Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1871-09-20

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sheets had been pasted together, for con-
whence, making the length as stated.
Soiled aud yellow as the paper upon which
The returns were made was, the writing
itself was remarkably clear and distinct,
and in that beautiful, rOuud and legable
hand which is so often met with in old pa
pers aud documents. The ink had faded
somewhat, but it was still as distinct as
any document prepared five years ago;
and in all that return, filed as it was with
names aud fgnres, there is not a word,
or a letter, or a figure, that is not as plain
as print. The ruling, lettering, etc,
was all done by hand. Running carefully
down the columns in which the number
Of slaves is entered one does not find The
record ofa single one in the iohOie State
of Vermont nor any ontcred in the col
umn of totals. But in the next column,
headed clear and distinct in heavy letters,
FREE BLACK" with directions as to
age, etc, there is the following record.
Arlington, Bennington, 81 Manches-
ter, 3 Pownal, | (; SALISBURY, Ii; Win
hall, these being in the county of
Bennington, In making up the popula-
tlon of the counties in the State, the re-
turns still show no slaves, but, on the
contrary, show l6 Free Blacks" of a
given age, with no mention of the word
''slave." This return is signed David
Robinson, assistant to Marshal, and by
Heman Allen, United States Marshal of
Vermont" aud is fair, workmaulike,
and carefully prepared table. In trans
cribing this table for the printer, some-
body got the figures in the wrong column,
and thus the blunder passed iuto the
book, and into history. 1t has been per-
petuated by the census-makers, and so
Vermont is set down in history as having
had, in 1890, sixteen slaves2 All works
on slavery acknowledged the existence OF
slavery in Vermont in that year, and it
has been proclaimed from every stump
in the south, and the sons of Vermont in
Congress have been taunted with it for
years and years-al because an arithme.
tic man made mistake, and the subse.
quent census-takers we're too inefficient tC
examine the first return Goodell, in his
"History of slavery in the United States,
one OF the most trustworthy books printed
upon the subject, has this paragraph:
"l777, the people of Vermont met il
Convention, and proclaimed Vermont al
independent State. The first article o
their bill of rights excluded slavery
Though not admitted into the Confederac.
lowing to some claims of New York; til
1889, Vermont has the honor of havin!
first provided for the abolition of slavery
Seventeen slaves are indeed set down Il
Vermont in the census of 1890"
The writer is in error regarding tn
number. The number set down in tn
census of 1890 is sixteen, and it was no
till the census of J $40 prnted in lS43
that some enterprising individual discov
cred another slave as having existed i
Vermont in 1890. The seventeenth slav
was found in Windham county, and ha
as much of an existence as the other six
teen, and no more but in all the subse
f ouent censuses, including bat OF 500, tn
number OF seveateen has been continued
From the book, under the head, ''al
other free persons in the State" appear
the number 255, which would seem t
show that the mistake was deliberate 0
that the text was changed to suit tn
, error.
, In 1870, 1t thus appears, according
the FIRST census, that out of ithe ten state
which then composed the Union, only tw
Maine and Massachusetts, were mol
slave-holding. 10 these Vermont mus
he added. Ii. j. r.
Washington, Sept. 5, 1871.