# African Americans in Dayton, Ohio from 1805-1850 **URL:** \ **Category:** USA\ **Created:** [June 10, 2024, 1:50pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/african-americans-in-dayton-ohio-from-1805-1850/5933 "2024-06-10T13:50:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Marlese\_Durr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@Marlese\_Durr](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Marlese_Durr)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 1:50pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/african-americans-in-dayton-ohio-from-1805-1850/5933/1 "2024-06-10T13:50:53Z")
I am looking for the number of African Americans in Dayton, Ohio from 1805 through 1850. ---
**Author:** ![Ivan\_Strahof](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/ivan_strahof/32/626_2.png) [@Ivan\_Strahof](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Ivan_Strahof)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/african-americans-in-dayton-ohio-from-1805-1850/5933/2 "2024-06-11T19:01:06Z")
[IPUMS NHGIS](https://data2.nhgis.org/main) provides county-level census summary statistics from 1790-onwards that can be used to determine the number of non-White persons living in Montgomery County, Ohio in each decennial census from 1810-1850. No sub-county census data is available prior to 1910 on IPUMS NHGIS. We recommend that new users review [the detailed FAQ page](https://www.nhgis.org/frequently-asked-questions-faq) as well as the short video tutorials that are part of[the user guide](https://www.nhgis.org/user-guide) in order to familiarize themselves with the website and [the Data Finder tool](https://data2.nhgis.org/main). You will need to add a data table to your data cart for each decennial year separately (i.e., 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, and 1850) that summarizes race by county. It’s important to keep in mind that [each census differed in the way it enumerated persons of different races](https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/race/MREAD_1790_2010.html). In particular, Black Americans were tabulated separately depending on whether they were free or if they were slaves. Below is the wording used for tabulating each of these different racial categories for each decennial census. IPUMS NHGIS identifies race by grouping White persons into a White category and all other persons into a Nonwhite category. > **1810 census** : free White persons, slaves, and “all other free persons, except Indians, not taxed” > **1820 census** : free White persons, slaves, “free Colored persons”, and all other persons, except Indians not taxed > **1830 census** : free White persons, slaves, and free Colored persons > **1840 census** : free White persons, slaves, and free Colored persons > **1850 census** : White, Colored (free), Colored (slave) I was also able to find the compendiums for [the 1820](https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1820/1820a-02.pdf) and [the 1840](https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1840/1840v3/1840c-05.pdf) censuses which included summary counts by race and slave status for the town of Dayton, Ohio. You can also find household-level data in [the IPUMS USA 1790-1840 household full count file](https://usa.ipums.org/usa/1790_1840_intro2.shtml). ---
**Author:** ![Marlese\_Durr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@Marlese\_Durr](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Marlese_Durr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2024, 7:20pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/african-americans-in-dayton-ohio-from-1805-1850/5933/3 "2024-06-11T19:20:31Z")
Thank You Ivan! I will review the pages to learn how to obtain this data. Have a great rest of the day. ![Outlook-1507130201.jpg](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/uploads/ipums/original/1X/00228e18efd0c43d1716981a2acd161695854998.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Marlese\_Durr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@Marlese\_Durr](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Marlese_Durr)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2026, 7:50pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/african-americans-in-dayton-ohio-from-1805-1850/5933/4 "2026-03-24T19:50:43Z")
I am not finding the compendium you spoke of for 1820 and 1840 in Dayton Town Ohio. I also need help extracting thes files, since my school does not support NGHIS. ---
**Author:** ![Ivan\_Strahof](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/ivan_strahof/32/626_2.png) [@Ivan\_Strahof](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Ivan_Strahof)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2026, 8:05pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/african-americans-in-dayton-ohio-from-1805-1850/5933/5 "2026-03-26T20:05:43Z")
Here are the links to compendiums: **[1820 Volume](https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1820/1820a-02.pdf)** [**1840 Volume**](https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/decennial/1840/1840v3/1840c-05.pdf) The 1820 volume includes population data for the town of Dayton, Ohio on page 133 of the PDF. Data for Dayton in the 1840 volume begins on page 13 and continues through page 16 of the PDF. You do not need access to IPUMS NHGIS for these files. [IPUMS NHGIS](https://www.nhgis.org/) is a website that is free for researchers where you can request and download standard data files in .csv format. These can be opened in applications such as Excel. If you plan to use IPUMS NHGIS to get county-level population data, you can [register to access the data here](https://uma.pop.umn.edu/nhgis/user/new). ---
**Author:** ![Marlese\_Durr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@Marlese\_Durr](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Marlese_Durr)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2026, 12:50pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/african-americans-in-dayton-ohio-from-1805-1850/5933/6 "2026-03-30T12:50:23Z")
Thank You!