Q:
Was that just a person uneducated or usually mentally deficient?

A:
Beginning in 1850, when the census began to record information on everyone in the household, additional questions were asked in regard to each person in the household.

One set of questions that is often overlooked is the column asking if an individual was "deaf and dumb, blind, insane, and idiotic." Perhaps we ignore this column because we do not wish to know the answer.

How Was it Asked?

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