Embedded Files
Black Abolitionists' Activism in Lowell
Document 24b: Elizabeth (Betsy) and Caroline Cornwell Census Record, Lowell, 1860
Document 24b: Elizabeth (Betsy) and Caroline Cornwell Census Record, Lowell, 1860
This 1860 census shows Elizabeth and Caroline renting a house in Lowell, just two years after they sued for their freedom and the compensation owed to them from Jesse Cornwell’s will.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
Mulatto: (Represented with an “M” on the census column called “Color.”) A person of mixed European and African ancestry. The term, meant as an insult, was a common way to refer to people of mixed ancestry in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The word is no longer used to describe people of mixed ancestry.
Transcript
Transcript
Text-Dependent Questions
Text-Dependent Questions
Who is living with Elizabeth and Caroline? Why do you think they might be sharing a house with the Cornwells?
Of the members in that household, who is the only one born in Massachusetts? What does that tell you about the lives of the people listed in this record?
Discussion Questions
Discussion Questions
How are the Cornwells exercising their agency as a form of resistance through this case?
What does Elizabeth and Caroline’s story tell us about the legal situation for enslaved people before the 13th amendment emancipated them and 14th amendment gave them citizenship?
What can you infer from Documents 24a and 24b about the differences between Elizabeth and Caroline’s lives in enslavement and in freedom?
How can public records documents, like this census record, help us learn about the lives of historical people?
CitationElizabeth (Betsy) and Caroline Cornwell Census Record, Lowell, 1860.U.S. Census, https://www.census.gov/library/ publications/1864/dec/1860a.html
Page updated
Report abuse