Occupations in 1860

Written By:
Walbert, David

By the middle of the 1800s, the U.S. Census Bureau was asking more information about the people of each state and their economic production. Beginning in 1840, census takers asked people their occupations. The lists below show the occupations that free North Carolinians reported in the Census of 1860.

Short list

In the 1920s, historian Guion Griffis Johnson grouped North Carolinians' occupations into several categories. She explains:

Dairymen, nurserymen, and overseers have been placed in the farmer group; farm hands, day laborers, laundresses, servants, teamsters, apprentices, drivers, and those similarly employed have been placed in the laborer group; those who followed a craft, such as cooper, blacksmith, carpenter, have been classified as tradesmen; physicians, teachers, lawyers, engineers, public officials, and the like have been classified as professional workers; grocers, druggists, innkeepers, traders, bankers, and the like have been placed in the merchant group; clerks, bookkeepers, collectors, and those of similar employment have been classified as white-collar workers; and coachmakers, cabinet makers, harnessmakers, distillers, tobacco manufacturers, and establishments of a similar nature which seem to have been operated on more than an ordinary outlay of capital have been classified as manufacturers.1

Note that very few people (only 121!) identified themselves as "planters." Although we use the term today to refer to owners of large farms, even the largest farmers and slaveholders in the antebellum South typically referred to themselves modestly as "farmers" -- just as, today, people who own thousands of acres of cropland tend to refer to themselves as "family farmers" rather than, say, "agribusinessmen." Categories of occupation in North Carolina, 1860

Occupation Number Percent
Farmers 87,025 45.20
Laborers 63,481 32.94
Tradesmen 27,263 14.15
Professional workers 7,436 3.85
Merchants 3,479 1.80
White-collar workers 1,913 .99
Manufacturers 1,308 .70
Planters 121 .06
All Others 608 .31
Total 192,634 100.00

Full list

The list below is transcribed directly from the 1860 Census of Population and Housing, and includes every occupation claimed by a free North Carolinian that year. Although most North Carolinians were farmers or farm workers, the state's citizens worked at a wide variety of occupations on the eve of the Civil War. Look over the list and think about these questions:

  1. Which occupations were most common? Given what you know about antebellum North Carolina, why would they have been so necessary or popular?
  2. What occupations do you see here that surprise you? Why do they surprise you?
  3. What occupations do you not see here that you would have expected to see? (Check to make sure they aren't listed under another name.) Why do you suppose they didn't exist then?
  4. Are there occupations that were more or less important than you would have expected? Why do you suppose that was the case?
  5. People responded to census takers' questions by naming their occupations, not by choosing one from a list, but census takers and census officials probably edited the list. As a result, the list partially reflects the ways people thought of their own work, but it also reflects census officials' efforts to put the responses in some kind of order. What names of occupations are different from those we use today, or from those you would have expected to see?
Occupations in North Carolina, 1860
Occupation No.
Agents 180
Agricultural Implement Makers 11
Apprentices 646
Architects 6
Artists 32
Auctioneers 8
Bakers 47
Bankers 15
Bank Officers 33
Barbers 46
Barkeepers 72
Basket-makers 31
Blacksmiths 1,706
Boarding-house keepers 57
Boatbuilders 3
Boatmen 117
Bookbinders 8
Book-keepers 38
Booksellers 8
Brewers 5
Bricklayers 197
Brick-makers 49
Bridge-builders 5
Brokers 13
Builders 8
Butchers 39
Cabinet-makers 211
Carders 3
Car-builders 2
Carpenters 3,217
Carriers 43
Carters 42
Carvers 12
Calkers 5
Chair-makers 63
Chemists 2
Cigar-makers 5
Civil and mechanical engineers 235
Clerks 1,626
Clergymen 907
Clock-makers 6
Clothiers 12
Coach-makers 471
Collectors 21
Colliers 18
Colporteurs 2
Comb-makers 2
Composition workers 38
Confectioners 39
Contractors 22
Coopers 1,310
Coppersmiths 21
Cotton-brokers 2
Cotton cloth manufacturers 2
Daguerreotypists 23
Dairymen 7
Dealers 19
Dentists 83
Die-sinkers 9
Distillers 116
Draughtsmen 2
Drivers 112
Drovers 12
Druggists 62
Dyers 10
Editors 48
Engravers 3
Expressmen 2
Factory hands 809
Farmers 85,198
Farm laborers 19,119
Fancy-goods dealers 14
Finishers 8
Fishermen 732
Firemen 4
Founderymen 13
Furniture dealers 2
Gardeners and Nurserymen 38
Gas-fitters 10
Gas-makers 2
Gate-keepers 22
Gilders 8
Gamesters 5
Grocers 261
Gravel-roofers 18
Gunsmiths 44
Hardware manufacturers 7
Harness-makers 175
Hatters 85
Housekeepers 2,675
Horse dealers 17
Hosiers 4
Hunters 3
Hucksters 29
Innkeepers 152
Inspectors 36
Iron-founders 2
Ironmongers 6
Iron-workers 26
Japanners 2
Jewelers 45
Joiners 3
Judges 6
Knitters 75
Laborers 18,630
Lace manufacturers 12
Laundresses 612
Lawyers 500
Librarians 2
Lightning-rod makers 2
Livery-stable keepers 23
Lumbermen 75
Machinists 194
Mantua-makers 106
Manufacturers 43
Mariners 1,121
Marketmen 4
Masons (stone and brick) 397
Mat-makers 2
Matrons 13
Mechanics 1,320
Merchants 2,162
Midwives 72
Milkmen 36
Millers 1,105
Milliners 66
Millwrights 680
Miners 550
Model-makers 2
Moulders 52
Musical instrument makers 2
Musicians 17
Music -teachers 51
Nurses 39
Officers (Public) 405
Ostlers 236
Overseers 1,782
Oystermen 8
Painters 355
Paper-hangers 2
Paper manufacturers 15
Pattern-makers 4
Peddlers 57
Physicians 1,266
Piano-forte makers 25
Pilots 109
Planters 121
Plasterers 68
Platers 5
Plumbers 3
Photographers 4
Porters 2
Potters 33
Printers 202
Professors 68
Provision dealers 2
Publishers 3
Pump-makers 11
Quarrymen 8
Rag collectors 3
Railroadmen 366
Refectory keepers 10
Riggers 5
Saddlers 140
Sail-makers 22
Sailing-masters 2
Sawyers 105
Seamstresses 5,019
Servants 21,092
Sewing-machine workers 2
Sextons 2
Shingle-makers 230
Ship carpenters 70
Shoemakers 1,123
Silversmiths 32
Sleigh-makers 2
Ship-masters 54
Speculators 9
Spinners 631
Steamboatmen 12
Stevedores 2
Stone and marble cutters 69
Storekeepers 24
Students 1,547
Surveyors 51
Suspender-makers 2
Tailors 374
Tailoresses 228
Tanners 93
Tar-makers 3
Teachers 1,936
Teamsters 223
Telegraph operators 8
Tinsmiths 89
Tobacconists 274
Tobacco manufacturers 56
Tool-makers 4
Traders 185
Trimmers 36
Trunk makers 180
Turners 14
Turpentine-makers 1,111
Undertakers 9
United States officers 116
Upholsterers 29
Veterinarians 3
Warpers 3
Watchmen 39
Watch-makers 67
Weavers 959
Wheelwrights 588
Wine and liquor dealers 34
Wood-cutters 75
Wool combers and carders 3
Woolen manufacturers 3
Well-diggers 46
Other occupations and unknown 604
Total 192,674