this data collection was to
 provide a quantitative underpinning for the analysis of Northern
 racial attitudes in the United States during the Civil War era. The
 data contain the results of the three popular referenda on Black civil
 equality held in 1857, 1868, and 1880 in the state of Iowa: the first
 just prior to the onset of the Civil War, the second following the
 Civil War, and the third coming at the close of the Reconstruction
 period. In order to provide a more comprehensive political context for
 these well-spaced referenda, the data files contain all relevant
 annual elections occurring in Iowa between August 1848 and June 1882,
 capturing the period of time beginning with the first elections
 involving antislavery candidates through the end of Reconstruction. In
 addition, the data contain the results of various other referenda,
 including banking and liquor prohibition referenda voted upon during
 the time period. Parts 1 and 2 contain county-level data for all 99
 Iowa counties. Part 1, County File: Elections and Referenda, contains
 the outcomes for the various elections and referenda that were put to
 the vote in Iowa during the mid- to late-1800s. Part 2, County File:
 Miscellaneous, contains various characteristics describing the voting
 Iowan population including religion and occupation data. Parts 3 and 4
 contain township-level data. The data contain results from 186 of 292
 Iowa townships that had surviving 1857 referenda returns. Of the 186,
 127 townships had records for all three of the referenda regarding the
 rights of Blacks (1857, 1868, and 1880). As a result, Part 3, Township
 File: Referenda, contains the outcomes, by township, for the three
 civil rights referenda voted on in the state of Iowa. Part 4, Township
 File: Voters, contains hand counted voter birthplace data keyed to
each of the three referenda.
description: Response Rates: While not exactly a response rate, the author notes
 that the data include birthplace records for 109,510 individual voters
 (i.e., of White male United States citizens aged 21 and over for 1856
 and 1870, and father's birthplace of immigrant male citizens in
 1880). The "186 subfile" represents 31 percent of all Iowa voters in
 1857, while the "127 subfile" accounts for 21 percent in 1856, 13
percent in 1870, and 10 percent in 1880.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: County File: Elections and Referenda
DS2: County File: Miscellaneous
DS3: Township File: Referenda
DS4: Township File: Voters
description: Iowa, and by inference the rest of the Middle West, as
 well as the Northeast. (There were few native Iowans in the voting
 population in this frontier period. Virtually everybody had
in-migrated from other states or from Europe.). Smallest Geographic Unit: township
description: (1) Parts 3 and 4 contain township-level data. There
 were a total of 292 counties in Iowa, however data concerning the 1857
 referenda on Black suffrage was only available for 186 counties.
 These counties are sometimes referred to within the study as the "186
 subfile." Furthermore, of these 186 counties found in Parts 3 and 4,
 127 of them contained data for all three of the Black suffrage
 referenda that were voted upon in 1857, 1868, and 1880. These counties
 are referred to as the "127 subfile." Furthermore, of these 186
 counties found in Parts 3 and 4, 127 of them contained data for all
 three of the Black suffrage referenda that were voted upon in 1857,
 1868, and 1880. These counties are referred to as the "127 subfile."
 (2) Per the author, since the estimated "Nonvoters" variables are
 arithmetic calculations, they occasionally are represented as minus
 numbers. This simply means that the number of actual voters exceeded
 the number of estimated eligible voters. These negative numbers are
 usually small and do not pose a systematic error in the data. (3) The
 author also points out that it will be seen that some entries take the
 form of large even numbers (e.g., 200, 300, 700). These are obviously
 estimates made by county-seat election officials for losing candidates
 in lopsided elections. At the time, there were no partisan
 poll-watchers demanding an exact count. Such entries are not serious
 errors, since they are not systematic. In any event, they are, given
 present knowledge, the only extant data, and can only be utilized or
 excluded as the user sees fit. (4) The author notes that the data does
 not include the sometimes useful "Ineligibles" variable, employed in
 comparisons of any two sets of election data, that designates new
 voters coming into the electorate since the first of the compared
 elections. It is calculated by subtracting the first election's
 Estimated Eligible Voters (EEV) from that of the second. (5) For the
 purposes of this study, voters are defined as adult, male citizens of
 the United States. (6) Voter birthplace data were used by the author
as an indicator of individual ethnocultural orientation.