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 overland railways were important elements in the Nation’s transportation and communication systems; the network of canals and railroads existing at the time, along with the plans for expansion of these networks, depended on drainage and topography as well as the population settlement pattern. This map and the several geographic divisions in the accompanying table served as the framework for summarizing the population totals from the first seven decennial censuses. This was the first time that a decennial census publication depicted large-area regions that combined entire States and territories (or portions of them) into summary units.

This publication is significant in that numerous statistical tables are presented using the five great divisions, the first set of standard geographic groupings to appear in a U.S. census publication. Some divisions consisted of several States, others of several States and territories. A more significant fact is that some of the divisions are quite similar to the current census divisions. New England still encompasses the same six States. With the exception of Delaware, the District of Columbia, and Maryland, the Middle States of 1850 correspond to the present Middle Atlantic Division. With the addition of these same three areas, today’s South Atlantic Division corresponds to the 1850 Southern Division (see ).

Although the 1850 compendium made extensive use of the five great divisions, DeBow was not satisfied, because Kentucky and Missouri were separated from Tennessee and Arkansas and included with the Northwestern Division associated with California, Oregon, and the other territories. In search of a better set of areas, DeBow devised a new geographic arrangement for future use. This classification divided the country into three great sections: (1) the Eastern on the Atlantic Coast; (2) the Western on the Pacific Coast; and (3) the Interior, encompassing the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin; the territories of Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska; and the Unorganized Territory of Oklahoma (see ). 6-6Statistical Groupings