Sussex  Census in the United States (Chapter 3?)

On April 30, 1789 George Washington became the first president of the United States. The next year definite statistics were made available for the first time through the taking of a national census (59).

 The population of Sussex was found to include 10,554 persons, of whom 5,387 were slaves, 391 were free Negroes, and 4,771 were whites. A list of tithables compiled eight years before showed 101 persons in the county as owning ten or more slaves. William Allen, with 241 slaves, was apparently the most affluent landholder in the county. Though living at Claremont in Surry on an estate an ancestor had patented in 1649, he had plantations in James city, New Kent, Sussex, Nansemond, and Southampton. It will be seen from the list below that William Lightfoot owned the second largest number of slaves, which was a trifling 79 compared with William Allen’s 241. the two figures reflect the concentration of Tidewater wealth, for William Allen’s second wife was the daughter of William Lightfoot, whose home was not in Sussex but in York (60).

Sussex Slaveholders

pp. 60-61

Virginians, moreover, were increasingly interested in national affairs—what with their own George Washington serving as President of the United States and Thomas Jefferson in the cabinet as Secretary of State. Citizens of Sussex, as elsewhere throughout the country, were divided between the two political factions that had come into being—the one led by Alexander Hamilton, who believed in strong centralized government and the rule of the few; and the other led by Thomas Jefferson, who advocated local self-government and the rule of the people. Soon two great parties received their names: the Federalists, fathered by Hamilton; and the Republicans—later democrats—fathered by Jefferson (61-62). . . .