US Map Visualization in 1820 with Flourish.
To start off, the process was not too bad, pretty easy to follow directions and then I referred to the lecture towards the end. I decided to study the group 1820, kind of in the middle of the selection of years. Most of the color schemes offered were hard to see the outlines of the counties, so I chose something similar to the lecture (Magma). Although with higher populated counties, it was a bright yellow and those counties blended all together.
I picked the columns, “Slave >> Female >> 14 to 25 years of age” and “Free >> Female >> 14 to 25 years of age” to see what it was like around my age and female. “Free” was much harder to visualize and study the results, but it looks like most of the population that was showing was around the counties of Delaware and a significant amount in a county in Pennsylvania (or New Jersey, it’s hard to tell) and in Charleston, South Carolina. Next, “Slave” category displayed a great amount in South Carolina, highest being 8122, along the coast and many throughout Virginia. I was surprised to see the counties towards the Midwest region, I believe it is Kentucky and Tennessee, were more populated with enslaved females.
The other columns I added were, “White >> Female” and “Nonwhite: Slave >> Female”. Comparing these two categories, there is a much greater difference and not what I was expecting. I thought it would be more similar to each other. A significant amount of the white female population was north of Maryland. The greatest population of white females I could find was about 37,000 around the Boston area compared to the Charleston area, which had a population of 9515. Switching over to enslaved females, Charleston had 28,571 recorded. However, New Orleans county had about the same for both white and enslaved females, around 7600.
I never realized the drastic difference with white females populated in the north. The last two categories studied emphasizes the separation between north and south regions. Most white females were in the north of Maryland and most enslaved females were south of Maryland. For enslaved females there is a clear line, along the border of Maryland and Pennsylvania with fewer populations north of Maryland. Overall, visually seeing what these populations looked like was a bit of a surprise and I’m glad to see it now.
This is a great data map and I like the visualization of the four different populations on the map. I think the magma scheme was a good choice; it definitely acts like a “heat map.” For the 14-25 age group, I agree that it is a bit shocking to see the large spread of enslaved females versus white. On a disturbing note, it reinforces the commodification of young enslaved girls and women at this time. This representation is further reinforced by the layer that shows white: females and the broader spread of this population throughout New England and the Midwest. Excellent work, thoughts, and conclusions!