Part I: The origins of the US Census : from enumeration of voters and taxpayers to "social statistics," 1790-1840. The creation of the Federal Census by the Constitution of the United States : a political instrument ; The first developments of the national census (1800-1830) ; The census of 1840 : science, politics, and "insanity" of free blacks
Part II: Slaves, former slaves, blacks, and mulattoes : identification of the individual and the statistical segregation of populations (1850-1865). Whether to name or count slaves : the refusal of identification ; Color, race, and origin of slaves and free persons : "White" "Black," and "Mulatto" in the censuses of 1850 and 1860 ; Color and status of slaves : legal definition and census practice ; Census data for 1850 and 1860 and the defeat of the south
Part III: The rise of immigration and the racialization of society : the adaptation of the census to the diversity of the American population (1850-1900). Modernization, standardization, and internationalization : from the censuses of J.C.G. Kennedy (1850 and 1860) to the first census of Francis A. Walker (1870) ; From slavery to freedom : the future of the black race or racial mixing as degeneration ; From "Mulatto" to the "One Drop Rule" (1870-1900) ; The slow integration of Indians into US population statistics in the nineteenth century ; The Chinese and Japanese in the census : nationalities that are also races ; Immigration, nativism, and statistics (1850-1900)
Part IV: Apogee and decline of ethnic statistics (1900-1940). The disappearance of the "Mulatto" as the end of inquiry into the composition of the black population of the United States ; The question of racial mixing in the American possessions : national norms and local resistance ; Illustrations ; New Asian races, new mixtures, and the "Mexican" race : interest in "minor races" ; From statistics by country of birth to the system of national origins
Part V: The population and the census : representation, negotiation, and segmentation (1900-1940) ; The census and African Americans within and outside the bureau ; Women as census workers and as relays in the field ; Ethnic marketing of population statistics
Epilogue: The fortunes of census classifications (1940-2000)
