Data Literacy for Social Studies, Acres of Farmland per State, 1860

Studying the economies of the North and South is central to investigating the causes of the Civil War, and agriculture was important in both regions. We created these stacked bar graphs using a data table from the 1860 U.S. Census to illustrate the amount of acreage of improved and unimproved farmland in 1860 in what would become Union, Border, and Confederate States during the Civil War. Improved farmland is land that has been cleared for crops, while unimproved land is uncleared land such as woodland and pastures. The spreadsheets found here include the original table, recreated table, and the graphs. As the both the table and graphs in the spreadsheet show, although the Confederate states had more farmland overall, the Union states had more improved farmland.