The first
American census
was taken in 1790,
fourteen years
after the nation
declared its
independence
from Britain.

3,893,635 persons
was the final count,
which included
694,280 slaves.

In other words,
the total population
of this baby tiger
called America
was slightly smaller
than today’s metropolitan
Atlanta,
but slightly bigger
than modern Detroit.

– information
extracted from a
chart in the book by
 
Joseph J. Ellis

Founding Brothers,
winner of the 2001
Pulitzer Prize for
History, p. 102