Racial categories used in the decennial censuses, 1790 to the present

Measuring the increase in racial diversity in the United States has received growing interest for the last, three decades. The topic was of concern to the founding fathers, who categorized inhabitants using such terms as "White," "free person," or "slave." We continue to categorize people by race. This article examines decennial census questionnaires, enumerator instructions, and actual categories used to define the race groups in this country from 1790 to the present to document the country's efforts to categorize its racial populations. The influence of political and social conditions will become obvious as we journey through the archives of census schedules and enumerator instructions on how people have been categorized racially in this country.