Hayes Lowe
Statistical equality.
Tue May 29 11:36:54 2001


That number (24,826) is a statistical nullity. By that I mean that it is equal to "zero" for all practical purposes. Even today, the census is estimated to be 10% inaccurate due to undercounts and overcounts [10% is claimed by the statisticians, the Democratic Party says that it is much higher than 10%]. The is called the "margin of error". 24,826 is only 5% of the total of free blacks (in all states)...much smaller than even today's margin of error.

So, with that properly taken into consideration, free and slave states had the same number of free blacks as far as can be ascertained from the primary source records (1860 census).

As you properly point out, the ratio of total population of each area to free blacks in each area should be taken into consideration for any valid comparison.