Can you name the 25 Largest Cities in the Confederate States of America (based on 1860 census)?

Population	City	State
168,675		Louisiana
40,522		South Carolina
37,910		Virginia
29,258		Alabama
22,623		Tennessee
22,292		Georgia
18,266		Virginia
16,988		Tennessee
14,620		Virginia
12,652		Virginia
12,493		Georgia
9,621		Georgia
9,554		Georgia

Population	City	State
9,552		North Carolina
8,843		Alabama
8,247		Georgia
8,235		Texas
6,853		Virginia
6,612		Mississippi
5,816		Louisiana
5,623		Virginia
5,432		North Carolina
5,428		Louisiana
4,790		North Carolina
4,780		North Carolina
4,591	North Carolina

Javascript is not currently enabled on your browser.
If you do have Javascript enabled:
This site uses javascript to make the magic happen.
Please turn on javascript and reload this page, or use a more current browser (like Firefox)

Confederate Cities (1860) Quiz

by Dr_I_Dont_Know

Created Nov 2, 2009 in History
Featured Aug 9, 2010
Game Plays 100,027

Report a Mistake

Friend Scores and Standings

Loading friend results....

Top Games Today in History

Top Games with Similar Tags

Top User Games in History

Archived comments: show them

	wrink1117:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 19:41 GMT	12 points
	surprising how few people there were in the south; it would be nice to know how slaves were counted in this census. 3/5ths rule is yet another sin the US works hard to forget.

	sconeyj:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 19:44 GMT	22 points
	i confede-rate this quiz 4 sporcle orbs.

	lichenboy:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 19:55 GMT	30 points
	wrink1117: the south was largely agricultural, compared to the north, whose economy was more industrial. so, the south's populatation was more rural. the major cities tended to be ports.

	jonesjeffum:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 20:00 GMT	7 points
	good quiz!

	smreidy113:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 20:04 GMT	15 points
	Interesting take on the Civil War era. Learned something new.

	mrgenova:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 20:15 GMT	39 points
	You know you're getting desperate when you start typing things like "Greenbow".

	Emperor_Ziggy:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 20:23 GMT	17 points
	@wrink1117: If the slaves were counted as whole persons, the South would have had much more power in Congress; if the 3/5 rule had not been established, slavery might have been around a bit longer.

	ctmello523:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 20:33 GMT	18 points
	wrink1117: Without the 3/5ths rule, the pro-slavery South would have had greater representation in congress than the anti-slavery North, potentially preventing slavery from ever being eradicated. The 3/5ths rule was instituted to limit the South's ability to maintain the status quo regarding slavery.

	ef232623:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 20:41 GMT	29 points
	Hmm.. This quiz seems to be a little too CSA-centric for those of us living in the USA... Just kidding. Great research!

Population	City	State
9,552		North Carolina
8,843		Alabama
8,247		Georgia
8,235		Texas
6,853		Virginia
6,612		Mississippi
5,816		Louisiana
5,623		Virginia
5,432		North Carolina
5,428		Louisiana
4,790		North Carolina
4,780		North Carolina
4,591	North Carolina

	Fidelio:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 20:53 GMT	10 points
	Re: the 3/5th rule - Not only did it allow slavery to end sooner that it would have otherwise...would it really have been a good thing for the southern states to get away with that kind of hypocrisy? Insisting during the debate over abolition that blacks aren't people, and so they don't deserve any rights - and then turning around and insisting that blacks should be considered people when it comes to Congressional representation? (Even though the blacks wouldn't be able to vote for those Congressional representatives, because...they weren't considered people.)

	Dralcoffin:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 21:14 GMT	9 points
	Quick fix: Montgomery, Alabama had 8,843 people. Selma had a mere 3,177. The mistake is probably from them being on adjacent lines in the Census report.

	TeganX7:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 21:22 GMT	13 points
	Given the lack of population and industry to manufacture weapons, it makes you wonder what they were thinking in going to war in the first place ... the only thing that let them hang in there was the incompetence of Union military leadership at the beginning and the fact that there was a "home field" advantage, with so many battles fought in the South. 5 globes for an educational quiz.

	cappy:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 21:35 GMT	8 points
	I really wonder how people who fly the Confederate flag nowadays can really call themselves "Americans".

	NotBurt:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 21:41 GMT	6 points
	In the early 1800s, urban southerners owned many slaves, who performed many roles: blacksmith, dockworker, carpenter, cooper, cook, house servant, butcher, baker, bricklayer, factory hand (what few factories the south had), ditch digger/navvy, clerk, butler/maid, &c. Many of these jobs offered a degree of autonomy unavailable to rural agricultural slaves. They also had more contact with slaves from other households. Worried about this freedom of movement and the possible exchange of information, by the 1840s, many slave owners began selling off their city slaves to plantation owners. There were always slaves in cities but--in response to the question posed many comments back--the population of these towns would be mostly white.

	monstro:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 21:44 GMT	3 points
	What an interesting quiz. I grew up in Atlanta, and I always had the idea that it was the largest city in the South back then. Also, it's interesting to note how many of the largest cities were near the coast.

	NaGfH:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 22:31 GMT	2 points
	I wonder how these numbers changed during the course of the war? the war caused a greater urbanization in the south due to necessity so surely these cities grew considerably.

	Tommy_C:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 22:37 GMT	12 points
	Atlanta was a vital railway hub, not a big population center. Capturing it isolated Virginia and the Carolinas from the rest of the confederacy.

	briskt:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 22:44 GMT	20 points
	You know you're in the South when your town is called Lynchburg.

Comment below threshold: show it

	robitussin314:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 23:05 GMT	8 points
	What about Augusta, GA? Population 12,493 according to the census.

	orinj:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 23:30 GMT	13 points
	@doxiepaine Gettysburg is in the Union (Pennsylvania)

	BiloxiSean:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 23:34 GMT	6 points
	Amazing 1. No Florida (or was it called the Floridas back then) cities. 2. That the 1st Capitol of the confederacy wasn't on the list (Montgomery). Good quiz.

	rck5:	Aug 9th, 2010 at 23:37 GMT	15 points
	It's "New Bern", not "Newbern". Named after Bern, Switzerland

	Ness69:	Aug 10th, 2010 at 00:42 GMT	5 points
	Wow, I live in Charleston, but I never knew it was number 2 in the south this far into the 1800s. Population is only about 110,000 now and everywhere you go is Civil War history.

Comment below threshold: show it

	jessbowen:	Aug 10th, 2010 at 01:08 GMT	7 points
	One of the reasons for the low populations is that cities are hot. Southern cities are really hot, although being near water helps. Most cities in the south did not become large population centers until the invention of air conditioning.

	transitfan:	Aug 10th, 2010 at 01:54 GMT	8 points
	Well, (in response to other comments) the population wasn't that tiny in the South; it was just spread out because the economy had not industrialized. Raw materials (esp. cotton) from the agricultural economy were sent up north for manufacturing. One funny thing is that throughout history (including today- the most notable example is Basque Country but there are others, including in the US) the regions that want to secede (or where disenfranchisement with the government is highest) are consistently the ones who rely on the central government most for sustenance.

	triviafanpatriot:	Aug 10th, 2010 at 02:09 GMT	6 points
	@jessbowen: I think that the urbanization of the south had to do more with the mechanization of farming equipment like tractors. Before this, all planting and harvesting was done either by hand or with a mule. Mechanization meant less farmers and tenants were needed, so many of them moved to the city and the urban population grew. This just coincided with the installation of air conditioning in the early twentieth century.

	evil_fruit_girl:	Aug 10th, 2010 at 03:28 GMT	7 points
	I always find it amazing that the cities that were once major centers can be left in the dust by rapidly growing cities that spring up seemingly out of nowhere.