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Publications

American Economic Association

Vol. XI. Nos. I, 2 and 3. Pages 1-329.

Race Traits and Tendencies

American Negro

FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN, F.S.S.

Statistician to the Prudential Insurance Company of America

AUGUST, 1896.

PUBLISHED FOR THE

American Economic Association
BY The Macmillan Company

NEW YORK

LONDON : SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.

Andrus & Church,
ithaca, n, y.

THE RACE TRAITS

AND

TENDENCIES of the AMERICAN NEGRO

PREFACE.

About ten years ago I began, for my own information,
the collection of vital and social statistics of the colored
population of this country. The first results of these in-
vestigations were published in the Arena in April,
1892 ; a second contribution was published in the Medi-
cal News in September, 1894, and a third, dealing with
the Negro in the West Indies, appeared in the Publica-
tions of the American Statistical Association^ in 1895.
The large body of facts accumulated has made a more
elaborate treatment seem feasible and the final result is
the present work.

At the commencement of my investigation, especially
in regard to longevity and physiological peculiarities
among the colored population, I was confronted with
the absence of any extensive collection of data free
from the taint of prejudice or sentimentality. Being of
foreign birth, a German, I was fortunately free from a
personal bias which might have made an impartial treat-
ment of the subject difficult. By making exclusive use
of the statistical method and giving in every instance a
concise tabular statement of the facts, I believe that I
have made it entirely possible for my readers to arrive
at their own conclusions, irrespective of the deductions
that I have made.

During the course of my inquiry it became more and
more apparent that there lie at the root of all social diffi-
culties or problems, racial traits and tendencies which
make for good or ill in the fate of nations as well as of
individuals. It became more apparent as the work pro-
gressed, that, in the great attempts at world bettering, at
the amelioration of the condition of the lower races by
those of a hiofher degfree of culture and economic well

vi Preface.

being, racial traits and tendencies have been almost en-
tirely ignored. Hence a vast sum of evil consequences
is met as the natural result of misapplied energy and
misdirected human effort.

The need therefore, of a presentation of the facts as
they pertain to racial differences between the white and
colored populations of this country, and the consequent
differences in the tendencies of the two races, seemed
sufficiently clear to demand that publicity should be
given to such facts as I had been able to collect ; and
while I have ventured at times to add my own deduc-
tions, or interpretation of their meaning, such deduc-
tions or interpretations are subject to the reader's own
verification in view of the facts themselves.

The close relation of social and moral phenomena to"
economics, is, I believe, fully demonstrated by the results
of this work. The absolute need of a more searching
investigation of the underlying principles of human pro-
gress or retrogression, becomes more than ever apparent.
In the words of Mr. Bryce : '/'But for one difficulty the
South might well be thought to be the most promising
part of the Union, that part whose advance is likely to be
swiftest, and whose prosperity will not be least secure.
This difficulty, however, is a serious one. It lies in the
presence of seven million negroes."

If this be true, it behooves the general government as
well as the governments of the several states, to institute
annually such inquiries in regard to the material and
social condition of the colored race as will demonstrate
beyond a doubt the existence of vital factors affecting its
progress or retrogression. Such inquiries would be free
from the sectional prejudice or sentimental regard of those
who are now arrayed on either side of the " race question."

If such an investigation were undertaken by the De-
partment of Labor, it w^ould lead to very beneficial re-

Preface. vii

suits by furnishing a basis for definite conclusions as to
the results of philanthropic and charitable efforts in be-
half of the colored race. In the absence of this much
needed government investigation, the present inquiry
may serve a useful purpose in stimulating others to
special inquiry along the many lines indicated.

In the preparation of this work, extending over so
many years, I have been materially aided by so many
public and private individuals in all parts of this country
and the West Indies, that it would be impossible to make
a proper acknowledgement of my obligations in each in-
dividual case. To all those who have so kindly aided
me with advice or documentary evidence, I extend my
most sincere thanks, and trust that the results of the in-
vestigation will prove a compensation for the personal
inconvenience I may have caused them.

I am, however, especially indebted for advice and in-
formation to Mr. Carroll D. Wright, the Commissioner
of Labor, Dr. John S. Billings, U. S. A., Dr. S. W-
Abbott, secretary of the Massachusetts state board of
health. Dr. Arthur Newsholme, Brighton, England,
M. Charles Letourneau, secretary of the Anthropological
Society of Paris, Mr. S. P. Smeeton, the registrar-
general of Jamaica, Mr. Archibald Allison, the colonial
secretary of Bermuda, Dr. D. T. Rogers of Mobile,
Ala., Dr. H. B. Horlbeck of Charleston, S. C, Dr.
Gordon De Sassure, of the same city. Dr. Jerome Coch-
rane, of Montgomery, Ala., and Emmons Clark, Esq.,
secretary of the New York board of health.

I am indebted to Professor W. F. Willcox for most val-
uable assistance in the prosecution of the investigation
and final publication of the results ; also to the publica-
tion committee of the American Economic Association,
but especially to Mr. F. S. Kinder of Cornell University,
for considerable and valuable assistance in the reading of

viii Preface.

the manuscript and proofs for final publication. To the
librarian of the Public Library of Newark I am under
obligations for exceptional privileges afforded in the use
of a valuable collection of transactions of scientific socie-
ties, as well as of other valuable publications not easily
obtainable. Most of all am I indebted to my wife for her
kindly and sympathetic assistance and many personal
sacrifices during the early years of my labors. Without
her encouragement and never failing sympathy, the com-
pletion of this work would not have been possible in a
business life where only spare hours could be devoted to
an investigation of this nature.

In an investigation extending over so many years,
and involving so large a number of calculations and sta-
tistical quotations, errors are almost unavoidable. But
having taken every precaution to insure absolute accu-
racy, I feel confident that no error sufficient to affect the
conclusions has occurred. If the work accomplishes its
purpose and leads to a more searching investigation into
the underlying causes of race progress or retrogression ;
if it leads to more scientific attention to the relations
between the superior and inferior races, as contrasted
with the present dangerous method of guess work, it
will not have been written in vain. For after all it is
a question of living beings and not of theories ; and no
philanthropy or charity that in all its missionary efforts
has not been able to save the living man^ has any claim
to be called successful. Race deterioration once in pro-
gress is very difficult to check, and races once on the
downward grade, thus far at least in human histor)-, have
invariably become useless if not dangerous factors in
the social as well as political economy of nations.

Frederick L. Hoffman.
j6i Broad Street., Newark., N. /.,
July 28, i8p6.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PREFACE,

CHAPTER I. PopuivATioN,

Growth of Colored Population in the Country at Large— In
Different Sections of the Country— Increase in the Cities as
Compared with Rural Districts — Concentration in Sections of
Cities— Migration from Rural to Urban Districts— Concentra-
tion in Rural Districts— Inter-State Migration— Colonization .
— Summary.

CHAPTER II. ViTAi. STATISTICS, 33

Statistics of Births and Deaths in Four States — In Selected
Cities — Rates of Mortality According to Age and Sex — Accord-
ing to Conjugal Condition— According to Altitude.— Before
and since Emancipation — Expectation of Life for White and '
Colored — Causes of Mortality— Neglect of Children — Infant
Mortality — Consumption— Pneumonia — Venereal Diseases —
Malarial and Typhoid Fevers— Yellow Fever— Small Pox —
Measles— Scarlet Fever— Diphtheria — Croup — Childbirth and
Puerperal Fevers — Tumors and Cancers — Appendicitis — Alco-
holism— Insanity and Lunacy — Suicide — Summary.

"CHAPTER III. Anthropometry,

■J*C>

Relation of Weight to Age and Stature — Lung Capacity
and Mobility of Chest — Respiration — Physical Strength —
Vision — Summary.

— CHAPTER IV. Race Amalgamation, 177

V "^^

Theories Regarding Race Crossing— The Mulatto— Race
Amalgamation advocated in U. S. — Law of Similarity —
Mixed Marriages in U. S. — Illicit Relations and Illegitimacy.

X Table of ConteJits.

CHAPTER V. Social Conditions and Tendkncies, . . . . jo^

Development of Religious Institutions — Education — Crime
— Vice and Immorality — Pauperism and Dependency.

CHAPTER VI. Economic Condition and Tendenciks, . . . 250

Efficiency of the Negro as an Agricultural Laborer — In the
Cultivation of Tobacco— Rice— Cotton — Wages of White and
Colored Labor — Ownership of Land— Supervision of Negro
Laborers — The Negro as an Industrial Factor — Representa-
tion Among Different Occupations before the War— Wages
and Efficiency— Effect of Education on Industrial Efficiency
— Conflicts with White Labor— Colored Labor and the Cot-
ton Mill -Representation among Different Occupations at
present — Indians as Producers— Difficulty in obtaining Em-
ployment—Accumulation and Taxation — Estimated Wealth
of Negroes in U. S. — " Freedman's Savings and Trust Com-
pany"— Assessed Valuation of Property in Georgia — Virginia
— North Carolina — Taxes paid in Virginia— School Taxes in
North Carolina— Cost of the Negro to the State— Summary.

CHAPTER VII. Conclusion 310

THE RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF
THE AMERICAN NEGRO.

Chapter I.

POPULATION.

The progress of tlie colored population in the United
States, and more particularly in the southern states,
has for more than fifty years past been a matter of the
most serious concern to those who have observed the
results of the presence of a large and growing negro
population. The natural bond of sympathy existing
between people of the same country, no matter how
widely separated by language and nationality, cannot be
proved to exist between the white and colored races of
the United States. To-day, after thirty years of free-
dom for the negro in this country, and sixty years in
the West Indies, the two races are farther apart than
ever in their political and social relations. To-day,
more than ever, the colored race of this country forms
a distinct element and presents more than at any time
in the past the most complicated and seemingly hope-
less problem among those confronting the American
people.

It is therefore a matter of the utmost importance that
the true condition of this population should be fully
understood in all its intricate details, to eliminate every
possible doubt as to the seriousness and importance of
the problem to the people of the southern states as well as
the larger cities of the North and West. In the endless

2 American Economic Association.

discussions that have been carried on for years past as
to the condition and future of the colored people, the
fact that there is a northern side to the question has never
been fully taken into account. Only by means of a thor-
ough analysis of all the data that make up the history of
the colored race in this country can the true nature of the
so-called ' negro problem' be understood and the results
of past experience be applied safely to the solution of
the difficulties that now confront this country in dealing
with the colored element.

The most threatening danger, numerical supremacy,
may be considered as having passed away, if indeed it
ever existed in fact. Leaving aside the results of the
eleventh census, which clearly proved a smaller increase
in the colored population than in the native white, the ma-
terial is abundant and will be fully presented in this mon-
ograph, to prove that, independent of the census returns,
the gradual decrease in the decennial growth of the
colored population can be fully explained.

During the past decade, however, according to the
census returns, the increase in the colored population of
the southern states has been so much less than that of
the wdiite race, and so much less than the believers in
Professor Gilliam's prediction had cause to expect, that
the accuracy of the census has been disputed by many,
even though they had no means whatever at their com-
mand of proving the truth of their charges. Since
many of the tables and calculations in this paper are
necessarily based on the eleventh census it may not be
out of place for me to state that after the most careful
analysis of the results in this and many other investiga-
tions I am convinced that the eleventh census was as
carefully taken as any one of the ten preceding enumera-
tions. This conviction is based principally on a study

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 3

of the age distribution of the population, which is
probably the most delicate test applicable to census work.
During the ten years, 1 880-1 890, the colored popula-
tion of the southern states increased only 13.24 per
cent, in contrast with an increase of 23.91 per cent, for
the white population of the same section. The total
white population of the country at large increased
26.68 per cent, and the total colored population 13.51
per cent, during the same period. This result, therefore,
disproves Professor Gilliam's prediction that the increase
of the colored population would be 35 per cent per
decade, and makes impossible the realization of the
further prediction, which has been so widely copied,, that
in seventy or eighty years tlie blacks will largely predom-
inate in every southern state. Professor Gilliam, as so
many other writers on this subject have done, relied in
his calculations on only one element of the natural in-
crement of a population, namely, the birth rate ; he
ignored the far more important influence o£ the death
rate. To what absurdities such calculations may be
carried is perhaps best illustrated by the following table

COMPARATIVE ESTIMATES OF THE PROBABLE COLORED POPULATION
OF THE UNITED STATES.

United States
\ Census.

Estimate of Estimate of
Darby.i De Bow.2

Estimate of
Kennedy.3

Estimate of
Prof. Gilliam.-*

1830
1840
1850

2,328,642
2,873.648
3.638,808
4,441,830
4.880,009

6,580,793
7,470,040
8.458.952'

2 8q^ 1\\

1 ....

A I Itl 70Q

i860

7,860, n8 [ 4,319,452
10,669,236 5,296,235
14,329,701 6,494,334
19,208,740 j 7,962,004
25.825,878 1 9.766,884

1870
1880
1890
1900

5.407,130
6,591,292
7,909,550
9.491.459

12,000,000

1 " Vie-n

of the United

states." (Philadelphia, 1828

). Pages 438-

40.

2 " South and West," Vol. II, page 305.

3 Preliminary report on the eighth census, page 7.

* "Popular Science Monthly," Vol. XXII, page 437. (For the Southern States
only).
5 Estimated by the writer.

4 American Econo^nic Association.

of comparative estimates, by a number of writers, of the
colored population in the United States at different
periods of time.

Of the various estimates here brought together, those
of DeBow and Kennedy come nearest being approxi-
mately correct, while those of Darby and Gilliam are far
out of the way. Darby made no allowance for a possible
increase in the death rate, nor could he foresee the eman-
cipation of the slaves in 1863. Both De Bow and
Kennedy were thoroughly familiar with the vital statis-
tics of the negro, and so made allowance for a probable
gain of the death rate on the birth rate, as well as for a
probable decrease in the latter. Professor Gilliam, who
had at his command the mortality statistics of southern
cities — especially of Savannah, Charleston, Mobile, New
Orleans and Richmond — could easily have ascertained
the element of error that vitiated his elaborate calcula-
tions. His assumption that the colored population
w^ould for years to come increase at the rate of 3.5 per
cent, per annum was justified neither by past experience
nor by the returns o\ the census of 1880. The census
of 1870 was admittedly defective and this consideration
should have prevented him from using the rate of in-
crease in this decade as a formula for calculating the
colored population for the next century. As has been
stated, the rate of increase during the decade 1880-90
was considerably less for the colored population than for
the whites ; whereas Professor Gilliam estimated the
probable annual gain of the southern white population
at only .tSvo per cent., in contrast with an assumed gain
of 3.5 per cent, per annum for the colored population.
Thus he estimated a probable colored population for
1900 of twelve millions: in all probability it will not
reach seven and a half millions. According to Professor

Race Traits and Tcndcnn'es of the American Negro.

Gilliam's method of calculating, the population in 1890
should have been slightly in excess of nine millions,
while the census showed only 6,741,941 in those states.

estimate; of the colored population of southern states,

1SS0-1900.

Prof. Gillian's Result of the

Estimate. Cen.sus.

1S80 6,000,000 5,953,903

1890 9,039,470' ..... 6.741,941

1900 12,000,000 7,634,450'

1 Calculated by the writer in accordance with Prof. Gilliam's method.
• Calculated by the writer in accordance with the method of Dr. Farr.

These examples illustrate the uselessness of attempts
to arrive at accurate results on the basis of enumerations
which do not show the underlying elements of the popu-
lation or affard the means of stating the probable ten-
dency of a population for a long period of years. Rea-
soning from gross results in this as in other branches of
statistical inquiry must be useless and misleading.

I have gone into considerable detail in my account of
the elements of the colored population in order that
those who have neither time nor opportunity to consult
the original reports may know the sources of the in-
formation and the basis of the tables which are intro-
duced in other parts of this work. Only after a
comprehensive study of the intricate details of these
elements can the nature of the problem as to the future
of the negro and his relation to the white race in this
country be understood.

The table which follows shows, for periods of thirty
years each, the progress of the colored and white popu-
lations in the country at large during the present century.
I have selected this method because there is no apparent
n^d of giving the results of all of the eleven enumera-
tions of the population, and also because the use of tlie
defective census of 1870 is thereby avoided.

American Economic Association.

POPULATION OF THE UNITKD STATES, 1800 to 1890.

White Colored Per ct. of

Population. Population.' White.

1800 4,306,446. . . . 1,002,037. . . .Si. 12. .

1830 10,537,378. . . . 2,328,642. . . .81.90. .

i860 26,922.537 .... 4,441,830 . . . 85.62 . .

1890 54,983,890 .... 7,470,040 .... 87.80 . .

Per ct. of
Colored.

. 18.88

. . 18.10

. . 14.13

• • 11-9.^

' Previous to i860, Chinese and Indians were counted as colored ; for 1S60 and
1890 these are excluded.

It will be observed that the proportion of whites in the
total population has gradually increased from 81.12 per
cent, in 1800, to 87.80 per cent, in 1890. This increase
in the proportion of whites is to a considerable extent
due to the large immigration in the past fifty years.
The southern states, however, have been affected but
ver>' slightly by foreign immigration. The table which
follows shows that the proportion of the colored to the
white population has increased in some states and de-
creased in others during the past sixty years. During
the period 1 860-1 890 the proportion of whites increased
in seven out of the thirteen southern states. During the
last census period the proportion of colored to whites in-
creased in only two of these thirteen states — Mississippi
and Arkansas ; all the other states show a considerable
decrease.

PERCENTAGE OF NEGROESi IN TOTAL POPULATION— 1830-1890.

PRINCIPAL SOUTHERN STATES.

Maryland

District of Columbia,

Virginia,

North Carolina, . . .
South Carolina, . . .

Georgia,

Florida

Kentuck}',

Tennessee,

Alabama

Mississippi,

Louisiana,

Texas,

Arkansas

20.69
32.80
38.37
3467
5985
46.74
42.46
14.42
24-37
44.«4
57.58
49-99
21.84
27.40

1S60

24.91
1907

34.39
36.4a

58.59
44.05
44.63
20.44
2550
45.40
55.28

49.49
30.27

25.55

1830

34.88
30.81
42.69
35-93
5563
42.57
47.06
24-73
21-43
38.48
48-44
58.54i

15.52

1 Persons of African descent only.

Race Traits and Tcndeyides of the American Negro. 7

That this condition is not due to any decided tendency
on the part of the colored population to migrate to
northern states is clearly borne out by a careful study of
the census returns. The most satisfactory method of
arriving at a definite result is probably a comparison of
the native resident populations — that is of the numbers
of those living in the states in which they were born.
In this comparison only the native whites are taken into
account and compared with the native colored. I have
abstracted from the census volume the returns for five
representative southern states, and calculated from the
actual returns the proportionate increase in the native
white and native colored elements. For purposes of
comparison the percentages which the population so de-
fined makes of the total white and the total colored popu-
lation, respectively, are also given.

POPULATION BORN AND LIVING IN STATE.*

i8go I 18S0 Increase

Native Native
Whites. Whites.

South Carolina, . ' 435.594 363.576

Georgia j 873,234 717,276

Alabama, .... 660,848 506.917

Mississippi, . . 440,670 353.247

Louisiana, .... 444,230 341,974

72,018
155.958
153.93'

87.423
102,256

Per ct. of
increase

iSSo-90.

Percentage of
total White
Population.

l8qo. iSSo.

19-81 95-55 94-77

21.74' 90-35 88.93

30.371 80.68 77-67

24.75 82.04 75.09

29.90 87.18 85.03

COLORED.

South Carolina,
Georgia, . . .
Alabama, . . .
Mississippi, . .
Louisiana, . .

», ,. I »- ,- i , Per ct. of Percentage of

Native Native Increase j^^ease total Colored

Colored Colored. Ponnintion

1S90. I iSSo. ; 188<V90. 1880-90. ^?P"^^'7sSo.

677,175 588,819

798,747 677,938

607,058 507,716

622.996 509,938

478,655 386,348!

88,356
120,809

99.342
113.058

92,3071

15.01 98.28 97.45

17.S2 93.01 93.50

19-57 89.39 84.60

22.17I 83.68 78.21

23-89 85.58 79-89

1 Census of 1890, Vol. i, Population, pp. CVX.

8 American Economic Association.

PERCENTAGE OF DECENNIAL INCREASE IN THE RESIDENT NATIVE
POPULATION OF FIVE SOUTHERN STATES.

Native
White.

Native
Colored.

White over
Colored.

vSouth Carolina, .

. . I9.S1 . .

. . 15.01 . .

. . 4.80

Georgia, ....

. . 21.74 • •

. . 17.82 . .

• • 392

Alabama ■

■ . SO.37 . •

• . 1957 • •

. . 10.80

Mississippi, . . .

. . 24.75 . •

. . 22.17 . .

. . 2.5S

Louisiana, . . .

. . 29.90 . .

. . 23.89 . .

. . 6.01

These tables prove conclusively the steady gain of the
native white on the native colored population, and the
larger natural increase — excess of births over deaths —
in the white population. This is most marked in Ala-
bama, and least so in ISIississippi. But it is remarkable
that the latter state should show even the slight excess
in favor of the white race that it does, since the increase in
the total colored population has been greater than the
increase of the white race, owing to a considerable
migration of colored people from other states to the low-
lands of the Mississippi. The small increase in the
colored population of Alabama is to a great extent due
to the drifting of the negroes into the large cities which
have grown up in that state during the past decade, in
which the mortality among the colored is higher than
that recorded for any other American cities at the pres-
ent time.

The tendency of the colored population to leave the
country and congregate in the large cities either of the
South or North, is one of the most distinct phenomena
of the past thirty years. Immediately previous to the
outbreak of the war the colored population of the larger
southern cities formed but a small proportion of the
aggregate population of these cities. If, for purposes of
illustration, we take the fourteen largest cities of ten
southern states we shall find that in i860 only 18.85 P^^
cent, of the population of these cities was colored, as

Race Traits ^nd Tendencies of the American Negro. g

compared with 36 per cent, of the colored in the total
population at large of the ten states. In 1890 the states
under consideration contained sixteen large cities with
29.08 per cent, of colored population, while in the total
population of these states the proportion of colored was
nearly the same as in i860, or 35.96 per cent." The next
three tables give, first, the aggregate and the colored
population of ten southern states at the censuses of i860
and 1890, together with the proportion of the colored in
the total population ; second, the same information for
fourteen cities in i860, and for sixteen in 1890; third,
the increase in the white and the colored population dur-
ing the thirty years 1860-90 for the states, the cities
named, and the states excluding the cities. The last may
be considered for the present purpose as rural, although
many cities of considerable population are included.

PROPORTIOX OF THE COI,ORED IN THE TOTAI, POPULATION OF TEN
SOUTHERN STATES.— 1860 AND 1890.

Total

Population,

1890.

PcS:^^n.b?^-p^n,

Colored
Population.

Per ct.
Color' d

Delaware
Maryland.
Dist.ofCol.
Virginia .
S. Carolina
Georgia . .
Kentucky.
Tennessee.
Alabama .
Louisiana.

168,493
1,042,390

230,392
1.655.980
1. 15', 149
1,837,353
1.858,635
I. 767.518
1,513.017
1,118,587

28,386 .

215,657! •

75.572, .

6ii:^^4i :

858,8151 .
268,071! .
430,678 .
678,489 .
559,193 •

112,216

687,049

75,080

1,596,318

703,708

1,057,286

1,155,684

1,109,801

964,201

708,002

21,627
171,131

14,316
548,907
412,320
465.698
236,167
283,019
437,770
350,373

■ •

10 S. States

12,343,514

4,439.233 35-96

8,169,345

2,941,328

36.00

American Economic Association.

PROPORTION OF THE COLORED IN THE TOTAL POPULATION OF SIX-
TEEN SOUTHERN CITIES, i860 AND 1890.

Wiliiiiiigtoii, Del. .
Baltimore, Md. . .
Washington, D. C.
Norfolk, Va. . . .
Riclinioncl, Va. . .
Charleston, S. C. .
Atlanta. Ga. . . .
Augusta, Ga. . . .
Savannah, Ga. . .
Louisville, Ky. . .
Chattanooga, Tenn,
Memphis, "

Nashville, "

Birmingham, Ala .
Mobile, Ala. . . .
New Orleans, La. .

16 Southern Cities.

Population Popular n ^,qJjjj.,jJ

Populat'n Populaf u cnVA

1S60. I 1S60. ,^"'"

61, 43'
434.439
230.392
34. «7'
81,38s
54,955
65.533

33-300;

43.1^9
161,129
29,100
64.495
76,168
26,178
3 '.076]
242,039!

7.644'
67,1041
75,572;
16,244!
32.330]
30,970
28,098,

15.875
22,9631
28,651,
12,563!
28,706
29.382
11.254
13.630
64,491.

21,258
212,418
75,080
14,620
37.910
40,522
9.554
12.493
22,292
68.033

22,62^
16,988

1,669,683 485,4771 29.08^ 751,724

2.214

27.898

J4.3'6

4,330

14.275

17.146

1.939

4049'

8.4<7

6,820

'3.SS2
3,945

29,258 8,4041
[68,675 24,0741

141,709; 18.85

INCREASE— WHITE AND COLORED POPULATION OF TEN SOUTHERN
STATES, 1860-1S90.

Population of Ten
Southern States.

Population
in Large Cities.

Colored. White. Colored.

Population in States
Excluding Cities.

White. I Colored.

i860 .... '5,228,017 2,941,328 610,0x5! 141, 709'4,6l8,002;2, 799,619

i I I I ! I

1890 . . . 7,904,2814,439.2331,184,206 485,4776,720,0753,953,756

Increase. 2,676,2641,497,905

Increase
per ct.

574,141: 343,7682,102,123 r, 154,137

51.19 50.93

94.1

2.12.60 45.52 41.23

The summary of the first two tables is given in the
third, in which also the white population is given.
As shown by this table the white population of
the ten southern states increased 51.19 per cent dur-
ing the thirty years 1860-90, while the colored popula-
tion increased at almost the same rate, or 50.93 per
cent. Considering the population of the cities it is
shown that the white population increased 94.11 per

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, ii

cent., as compared with an increase of 242.60 per cent,
for the colored dnring the same period. This phenom-
enal increase in the colored population of southern cities
during the past thirty }'ears is perhaps the most con-
vincing evidence of the changed conditions at the South,
as affecting the future of the colored population. After
all that has been said on the modern tendency of civil-
ized peoples to leave the country for the cities, there are
probably no other instances of such wholesale migration
to the city as is here shown. In marked contrast with
this enormous increase in urban population stands the
small increase in the colored population of the rural sec-
tions of the states under consideration, a rate of increase
considerably below the rate shown to prevail for the
white race. Since 89.07 per cent, of the colored popu-
lation of these ten states still live in the rural sections of
the country, the fact that the rate of increase there
should be less for the colored than for the white race is
highly significant. If we compare the urban with the
total population in i860, 11.67 percent, of the white pop-
ulation lived in the large cities, increasing during thirty
years to only 14.89 per cent. ; in contrast with an in-
crease from 4.82 per cent, of colored urban population in
i860 to 10.93 P^'^ cent, in 1890.

PERCENTAGE OF WHITE AND COLORED POPULATION LIVING IN THE
LARGE CITIES OF TEN SOUTHERN STATES IN i860 AND 1S90.

White.

Colored.

Population of Ten States
" of 16 Large Cities

i860. 1S90.

5,228,017 7,904,281
610,015 1,184,206

i860. 1890.

2,941,328 4,439.233
141,709 485,477

Percentage in Large
Cities

11.67 14-89

4.82 10.93

12 American Ecoyioinic Association.

During the last decade this migratory tendency of the
colored population has been more pronounced than ever,
affecting not only the large cities but also those of pro-
portionally small colored population. I have grouped
the cities into two classes, those with a colored popula-
tion in 1890 of 10,000 to 20,000, and those with more
than 20,000. The per cent, of increase is larger for
the small than for the large cities, but the numerical in-
crease in the large cities was more than twice that in
the other group. The white population of these cities
increased at a lesser rate than the colored, which agrees
with the results of the comparison made in preceding
tables for the period 1860-90.

POPULATION OF THE LARGK CITIES.— 1S80-1890.

I White Colored

I Population. Population.

1R90. 1880. I 1890. i.SSo.

Washington, D. C 154,695 107. 7'4 75-572 52,135

Baltimore, Md 367,143 27.S,5S4 67,104 53,716

New Orleans, La \ 177,376 158,367 64,491 57,617

Philadelphia, Pa 1,006,590 815,362 39,371 31,699

Richtnoud, Va 49,034 35.765 32.330 27.832

Charleston, S^ C 23,919 22,699 30,970 27,276

Nashville, Tenn 1 46,773 27,005 29,382 16,337

Memphis, Tenn | 35,766 18,677 28,706 14.896

Louisville, Ky | 132,457 102,847 28,651 20,905

Atlanta, Ga I 37,416 21,079 28,098 16,330

St. Louis, Mo 424,704 328,191 26,865 22.256

New York, N. Y 1,489,627 1,185,843 23,601 19.663

Savannah, Ga 20,211 15,041 22,963 15,654

Total Population 3965,711 3,117,174498,104 376,316

Increase, 1890 over 1880. .... 848,537 . . . 121,788

Increase, Per Cent. . . . I . . . . 27.22 ... 32.36

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 13

TEN CITIES WITH FROM 10,000 to 20,000 COLORED POPULATION IN 1890.

I White

Population.

Chicago, 111 1,084,998 496,495

Brooklyn, N. Y j 795,397 55«>427

Cincinnati, O 285,224 246,912

Kansas City, Mo 118,821 47,613

Norfolk, Va I 18,617 11,898

Augusta, Ga I 17,395 ",771

Mobile, Ala i 17,429 16,885

Chattanooga, Tenn 16,525 7. 8*^7

Houston. Tex - 17,178 10,026

Birmingham, Ala 14,909 .... 11,254

Total Population 2,386,493 1,407,834 129,849

{Increase, 1890 over 18S0 ... . . 978,659 ....

Increase, Per Cent . . . . j . . . . 69.51 ....

Colored

Population.

1890.

iSSo.

14,271

6,480

10,287

S,095

11,655

8,179

13,700

8,143

16,244

10,068

15,875

10,109

13,630

12,240

12,563

5,082

10,370

6,479

These two tables forcibly illustrate the importance of
the negro problem to all sections of the country, since
the tendency here shown to exist must, if not checked
in a few decades, materially increase the colored popu-
lation of all the large cities of the country. It wilj sur-
prise many to be told that Philadelphia has a colored
population of almost forty thousand ; this number being
exceded in only three other cities, Washington, Balti-
more and New Orleans. And while the colored element
forms a far more important factor in the large cities of
the South than in those of the East and West, still it
presents in the latter no less serious problems, but of a
different nature and more complex in form. For in
the large cities of the South the colored population is
fairly well distributed over the whole city, with the ex-
ception of Richmond, where the larger portion of it is
contained in a single ward. In the cities of the North
and West the negroes are crowded into a \Qxy few wards.
In Richmond the negro district is designated " Africa,"
and it may be truthfully said that in each of the large

American Economic Association.

cities of the North and West in which the colored peo-
ple have settled in sufficient numbers, one may find an
" Africa" of the Richmond type. The two tables below
show for six cities of the North and West and six of
the South the distribution of the colored population by
wards according to the census of 1890. These tables
are the first, I believe, to present with a considerable de-
gree of accuracy the massing of the colored population

DISTRIBUTION, BY WARDS, OF THE COLORED POPULATION OF SIX
LARGE NORTHERN CITIES. (Census 1890).

Boston.

New York

Brooklvn.

Phil'a.

Cincinnati.

Wards.

Chicago.

25 Wards.

24 Wards.

26 Wards.

34 Wards.

30 Wards.

I . . .

1 3.381

124

272

794

171

2.744

522

1.759

2,997

193

861

722

143

494

2.573

487

401

502

2.335

482

108

125

1,286

61.

8,861

388

687

3.01 1

238

9
10

2,547

1,126

417

497

480

226

709

798

257

222

1,099

1,910

335

123

3,951

338

695

539

130

1.379

194

2,201

1,751

242

784

2,188

397

104

633

622

105

124

782

610

389

434

1,589

777

1.933

589

275

589

127

4,782

799

1,333

590

21-

' " 38

546

228

162

4,275

164

1,798

134

149

200

495

214

1,026

185

306

275

958

930

199

185

1,190

260

378

. . . .

222

1,375

202

27
28
29
30
31

....

2,077

103

53
36

644

130

. . . .

1,476

137

479

218

382

131

■

. . . .

....

. .

190

207

• • • •

"...

1,073

il .

! 14,271

8,125

23,601

10,287

39.371 11,655

Race Traits and Teyidencies of the American Negro. 15

DISTRIBUTION BY WARDS OK THI

: COLORED

POPULATK

)N OF SIX

LARGE SOUTHERN CITIES.-(Census 1890.)

Charleston,

Norfolk,

Mobile,

Atlanta, Ga.

Louisville,

New Orleans,

Wards

S. C.

Va.

Ala.

Ky.

La.

8 Wards.

6 Wards.

8 Wards.

6 Wards.

12 Wards.

17 Wards.

I,5IS

2,272

1,891

6,749

1,087

2,753

2,763

1,526

207

3.233

748

3.270

3,ooS

3,122

3.899

1,777

9.475

4,914

8,617

257

6.390

2,982

3.555

4,187

157

1,124

3.172

3.664

6,676

5.447

550

2,735

4,655

1,699

3.740

3.332

5.138

876

7.729

5,801

2,217

. .

2,663

1,330

3,356

2,664

4.883
3.789

4,311
5,260

1,127

2,572

2,174

1,274

4.492

. .

1,982

1.234

Total,

30,970

16,244

13.630

28,098

28,651

64.491

of northern and western cities into a few wards — which
as a rule are the most undesirable sections of the cities.
With the data given it will be easily possible for the
resident of any one of the cities to verify the writer's
statements. It needs to be observed that this tendency
is much more manifest in the North than in the South.
It may be that the distribution of the colored population
in the southern cities appears more even from the fact
that the subdivisions are larger than in the northern and
western cities.

The tendency towards concentration is more distinctly
presented by taking the total of the colored population
of a few wards and comparing this number with the
white population of the same wards. If we take, for
instance, Chicago, we shall find that out of the 14,271
colored persons living in that city, 9,122 or 63.90 per
cent, were living in three wards, which contained at the
same time only 6.3 per cent, of the total white popula-

i6 American Economic Association.

tion. In other words, these three wards contained al-
most two-thirds of the total colored, and less than one-
fourteenth of the white, population. This condition is
met with more or less in every city of any importance
in the North and West. In the case of the six cities,
selected for the purpose of illustration, the facts are
brought out clearly in the table below :

PERCENTAGE OK. THE WHITE AND COLORED POPULATION LIVING IN

THREE WARDS WITH LARGEST COLORED

POPULATION. (Census 1890).

I -rrr,.-^ Whitc ' Pct- r^ir>,»^ Colorcd Pcr-

! White populat'u centage p'-^,,,,^,^ Populatncentage

Population, in Three of Tot'l ^"PP^f* " in Three of Toi'l

1890. Wards. White. '^^o- Wards. Color 'd

Chicago .... 1,084,998 68,408 6.30 14,271 9,122 63.90

Boston I 439,887 47,862 10.88 8,125 4,430 54.52

New York. ...! 1,489,627 469,751 31.53 23.601 13,008 55.11

Brooklyn 795.397 79-958 10.05 10,287 4,058 39.44

Philadelphia . . 1,006,590 52,909 5-26 39,37' 14,445 3669

Cincinnati... . 285,224 23,606 8.28 11,655 4,634 39.75

Six Cities.. .1 5,101.723' 742.494 i4-55i io7.3io 49.897 46-49

The concentration according to this table would seem
to be greatest in Chicago and least in Philadelphia, while
the percentage of whites living in the three wards with
largest colored population is least in Philadelphia and
greatest in New York. The conclusion would seem to
be warranted that the most unfavorable conditions for the
colored population as indicated by the disproportionate
number of whites in the same localities are to be found
in Chicago and Philadelphia.

How far this is true for the former city is demon-
strated by the maps attached to the volume of " Hull
House Maps and Papers," modeled after ■Mr. Booth's
great work on the " Life and Labour of the People of
London." The work, which seems to have been done with
exceptional care, was under the direction of Mrs. Florence
Kelley, chief factory inspector of Illinois, who had

Rare Traits and Tcndoicics of the American Negro. 17

charge of the investigation made by the United States
Burean of Labor of the shims of large cities. The two
maps attached to this vohime show the concentration of
the colored population of the area investigated, which
includes parts of the three wards referred to in the table
above. One map shows the nationality and color of the
inhabitants of the section, the other the houses desig-
nated as ' brothels.' The first reveals that the colored pop-
ulation is concentrated in a very limited area, which at
the same time contains but a small number of whites,
while the rest of the section, inhabited by various nation-
alities, does not appear to contain a single house inhabited
by a colored person as a home. The second map shows
that the section inhabited almost exclusively by colored
persons is also the section which contains all the houses
of ill-fame in this part of the city.

So far as my personal investigations have gone, the
condition shown to exist in Chicago is found more or
less in all of the other large cities of the North and
and West. In Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Cin-
cinnati, the large majority of the colored population is
found to be living in the worst section of the city, a
section in which vice and crime are the only formative
influences. The negro in the North and West therefore
presents an even more serious problem than the negro
in the South, if mere numbers are disregarded.

In most of the states of the North and West the
rural counties are showing a constant decrease in the
colored population, the cities a constant increase. In
Missouri, for instance, out of a total of 115 counties, 74
show a falling off in colored population during the ten
years 1880-1890, while the five largest cities show a
considerable increase. In Indiana, which state at one
time was threatened with an invasion of negroes from

i8 American Economic Association.

the southern states, the colored population has decreased
in 48 counties. In Ohio 47 counties show a falling off
in colored population, while seven cities of the state show
an increase of a little more than nine thousand during
the last census period. For the two states, Ohio and
IMissouri, I have worked out a table in which the growth
of the urban at the expense of the rural population is
brought out with singular force.

COLORED POPULATION OF THE RURAL AND URBAN SECTIONS OF
OHIO AND MISSOURI, 1880 AND 1S90.

Ohio. Increase.

Total Colored population 87,113 79,900 7,213

City of Cincinnati 11,655 8,179

Cleveland 2,989 2,038

Columbus 5,525 3,010

Dayton 2,158 991

Springfield 3,549 2,360

Toledo 1,077 928

Xenia i,S68 1,943

Total Colored population of 7 cities . . 28,821 I9>449 9,372

Remainder of State 58,292 60,451 ^2,159

Missouri. Increase.

1S90. 18S0. 18S0-90.

Total Colored population 150,184 145.350 4,834

City of St. Louis 26,865 22,256

Hannibal 2,073 1.83S

Kansas City 13,700 8,143

St. Joseph . 3,686 3,227

Springfield 2,258 1,494

Total Colored population of five cities . 48,582 36,958 11,624
Remainder of State 101,602 108,392 '6,790

1 Decrease.

We see that in two of the richest agricultural states
of the Union the colored population is leaving the farms
for the cities. In both states the rural sections show an
actual decrease in the population while the cities alone
show an increase. This increase is therefore not a

Race Traits a7id Tendencies of the American Negro. 19

natural one, that is, an excess of births over deaths, but
is largely due to migration. There is no corresponding
tendency of the colored population to migrate from one
city to another. Most of the new comers are from the
countr}', but the city negro rarely returns to the country.
The tendency must in the end cause a general decrease
of the colored population of the northern states, since
the very heavy death rates of the negro population of
the large cities is not overbalanced by a greater birth
rate.

In the southern states this tendency prevails, but to a
less extent, on account of the very large rural popula-
tion in which losses by migration to the towns would
easily be balanced by a more favorable birth rate. In
many sections of the South, however, the negro seems
more and more to drift into those counties and tiers of
counties where his people are largely in the majority.
Such counties form what is known as the ' Black. Belt,'
of which the most important sections are the Mississippi
river belt which stretches from the Gulf to Memphis,
and the belt of the South Central States, which, passes
through central IMississippi, Alabama, Georgia and. tlie
southern part of South Carolina.

An aggregation of the colored population is to. be
found in every southern state such as I have shown to
exist in the northern cities.

In all these aggregations the colored people are in the
vast majority, but this does not seem to prevent the
whites from maintaining control of public affairs. Even
in counties where the negroes outnumber the whites
fifty to one the principal offices of the county are in the
hands of the latter.

I have deemed this point of sufficient importance to
abstract from the census returns a table for the principal

20 American Econo7nic Association.

southern states showing the concentration of the colored
population in certain counties, which at the same time
contain but a very small proportion of whites. In some
instances, it will be observed, the whites are but a very
small fraction of the total population. This tendency,
if persisted in will probably in the end prove disastrous
to the advancement of the colored race, since there is
but the slightest prospect that the race will be lifted to a
higher plane of civilization except by constant contact
with the wdiite race.

PROPORTION OF COLORED TO WHITES IN SELECTED COUNTIES OF
SEVEN SOUTHERN STATES, 1S90.

Alabama.

Counties. Whites.

Bullock 6,055

Dallas 8,016

Greene 3,235

Hale 5,iSo

Lowndes 4.563

IMareugo 7.946

Montgomery 14,682

Perry 6,812

Russell 5,814

Sumter 5,943

Wilcox 6,794

Arkansas.

Chicot 1,392

Crittenden 2,050

Jefferson 10,951

Lee 4,691

Phillips 5.695

Florida.

Jackson 6,332

Jefferson 3,558

Leon 3,121

Georgia.

Burke 5,817

Dougherty i,975

Green 5,332

Hancock 4,739

Harris 5,999

Houston 5 272

Monroe 6,621

Col'd to 1,000

Colored.

Whites.

21,005

3,469

41.329

5,156

18,771

5,802

22,321

4,309

26,985

5.9'4

25,149

3.165

41,485

2,826

22,516

3,305

18,729

3,221

23.631

3.976

24,022

3,445

10,023

7,200

11,890

5,800

29,908

2,731

14,187

3,024

19,640

3.449

11,211

1,771

12,199

3.429

14,631

4,688

22,680

3.899

10,231

5,180

11,719

2,198

12,410

2,619

10,797

1,800

16,341

3,100

12,516

1,890

Race Traits and Tendencies of the A7ncriean Negro.

Counties. Whites.

Oglethorpe 5,686

Steward 4,198

Sumter 7,008

Wilkes 5,616

lyOUISIANA.

Caddo 8,003

Concordia i,757

De vSoto 6,638

East Carroll 997

Ea.st Feliciana 5,196

Iberville 6,696

Madison 931

Tensas 1,153

West Feliciana 2,276

Mississippi.

Adams 6,128

Claiborne 3,533

Grenada 3,896

Holmes 7,084

Jefferson 3,589

Leflore 2,597

Lowndes 6,009

Madison 6,031

Marshall 9,731

Noxubee 4, 709

Sunflower 2,530

Tunica 1,259

Washington 4,838

Wilkins 3,962

Yazoo 8,690

South Carolina.

Abeville '5,142

Beufort 2,695

Berkely 7,687

Chester 8,482

Clarendon 6,987

Colleton 14,032

Edgefield I7,340

Fairfield 7, 139

Georgetown ........ 4.053

Hampton 6,827

Newbery 8,966

Orangeburg 15,654

Richland ii,933

Sumter 11,813

Williamsburg 9,355

Col'd to 1,000

Colored.

Whites.

11,264

1,981

11,484

2,736

15,098

2,154

12,464

2,219

23,541

2,942

13,112

7,463

13,220

1,992

11,360

11,394

12,707

2,446

15,142

2,261

13.204

14.183

15,492

13.436

12,785

5,617

19,895

3-247

10,980

3, 108

11,076

2,841

23,883

3,371

15,356

4,279

14,267

5,494

21,036

3,501

21,290

3,530

16,306

1,676

22,629

4,So5

6,850

2,708

10,895

8,654

35,530

7,344

13,626

3,439

27,701

3,188

31.705

2,094

31.421

11,659

47,739

6,210

18,178

2,143

16,246

2,325

26,245

1,870

31.916

1,841

21,460

3,006

16,840

4,155

13,717

2,009

17,468

1,948

33,738

2,155

24,885

2,085

31,792

2,691

18,420

1,969

22 Atnerican Economic Association.

Desirable as it would be to go into the details of this
tendency of the negroes to congregate in certain rural
sections of the South, as has been done for the large
cities, it is not possible to do so here. The many
changes that have been made in the area of such
counties as it would be most desirable to investigate,
make a thorough study of this phase of the problem
exceedingly difficult. In the state of Alabama, for
example, nearly all of the counties have undergone
some changes in area during the past thirty years, with
the exception of Dallas and Sumter counties, for which
the statistics are very interesting and instructive.

PROGRESS OF THE POPULATION OF TWO COUNTIES OF ALABAMA.
1850-1890.

Dallas Co. Sumter Co.

White. Colored. White. Colored.

1850 7,461 22,566 7,369 14,881

i860 7,785 25,840 5,919 18,116

1870 8,552 32,152 5.202 18,907

1880 8,425 40,007 6,451 22,277

1890 8,016 41,329 5.943 23,631

The colored population in both counties has increased
largely during the past forty years, while the white pop-
ulation has remained almost stationary or has actually
decreased. Part of the larger increase of the colored pop-
ulation is no doubt the result of migration from other
sections of the state ; a migration which, however, must
have taken place previous to 1880, since, during the dec-
ade 1880-90 the increase in the colored population of
both counties has been below the average.

The preceding table may be compared with the fol-
lowing which shows for four counties with a large white
population the white and colored population for the last
three census years.

Race Traits and Teiidencies of the American Negro. 23

PROGRESS OF THE POPULATION OF FOUR COUNTIES OF ALABAMA.
1870-1890.

Blount Co. Cleburn Co.

White. Colored. White. Colored.

1S70 9,263 682 7,441 576

1S80 14,210 1,159 10,308 668

1S90 20,155 1.770 12,427 791

Jackson Co. Walker Co.

White. Colored. White. Colored.

1870 16,350 3,060 6,235 308

1880 21,074 4,033 8,978 501

1890 24,179 3,840 14,422 1,656

The table shows that there is a similar tendency
toward concentration on the part of the white popula-
tion. Though this tendency does not seem general, the
whites in these counties have made gains in population
considerably in excess of the average rate of increase.
If the general tendency is due to emigration of the whites
from the counties now gaining in colored and decreas-
ing in white population, the fate of the negro West India
Islands will overtake the negro Gulf states of the
South.

The tendency to migrate to large cities and to certain
rural portions of the southern states, is not in the
nature of an exodus. In only a very few instances have
wholesale migrations taken place, and these as a rule
have met with disaster and have proved a disappoint-
ment to those who looked forward to colonization as a
means of solving the so-called " race problem." Proba-
bly the most notable instance was the so-called " Negro
exodus from the southern states" during the year 1879.
The movement assumed such proportions that a special
committee of the United States Senate was appointed
to investigate the causes which led to the emigration of
colored people from North Carolina, Louisiana, and
other states, largely to Kansas and Indiana. The com-

24 American Economic Association.

mittee held elaborate hearings, the results of which have
been published in a work of three volumes, forming a
valuable body of facts for study/

The main causes of this exodus would seem to have
been politicians, railways and land agents. There had
been some discontent on account of the restriction and
deprivation of the right to vote, but on the whole the
colored people seemed previous to this time to have been
contented. The exodus was largely the result of ex-
ternal causes and, as was expected at the time, proved a
failure. A few instances must suffice to make this point
clear, since I cannot go into the details of the movement.
But I wish to show that it was not so much the dissatis-
faction of the colored people with the prevailing con-
ditions in the southern states as it was the result of a
concerted arrangement of outsiders to induce them to
leave the plantations for the farms and cities of the
West.

One Benjamin Singleton appeared before the commit-
tee as a witness and testified that he was the " father of
the exodus," and that he had brought to Kansas, mostly
from Tennessee, 7,432 colored people during the period
1869-79. The people, according to this " father of the
exodus, " settled in Lyons and Cherokee counties, Kansas.
He asserted also that the emigrants he had taken to
Kansas " were happy and doing well " and that he was
" the whole cause of the emigration to Kansas. " " The
census returns of the past three decades fail to support
this assertion ; for according to the ninth, tenth and
eleventh censuses there never were, and are not to-day,

' Report and Testinionj' of the Select Committee of the United States
Senate to investigate the canj^es of the removal of the negroes from
the southern states to the northern states. 46lh Cong., second session,
Washington, D. C, 18S0. (Three Volumes.)

■•'Senate Report, Vol. I, p. XIII.

Race Ti-aits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 25

one-third of this number of colored persons in the two
counties named. In fact during the past decade the
very small number of negroes in these two counties has
decreased, in contrast with a large increase in the white
population.

PROGRESS OF THE POPULATION OF CHEROKEE AND LYON COUN-
TIES, KANSAS, 1R70-1S90.

Cherokee Co. Lvon Co.

Colored. White. Colored. White.

1S70 134 10,899 '26 7,SS8

iSSo i,86r 20,031 T.027 16,298

1890 1,342 26.421 1,031 22,163

The statement made, that 7432 colored people settled
in those two counties of Kansas cannot, therefore, have
been true. The aggregate population of these counties
has steadily increased, as is evidenced by the last state
census (1895) which gives to Lyon county a population
of 23,795 and to Cherokee 30,651. In view of this
progressive increase in the aggregate population it is
remarkable that the colored population should show a de-
cline. According to the reports of the Kansas Bureau of
Agriculture the general economic condition of these
counties is excellent, the aggregate value of agricultural
produce is considerable, the assessed valuation being
about seven million dollars for the former and four mil-
lions for the latter. There is a large variety of indus-
tries in agriculture and mining, and the section would
seem to be one where almost any class of people would
' increase and multiply.'

Among the many statements made before the commit-
tee as to the probability of the colored people meeting
with success in the northern states, is one by Senator
Blair who was a member of the committee. In reph-
to a statement by the chairman, Mr. Vance of North
Carolina, that he would not advise negroes to go to New
Hampshire, Senator Blair replied : " Well, I would, and

26 American EcoJiomic Association.

I will tell yon another thing, that twenty thonsand ne-
groes wonlcl do well in New Hampshire. I have known
a good viany ' negroes np in New Hampshire and I
never saw one that had any tronble in getting along
on acconnt of the climate. I extend a cordial invita-
tion to them to come to New Hampshire ; twenty
thousand of them could get along there and have a
chance of making a living. " ^ New Hampshire had a
colored population of 651 in 1790, 520 in 1850, and 614
in 1890. It would therefore seem that the cordial invi-
tation of the Senator of that state had not been heeded.
That the climate does play an important part in the
mortality of the negro will be shown in another part of
this monograph, in which the mortality of the race
will be dealt with.

Another interesting phase of the problem was brought
out in the testimony of a colored witness from Bolivar
county, INIiss. In reply to the question of the chairman
of the committee as to the causes of the exodus from
his county the witness replied : " So far as the exodus
from our county is concerned I don't believe there ever
would have been any man to leave there if it had not
been for a colored man that lives in Helena, by the name

of Dr. C . He came down here in '78 and he got it

into the minds of the people there that they could go to
Liberia ; that there was one tree there that bore the
bread and another that bore the lard and they had noth-
ing at all to do but to go to one tree and dry the fruit
that gave the bread and to the other tree and cut it and
set a bucket under it and catch the lard. It was the
most outrageous thing ever perpetrated on an ignorant
race in the world. "^

' The italics are the writer's.

'■^ Report and Testimony of Select Committee, etc., Vol. III., p. 34.

^ Ibid., Vol. Ill, page 520.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 27

In reply to the question of the chairman, " Is there
another place within your knowledge where the colored
people are so well off as they are in Bolivar count)' ? "
witness replies, " No sir, there is nowhere that they could
be better off if they would do only what they ought to
do and be industrious and work as they ought to work
to make their own way." ^ It may be of interest to
compare the progress of the colored with that of the
white population of this county for the past fifty years for
the purpose of showing how far the statements of this
witness are supported by the facts. In addition to the
data for Bolivar county, I give in the table below the
same facts for Washington county which adjoins Bolivar.

PROGRESS OF THE POPULATION OF BOLIVAR AND WASHINGTON
COUNTIES, MISSISSIPPI, 1840-1S90.

Bolivar Co. Washington Co.

White. Colored. White. Colored.

1840 384 972 654 6,633

1850 395 2,182 546 7,843

i860 1,393 9.078 1,212 14,467

1870 1,900 7,816 2.164 12,405

18S0 2,694 15,958 3,478 21,861

1890 3,222 26,737 4,838 35.530

The negroes according to the above table are largely
in the majority and increasing at a rate out of propor-
tion to the normal increase in the population at large.
The large increase is partly due to migration since a
natural increase in ten years of 10,779 ^'^ ^ population
of 15,958 would be impossible.

The most emphatic prediction was probably that of a
colored witness from Natchitoches parish. La., who ex-
pressed himself as follows in reply to the question of I\Ir.
Windom as to the probable effect on this exodus of the
election of a Democratic President : " The eff'ect would

' Report and Testimony of Select CommiUee, etc., Vol. Ill, page 523

28 American Economic Association.

be to create a great deal of consternation among them ;
I think it would cause them to leave the southern states,
not in a systematic way at all, but as they started away
this last year to go to Kansas, pell-mell — a regular
stampede — I am satisfied it would." ' Such was the
gloomy prediction. Twice since then a Democratic
President has been elected and the predicted exodus has
— not taken place. Much to the contrary the colored
population of Nachitoches parish has increased from
12,020 in 1880 to 15,551 in 1890, and the white popula-
tion of the same parish has made a corresponding
progress. So far as my information goes, no consternation
was created by the news of the election of }.Ir. Cleveland
in 1884 and 1892, and there was no stampede of any
kind.

The instances here quoted prove how far mere opinion
may mislead even the most sincere well wisher of the
colored race, and show the absolute necessity of a body
of carefully collected and thoroughly digested facts
from which to make deductions as to the present and pos-
sible future condition of the negro of the South. The
wholesale migration of the colored population of the
southern states to other sections of the United States, or
even to other countries, as IMexico and Liberia, may be
considered as the most remote possibility ; and it may
be safely asserted that all of the attempts in this direc-
tion have practically proven failures.

It would go beyond the purpose of this monograph were
I to attempt even an outline of the history of negro coloni-
zation, but I will quote the results of the most recent at-
tempt, that of colonizing American negroes in the state of
Durango in INIexico. Some seven to eight hundred
families entered into an agreement with a s^mdicate, by

1 Report and Testimony of Select Committee, etc., Vol. II, page 443.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro.

which they were to have 60 acres of land or more, ac-
cording to size of family, forty acres to be planted in
cotton and fifteen in corn, and properly tilled nnder
supervision ; the right being reserved, in case of default,
to employ labor at the expense of the colonist. Five
acres were given rent free for the sustenance of each
family. In addition, water for irrigation was to be fur-
nished free, as well as farming implements, mules and
teams for farming purposes, and food for the same. The
colonists were to perform all labor and receive one-half
of the crops. Houses, fuel and water were provided
free, and rations, medicines, etc., were furnished at cost
to be repaid out of the crops. Land was set apart for
one church and one school house to each one hundred
families. The colonists were to receive one-half of the
cotton seed as well as one-half of all the other products
raised by them, and they obligated themselves to sell to
the promoters all their corn, cotton and cotton-seed at
the market prices. The cost of transportation was to
be advanced, and to be repaid out of their share of the
crops.

The agreement was to last for five years. It did not
last one year. The whole plan proved a dismal failure
and a considerable pecuniary loss to those who directed
it, as well as a loss of time, money, and even life, to the
colonists. The negroes proved unreasonable and of far
less service than had been expected. They were con-
trolled largely by bad leaders of their own race who
stirred up strife, and they were induced to leave ' by a
little rascal who had been but recently released from the
Georgia penitentiary.' The colony came to an inglori-
ous end.

As to the fitness of the negroes for the work they had
agreed to perform, and which, as has been pointed out

30 American Economic Association.

in the above summary of the agreement, was ahnost
identical with sonthern farm labor, I cannot do better than
quote portions of a special report to the Evening Post^
dated July 8, 1895. ^" In the course of these conferences
with the negroes it became evident that they are, as a
class, incapable of assimilating readily with new surround-
ings or of applying to them the first dictates of common
sense. They are superstitious, suspicious and easily
swayed by the intriguers among them. The impression
left on the mind of an unprejudiced obser\'er was, in short,
that seventy-five per cent, of the negroes had left home
from a love of novelty and adventure, had exhausted
these delights and were bent on repudiating their agree-
ments and forcing their partners in the contract to
restore them to their homes without regard to right or
reason. The conclusion drawn from a close study of
this colony was, I regret to say, that it was foredoomed
to failure. While the region in which it was laid was
no paradise, it was free from the objections incident to
most of the similar previous efforts of this sort.
Whether wisely or mistakenly guided, every endeavor
was made to meet the reasonable requirements of the
colonists. To those who interest themselves in the
future of the negro this experiment presents little cause
for congratulation. It indicates, that the same limita-
tions which hinder his advancement at home, are equally
apparent when he changes his habitation and that until
he is capable of self control and intelligent application
among the surroundings with which he is familiar there
is but small hope that he will succeed amid strange en-
vironments. . . If this experiment is entitled to rank
as an example it would seem that the ordinary negro
' hand' of the southern states, whatever are his trials and
tribulations at home, is more likely to be satisfied there

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 31

than when transported to other, even if more favorable
scenes."^

I have qnoted from the report of Mr. Mackie at con-
siderable length becanse a correct view of the coloniza-
tion question is of the utmost importance. Colonization
is still advocated with persistency by many who see in it
the only solution of the so-called race question of the
South. If the negro cannot be colonized under such
favorable conditions as the experiment in Mexico pre-
sented (and no charge has ever been made that it was
not honestly managed on the part of the promoters of the
scheme) the sooner this is realized the better.

It has been shown that the negro has failed to gain a
foothold in any of the northern states as an agri-
cultural laborer ; it has been shown that he has re-
mained in the South, contrary to the many predictions
of wholesale migration ; and lastly it has been shown
that he has failed in the most recent experiment of
colonization. The conclusion to be drawn from the
statistical tables previously presented would be that he
is in the South as a permanent factor, with neither the
ability nor inclination to leave this section in large num-
bers, for the North or for foreign countries. The observed
tendency to drift into the cities, there to concentrate in
the most undesirable and unsanitary sections, is therefore
of considerable importance, since it is most likely to be
persisted in with increasing force in the future. The loss
thus sustained by the rural districts of the South is not
very large numerically nor proportionally, and the evil
effect will be more felt by the cities which are thus
augmented in population of an undesirable character.
The further tendency to concentrate into certain sections
of the South, especially those which already possess a pre-

' Charles Paul Mackie in the New York Evening Post.

32 American Eco7iomic Association.

ponderating colored population, presents the most serious
aspect of the problem. We have here to deal with
large numbers ; which must have a corresponding effect
on the welfare of the individual state thus affected, as
well as on the nation at large.

Chapter II.
vital statistics.

" Mortality statistics surpass all other vital statistics in importance,
whether they are considered from a social, an actuarial or a sanitary
standpoint." — Newsholme.

. This part will be devoted almost exclusively to a dis-
cussion of the mortality statistics of the colored popu-
lation, together with such information pertaining to the
white population as will bring out the most important
differences in the vitality of the two races. Desirable
as it would be to have as a basis a comparative state-
ment of the birth rates of both races, it must be admit
ted that information on this point is almost entirely
wanting, and that no trustworthy conclusion as to the
comparative fecundity can be arrived at. In the forth-
coming eleventh census reports on mortality, by Dr.
Billings, we may expect to find the best that can be
done in this direction at the present time ; and a com-
prehensive discussion of the comparative mortality may
enable us to make up for the want of reliable informa-
tion as to the comparative fecundity.

That the birth rate of the negroes is in excess of that
of the white population is probably true even at the
the present time, at least as compared with the native
whites. That it is not as high as has often been stated,
however, is proved by the fairly accurate statistics of
the West Indies. In Alabama we have had for a series
of years a commendable attempt to collect information
in this line, but with a varying degree of success. For
some of the northern states, especially Rhode Island,

34 American Economic Association.

Connecticut and Massachusetts, valuable information
has been collected but in view of the differences
in the age distribution of the colored population of
those states as compared with the whites, it is difficult
to arrive at a correct estimate. It would appear, how-
ever, that in the northern states the negro mortality is
in excess of the natality ; while the reports for Alabama
show a birth rate equal to twice the death rate. Among
the whites of Alabama the reports show three births to
one death. The admitted defects of the Alabama re-
ports may be assumed to affect the rates for both races
in the same degree, and the excess of natural increase
'in the white population as compared with the colored
is probably correctly represented by the table below :

VITAL STATISTICS OF THE WHITE AND COLORED POPULATIONS OF
ALABAMA, 1888-1893.

white Population.

Colored Population.

Ratio of

Births.

Deaths.

Births
to Deaths.

Births.

Deaths.

Births
to Deaths.

1888.

10,841

3.673

8,263

4,046

1889.

14,649

5,066

9.765

4,994

1890 .

13.631

4-716

9.955

5.005

I89I .

11,484

3.827

9.138

4.283

1^92 .

10,819

3.720

8,237

4,100

. . .

1893-

12,453

3.945

9,961
55,319

4.406
26,834

I8S8-93

73,877

24,947

2.96 to r

2.06 to I

In Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts the
vital statistics for the colored population have been col-
lected for many years, but it is only for the first named
state that I am able to give the returns for a period of
some length. For Massachusetts the information has
been collected but not published, excepting for the year
1888. The data so far as they have come to my notice,
are contained in the following three tables, all of which
show a mortality in excess of the registered births.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro.- 35

VITAI, STATISTICS OF THE COLORED POPULATION OK RHODE ISLAND.

Period.

Births.

Deaths.

iS6r-70 . . .

1,131

1,153

Excess of Deaths 22

1S71-80 . . .

. 1,6.5

1.573

Births 42

i88r-90 . . .

1,954

1,860

Births 94

1891-93 • • •

558

690

" Deaths 132

1861-93 . . .

. 5,25s

5.276

" Deaths 18

VITAL STATISTICS OF THE COLORED POPULATION OF CONNECTICUT.

Period. Births. Deaths.

1881-S5 . . . . 1,340 1,391 Excess of Deaths 51

1S86-90 .... 1.374 1,554 " " 170

1891-93 .... 939 990 " " 51

1881-93 .... 3,653 3,925 " " 272

\aTAL STATISTICS OF THE COLORED POPULATION OF
MASSACHUSETTS, i8S8.

Births 511

Deaths 579

Excess of Deaths 68

The three tables support each other and leave no.
doubt as to the excessive mortality and low birth rate of
the colored population in the northern states. Possibly
the omission of births would be balanced by omissions
of deaths and proportionally the result would be the
same even under the most perfect registration system.

The low vitality of the colored race in the North did
not escape the notice of the officials in charge of the
registration records, and some of the editorial comments
may not be out of place here. Dr. Fisher, for many
years the registrar of vital statistics of Rhode Island,
refers to the subject in the second annual report of the
state board of health, as follows : " The circumstances
favorable to the promotion of the physical health of
the colored population are believed to be at least quite
as favorable and ample in Rhode Island as in any other

36 Amcricaii Ecojwmic Association.

northern or eastern state. When we find that in a period
of eighteen years the excess of births over deaths is
only 42, and having full knowledge of the fact that
the state is annually having accessions to the number of
colored people by immigration and these accessions
largely in the periods of life between twenty and forty
years, we must conclude, however reluctantly, that the
race is not self-sustaining in this latitude.'"

Dr. Snow, the eminent registrar of Providence arrived
at practically the same conclusion nearly twenty years
before the above was written, and makes use of the fol-
lowing language, which seems justified by the facts
quoted : " During the past four years, 1855-58 inclusive,
176 colored children have been born in this city, of
which 88 were males and 88 were females. During the
same period there have been 206 deaths of colored per-
sons, or 29 more deaths than births. The colored popu-
lation is evidently not self-sustaining in this city.""

Mr. Appolino, one time registrar of Boston, in his re-
port for 1862 concludes that, " in each of the aspects in
which the subject may be viewed the colored race seems,
so far as this city is concerned, to be doomed to extinc-
tion."^ During the period of seven years preceding
1862 there had been reported 304 births of colored chil-
dren in Boston and 500 deaths ; which facts fully justify
tlie conclusion of ]Mr. Appolino, than whom Boston never
had a more able and conscientious registrar.

These conclusions, based, not on chance observation
or opinion, but on registration data, are in contrast with
the view of those who have held that the negro could live
in the northern as well as in the southern states of the

^ Secoud Annual Report of the Rhode Island Board of Health,
i(i8So), p. 107.

^Annual report for 1S58, p. 3.
^ Annual report for 1S62, p. 7.

Race Traits and Tendoicics of the Avicrican Negro. 37

Union. One instance of the latter claim has been given,'
and I select out of many others the statement of the au-
thor of the " History of the Maroons." In relating the
transfer of the Maroons to Nova Scotia, he speaks of the
effect of the climate as follows : " It is proved, by experi-
ence, that the negro race can endure the severity of a
cold climate as well as white people, if equally clothed,"^
The writer did not state on what experience this observ'a-
tion was founded but goes on to say that the Maroons
were later on removed to the Coast of West Africa, much
to their own satisfaction.

The vitality of the negro may well be considered the
most important phase of the so-called race problem ;
for it is a fact which can and will be demonstrated by
indisputable evidence, that of all races for which sta-
tistics are obtainable, and which enter at all into the con-
sideration of economic problems as factors, the negro
shows the least power of resistance in the struggle for
life.

Most writers who have dealt with the subject from
this standpoint have referred to the excessive mortality
of the colored race. Most of the officials of the health
offices of southern cities have from time to time dis-
cussed the waste of life among these people. Some
have essayed to treat of the causes, and others of the
means of prevention ; but thus far no effectual remedy
has been suggested wdiich would even slightly improve
the present condition, a condition which, unchecked, must
lead eventually to extermination, at a rate far more rapid
than the recent census returns would indicate.

In the second annual report of the Atlanta board of
health, occurs the following reference to the excessive
colored mortality : " The disparity in the relative death
1 Page 25.

*R. C. Dallas, "History of the Maroons," (London, 1S03), Vol. 11,
p. 199.

38 American Eco7iomic AssociatioJi.

rates of the whites and negroes is striking and invariable.
The record in this city does not differ from that of other
cities. The fact is significant and full of melancholoy
interest, and unless the figures in the cities are reversed
by the statistics from the rural districts, the fate of the
race will not be difficult to read."

The second annual report of the National Board of
Health, edited by the foremost medical authorities of
the time, gives expression to the following opinion :
" These figures (vital statistics of Cuba), demonstrate
conclusively, as the statistics of all southern countries
have invariably done, that the old idea that the negro
surpassed the white in enduring tropical or southern
climates was false ; and that in truth the colored death
rate is habitually greater," ^

This concensus of opinion of northern and southern
authorities is fully supported by all the available data.
It is true that most of the collected statistics have refer-
ence only to the large cities ; but in view of the tenden-
cy of the colored population to migrate from the country
to the cities in ever increasing numbers, and at the age
period most favorable for a low general death rate, the
proof of an excessive mortality rate is of the greatest
economic and social significance. The following table
will show the comparative death rates of the white and
colored populations of ten southern cities for the period
1890-94. The rates are calculated on the basis of the
census of 1890 in accordance with the method of Dr.
Farr. The mortality figures have been obtained from
the annual reports of the health officers of the respect-
ive cities. The rates will differ from those calculated by
the city authorities, who make use of no uniform method
in calculating the increase in the population.

1 Annual report, National Board of Health, i8So, p. 224.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 39

COMPARATIVE DEATH RATES OF THE WHITE AND COLORED POPU-
LATIONS OF TEN SOUTHERN CITIES, 1890-1894

Washington,

Baltimore,
Md.

Richmond,
Va.

Memphis.
Tenn.

Louisville,
Ky.

White. Col'd.

White. Col'd. White. Col'd.

White. Col'd.

1890 . .

1891 . .

IS92 . .

1893 . .

1894 . .

1890-94

18.97 34.74
19-37 33-27
20.70 32-57
21.33 32-79
18.62 30.85

19.80 32.78

21.96 32.28

20.87 32.47
21-55 3t.55
18.58 30.33
17.81 30.47

20.01 31.39

22.31 37.86
20.75 34-17
18.26 33.14
18.16 32.05
15.20 25.46

19.03 32.45

17.84 24.58
17-73 25.33
15-56 31-86
12.35 29.96
11.84 29.84

14.84 22.12

27.64 28.79
16.84 37.02
17.S4 29.42
16.96 26.85
15-99 25.47
17.04 27.41

Atlanta, Ga. Savann'h, Ga.

Charleston,
S.C.

Mobile, Ala.

New Orleans,
La.

1890 . .

1891 , .

1892 . .

1893 • .

1894 . .

189(^94

1
18.92 32.2624.70 37.8621.36 42.2021.57 34.5125.96 40.73
18.64 31-3622.29 31.2523.00 43.6121.50 29.5624.65 37.18
16.44 29.35 21. S3 33.6224.25 41.3623.93 32.9626.16 41-59
15 21 28.9221.51 30.7922.02 39.81 20.91 32.6224.53 39.65
12.58 22.2718.16 28.6119.62 39.80| 19.59 28.6523.04 37.97

16.17 28.5921.43 32.2622.05 41.3421.44 31.6024.85 39.42

COMBINED MORTALITY RATE OF TEN CITIES, 1890-1894.

Death rate, White, 20.12

Death rate, Colored 32.61

It will be observed that the mortality among the
colored exceeds that of the whites in each of the ten
cities embraced in the above table, which inclndes most of
the principal cities of the Sonth. The difference in the
comparative mortality of the two races is greatest for
Charleston and least for Memphis, but the percentage of
excess is greatest for Charleston and least for Mobile.
In the former city the negro death rate is 87.5 per cent,
above that of the whites, and in the latter 47.4 per cent.
For the ten cities combined the mortality of the negroes
exceeds that of the whites by 12.49 P^^ 1,000 of popu-
lation or by 62.1 per cent.

The results of this comparison therefore support the
opinions of the authorities previously quoted, even in

40 American Economic Association.

the case of those sections of the south which have been
considered least favorable for the white population.
The comparative rates are based on an aggregate white
population of 5,371,355 with 108,045 deaths, and an ag-
gregate colored population of 2,085,679 with 68,012
deaths. The period of observation covered five years in
which the health of each race was normal and not dis-
turbed by epidemics.

The facts brought out in the above table relate to
about 416,000 of the total colored population. Even if
the negro mortality in the country districts were less
than that of the whites, which it is not, the fact that
so large a portion of the colored population is affected
by the high death rate named must prove an important
factor, economic as well as social and moral, in the
progress of the race. Whatever the causes may be to
which we must attribute this difference in the statistics
of the two races, they deserve to be fully investigated.

The foregoing table, giving only the gross death rates
of the two races, is fairly reliable for southern cities,
since the age distribution of the two races is nearly the
same in each of them. But to fully comprehend the
significance of the higher mortality of the colored popu-
lation it will be necessary to consider the mortality rate
for the different periods of life. In the large cities of
the North and West the age distribution of the colored
population is so radically different from that of the
white that a gross death rate is of no value and is even
misleading.

The age distribution of the two races in two southern
and two northern cities is given in the table below, which
has been calculated from the census.

Race Traits ayid Tendencies of the Ajuerican Negro. 41

COMPARATIVE AGE DISTRIBUTION OF THE WHITE AND COLORED
POPULATIONS OF FOUR CITIES.— (1890.)

Ages.

New York.

Brooklyn.

Charleston.

New Orleans.

Percentage.

Percentage. | Percentage.

Percentage.

White.

Col'd.

White.

Col'd.'White.

Col'd.

White.

Col'd.

Under 15 . .

28.9

192

30.8

24.4 3046

3».95

,32.52

32-06

15-20 . .

9.9

7.6

9.8

8.7 11085

98210.79

9.86

20-25 • •

II. 7

1,^0

10.9

12.6 10.47

II. 19 10.70

10.49

25-35 . .

20.2

27-3

18.9

22.2 115.74

16.84,16.33

15.06

35-45 . .

13-3

J8.8

12.6

16.4 I12.17

13-58 11-42

12.97

45-55 . .

8.8

9.0

8.9 9.42

8.17I 8.83

9-99

55-65 . .

4.6

4-2 1 6.33

3-S5: 5-60

5.25

Over

2.6

2.0

3 0

2.6 4.56

3.60 3 81

4.32

According to this table the proportion of negroes in the
northern cities is largest for the age periods in which the
mortality is least, that is from fifteen to forty-five 3'ears.
This excess of adults at middle age is due solely to the
constant influx of 3'oung people from the southern states.
The result is that the gross death rate for the colored
population is not so high as it would be if the age dis-
tribution were the same as that of the whites. In the
southern cities the differences, it will be observed, are
very slight and the gross death rates of those cities are
therefore more reliable than those of the large cities of
the North and West, which understate the facts. This
element of error is eliminated in the following tables
which .show for six cities the comparative death rates of
the two races at various periods of life. For the four
northern cities the death rates are given for eight periods
and for Baltimore and the District of Columbia for four.
It is very unfortunate that in the reports of Dr. Billings,
from which the tables have been compiled, a different
method should have been employed for the two groups
of cities, thus making an exact comparison impo.ssible.

American Economic Association.

DEATH RATES OF FOUR CITIES FOR 1890. CALCUI^TED FOR EIGHT
AGE GROUPS.!

New York.

Brooklyn.

Boston.

Philadelphia.

White. Col'd.

White.

Col'd.

White.

Col'd.

White. Col'd.

All Ages

28.47 37-47

25-41

34.9924.62

33-29

22.28 32.42

Under 15 . .

47.06 87.42

40.69

69.4540.20

78.40

34.89 69.24

15-20 . .

5-65 1432

5.42

12.54 7.27

9.69

6.17 13.61

20-25 . .

9.84 16.12' 8.60

15-95: 9-76

17.64

8.81 14.50

25-35 . •

14.15 19.2412.65

"-53 12.43

14.72

10.S5 15.21

35-45 . •

2o.9r 25.29 15.93

21.79 16.37

18.98

13.60 17.16

45-55 . .

2930 355623.03

34.0221.71

36.07

18.98 29.41

55-65 . .

48.45 79-0540.60

47-9336-45

51.55

31.56 40.09

65 and ov.

105.16 94.8696.09

i44-37|94-oi

1 13.51 88.88 116.49

Still-births included.

DEATH RATES OF BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON, D. C, FOR 1S90,
CALCULATED FOR FOUR AGE GROUPS.*

Baltimore, Md.

Washington, D. C.

Ages.

^\^lite.

Colored.

White.

Colored.

Under 5 years . .

. So. 27

171.78

65.04

159-93

Under 15 years . ,

. 30.71

64.24

23.90

57.00

15-45 years . .

. 8.99

14.88

929

17.09

45 years and over.

. 37.49

42.3t

33-88

47.60

! Still-births excluded.

It will be observed that the gross death rates for
the colored population exceed those of the white
and this too, in view of the fact just stated, that
the age distribution of the colored is far more favor-
able for a low general death rate than that of the
white population. Considering the mortality rates for
various age groups it will be noticed that for the earliest
period the difFerence is enormous. In New York for in-
stance the white population for the age group o — 15
shows a death rate of 47.06 per thousand while that of
the colored population for the same age period is 87.42
per thousand. The same disparity is to be observed in
all of the other cities to a greater or less degree, and it is
not until we reach the higher age periods that we find

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 43

the mortality rates of the two races Hearing each other.
Even at the highest ages the white mortality rate rarely
approaches the colored. Only in one instance does it
rise above. Before considering the comparative differ-
ences in the mortality of the two races for the different
age periods, in the cities of the North, I wonld direct
the attention of the reader to the following tables for
three cities of the South, all of which may be considered
representative of the respective sections in which they are
located. The tables have been calculated by the writer
on advance statistics of the age distribution of the popu-
lation, kindly furnished him for this purpose by Mr.
Carroll D. Wright, the acting superintendent of the cen-
sus. The mortality returns have been obtained from
the board of health reports of the respective cities for the
year 1890. The age groups differ from those of the pre-
ceding table, giving the mortality for ten year periods
after the age of ten. But for the want of uniformity in the
mortality returns of southern cities it would have been
possible to give similar tables for other cities. However,
the cities furnishing reports for the above tables may
be assumed to represent fairly the prevailing condi-
tions in other cities of the south.

NBW ORLEANS— 1S90.

White.

Colored.

Rate per

Ages.

Population.

Deaths.

1000.

Population.

Deaths

1000.

O-I . .

3,842

1,035

269.4

1,290

555

430.2

0-5 . .

19.134

1,428

74.6

6,787

805

I18.6

5-9 • .

19,466

5-0

7,145

9.8

10-19 . .

38,216

165

4-3

13,179

154

II. 7

20-29 • •

34,467

377

10.9

12,091

•277

22.9

30-39 • .

24,502

509

20.8

9,169

270

29.4

39-49 . .

17,551

475

27.1

7,337

256

34-9

49-59 •

I2,66t

534

42.2

4,642

244

52.6

59-69 . .

7,634

501

65.6

2,476

221

89-3

69-79 . .

2,879

354

123.0

1,065

176

165.3

Afnerican Economic Association.

CHARLESTON.-i

890.

White.

Colored.

Ages.

Population

Deaths.

Rate per

1000.

Population.

Deaths

Rate per

IOCX3.

O-I . .

494

200.4

758

350

461.7

0-5 . .

2,285

148

64.8

3.455

5'7

149 6

5-9 • •
10-19 • •

2,365
5,231

8
17

3-4
3-3

3.391
6,428

37
104

10 9

l6.2

20-29 . .
30-39 • •
40-49 • •

4.420
3.406
2,526

47
57

9-5
13.8
22.6

6,503
4,635
3,2oH

170

112
98

26.1
24.2
30.6

50-59 •
60-69 . .
70-79 . .

1,859

1,184

440

47
69
47

253
58.3
106.8

1.674

1,031

407

79
66

430
766
162.2

RICHMOND.— 1890.

O-I . . . I,!02

206

1869

625

331

529.6

0-5

4.942

3^2

67.2

2,772

496

178.9

5-9

4,871

8.2

3.063

18.6

10-19

10,420

5-6

7,134

109

20-29

9.S59

1 13

II-5

7.387

'34

iS.i

30-39

7.053

13-9

4,634

21.4

40-49

5,030

18.3

3,488

26.4

50-59

3-539

100

28.3

1.853

49-7

60-69

2.119

101

47-7

1,021

73-5

70-79

834

104

124.7

380

121. 1

COJIPARATXVE DEATH RATES FOR THREE SOUTHERN CITIES.
DEATHS PER 1000 UVING AT SAME AGE. (1890.)

New Orleans.

Charleston.

Richmond.

Ages. White. Colored.

White. Colored.

White.

Colored

O-I ... 269.4 430.2

200.4 461.7

186.9

5298

0-5

74.6 118. 6

64.8 149.6

67.2

1789

5-9

5.0 9.8

3.4 10.9

8.2

18.6

10-19

4-3 i'-7

3-3 '6.2

5-6

10.9

20-29

109 22.9

9.5 26.1

II-5

iS.l

30-39

20.8 29.4

I3.S 24 2

139

2T.4

40-49

27.1 34.9

22.6 30.6

18.3

26.4

50-59

42.2 52.6

25-3 43-0

28.3

49 7

60-69

65.6 S9.3

58.3 76.6

47-7

73-5

70-79

123.0 165.3

106.S 162.2

1247

121. 1

I have given all the data from which the rates were
calculated, in order to enable the reader to form his own
opinion as to the value of the results. The three tables
fully support the previous conclusions for northern cities
and show that the greatest excess of mortality amongst

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 45

the colored falls on the early age groups. The excess
at the very early ages, /. <?., from birth to the end of the
first year and to the end of the fifth year is, however,
not as great proportionately as the excess at the age
periods immediately following ; but the actual excess,
the greatest waste of life, falls on the earliest age
group. The economic importance of this fact can-
not be overestimated. An excessive infant mortality,
such as we meet with among the white population in
all parts of the country, has at all times been the con-
cern of the philanthropist and economist, but nowhere
else do we meet with such a frightful infant mortality
as we find prevailing among the colored population of
the large cities, both North and South. In one city,
Richmond, over half of the negro children die under
one year, a mortality so great that no greater fecundity
could balance the loss. The increase of the population
which we observe in all cities of the South and North,
must therefore be largely due to migration from the coun-
try. In the cities of the South there is less difference in
the death rates of the two races as the higher age groups
are reached, but in only one case is there a difference in
favor of the colored race. These differences are brought
out in the tables which follow, in which the percentage
of excess of the negro mortality over the white is shown
for three age periods, first for Washington and Balti-
more, second for the three southern cities, to which is
added a comparative table for four northern cities.

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY OF WHITES AND NEGROES* IN BALTI-
MORE AND WASHINGTON, 1890.

Baltimore.
Ages. White. Col'd.

Col'd over

White.
Per cent.

Washington.
White. Col'd.

Col'd over

White.
Per cent.

oto 15 . . . 30.71

64.24

109.2

23.90

57.00

138.5

i5to45 . • • 8.99

14.88

65.5

9.29

17.09

84.0

45 and over. . 37.49

42.43

13.2

33-88

47.60

40.5

1 Vital Statistics of Washington and Baltimore,
4

1890, p. 6.

46 Afncrica7i Economic Association.

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY OF NEGROES AND WHITES.

Four
North'n Cities.>

South-
White.

Four

n Cities.!

Colored.

Excess of
Negro Jlortality.

O-I .
0-5 •

230.92
72.74

240-57
72.17

467.67
144.38

94.4 per
100. 1

cent.

5-IO.
I0-20 .

7-50
5-45

551
4.58

12.58
12.11

128.3
164.4

20-30 .
30-40 .

9-37
13.60

10.95
18.76

21.58
25.11

97.8
33-9

40-50.
50-60 .
60-70 .

19.49
26.57
56. SS

24.88
37.71
61.70

.32.32
47.64
78.18

29.9
26.3
26.7

Boston, St. Louis, New Haven and Cincinnati.
Savanah, New Orleans, Charleston and Richmond.

The percentage of excess in negro mortality is here
shown to be highest for the period of life under fifteen,
next highest from fifteen to forty-five and lowest for the
age periods over forty-five. There are slight deviations
from this rule but none which materially affect the
conclusion that the young generation of the colored
population shows the highest, and the oldest generation
the lowest, percentage of mortality above that of the
white race.

It may be of value to show briefly the influence of sex
on this excessive mortality. I have abstracted, in part,
from the reports of Dr. Billings, the comparative mortal-
ity of the two sexes for three cities for eight age groups.
I have selected the three northern cities w^here females
largely predominate and the increase in the population
is largely due to migration from the country. The
tables are deserving of consideration as showing the
effects of city life on the colored population of middle
age.

Race Traits and Te7idenncs of the Ayncrican Negro. 47

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY OF WHITE AND COLORED ACCORDING
TO AGE AND SEX.— 1890.

NEW YORK.

Male.

Females.

White.

Colored.

White.

Colored.

All ages . .

31-15

42.06

25.87

33-OI

Under 15 .

51.15

96.76

42.97

78.23

15-20 .

6.25

18.82

5.13

10.86

20-25 .

11.47

21.17

8.52

11.47

25-35 .

1554

21.40

12.71

17.02

35-45 .

2330

29.69

18.32

20.45

45-55 .

31.86

40.68

26.60

30.20

55-65 .

53-88

98.16

43.41

65.82

65 and o^

rer,

107.99

87.72

102.84

98.51

BOSTON.

All Ages. .

25.96

31.56

23.37

35.32

Under 15

43.18

75.22

37-18

81.40

15-20

7.22

9-58

7.31

9.80

20-25

10.88

15-76

8.79

19.76

25-35

12.85

15.51

12.03

13.60

35-45

17.54

2397

15.15

12.59

45-55

23-39

31.39

19.94

41.90

55-65

38.02

52.98

35.12

50.00

65 and o\

er,

97.19

129.03

91.72

105.69

PHILADELPHIA.

All ages. . .

23-85

36.02

20.79

29.23

Under 15

37.22

75.81

32-51

63.12

15-20

6.49

15.01

5-89

12.66

20-25

10.12

19.75

7-64

10.46

25-35 .

11.28

14.12

10.43

16.24

35-45 .

15.30

20.52

II. 91

13.55

45-55 .

20.85

33.67

17.20

25.48

55-65 . .

36.44

47.70

27.42

34.57

65 and ov

er,

93.51

155-26

85.35

96.47

PERCENTAG

E OF COLORED MORTALITY OVER WHITE, ACCORDING

TO AGE AND SEX

Males.

Females

New

Philadel-

New

Philadel-

Ages.

York. Boston,

phia.

York.

Boston.

phia.

Per

Ct. Per Ct.

Per Ct.

All ages . .

• 35

0 21.6

51.0

27.6

5I.I

40.6

Under 15

. 89

2 81.6

103.7

58.8

I16.2

94.2

15-20

. 201

0 32.7

131-3

III.7

20.4

I14.9

20-25

. 84.6 44-9

95-2

34-6

124.8

36.9

25-35

. 38.4 20.7

25.2

33-9

13. 1

55.7

35-45

. 27.4 36.7

34-1

11.6

13.8

45-55

. 27.7 63.4

61.5

13-5

109.6

48.1

55-65

. 82

2 20.5

30.1

5J.6

42.4

18.8

65 and o^

rer, *

32.8

66.0

4.2

13-0

■ White mortality in excess of colored.

48 Aincrica7i Economic Association.

The excess in the negro mortality rate varies consid-
erably for some age groups, which is due, in part, to the
small numbers on which the ratios are based. How-
ever, for the age periods under 25, the excess of mor-
tality is greater for males than for females and almost
without exception the numerical mortality for colored
males is in excess of that of the females at all periods
of life. The most important exception is to be observed
in Boston where the mortality of females under 25 is in
excess of the male mortality. In New York and Phila-
delphia the females with slight and unimportant excep-
tions have a lower mortality rate than the males, irre-
spective of race and age. In Boston white females at
all ages, excepting fifteen to twenty have a more fav-
orable mortality rate than males, while colored females
have a lower mortality only after the age twenty-five.
This favorable rate for females is due in part to the
greater liability of the male to accidental death, more
frequent exposure to the inclemency of the weather, and
last, not least, to his more pronounced criminal ten-
dencies. Females also are usually employed as domestic
servants and in consequence are better cared for in every
respect than the colored male, who only too often leads
the life of a vagrant and roust-about in search of some-
thing to do, honest or otherwise.

The effect of conjugal condition on the mortality rate
is fairly well brought out in a table for Washington and
Baltimore abstracted from the report of Dr. Billings.
The respective death rates are given for two age periods
and afford an interesting comparison. It must be taken
into consideration, however, that the conjugal condition
of the colored population is not so clearly defined as it is
for the white raze. This is easily understood when I
mention the fact that over 25 per cent, of the colored

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 49

children born in Washington are reported as illegitimate,
as compared with less than 3 per cent, for the whites.
It is probable, however, that all those who had borne
children were ennmerated as married, or at least those
who were living under the conditions of married life.

DEATH RATES OF THE WHITE AND COLORED POPULATIONS
ACCORDING TO CONJUGAL CONDITION.

MALES-AGES 15-45.

FEMALES-AGES 15-45.

Washington. Baltimore.

White. Col'd. White. Col'd.

Single . . . 10.47 18.58 9.19 13.75

Married . . 9.06 16.67 S.9S 13.49

Widowed.. 40.17 50.51 26.95 30.93

Washington. Baltimore.

White. Col'd. White, Col'd.
6.44 14.50 6.53 13.20
9.56 16.72 9.76 16.31

13.65 15.12 12.02 14.36

MALE.S-45 AND OVER.

FEMALES— 45 AND OVER.

Single . . . 48. 23 69.33 35-70 6o.8i
Married . . 29.94 40.75 31.22 39.60
Widowed . . 80 12 99.42 74.59 83.48

26.04 37-6t 37.79 46.05
1805 28.50 24.13 24.77
42.00 56.37 54.85 46.01

It remains for me to add to the present series of tables
two which have some bearing on the condition of life of
the colored population in our large cities, namely those
showing altitude and density of population. It is a fav-
orite argument with some authors who have written upon
the causes of the excessive mortality of the colored race,
that the low social and economic conditions of the.se peo-
ple, as well as the general unsanitary condition of their
dwellings, are largely responsible for their higher mor-
tality. In a word, they attribute to the environment
most of the ills that at present affect so seriously the
duration of life for the colored race. These writers argue
that, given the same social, economic and sanitary con-
ditions of life, the colored race would enjoy the same
health and favorable death rate as the white population.
The powerful influences of a bad heredity are almost
wholly ignored and the greatest stress is laid upon the
effect of the environment. I therefore call attention to

Americayi Economic Association.

the tables below, which, so far as I am aware, present cer-
tain facts not hitherto published. It is true that the Sur-
geon-General of the Army,' as well as Dr. Cunningham of
the Alabama Penitentiary,^ have called attention to the
fact that even under the same conditions, subject to the
same regulations, fed and clothed in the same manner as
the white man, doing the same class of work, the negro is
still subject to a higher death rate ; but the statements*
of these two high authorities have never been duly con-
sidered by those who believe so firmly in the all power-
ful effect of the ' milieux.'

DEATH RATES OF THE WHITE AND COLORED POPULATION AT ALL
AGES AND UNDER 5 YEARS FOR TWO CITIES, ACCORDING
TO ALTITUDE."

Washiugon.

Washingon.

Average
Altitude

All Ages.

(In feet.)

White.

Uuder 25 21.26

25- 50

50- 75

75-IOO

Over 100

19-83
17.24

15-67
17.24

Col'd.
37-48
37.06
31-87
32.56
31-23

All Ages.

Under 5 yrs.'

White.

23-63
21.84
21.64
18.31
17.16

Col'd.
44-65
36-51
34-34
28.03
28.21

White.

78.85
I 71-41

57.59

5230
' 57.87

Col'd.

White.

167.69 86.92

155.21 76.96

159-57 78.78

157-^*^9 66.16

136. II 58. 70

Col'd.

203.30

194-03

155-68

1 48. .^9

145-53

1 Exclusive of still births.

DEATH RATES OF THE WHITE AND COLORED POPULATION OF TWO
CITIES, ACCORDING TO DENSITY OF POPULATION.

Persous to the Acre.

Washington.

All Ages.

White. Colored.

Under 25 18.51 35.46

25-50 18.54 31-19

50 aud over 17.78 34-72

Baltimore.

Uuder 50 22.73 39-13

50-100 18.34 27.74

Over 100 21.58 36.98

1 Exclusive of still births.

Under

5 years.i

White.

Colored.

60.94

161.77

66.31

148.49

64-34

163.98

80.11

196.40

66.91

14934

77-S7

171.65

^ Johu Moore, Aunual report, Surgeon-General of the Army, 1889,
p. 18.
'^ Medical News, Feb. 3, 1894.

Race Traits a?id Tendencies of the America?i Negro. 51

The above two tables are of great value as evidence
that environment has less effect on the duration of life
than have the factors of race and heredity. It will be ob-
served that even under the most favorable conditions as
indicated by a high altitude and low density of popula-
tion, the excessive negro mortality rate remains compara-
tively the same. The per cent, of excess in the rate for
the population living under the most unfavorable condi-
tions as indicated by the degree of altitude, is 76.29 for
Washington and 88.95 for Baltimore, while for the popu-
lation under the most favgrable conditions the excess is
81.15 per cent, for the former and 64.39 per cent, for the
latter city. The evil effect of a low altitude is too well
known to need more than a reference to it, and the im-
portance of these remarkable facts will be fully under-
stood by those familiar with the influence of soil moisture
on mortality. I give similar information for the age
group under five, and also with respect to the effect of
density of population, to assist those who wish to trace
more fully the effect of environment on the mortality of
the colored race. It may be of interest here to give the
comparative distribution of the white and colored popu-
lations of Washington and Baltimore according to alti-
tude. It will be seen that in the two cities the negroes
live in larger proportion in the most favored localities
so far as indicated by a higher altitude. Hence the gross
death rate of the colored race is only slightly if at all
affected by either altitude or density, both of wdiich are
factors of the highest importance in the duration of life
in the white race. The conditions of life therefore, so
far as these two factors are concerned, would seem to be
of less importance than race and heredity.

52 American Economic Association.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE WHITE AND COLORED POPULATIONS OF TWO
CITIES ACCORDING TO ALTITUDE.— (Percentage of total population.)

Baltimore,

, Md.

Washington

, D. C.

1890.

Average

White.

Colored.

White.

Colored.

Altitude in feat.

Per Cent.

PerCe.it.

Per Cent.

Under 25 ... .

18.01

12.53

- 14-53

19.62

25-50. . .

25-58

19.01

25 62

15-14

50-75 • • •

14-59

12.77

38. 55

40. 86

75-100. . .

20.25

1S.72

1494

17-79

100 and over

21.57

36.97

6.36

6.59

The natural question in \'iew of this proof of an ex-
cessive mortality of the colored race, an excess met with
under all the varying conditions, locality, age, sex, con-
jugal condition, altitude and density of population, is,
whether the unusual mortality has always existed or is
of recent origin, i. e.^ whether the excessive mortality is
a result of new conditions of life or is a fundamental
race trait. It will always be difficult to an-swer this
question satisfactorily, since the mortality statistics
for the early part of the present century are wanting in
details, without which it is difficult to arrive at a satis-
factory conclusion. The higher rate of increase of the
colored population during the period preceding the war
would indicate that during slavery the mortality was
not so high, at least not in the United States, as it has
been since emancipation, while the gradual lowering of
the decennial rate of increase would indicate that a pro-
cess of deterioration has been going on ever since 18 10,
but less intense before emancipation than during the
past thirty years.

So far as I have been able to ascertain, the only fairly
complete record of white and negro mortality for a con-
siderable length of time has been kept in the city of
Charleston, for which city we are fortunate enough to
have an almost unbroken record from the year 1822.
Through the kindness of Dr. H. B. Horlbeck, the health

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 53

officer of Charleston, I have been able to obtain a state-
ment of the comparative mortality of the two races from
1822 to 1894, excepting the war period, when no data of
value were collected. To Dr. Gordon de Sassure of the
same city I am indebted for a copy of the census of
Charleston for 1848, which is a document of great sta-
tistical and historical value. I am therefore able to in-
clude in the table which follows, some statistics which
have seldom been used, and which I trust will be of
value to those who are interested in the course of the
mortality of the two races. I have also obtained from
Dr. T. S. Scales, former health officer of Mobile, a partial
statement of the white and colored mortality of that city
for the period 1843-55, with some years missing. For
Savannah I have compiled the mortality returns for the
period preceding the war, from the very valuable essay of
Dr. Eugene Corson on the " Vital Equation of the Col-
ored Race." For all recent years I have made use of the
official board of health reports for the various cities. The
death rates are based on the population estimated in ac-
cordance with Dr. Farr's method for intercensal years,
thus insuring uniformity and freedom from the indi-
vidual guess work. It is of course unfortunate that the
periods under observation are not always the same, but
this is unavoidable in view of the dearth of data.

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY OF SOUTHERN CITIE.S FOR VARIOUS
PERIODS OF TIME.

Mobile, Ala.

Charleston, S. C.

Periods.

White.

Colored.

Periods.

White.

Colored.

1S43-46
1847-50
1852-55
1876-80
I SB 1-85
18S6-90
1891-94

45-S3
42.53
54.39
24.64
26.14
23-92
21.40

23.10
31-19
34-70
39-74
36.26

35-11
30.91

1822-30
1831-40

1851-60
1866-75
1876-85
1886-94

32-73
2524
16.17
29.79
25-56
24.32
22.26

28.16
25.02
19.77
34-12

44-06

American Econoyyiic Association.

COM PAR.

VTIVE MORI

rAUTY OF SOUTHERN CI

riES FOR VARIOUS

PERIODS OF TIME.

Savannah, Ga.

New Orleans, La.

Periods.

White.

Colored.

Periods.

White.

Colored.

1856-60

37.19

34.07

1849-60

596

52.1

1861-65

50.19

49-65

1871-73

28.63

44.61

1866-70

33-16

57.26

'875-79

31-25

40.22

1871-75

32.70

44.82

1S80-84

25.01

52.33

I.S76-80

38.60

51.66

1S85-89

2381

35-22

1881-85

27.02

41.67 1890-94

24.85

3942

1886-90

22.52

37.26 \

1891-94

21.43

32 26 '

The table before us presents with a fair degree of ac-
curacy the course of the death rates for both races for
long periods of time. While the point to be brought
out by this table is not as clear as would be desirable, it
is shown that for the white population there has been a
considerable and fairly constant fall in the death rate ;
while for the colored population the mortality at the
present time would seem to be higher as a rule than it
was forty or fifty years ago. For Charleston the records
are the most complete and therefore the most satisfactory
from a statistical standpoint, and they show clearly the
unfavorable change in the mortality rate of the colored
race.

If we combine the periods under observation so that
one period is formed by the years before the war and the
other for the period of freedom, we have a more compact
body of data in which the possibility of accidental varia-
tion is eliminated. By this method the death rate of the
white population of Charleston is shown to have been
25.60 before the war and 24.04 for the period 1866-94,
giving a decrease m the white mortality of 1.56 per
1,000. The mortality rate of the colored population
during the same period increased from 26.45 during
1822-60 to 43.33 during 1S66-94, or 16.88 per 1,000,

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 55

In Mobile the mortality rate of the whites decreased
from 48.26 during the period 1843-55 ^^ 24.13 for the
period 1876-94 while in the same interim the negro
mortality rate increased from 30.31 to 35.60 per 1,000,

For these two cities therefore the conclusion is war-
ranted that the negro mortality has largely increased
since emancipation, and that too in the localities con-
sidered most favorable for the race. What is here shown
to be true for two cities, each of which represents dif-
ferent conditions of life, economic as well as climatic
and sanitary, we may assume to hold fairly true for other
sections of the south. The proverbial longevity of the
negro has probably never existed as a matter of fact, but
we have an abundance of testimony, unfortunately little
of it statistical, that previous to emancipation the negro
enjoyed health equal if not superior to that of the white
race. Consequently the proved tendency towards a
higher death rate must be considered an evidence of race
deterioration, which in part will explain the gradual
lowering of the rate of increase of the colored popula-
tion, brought out more distinctly than ever by the cen-
sus of 1890.

The above facts, however, are insufficient for a deter-
mination of the importance that should be attached to
the increasing mortality rate of the colored race. This
is brought out by comparing the death rates at various
ages and periods of life.

The first table has been comj^iled in part from the
valuable report of De Saussure on the census of Charles-
ton in 1848,' and in part from a table of Charleston death
rates previously given. At the same time the per cent,
of excess in the negro mortality rate over the white, or

'Census of the city of Charleston for the year 184S, by J. L. Daw-
sou, M.D. and H. W. De Saussure, M.D. Charleston, S. C, 1849.

56 Avierican Economic Association.

vice versa^ is shown in a separate column. The rates
have been calculated in conformity with others of the same
kind, namely, on the living population for the same ages.

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY FOR CHARLESTON, S. C, 1S48 AND 1S90.
(Deaths per 1,000 living at same ages.)

Excess of Col'd

[848.

1890

motality over

White.

Col'd.

White.

Col'd.

1S4S.
Per ct.

1S90.
Per ct.

Under 5 . .

. . 3I-I

75-0

64.S

149-6

141. 1

130.9

5-10 . .

. . 58

3-9

3-4

10 9

220.6

10-20 . .

. . 30

II. I

16.2

261.3

406.3

20-30 . .

. . II. 2

12.3

9-5

26.1

9.8

174.7

30-40 . .

. . 16. 1

15-3

13.S

24.2

75-4

40-50 . .

. . 21. 8

21.9

22.6

30.5

0.5

350

50-60 . .

. . 28.4

28.3

25-3

43-0

70.0

60-70 . .

• • 47-5

58.8

58.3

766

23-8

31-4

70-80 . .

• • 97-3

106.3

106.8

162.2

9.2

51-9

1 white mortality in exces.s of colored.

This table is most interesting and valuable from an
economic or other scientific standpoint. We can here
trace the rate of the mortality through the various
stages of life and compare the tw^o races at two radically
different periods, the one under slavery, the otlier under
freedom. During the former, according to this table,
the mortality of the colored exceeded that of the white
population for the age period 0-5 by 141 per cent., and
in 1890 by 131 per cent. For the second age group the
negro mortality rate for 1890 was 221 per cent, higher
than that of the whites, in contrast with a former
excess in the mortality of the whites for this age
group. For the two next higher age groups the rate
is almost double at the present time what it was
before emancipation, and for the next three groups
a former mortality rate favorable to the colored
race has been changed into one largely unfavorable.
At the most advanced aees the numbers are rather small

Race Traits and Teiidcncics of the American Negro. 57

and the excess of negro mortality at these periods is
difficult to define.

As general inferences to be drawn from the table before
us it may be safely concluded that the negro mortality
rate has increased for all periods of life ; that the ex-
cess of negro mortality over that of the whites previous
to emancipation existed to a considerable degree for
only two age periods below the age sixty, but that at
the present time it is to be observed at all ages. At the
present time the excess is greatest for the first genera-
tion, and least for the third — if we divide the whole of
life into three periods as has been done heretofore. It
would seem therefore, thafthe young generation is the
one least fit for race survival, and the consequent loss of
social effectiveness, as Mr. Kidd calls it, is enormous.
The great difference in the expectation of life for the
two races is brought out with scientific accuracy in the
following life table, abstracted from the census of 1880.
No official life tables have been compiled since that
year.

COMPARATIVE EXPECTATION OP LIFE FOR WHITE AND CGI

ORED

PERSONS IN FOUR SOUTHERN CITIES IN 1880.1

Iwashingt'n, D.C.i Baltimore, Md. Charleston, S. C.

New Orleans, La.

AGES.

1880.

1880. ! iSSo.

iSSo.

Whites. Col'd.

Whites.

Col'd.

Whites.

Col'd.

Whites.

Col'd.

Years. Years.

Years.

0 . . .

42.36 25.25

38.18

23.26

38.34

21.82

38.10

25-56

5 •

51.85 44.48

51-72

44-32

48.10

40.68

47.88

40.76

10 .

48.71 42.13

49.66

42.40

44.24

37-96

44-16

37-50

20 .

40.42 35-34

41.50

36.62

36.24

31.60

35-80

3063

30-

33.64 30.22

34-74

30.64

30.08

27-14

29-35

26.98

40.

27.36 24.63

28.05

24.68

24.60

21.51

23.78

22.49

50.

21.06 18.90

21.27

18.92

18.80

15-72

18.62

17.78

60.

15.01 13.70

15-01

13-42

13-14

11.04

13-58

13.22

70.

9.98 9- '9

10.24

8.87

8.81

7.90

9-43

898

80.

6.70 6.37

7.14

6.38

6.59

5-94

6.73

6.46

' Census of 1880, Vol XII, pages 773-783-

This table shows the expectation of life at ten selected
ages for both races, in representative southern cities,
bringing out in a forcible way the difference in the

58 American Econoytiic Association.

vitality of the two races. In the District of Columbia
a white person at the age of thirty for instance would
have a chance of living about three and a half years
longer than a colored person of the same age ; in Balti-
more about four years, and in New Orleans two and a
half years. But this is an age at which the general
mortality is very low for both races. At all the earlier
ages the differences are of course much greater. The
excessive mortality at the very early ages of course af-
fects the mortality at the older ages by reducing the dif-
ferences between the two races. For the periods of old
age the expectation of life is almost the same for both
races. A clear idea as to the effect of an excessive mor-
tality is brought out by means of a life table showing
the number surviving at various ages out of a million
born. Such a table has been abstracted from Dr. Bil-
lings' report on the vital statistics of the tenth census,
those for the eleventh census not having as yet been
made public.

COMPARATIVE APPROXIMATE IJFE TABLES FOR FOUR vSOUTHERN

CITIES, SHOWING THE NUMBER OF SURVIVORS

AT SELECTED AGES.

(Abstracted from the Report of the loth Census, Vol. XII, pp. 773- 7S3.)

Washington, D. C. Baltimore, Md.

1880. 1S80.

Ages. Whites. Colored. Whites. Colored.

o 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000

5 739,661 499,169 664,869 458,964

25 662,723 401,081 579.191 361,966

45 516,330 291,601 468,126 268,706

65 326,461 158,444 301,471 150,481

85 49.104 17,807 48,985 15.676

Charleston, S. C. New Orleans, La.

O T, 000, 000 1,000,000 1,000,000 1,000,000

5 715.404 465,753 712,193 548,488

25 635,585 357.608 634,301 426,354

45 455,493 249,404 448,348 271,075

65 258,954 105,958 238,176 134.717

85 24,609 6,405 34,754 14,990

Race Tfaiis and Tendencies of the American Negro. 59

This table reads that in the city of Washington ont
of a million whites born during the year 1880, 739,661
will survive to their fifth year, while only 499,169 of the
colored population will survive, a difference of 240,492
lives. This represents an enormous economic loss.
For if we take into consideration the number of years of
life lost through such an excessive mortality, we have a
fair means of estimating the resulting economic loss.
It would be impossible to consider this point at length,
but I subjoin a brief abstract of the life table of Char-
leston for 1880, which shows for both races, with dis-
tinction of sex, the number of years of life remaining at
various ages.

NUMBER OF YEARS OF LIFE REMAINING TO SURVIVORS AT
SEI^ECTED AGES, ACCORDING TO COI,OR AND SEX.

Charleston, S. C—

1880.

White

Colored.

Ages.

Males.

Females.

Males.

Females.

10 . .

13,874,245

17.070,833

8,273,445

8,400,897

25 • •

9,077,720

11,803,905

5,213,560

5,397,550

45 • •

4,025,910

5,973,925

2.199,075

2,396,175

* 65 . .

955,885

1,804,695

431.860

530,400

The economic loss involved in such a great waste
of life is difficult to estimate, but it seems clear that a
race which has only about one half of the effective
economic force of another race must needs prove more
of an economic hindrance than a help. Even if the race
were gifted with an abnormally high birth rate, which
it -is not, it could not overcome the effect of the high
death rate. This abnormal condition will in part explain
the large amount of poor relief and the large number of
pauper funerals of colored persons in the large cities of
the South. It does not come within the province of this
paper to discuss the purely economic aspects of the race
tendencies of the colored population, but I have touched

6o American Ecojioviic Association.

upon this point as one which is deserving of a more
careful consideration by the student of social and
economic problems than has thus far been devoted to it.
I have thus far discussed only the purely statistical
aspects of the excessive mortality of the colored race as
contrasted with that of the white population. I have
shown by indisputable evidence, collected from all sec-
tions of the country in which the colored element is
present in sufHcient numbers, and from which informa-
tion has been obtainable, first, that the colored race is
subject to an excessive mortality in the cities of the
North and West as well as in the South ; second, that
the mortality rate of the race is on the increase ; third,
that the excess of mortality of the negroes over whites
is greatest for the youngest generation, and least for the
generation which grew up largely under slavery influ-
ences ; fourth, that the increase in the mortality rate
affects principally the earlier ages, and that in conse-
quence the number surviving to the productive and re-
productive ages is far less, proportionately, for the colored
population than for the white ; fifth, that to this ab-
normal condition the constant lowering of the decennial
rate of increase for the colored population must be at-
tributed, which tendency if persisted in must lead to a
decrease in the population at an ever increasing rate ;
and finally, that the economic loss involved in so high a
mortality must prove a serious hindrance to the economic
development of the sections of the country or of the
large cities in which the colored population is found in
large numbers.

Causes of the Mortality.

Having shown the general movement of the popula-
tion, and the comparative mortality, I may now consider
the causes of the high mortality, with the two-fold pur-

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Ncg7'o. 6i

pose of tracing the physiological history and consequent
race traits, and showing the race tendencies brought out
by a study of the causes of disease and mortality, its
prevalence at various periods of time, and in different sec-
tions of the country. To do the subject complete justice
is impossible here, and only the most important and in-
teresting phases can be discussed. There is a large
body of facts, although less than I expected to find,
which is available for the study of the comparative
susceptibility to disease and death, for the two races.

It was a frequent argument with southern physicians,
before the war, that no northern or European physician
could successfully treat a colored person in view of the
radical differences existing between the two races and
the consequent difference in results from medical treat-
ment, the negro yielding less readily to such treatment
than the white man. It was argued, and with consider-
able force, that physicians who were to practice among
the colored population should be especially educated for
their work.

Since the war the medical journals often urge the
need of colored physicians. The Medical News (Octo-
ber 6, 1894) declared that " although some forty million
dollars had been spent in the literary education of the
colored race since the war, it was doubtful whether forty
cents had been spent for medical education for colored
men," The News referred to the fact that probably not
one-half of the colored population receive medical atten-
tion, and maintained that a liberal proportion of colored
physcians would materially alter the present condition
and its consequent waste of life.

As to the amount of money spent in the education of
colored young men for medical work, I may state that
according to the official reports of the Bureau of Edu-

62 American Economic Association.

cation for the year 1891-92, there were in this country
five institutions for the education of colored persons in
the professions of medicine, dentistry and phannacy,
with a total attendance of 457 pupils. The amount ex-
pended on these institutions is not stated, but it must
be considerable, at least a good deal more than forty
cents.

As to the second point, I caimot do better than to
quote from the reports of the health officer of Savannah
for recent years, in which the subject of non-medical
attendance of colored people is fully discussed. Re-
ferring to the excessive mortality of colored children
the report says : " The neglect of children by negro
parents is so often apparent to your health officer that
he must call your attention again to the matter. In
many instances they will not call in a physician when
the city provides them free medical attendance.'" In his
report for the following year Dr. Brunner refers again
to the same subject as follows :

" Fifty per cent, of the children who die never receive
medical attention. In many instances the parents will
not call in a physician, claiming the children died be-
fore they could go for a physician, although a cross ex-
amination will always show that the children had been
sick from two to ten days before they died."' Again in
his report for 1893 : " For years the city of Savannah
has furnished gratuitous medical advice and medicine,
and the negroes persistently refuse to accept them, at
least for their children. Can the city do more? Is
there any other move to make save that of appeal to the
law to force parents to care for their offspring?"'^

And finally in the report for 1894 : " We must have

^Annual report, City of Savannah, 1890, p. 125.
"^ Ibid., 1891, p. 157. ^ Ibid., 1893, p. 160.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 63

stringent laws covering the criminal neglect of negro
parents who allow their children to sicken and die with-
out making an effort to obtain the services of those
physicians who are paid by the city to give such people
gratuitous medical attention. The appointment of a
negro physician may do some good ; it will be an ex-
periment, but one worth trying."'

In other cities of the South the conditions are more
or less the same. The claim that colored physicians are
more appreciated than whites is not supported by the
facts. Colored physicians charge less and give more
credit, and largely for this reason gain practice among
the members of their own race ; but whenever accessi-
ble a white physician will be preferred. Such at least
has been my observation.

The indifference as to medical attendance in cases of
illness of their children is due to ignorance rather than to
criminal neglect. The negro has a habit of dosing him-
self and his children on every possible occasion, and the
drugging of infants with paregoric and even with
laudanum is very frequent, the use of castor oil being
also extremely liberal ; hence the neglect to call a physi-
cian, even when the city provides one free of charge.
In Richmond, Va., the percentage of cases of non-medi-
cal attendance is considerably less than in Savannah,
and the difference may be almost solely attributed to a
higher degree of education, which exhibits itself in the
management of every day affairs. The number of

'The annual report of the health officer for 1S95 contains the fol-
lowing reference to the result of this experiment : " One of these
physicians (for the care of the indigent sick) is a colored physician
who was appointed with a view of getting at the class of unfortunate
negroes who, even when well are unable to take care of themselves.
The appointment is a satisfactory one. Proof of which is in evidence
from his weekly reports rendered to this office." (Annual reports,
City of Savannah, 1895, pp. 213-14.)

64 Amcn'cafi Economic Association.

colored physicians in Virginia is very large, and a few
years ago the Petersburg Daily Herald., a race organ,
suggested that they form a state association. The high
death rate of the colored population of southern cities
cannot, therefore, fairly be attributed to the want of
doctors either white or colored.

In some of the West India islands practically the
whole of the population are without medical attendance
in case of illness or death. In Jamaica for instance,
75 per cent, of the deaths during 1894 were registered
without a medical certificate. In some of the parishes
of the island the per cent, of non-medical cases is even
greater. The registrar, ]\Ir. S. P. Smeeton, in his report
for 1895 observes, however, that in the city of Kingston
the percentage of such cases is much less, and concludes
that " the lack of professional testimony is not altogether
attributable to unwillingness on the part of the people to
resort to the doctor's aid, but to some considerable extent
may be owing to the difficulty of obtaining such assist-
ance at a cost within their means and at a distance
within their reach. "^

This conclusion would seem to be fairly warranted in
view of the fact that the number of physicians in the
island is very small. In 1849, according to the report
of the Registrar General for 1889, the number of
registered physicians was 126, as against 85 in 1889, of
whom 9 were absent from the colony. Thus in spite of
a considerable increase in the population the number of
physicians has actually decreased. The _ evil therefore
is one which cannot be eradicated without a considerable
improvement in the moral and economic condition of
the population, together with an increase in the
knowledge of the plain everyday duties of life, such as

' Report of the Registrar-Geueral for 1S95, p. 3.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Neg7-o. 65

regulates the life of the white poi3ulatioii with which
they come in daily contact.

In previons tables the excessive mortality of infants
and children has been fnlly brought out ; and the re-
peated reference to the subject by the health officer of
Savannah and other southern cities, makes it advisable
that the causes of child mortality should be discussed
before any other. The subject divides itself naturally
into two parts : first, premature and still births, and
second, deaths after birth. As regards the former our
information is necessarily incomplete. All statistics
dealing with still-births of the colored race must for
many years be wanting in completeness. Even for the
white population the information is wanting in ac-
curac}-. But the mortality rate for the two races is
perhaps sufficiently brought out in the two following
tables for Washington and Baltimore to show the
comparative mortality from premature and still births
for the white and colored populations.

DEATHS FROM PREMATURE BIRTH AMONG THE WHITE AND COLORED

POPULATIONS OF WASHINGTON, D. C, AND BALTIMORE, MD., 1890.

(Per 100,000 of Population at all Ages.)

White. Colored.

Washington, D. C 32.97 67.37

BaUimore, Md 45-76 69.84

DEATHS FROM STILL-BIRTH.
(Per 100,000 of Population under one year.)

White. Colored.

Washington, D. C 6.528 20.152

Baltimore, 'Md 7.024 16.988

The two tables show practically the same result as
regards the excessive pre-natal mortality among the
colored people in these two cities, and the significant
fact is brought out that the inordinate mortalitv of the

66 Americayi Economic Association.

race at all ages affects pre-natal existence in the same
manner. As to the causes of infant and child mortality
we have some valuable information in two tables ab-
stracted from the report of Dr. Billings on the vital sta-
tistics of Baltimore and Washington, from which report
the preceding tables also have been compiled. The
causes taken into consideration are those which most
seriously affect the duration of life during infancy and
early childhood.

DEATHS FROM DEBILITY, INANITION AND ATROPHY.'
(Per 100,000 of population under i year.)

White.
Washington 4. 181

Colored.

10.045

11.884

Baltimore 4.800

DEATHS FROM DIARRHCEAL DISEASE.
(Per 100,000 of population under i and under 5 years.)

0— I
White. Colored.
Washington. . . . 6.220 11.952
Baltimore 7.732 14-565

0-5
White. Colored.

1-737 3-299

2.157 3-895

1 vital Statistics of Washington and Baltimore, iSqo, pp. 28 and 29.

The mortality from diarrhoeal diseases is largely sub-
ject to sanitary conditions, which no doubt hive some
influence in producing a negro mortality rate nearly a
hundred per cent, higher than that of the whites. Deaths
from inanition, debility and atrophy are largely the re-
sult of inferior organisms and constitutional weakness,
which as we shall see later on is one of the most pro-
nounced race characteristics of the American negro. The
terms, however, cover unrecognized consumption, scrofu-
la and other tubercular diseases. As it has w^ell been said
by a close observer of negro mortality in the West Indies,
Dr. McHattie, the registrar-general of Antigua, " These
are not diseases at all but merely names, all of which

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Ncfrro. 67

have nearly the same meaning and indicate that 91
infants died in Antigna in 1889 f^O'" diseases inherited
from their parents, who in the majority of these cases
are broken down by disease conseqnent on vice, im-
morality and debauchery, and who impart such en-
feebled constitutions to their offspring that they cannot
live a few months even under the most favorable cir-
cumstances."

The registrar-general of Trinidad in quoting the
above remarks agrees that they are as applicable to the
island of Trinidad, and on the general subject of infant
mortality quotes further from the report of Dr. McHat-
tie : " Since 1884 there has been an increase of nine per
cent, in the mortality from the causes under considera-
tion (inanition, debility, and atrophy) and nothing will
materially lessen the number of deaths of infancy but
a change in the moral condition of our people, and this
change under existing conditions is hopeless, impos-
sible. An improvement in the dwellings of our labor-
ing population must precede any hope of 'moral im-
provement, for where marriage is ignored, and where
men, women and children are crowded together in one
small room for all domestic purposes, day and night,
the possibility of any moral sentiment existing among
those who live in this manner is precluded, and children
growing up in the midst of such surroundings cannot
possibly have any sense of shame or decency ; so that
the evils of the system are perpetuated. The chance
therefore of materially lessening the death rate from the
causes just mentioned seem very remote."

Mr. H. J. Clark, the learned registrar-general and
superintendent of the census of Trinidad for 1891, does
not fully agree with Dr. ]McHattie as to the applicability
of the above remarks to conditions affecting- child life

68 American Economic Association.

ill Trinidad, but he attributes it to the same cause as
Dr. Bruuuer of Savannah, /. e.^ that the principal cause
of the difference between the coolie and Creole popula-
tions (which is here to be observed as well as everywhere
else) is due to neglect and inattention on the part of the
Creole parents, partly, he regrets to say, to wilful or
thoughtless neglect, and partly unavoidable, owing to
the long absence of many of the parents in the pursuit
of their daily occupations.'

It cannot be argued that the coolie population is better
off in either the material good things of life, as Professor
Ely puts it, or from a sanitary or any other standpoint.
In fact, I understand, and have seen some figures in proof,
that the creole of Trinidad is paid a slightly higher
wage for the same labor than is paid the coolie immi-
grant. It may be of interest here to show the compara-
tive mortality of the creole and coolie population in
this island.

COMPARATIVE INFANT MORTALITY AMONG THE GENERAL (NATIVE)

AND THE EAST INDIAN (COOLIE) POPULATIONS, 1889-1890.'

(Rates per 1,000 living births.)

1S89 1890.

Creole population 199-75 185.83

East Indian (Coolie population) . . 134.28 134-92

• Report of the Registrar-General of Trinidad for 1890, p. 17.

The difference in mortality of the two races is not so
pronounced as between the white and colored populations
of American cities, but is sufficiently large to establish
substantially the same race tendency to permature death
among the colored population of the West Indies that
we meet with among the colored population of this
countr}'. In some of the British colonies, Guiana for
instance, the infant mortality is much higher, being re-
ported at 237 deaths under one year per i,ooo births.

^Report of the Acting Registrar-General of Trinidad for 1890, p. iS.

Race Traits and Toidcncics of the American Negro. 69

In British Guiana we arc informed conditions exist simi-
lar to those we have met with in Antigua, Trinidad and
our Southern cities, namely, extreme neglect on the
part of the parents of colored children.

According to a report of a former United States Con-
sul at Georgetown, British Guiana, the children of the
colored population of that colony " suffer greatly from
hunger, rarely getting more than one meal a day.'" In
St. Lucia the infant mortality is reported as 221 per
1,000 births. In both of the latter colonies the pre-natal
mortality, (/. ^., still-births), is very great.

The facts here brought together for southern cities as
well as for the islands of the West Indies so fully sup-
port each other as to warrant the conclusion that the
excessive infant mortality among the colored poj)ulation
is largely the result of individual neglect, as well as in
part due to inherited organic weakness, and only to a
limited extent to the conditions of life.

Considering now in particular the principal diseases
to which the negro is liable, and which will more clearly
than any other series of facts bring out his race traits
and tendencies, we shall first have to consider consump-
tion as the most important of all. A volume could
easily be written on this one disease and its influence on
the destiny of the colored race. Few writers on negro
mortality have failed to discourse upon the excessive
mortality due to this cause, and but few have failed to
recognize the fact that this most dreaded of all diseases
is constantly on the increase among the colored popula-
tion of this country. The opinion of southern physicians
who practiced among negroes before the war was almost
unanimous that consumption was less frequent among
the colored population than among the whites, I am

'Consular report for September, 1892, page 90.

70 American Economic Association.

able to furnish statistical support for this opinion by a
table of comparative death rates from this disease for
Charleston, for the periods 1822-48 and 1865-94. The
rates have been calculated in the same way as the
general death rates; but in their proportions to the
hundred thousand of mean population, to make the
respective rates more intelligible.

CONSUMPTION IN CHARLESTON, S. C. 1822-1894.
(Death rates per ic»,ooo of Population.)

Period. White. Colored.

1822-30 457 447

1831-40 331 320

1841-48 268 266

1865-74 19S 411

1875-84 255 668

1885-94 189 627

1822-1848 347 342

1865-1894 213 576

According to this table the mortality from consump-
tion has almost steadily decreased for the white popula-
tion. It decreased for the colored population from 1822
to 1848 at almost the same rate as for the white popula-
tion; but since emancipation the rate has largely in-
creased and is now more than three times as great as for
the white population. Comparing the former period
with the latter we find that while the white mortality
has decreased 134 per 100,000 the colored mortality has
increased 234 per 100,000. This change in the suscep-
tibility of the colored race to consumption, if supported
by other facts, may be considered, next to the excess in
infant mortality, a distinct race characteristic, and one
which must needs have the most pronounced effect upon
the numerical as well as the social and moral progress of
the race.

Gould in his classical work on the " Statistics of the

Race Traits and Tcndc7ia'es of the American Negro. 71

Sanitary Commission," observed " the inordinate mor-
tality and singular susceptibility to fatal diseases ex-
hibited by the colored troops.'" Unfortunately Mr.
Gould was not permitted to make use of the available
material for a study of the disease prevalence among the
colored troops. We have, however, in the " Medical and
Surgical History of the War " a mine of valuable infor-
mation which will afford the diligent student of the in-
fluence of race on mortality the most exceptional oppor-
tunities. Another work of the greatest possible value is
the report of Dr. Baxter on the " Anthropological Statis-
tics of the United States Army," which presents the re-
sults of measurements of over a million of recruits dur-
ing the war. The two works combined furnish data for
a concise description of the colored male at the time of
the war, and, what is of most importance, during the
war. To this we can add the medical reports of Dr. Rob-
ert Reyburn while in charge of the Hospitals of the Freed-
men's Bureau, in operation for the period 1865-72. We
can therefore trace the pathological history of the col-
ored race during the period of transition from slavery to
freedom, with a degree of accuracy unequaled in the his-
tory of any other race.

The table below shows the number of rejections per
thousand recruits examined for enlistment into the
army during the war period 1861-65. The rates are
based on examinations of 315,620 white and 25,828 col-
ored recruits.

^ " Statistics of the Sanitary Commission," page 602.

72 American Economic Association.

NUMBER OF RETECTED RECRUITS PER i,ooo EXAMINED FOR
SPECIFIED DISEASES.!

White Colored
Recruits. Recruits. Excess o

All specified diseases. ..... 264.1 170.2 White over Col'd

Rheumatisin 4.8 3.7 "

Consumption 11. 4 4.2 "

Disease of Nervous system. ... 11. 5 7.8 "

" Circulatory " .... 25.5 12.2 "

" Respiratory " .... 10. i 4,2 "

" Digestive " .... S4.3 50.1

" Urinary " .... 2.5 .7 "

" Generative " .... 6.4 4.4 "

" Organs of Locomotion . 30.4 1S.7 "

" Cellular-tissue .9 .4 "

Hernia 39.8 38.3

Syphilis 3.8 10.7 Col'd over

Scrofula 2.8 3.8

The table includes rejections for various causes and
groups of causes and will be referred to in connection
with the discus.sion of other diseases which is to follow. It
is shown that out of a thousand white applicants for en-
listment 264 were rejected for diseases in general, while
1 1.4 were rejected for consumption. Among the colored
applicants only 170 were rejected for diseases in general
and 4.2 for consumption. This would prove that before
the war the colored males of military age were far less lia-
ble to consumption than the whites and the result would

1 Medical statistics of the Provost-Marshal General's Bureau, Vol. II, page 431,
etc.

There is evidently an error in the tables of the first volume of the
Provost-Marshal Geneial's report, in which, on chart IV, the rate of
rejections of native whites for consumption is given as 18.4 per 1,000
examined, and for colored, 7.04. On page 431, Vol. II, of the same
work, where the original figures are given, the rate for native whites
is given as 11.4, and for colored 4.8. The latter are evidently correct,
since the following are the facts from which the rates were calculated :
Number of whites examined, 315,620 ; rejected for consumption,
3,605; rate per i,oOO, 11. 4. Number of colored examined, 25,828;
rejected for consumption, 108; rate per 1,000 examined, 4.1S. I have
therefore substituted the rates given on page 431, Vol. II, in place of
those first given as found on chart IV, Volume I.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 73

support the Charleston figures showing consumption to
be about equally prevalent among the whites and colored.
Since the men examined were drawn from the popula-
tion at large and in many, perhaps the majority of in-
stances, from the country districts, the excess of con-
sumption among the whites would seem plausible. Dr.
Buckner, who examined over 1,600 negroes, reports
that " except for being over age or under, very few v/ere
rejected, not perhaps more than ten per cent. Tuber-
culosis is very rare among them ; and contrary to the'
generally received opinions in the slave states, they are
not, as far as my experience goes, more subject to scrof-
ulosis than other people.'"

Other opinions as to the comparative infrequency of
consumption among the colored population before the
war could be quoted, but would only prove repetitions
of the opinion of Dr. Buckner, who, as examining sur-
geon of the district of Kentucky had most excellent op-
portunities for observation.

If we now consider the mortuary experience of the
colored troops during the war we shall find that the sub-
sequent experience did not justify the sanguine anticipa-
tions of those who had previously pronounced the negro
in every way the equal if not the superior of the white
for military service. ;

I Report of Provost-Marshal General, vol. I, p. 379.

74 American Economic Association.

AVERAGE ANNUAL KATES OF DISEASE AND DEATH IN THE U. S.
ARMY DURING THE WAR.' (Per i.ooo of mean strength.)

White Troops. Colored Troops.

(1861-65) (1863-65)

Cases. Deaths. Cases. Deaths.

Average annual rates for all diseases, 243464 53.48 3298.96 143.40

Continued fevers 40.29 II. 60 22.99 12.45

Typho- malarial fevers 22.38 1.68 41.05 6.78

Malarial fevers 522.34 3.36 829.58 10.03

Diarrhoea and dysentery 711.46 15.62 839.38 35.27

Eruptive fevers 46.61 4.50 92.29 18.36

Syphylis, Gonnorhoea and Orchitis, 82.04 .06 77-74 .17

Rheumatism, acute and chronic . . 144-33 .20 178.54 1.23

Consumption 6.06 2.18 7.26 6.31

Disease of the nervous system . . . 76.31 1.84 130.51 4.25

" " Circulatory system, 11.27 .69 850 2.44

Respiratory " 261. So 7.40 354-74 32-35

" Digestive " . 252.79 1.71 295.92 5.06

Urino-genital disease 13.41 .18 16.45 -68

This table shows disease prevalence and consequent
mortality from various causes for white and colored
troops per 1,000 of mean strength. The mean strength
of white soldiers per annum was 431,237 while the mean
strength of colored soldiers was 60,854. The numbers
for the colored troops are therefore sufficiently large to
compare the morbidity and mortality of white and col-
ored troops. According to this table the average mor-
tality of white troops from all causes was 53.48 per
1,000 of mean strength, while for the colored troops the
rate w^as 143.40, or almost three times as great. The
number of cases of disease was 2,435 P^^ 1,000 of mean
strength per annum for the white troops, and 3,299 per
1,000 for the colored troops.

For the disease under consideration the death rate was

• Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebelliou. Medical volume,
part Third, page 13.

In army medical statistics the number of cases of attacks or such
as lead to hospital attendance is recorded and calculated on the mean
strength. Hence if the rate of diseases is 2,000 per 1,000 of mean
strength, this means that on an average every man was twice tmder
medical observation as a patient.

Race Trails and Toidcncies of the American Negro. 75

2.18 per 1,000 for the white troops and 6.31 for the col-
ored, ahnost three times as great. The disease preval-
ence due to this cause was almost the same, that is, 6.06
for the white and 7.26 for the colored troops. The latter
figures are of most value since they are not subject to an
uncertain element affecting the mortality rates, namely,
the fact that on account of the homeless and poverty-
stricken conditions of the colored patients, they would
remain longer in the hospitals than the whites, many of
the latter going back to their homes as soon as this
could be done without risk. The figures, however, show
clearly that consumption was slightly more prevalent as
a disease among the colored troops than among the
whites during the war. In view of the fact that it was
shown to have been less prevalent previous to the war
we must believe either that the increased prevalence was
caused by the consequences of active military service or
that it was present in its incipient stages in the recruit
who succumbed as soon as he was exposed to the hard-
ships of military service. Certain aspects of this impor-
tant point have been fully discussed in the able and
comprehensive report of Dr. Sanford B. Hunt on the
" Negro as a Soldier, " which was prepared for the use
of the Sanitary Commission, and was reprinted in the
Anthropological Review for 1869, pp. 40-54.

Dr. Hunt in discussing the physical and pathological
peculiarities of race characteristics of the negro refers to
the prevalence of consumption and its remote causes as
follows : " \\\ pulmonary diseases we find the only exces-
sive cause of mortality in the negro which seems to be
inherent to his constitution. . . . While it must be
admitted that temporar}- causes [conditions of life] had
much to do with the frequency of lung diseases among
negroes, it will still be found that they are vastly more

76 America 71 Economic Association.

liable to this source of mortality than the whites. . .
It was found that when fairly enlisted, clothed and fed,
and subjected to the same methods of life as the white
soldier, he still exhibited a far greater ratio of deaths
from pulmonary disease."

" We are compelled, then, to believe that, independent
of external causes, [conditions of life] the negro is far
more susceptible to pulmonary diseaSe than the white.
The physiological cause of this cannot, perhaps, be
demonstrated ; but great weight is due to the hypothesis
that he has a tropical or smaller lung, ... A care-
ful series of weights of normal lungs, to contrast with
weights for an equal number of whites, is a great desid-
eratum. It should be re-enforced by measurements and
the volume and the expansibility of the living thorax.
At present we are only able to suggest that, if the Arctic
lung requires a capacity equal to the absorption of oxygen
enough to convert into carbonic acid gas forty-five to
fifty ounces of carbon daily, in order to maintain the
animal heat in these cold regions, it would be in ac-
cordance with the economy of nature to suppose that the
oxygen capacity of a tropical lung would be smaller than
the Arctic, in the same ratio as the amount of carbon re-
quired to maintain animal heat in the sultr>' climate of
the Equator." But this, Dr. Hunt adds, " is not yet
proven."'

We have therefore a perfect agreement of the highest
authorities, and on the basis of undisputed facts, that
during the war consumption was relatively more preva-
lent among the colored troops than among the white.
We have also fairly satisfactory evidence that consump-
tion was comparatively less frequent among the general
colored population before emancipation ; and, in con-

' Jourual of Anthropology, (Loudou, 1S69,) Volume VII, pp. 47-48

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 77

nection with the statistics of Charleston showing a con-
siderable increase in the mortality from this canse
among the colored population, ^ye are forced to conclude
that the inordinate susceptibility of the colored race to
this most fatal disease is of comparatively recent growth.
This conclusion is further supported by some very
valuable statistics of the comparative mortality of the
white and black troops in the West Indies and on the
West coast of Africa.

The information I have been able to obtain covers
two periods, one for the years 181 7-1835, and the other
for the years 1886-92. The statistics for the first
period were collected for the well known report of
Major TuUoch, while the more recent figures have been
compiled from the reports of the medical department of
the British Army.

AVERAGE RATE OF MORTALITY FROM DISEASES OF THE I,UNG.S, PER
1,000 OF MEAN STRENGTH, FOR THE PERIOD 1817-36.1

Locality White troops Colored troops.

West Indies 10.4 16.5

Sierra Leone 4.9 6.3

Cape of Good Hope . . . 2.4 3.9

1 London Quarterly Review, July, 1840, pp. 73 and 80 ; also Journal of the Royal
Statistical Society, Vol. I, p. 129, et seq.

The West Indies show the largest proportionate negro
mortality from respiratory diseases, while in the native
country of the negro, his mortality, though slightly in
excess of that of the white troops, is less thaii one-fourth
the rate prevailing in the West Indies. Now we have
considerable testimony to the effect that consumption
among the natives of Africa is an infrequent disease.
Indeed, the statistics of the colonial hospital of Sierra
Leone ^ for the period of 1853-54 show that out of 113
deaths from all causes among the liberated slaves cared

' Journal, Royal Statistical Society, Vol. XIX., pp. 60-81.
6

78 Avierican Economic Association.

for at the hospital, only four were from consumption, and
ten from diseases of the respiratory organs. The ages of
the patients are not given, but they were probably
largely adults.

The very small number of deaths from diseases of the
lungs here shown for the native African, would support
the view of M. Quarterfrages, that consumption among
negroes in Africa is not a common disease.' If we now
compare the mortality from this disease among the white
and colored troops in the West Indies at the present time,
we shall find that the susceptibility of the colored race to
this malady has largely increased. The statistics are for
the period 1886-92 and are the latest which have come
to my notice.

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY AXD ADMISSIONS TO THE HOSPITALS FOR
TUBERCULAR DISEASES AMONG THE WHITE AND COLORED TROOPS
IN THE WEST INDIES. 2

( Rates per 1,000 of mean strength, 1886-1S92. )

Admissions. Deaths.

White troops 1.3 0.26

Colored troops 7.6 2.69

The above table shows only the mortality from tuber-
cular diseases and is, therefore, not strictly comparable
with the last table, but it is plainly seen that the ex-
cess of negro mortality from lung diseases has largely
increased during recent times in the West Indies, as well
as in the United States. In Africa the rate is even higher,
but there are no data from which a comparison could be
made between the white and colored populations in the
same locality. In W^est Africa, among the colored
troops, the mortality from tubercular diseases was 4.23
per 1,000 and the admission rate 8.5. The disease,
therefore, w^as only slightly more prevalent than in the

1 "Pygmies", p. 85.

^ Army Medical Report, 1S93, (Loudon, 1895,) pp. 1S8-191.

Race Traits and Tcndtnicics of the American Negro. 79

West Indies, but more fatal. Since many of the colored
troops in West Africa had served in the West Indies,
the disease may have been more confined to them than
to the natives of Africa. The reports do not give exact
infonnation on this point.

Among the general population of the West Indies,
consumption at the present time is a very common dis-
ease. In Trinidad, the rate for consumption is 292 per
100,000 of population, and 229 per 100,000 for respira-
tory diseases. In Jamaica, the average mortality from
consumption was 175 per 100,000, while for Kingston
Parish the rate was 435. The enormous difference be-
tween the two rates is more apparent than real, in view
of the want of proper medical attendance in the country
districts. The general death rate of Kingston is only
about two per thousand above the rate for the whole is-
land. The true rate for consumption will probably lie
between the two.

In Hayti, we are officially informed that " pulmonary
diseases are almost unknown, excepting among the na-
tives with whom it is always hereditary. " ^ This offi-
cial statement is in contrast with the statement of Mr.
Steward who maintains that " consumption does not pre-
vail at Port au Prince, where enlightened negro physi-
cians control sanitation.- " We have it on the author-
ity of Mr. Fronde and Sir Spenser St. John that the san-
itary condition of Port au Prince makes the place ut-
terly unfit for residence, and this view is confirmed by a
friend of the writer who visited Hayti about a year ago.
That the disease must be rather frequent among the na-
tives is perhaps proved by a singular custom prevailing
in the island. According to Dr. R. Percy Crandall,

' Government Handbook of Hayti, p. 71.
- Social Economist, Oct., 1895, p. 207.

8o American Economic Association.

U. S. N., " when a consiiiiiptive dies the entire contents
of the room in which he dies are either destroyed or are
thrown into some place set aside by the government for
that purpose. * * * Cases have occurred where
small houses have been burned to the ground to prevent
the spread of the disease. " This advanced view of the
contagious nature of consumption may, however, have
materially prevented the spread of the disease.

We may now consider the prevalence of the disease
immediately after the war. We have the record for the
city of Charleston for the years 1865-94, according to
which the colored population had a death rate from con-
sumption of 363 per 100,000 above that of the whites.'
We have also the record of the hospital service of the
Freedmen's Bureau, from which the following abstract
has been compiled, showing at the same time the prev-
alence of other important diseases, and the resulting
mortality.

CAUSES OF THE MORTALITY AMONG THE WHITE AND COLORED
PATIENTS OF THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU UNDER TREAT-
MENT FROM 1S65 TO JUNE 30, 1872.'

Rate Rate

White per Colored per
patients. i,ooo patients. 1,000.

Number of patients 22,053 430.466

Deaths from all causes 735 33.3 18,027 4i-9

" " Miasmatic diseases .... 288 13. i 8,364 19.4

" " Euthetic " 9 .4 160 .4

" " Dietic diseases 7 .3 49 .1

" " Constitutional diseases . . 65 2.9 2,371 55

" " Nervous " ... 46 2.1 765 1.8

" " Circulatory " ... 10 .5 357 .8

" " Respiratory " ... 48 2.2 1,814 4.2

" " Digestive " ... 59 2.7 1,302 3.0

" " Urinary " ... 13 .6 228 .5

" '' Diseases of women .... 8 .4 184 .4

" " all other causes 1S2 8.3 2,433 5-7

1 " Type of Disease among the Freed people of the United States," by Robert Rey-
buru, M. D., Washington, D. C, 1S91, psxge 16, et scq.

^ See page 70.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 8i

The total number of white patients under treatment
was 22,053, and of colored patients 430,466. The ages
of the patients are not given, but it is evident from the
report of Dr. Reyburn that persons of all ages and both
sexes came under the charge of the relieving officers.
The total of deaths from all causes for the white popula-
tion was 735, and for the colored population 18,027.
The rate of mortality was, therefore, 2iZ-Z P^^ 1000 pa-
tients for the whites, and 41.9 per 1,000 for the colored,
an excess of about 25 per cent. For constitutional dis-
eases the mortality rate was 3.0 for the whites, and 5.5
for the colored, an excess of 80.3 per cent. For con-
sumption and respiratory diseases the whole number of
deaths and the death rates per 1,000 patients were as
follows :

MORTAI.ITY FROM CONSUMPTION AND RESPIRATORY DISEASES.'

Colored Pat-ients
White Patients . ,

Consumption.

Respiratory Diseases.

Number Per i,ooo

Number Per 1,000

of Deaths. Patients.2

of Deaths. Patients.*

1,787 4-2

1,814 4.2

47 2.1

48 2.2

' " Type of disease," page 16, et seq.
- In all 430,466 colored and 22,053 white.

For both diseases the negro mortality was about loo
per cent, above that of the whites, which is in marked
contrast with the former infrequency of the disease among
the general colored population. In this case, too, we
have two populations practically alike, subject to the
same conditions of life, the same medical treatment and
under the same relieving officers of the government.
It would even be natural to suppose that the white
patients were of a class which had suffered and endured
much before they became practically government pau-
pers, yet we have the proof before us that they were less
liable to death from consumption and disease of the
respiratory organs than the colored population.

82 American Economic Association.

This assertion contradicts the opinion of Dr. Rey-
burn, who on the strength of the foregoing statistics
conchides that " they are quite sufficient to disprove the
statements so commonly made concerning the extreme
liability of the colored race to scrofula and pulmonary
tuberculosis. So far from these two diseases being al-
most universally prevalent amongst the colored people in
the southern states, these people seem to be no more
subject to them than the whites who live under like
conditions in our large cities. Scrofula and pulmonary
tuberculosis are, in part, caused by a neglect of the laws
of hygiene and sanitary science. These diseases do not
seem to be any more destructive to the colored race than
to the white.'"

It is difficult to understand how Dr. Reyburn could
arrive at this conclusion, which is neither supported by
his own facts nor by the medical experience of the army.
According to a previous table, ^ the mortality from
consumption was 6.31 for colored and 2.18 for the white
troops during the war. According to Dr. Reyburn's re-
port the mortality from this cause was 4.2 per 1,000 of
colored patients, and only 2.1 per 1,000 of white patients.
And we shall see later on that this disparity between the
mortality rates, as shown for consumption, prevails to
an even greater extent in the mortality from scrofula
and other diseases. But if Dr. Reyburn had been en-
tirely correct as to the equal prevalence of consumption
and scrofula at the time the colored patients came under
his observation, it can be proven that at the present
time the colored race is subject to an inordinate mor-
tality from consumption and respiratory diseases, which
will menace the very existence of the race in the not
far distant future.

'^ Medical News ^ Dec. 2, 1S93.
- Page 74.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Avicrican Negro. 83

The table which follows gives the comparative mor-
tality per 100,000 living population for fourteen repre-
sentative American cities with large colored populations.
The rates are for the year 1890 and are based on the
population returns of the census. The mortality has
been compiled from the health reports of the respective
cities.

MORTALITY FROM CONSUMPTION— FOURTEEN AMERICAN CITIES.
Rates per 100,000 of Populatiou. — 1890.

White. Colored.

Charleston, S. C 355-4 686.3

New Orleans, L,a 250.3 587.7

Savannah, Ga 371. i 544-0

Mobile, Ala 304.1 608.2

Atlanta, Ga 213.8 483.7

Richmond, Va. 230.5 411. i

Baltimore, Md.^ 250.6 524.6

Washington, D. C.^ 245.0 591.8

Brooklyn, N. Y.' 284.9 539-0

New York, N. Y.i 379.6 845.2

Boston, Mass.i 365.8 884.8

Philadelphia, Pa.' 269.4 532.5

St. Louis, Mo 159-9 605.9

Cincinnati, Ohio 239.1 633.3

1 Reports of Dr. Billings, Census of 1890.

Without exception the mortality rates of the colored
race are largely in excess of the rates for the white
population. The rates are highest in New York and
Boston, but this is due to a certain extent to the larger
proportion of colored persons in those cities between the
ages of 15 and 45, for which period the mortality from
consumption is greatest.^ The actual difference in mor-
tality for the white and colored from this disease is
more clearly brought out in the table below, which
shows the comparative mortality from this cause for
two cities at two age periods. These cities fairly rei>
resent the mortality of the colored population in the
other large cities.

' See page 41.

84 Ajiierican Economic Association.

MORTAUTY FROM CONSUMPTION IN TWO CITIES BY AGE GROUPS.

1890.1

Ages 15-45.

Per ct. of Col'd
White. Colored. above White.

Baltimore, Md 31307 592. 37 S9.21

Washiugtou, D. C 293.69 658.14 124.09

Ages 45 and over.

Baltimore, Md 449-99 569.26 28.73

Washington, D. C 369.54 727.27 96.80

1 Report of Dr. Billings, Vital Statistics of Washington and Baltimore, Census

of 1S90, p. 32.

It will be observed at a glance that the mortality is
most excessive at the period of middle life, that is,
among those who largely represent the present genera-
tion, born or raised during the period of freedom. The
age group above 45 represents largely those who were
under the influence of the conditions of servitude ; but
it is among this class that we find a greater power of
resistance to disease and death than among the genera-
tion following emancipation and the participation of the
negro in the active struggle for life. It will be of
interest to trace the effect of age on mortality even to
the youngest generation ; and this is done for deaths
from pneumonia, since the mortality from this cause
more accurately measures the power of vital resistance
at the early ages. The statistics are for the same two
cities and for four age periods. The rates are per
100,000 living at the same age.

MORTALITY FROM PNEUMONIA IN TWO CITIES.i
(Death rate per 100,000 living at same age.)

Ages o to 5.

CoPd over White.

White. Colored. Per ct.

Baltimore, Md 645.01 2,158.95 234.72

Washington, D. C 466.17 1,642.15 252.26

Ages 5-15.

Baltimore, Md 37-52 105.01 179.87

Washington, D. C 28.0S 119.72 326.35

1 Report of Dr. Billings, Census of 1S90, p, 32.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 85

Ages 15-45.

Col'd over White.

White. Colored. Per ct.

Baltimore, Mil 74.20 123.74 66.76

Washinglou, D. C 69.32 194.00 179.86

Ages 45 and over.

Baltimore, Md 323.93 360.53 14.39

WashiiifTtou, D. C 274.18 446.2S 62.77

Tins table presents the life history of the race as af-
fected by the mortality from a single cause. For Balti-
more the mortality among the colored for the age group
0-5 exceeds that of the white population by 234.7 per
cent; for the age group 5-15, 179.9 per cent. ; for the
group 15-45, 66.8 per cent., and for the last group 14.4
per cent. For Washington the excess of negro mortality
over the white is 252.3 per cent, for the age group 0-5 ;
326.4 per cent, for group 5-15; 179.86 per cent, for
group 15-45 and 62.8 per cent, for group 45 and over.
We are led to ask, can the " conditions of life " have
anything to do with this gradual decrease in the propor-
tionate colored mortality as we reach the age groups
which represent the " old stock " ? Is it not self evident
that it is the working of the law of physiological hered-
ity rather than the effects of environment that we have
here to deal with ?

Pneumonia as well as consumption is excessively pre-
valent among the colored population in all parts of the
country. I have dealt to such a considerable extent
with the mortality from consumption that I shall con-
fine myself in the consideration of pneumonia to the fol-
lowing statistics of comparative mortality from this cause
for six representative cities. The table has been com-
piled from the reports of Dr. Billings.

86 Atficricaji Economic Associatio7i.

MORTAUTY FROM PNEUMONIA IN SIX CITIES— 1S90.1
(Rate per 100,000 of Population.)

White. Colored.

Baltimore, IMd 174.86 350-69

Washington, V). C 140.28 352.72

New York, N. Y 336.46 3S9.50

Brooklyn, N. Y 277.47 493-33

Boston, Mass 249.S4 32596

Pliiladelpbia, Pa 1S0.31 356.67

1 Reports of Dr. Billings, Census of 1890.

The table shows that consumption is not the only,
disease excessively prevalent among the colored popula-
tion. We shall see later on that there are other diseases
of no small degree of importance which prevail to a
larger extent among the colored than among the whites.
Consumption and j^neumouia are, however, the most im-
portant of the diseases which affect the negro's duration
of life. The facts here brought together show that these
diseases are on the increase and that, too, in contrast with
the constant decrease of the mortality from consumption
among the white population. In Massachusetts the
average annual death rate from consumption was 441
per 100,000 of population for 1851-55, against 334 for
1866-70, 314 for 1881-85 and only 236 for 1891-93. In
England the mortality from consumption has decreased
from 257 per 100,000 for 1858-60 and 222 for 1871-75
to 164 for 1886-90. The fact, therefore, that the negro
race should show such an enormous increase in the mor-
tality from this cause is one of great significance. The
large decrease in the mortality among the white race
may permit us to indulge in the hope that a decrease in
the mortality for the colored race is also possible. But
at present the race tendenc}- is the other way ; and a
close study of related phenomena will convince the
reader that only the most radical changes in the race
traits and tendencies of the colored race can accomplish
this, if it is at all possible.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 87

Closely allied to consumption are scrofula^ syphilis and
other venereal diseases, all of M'liich are more or less
constitutional diseases. They are therefore considered
together and, much to my regret, less in detail than
would have been desirable.

It has often been asserted that scrofula was a common
disease among the colored population before the war.
Dr. Cartwright has stated that it was extremely common
among the colored children.^ I have found little statis-
tical proof of an excessive mortality from either scrofula
or syphilis. In the Charleston mortality reports for
1822-4S, mention is made of only two deaths from
syphilis among the white and of four among the colored
population. Both scrofula and syphilis may, however,
have been frequent as diseases but of less fatality. By
examining the tables of Dr. Baxter, showing the causes
of rejection of white and colored applicants for enlist-
ment into the army, I find that the rate was greater for
both diseases among the colored than among the whites.

REJECTIONS FOR SCROFULA AND SYPHILISJ
(Per 1,000 applicants for enlistment into the army.)

Rejected for diseases in general

" " Scrofula

" " Syphilis

White.

Colored.

264.1

170.2

2.S

3-8

10.7

1 Medical Statistics of the Provost Marshal General, Vol. I, Washington, 1S75.

The rejections for all causes were less for the colored
than for the whites, but the rejections for scrofula were
35.7 per cent, and for syphilis 1 8 1.6 per cent, in excess of
the white rates. These figures support Dr. Cartwright,
and prove that scrofula as well as syphilis was more pre-
valent among the colored males of military age than
among the same class of whites. The medical experi-
ence of the army during the war furnishes another series

' DeBow, "South and West," Vol. 2, p. 319.

White.

Colored.

Discharges for all causes . . .

82.20

35-30

" Scrofula. . . .

0.37

0.77

" " Syphilis. , . .

0.74

0.45

88 Avierica7i Economic Association.

of facts of equal importance as showing for both races
the rate per 1,000 discharged for disability from disease.

DISCHARGES FOR DISABILITY FROM SCROFULA AND SYPHILIS.*
(Per 1,000 of mean strength.)

1 cause
;rofula.
^philis.

1 " Medical History of the War," Vol. Ill, p. 27.

We have seen that the rejections for scrofula were 35.7
per cent, greater for the negroes than for the whites, but
according to the table now before us the discharges for
this cause were more than one hundred per cent, higher.
For syphilis the rate is less than that of the whites, due
in part, but not wholly, to the fact that a much larger
proportion of negroes liable to this disease had already
been rejected.

Another important series of facts closely related to
those presented in the last two tables is furnished by the
medical experience of the army, showing the number of
cases under treatment in the hospitals. I presume the
former series of cases is in part included in the latter.
The table which follows shows the rate of admissions to
hospitals for scrofula, syphilis and gonorrhoea per 10,000
admissions for all causes, according to race. •

COMP.\RATlVE PREV.\LENCE OF SCROFULA AXD VE:NEREAL DISE.A.SES
AMONG THE WHITE AND COLORED TROOPS UNDER TREATMENT
IN HOSPITALS DURING THE WAR. (iS6i-66.)»

No. of cases of Per 10,000 - Excess of Col'd

Scrofula. patients. rate, per cent.

White troops 6,022 10.34 . .

Colored troops .... 2,508 39.85 285.28

No. of cases of Per 10,000 Excess of White

Sj'hilis. patients. rate, per cent.

White troops 73,382 125.96 27.72

Colored troops . . . . 6,207 98.62

No. of cases of Per 10,000 Excess of White

Gonorrhoea. patients, rate, per cent.

White troops 95,833 164.57 46.64

Colored troops . . . 7,060 J 12. 18 . .

1 " Medical History of the War," Vol. I, pp. 636-641 and 710-712.

2 Total number of white patients under treatment for all causes 5,825,480 ; col-
ored, 629,354.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 89

We have here substantially the same relative fre-
quency of the three specified diseases as was brought out
in the preceding table. The rates are per 10,000 of all
admissions to hospitals and for this reason cannot be
compared with the rates based on the avera|^e mean
strength of the arm\\ To afford the means of compari-
son I reproduce the rates given in a previous table,
(page 74), which show the comparative frequency of ve-
nereal diseases as well as the consequent mortality.

COMPARATIVE PREVALENCE OF AND MORTALITY FROM VENEREAL
DISEASES AMONG THE WHITE AND COLORED TROOPS OF THE U. S.
ARMY DURING THE V/AR.i

(Average annual rates per 1,000 of mean strength.)

Cases. Deaths.

White 82.04 0.06

Colored 77-74 0.17

' " Medical Hi-story ot the War," Vol. Ill, page 13.

The important fact brought out is, that while venereal
diseases were less frequent among the colored troops
than among the whites, they were almost three times as
fatal ; and it will be found on close study of the general
mortality of the colored race that for all of the most
prevalent diseases the rate of fatality is invariably
greater among the colored than among the white patients.

The facts thus far brought together would seem to
prove that previous to the war, scrofula was more, and
syphilis less, prevalent among the colored males of
military age than am.ong the whites ; that during the
war this condition practically remained the same, but
that the mortality from venereal diseases was much
greater among the colored, although the general preva-
lence of this class of diseases was less. With these facts
before us v/e may now consider the comparative preva-
lence of these diseases among the white and colored ref-
ugees and freedmen cared for by the relieving officers
of the Freedmen's Bureau.

A}?terican Econoynic Association.

I have already quoted from Dr. Reyburn, from
whose reports the following table has been abstracted,
the opinion that scrofula was not more frequent among
the colored patients than among the whites. I am at a
loss to ifnderstand the method by which Dr. Reyburn
arrived at this conclusion, since the facts before us,
identically the same from which Dr. Reyburn drew
his inference, prove exactly the contrary to be true.

COMPARATIVE PREVALENCE OF SCROFULA AND VENEREAL DISEASES
AMONG THE WHITE AND COLORED PATIENTS UNDER TREATMENT
AT THE HOSPITALS OF THE FREEDMENS BUREAU.'

Total No. of Patients No. cases of Per 10,000

under Treatment. Scrofula. patients.

White patients 22,05^ 68 30.8

Colored patients 430.466 6,613 153.6

Per ct. excess in Col'd rate, 398-7

No. cases of Per 10,000 No. cases of Per ic,ooo

Syphilis. patients. Gonorrhoea, patients.

White patients 379 171. 9 191 86.6

Colored patients 10,887 252.9 5,790 134.5

Perct, excess in Col'd rate, 47-12 55 3^

» Type of disease, page 16 et seq.

So far as it is possible to judge from this summary' it
would seem that the two populations as here represented
were subject to the same " conditions of life " and were,
at least, while in charge of the government relieving
officers, subject to the same mode of treatment. The
facts brought out are of great value in connection with
the previous tables as well as with those that are to fol-
low. For we have here the proof that the rate for
scrofula among the colored was 399 per cent, higher
than among the whites ; for syphilis, 47 per cent ; and
gonorrhoea 55 per cent. The two last named diseases
(and it is diseases we are here dealing with, not deaths)
we have previously found to be less prevalent among the
colored males in the army, but here among the colored
population in general we find that the rate for either is

Race Traits and Toidoicies of the American Negro. 91

much higher than among the whites. Whether this
was brought about by the new " conditions of life "
which emancipation brought, or whether it is the effect
of a cause long in operation, it will always be extremely
difficult to prove. The truth lies probably between the
two, but the fact is clearly proven that immediately
after the war scrofula, syphilis and other venereal dis-
eases were excessively prevalent among the colored as
compared with the white population.

Before we go on to consider the comparative fre-
quency of these diseases at the present time, we may with
advantage study their comparative prevalence in the
West Indies. The data are few, and hence I shall not
consume much space in their discussion. The table
below will show the comparative rates of admissions to
the hospitals as well as the rates for those who were
constantly sick and under treatment for venereal dis-
eases. The table covers the period 1886-92 and the
year 1893.

ADMISSIONS TO HOSPITAL FOR VENEREAL DISEASES OF THE WHITE

AND COLORED TROOPS IN THE BRITISH WEST INDIES.i

1886-1892 and 1893 (per i,ooo of mean strength.)

IS86-IS92 .
1893-

Admissions to Hospital.

White Troops. Col'd Troops.

226.0 312.5

251.4 317.9

Constantly Sick.
White Troops. Col'd Troops.
17.74 23.36
2355 31-04

'Army Medical Department report for 1S93, p. iSS etscq.

The colored troops show the larger admission rates,
but for the year 1893 the increase in the prevalence of
the disease has been greater among the whites. Of
those constantly sick the increase was about 6 per 1,000
for the white troops and 8.32 per 1,000 for the colored.
The rate of increase for the one year is, however, of
very little importance, and in the absence of comjDara-
tive data, which I have not been able to obtain, I am

92 Ajncn'caji Economic Association.

not able to show for the West Indies whether there has
been an actnal increase in the prevalence of this class of
diseases, or a decrease. The data for the general popu-
lation of the West Indies are not sufficiently reliable on
this point, in view of the very large number of deaths
without medical attendance. For the island of St.
Christopher, however, it has been stated by Mr. Parker,
U. S. Commercial Agent, that " according to the most
trustv.orthy information, the island had more leprosy'
and s}'philitic diseases to the number of square miles
than any other territory in the world."- Mr. Parker
adds that " until quite recently the common women of
the island were as a rule prostitutes who spread their
disease throughout the island, but in the last eighteen
months there has evidently been a change." The
proverbial ' oldest inhabitant,' according to ]\Ir. Parker,
" seems to think that the time is not far distant when
virtuous men and women will be quite common on the
island, and that there will be an end to the profanity
and indecency of women on the streets which now ex-
ist." Consul Carroll fonnerly at Demerara wrote in
the same way about the colored women of British
Guiana.^

These facts regarding the West Indies are of con-
siderable importance, since the colored race in those
islands has practically been removed from the influence
of the white race ; and whatever conditions of life, race
traits or tendencies we meet with, are largely the result
of conditions for which the colored race alone is re-

^ " As regards lepros}', the editor of " Lazaretto" (No. ii) a paper
published in the West Indies, asserts that a careful census carried out
by medical officers would demonstrate that St. Christopher and Nevis
contains more lepers per 1,000 of population than any other British
Possession." W. Tebb in " Leprosy," page 33.

^Consular report, Sept. 1S93, p. 25.

^Consular Report, Sept. 1S92.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Ainerican Negro. 93

sponsible. We have here to consider the fact that in
comparison with white males of military age, the
colored troops are more affected with venereal diseases
than the white, although the difference is not very large.
But the data affecting the army in those islands are not
suflEicient, and as I have said, I have no reliable informa-
tion regarding the prevalence of these diseases among
the general population.^

If we now return to the southern states we shall first
consider the comparative prevalence of scrofula and
syphilis as a cause of death in the state of Alabama,
for which fairly accurate information is available for the
period 1890-94; also for Charleston, S. C, for 1822-48
and 1889-94.

DEATHS FROM SCROFULA AND VENEREAL DISEASES AMONG THE
WHITE AND COLORED POPULATIONS OF ALABAMA.*

Scrofula. Venereal Diseases.

White. Colored. White. Colored.

1S90 10 23 3 37

189I 10 17 3 21

1S92 S 12 3 24

1893 8 27 7 33

1S94 8 15 6 40

♦Annual reports for 1890-94 of the State Board of Health of Alabama.

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY FROM SYPHILIS AMONG THE WHITE AND
COLORED POPULATIONS OF CHARLESTON, S. C.

Deaths.
Period. White. Colored.

1822-48 2 4

1889-94 10 66

Among the white population the number of deaths
from either disease is too small to be of any importance.
Even for the colored race the number of deaths is not
very large, but when we consider that the whites form 55

' For more detailed information in regard to the mortality and mor-
ality of the Negro in the West Indies, see Quarterly Piiblicatiojis of
the American Statistical Association, June, 1895, pp. 181-200.

94 American Economic Association.

per cent, of the total population of the state of Alabama it
is significant that the proportion of deaths among them
from these causes should be so very small. I have al-
ready called attention to the fact that in the city of
Charleston the number of deaths from syphilis for the
period 1889-94, was 66 among the colored population,
as against 10 among the whites. This would show a
remarkable preponderance of the disease among the
negroes. But we have more exact and important data
for the cities of Baltimore and Washington, calculated
from the report of Dr. Billings on the vital statistics of
those two cities. The table given below shows the
mortality from scrofula and venereal diseases for the
white and colored population, for the period 1885-90,
and the percentage of negro mortality over the white
from these causes.

MORTALITY FROM SCROFULA AND VENEREAL DISEASES IN BALTI

MORE AND WASHINGTON.— 1SS5-1890.

(Per 100,000 of population.)

Scrofula.

Venereal Diseases.

Baltimore.

Washington.

Baltimore.

Wa.shington.

White

6.12

5-28

3.06

5.89

Colored

29.09

3S.39

13.29

23-S9

Per cent, of excess of

negro mortality, .

375-3

627 I

344-3

305-6

In both cities, almost to the same degree, the negro
mortality from the causes under consideration exceeds
that of the white population by 344 to 627 per cent.
The table confirms the crude statistics for the state of
Alabama and Charleston, and makes plain the fact that
the prevalence of these two diseases and the consequent
mortality have greatly increased since the war. It can
not be consistently argued that because the mortality
from these diseases is small, the facts brought out there-
fore, are of less significance than those for consumption.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 95

It is because the disease is closely related to other dis-
eases, principally consumption, and an excessive in-
fant mortality, that the rapid increase of scrofula and
venereal disease among the freed people becomes a mat-
ter of the greatest social and economic importance.

For the root of the evil lies in the fact of an immense
amount of immorality, which is a race trait, and of
which scrofula, syphilis, and even consumption are the
inevitable consequences. So long as more than one-
fourth (26.5 per cent, in 1894) of the births for the col-
ored population of Washington are illegitimate, — a city in
which we should expect to meet with the least amount of
immorality and vice, in which at the same time only
2.6 per cent, of the births among the whites are illegiti-
mate,— it is plain why we should meet with a mortality
from scrofula and syphilis so largely in excess of that of
the whites. And it is also plain now, that we have reached
the underlying causes of the excessive mortality from con-
sumption and the enormous waste of child life. It is
not in the conditions of life^ but in the race traits
and tendencies that we find the causes of the excessive
mortality. So long as these tendencies are persisted
in, so long as immorality and vice are a habit of
life of the vast majority of the colored population,
the effect will be to increase the mortality by heredi-
tary transmission of weak constitutions, and to lower
still further the rate of natural increase, until the births
fall below the deaths, and gradual extinction results.

The diseases which next attract our attention are
7nalarial and typhoid fevers. The two classes of dis-
ease are here considered together because both have to a
large extent the same causes. The comparative immu-
nity of the negro from malarial diseases has often been
asserted by medical a^d other writers. I know of no re-

96 American Econoviic Association.

liable statistical data to support this assertion. Fergii-
;son, in his paper " On the Nature and Histor\- of Marsh
Poisons," read before the Royal Society,' says : " The
adaptation of the negro to live in the unwholesome lo-
calities of the torrid zone, that proves so fatal to all Eu-
ropeans, is most happy and singular. From peculiarity
■or idiosyncrasy he appears to be proof against fevers ;
for to him marsh miasmata are in fact no poison and
.hence his incalculable value as a soldier for field service
in the West Indies." This view is held to-day by some
who unfortunately have never studied the facts. There
is abundant proof that the negroes of today are far more
liable to malarial and typhoid fever than the whites.

The earliest records of the comparative frequency of
malarial fevers which have come to my notice are for
the British army in the West Indies during the period
1817-36. According to the records for this period, the
death rate from fevers was 36.9 per 1,000, for the
whites, and 4.6 for the colored. The fact is clearly
brought out in these reports that while the colored race
was less liable to fevers, it was far from being exempt.
During the same period the colored troops on the west
■coast of Africa suffered a rate of only 2.4 per 1,000
or about one-half the prevailing rate in the West Indies.
Reliable data are wanting for this country for the period
before the war. IMost of the early writers who were famil-
iar with the negro stated that he was liable to malarial
poison. Dr. Nott, than whom few were more quali-
fied to judge, denied that the negro was less liable to
malarial diseases than the white. Dr. Sanford Hunt in
his paper on the " Negro as a Soldier," gives it as his
opinion, based on practical experience, that " the ratio
•of malarial and typho-malarial disease was about the

^ Transactions, Royal Society, Ediuburgk, Vol. IX.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 97

same in all three classes, whites, northern negroes and
sonthern negroes." Dr. Hunt adds that " this corres-
ponds with the facts reported by African travellers,
Barth, Anderson and Reade, who speak of the great
mortality from intermittent and bilious fevers of the
Africans in their native jungles. . . The weight of evi-
dence seems to place them upon the same level as the
white in regard to liability to malarial disease." ^ It is
extremely fortunate, in view of these conflicting views,
that we have now an abundance of .statistical data
which will enable us to arrive at the truth. Medical
experience in the army during the war, demonstrated
definitely that the adult negro male of military age was
far more subject to malarial disease than the white sol-
dier. The average rate of admissions to hospitals for
malarial diseases was 522 per 1,000 for the white troops
and 829 for the colored troops, a difference of 307 per
1,000. The average death rate for malarial diseases was
3.36 per 1,000 for the whites and 10.03 ^or the colored
troops. The fact, therefore, is clearly brought out, that
whatever the comparative prevalence of this disease may
have been before the war, during the war it certainly
prevailed more extensively and proved far more fatal
among the colored males of military age than among the
white troops. Nor were the former free from any of
the various forms of malarial fevers. The following
table will show the comparative rates of admissions
to hospitals for the various types of malarial and typho-
malarial fevers in the army during the war.

^ Anthropological Rev. y Vol. 7, p. 47.

98 Avicrican Econo^nic Association.

DISEASE PREVALENCE FOR FEVERS DURING THE WAR.'
(Per 1,000 of mean strength.)

Form of Fevers. White. Colored.

Qu:>tidiaii intermittent 204.00 34900

Tertian " 171.00 27800

Quartan " 18.82 21.39

Congestive " 6.24 13-83

Remittent 130.S9 167.10

Typho-malarial 26.15 41.06

1 "Medical History of the War," Vol. III., pp. 93-94.

It needs, therefore, no further proof that the negro
soldier was more liable to malarial fevers in all forms,
than the white soldier, and the opinion of Dr. Hunt that
*' the susceptibility of the race ivas the same as that of the
white race," is disproven so far as the colored male of
military age is concerned. The army statistics do not
answer for the general population, and the comparative
frequency of malarial disease among the general white
and colored populations, may still have been in accord-
ance with the views of Dr. Nott and Dr. Hunt. If we ex-
amine the reports of Dr. Reyburn we shall find that the
opinion of these two writers holds good for the general
population during and immediately after the war, so far
as the conditions are indicated by the experience of
the Freedmen's Bureau.

PREVALENCE OF MALARIAL FEVERS AMONG THE WHITE AND COL-
ORED REFUGEES CARED FOR BY THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU.*

Percentage of Percentage of

Malarial cases in Mortality from Malaria Percentage of

total of all cases. in total No. of deaths. case fatality.

White 26.78 7.49 1.34

Colored .... 26.91 10.74 r. 17
1 "Type of Disease," pp. 6 and 7.

From the facts before us we may conclude that while
it is possible and even probable that the colored pojDula-
tion during slavery may have 'been less subject to
malarial diseases than the vrhites, immediately after the

Race Traits and Tcndenrics of the American Negro. 99

war the rates of disease prevalence and mortality were
about equal for the two races. The negro soldiers, sub-
ject to the hardships of military life, proved themselves
possessed of less vital force than the white soldier, and
in consequence showed a higher mortality rate while
subjected to the same, or perhaps more favorable condi-
tions.

The statistics for recent years would prove that the
liability of the colored race to malarial and typhoid fever
has largely increased since their emancipation. For
the city of Charleston we are fortunate in having an un-
broken record of the comparative mortality of the two
races from these two causes for the period 1 865-1 894.
According to the reports there were 295 deaths from
malarial fever among the white population and 553
among the colored population during this period. On
the basis of the mean population this would give a rate
of 42.45 per 100,000 of population for the whites and
66.63 ^o^ ^^ colored, or 56.9 per cent, higher for the col-
ored. For typhoid fever the corresponding rates are
67.34 for the whites and 100.73 ^^^ the colored, the per-
centage of excess being slightly less than for malarial
fevers.

These rates indicate a tendency towards a higher mor-
tality for the negroes than the whites from malarial
fevers at the present time. For 23 large cities of the
south, according to the reports of the National Board of
Health for 1881, the rate for malarial fever was 100.4
per 100,000 for the whites, and 133.0 for the negroes,
a smaller difference for the two races than that shown
by the statistics for Charleston for 1865-94. These
rates may be compared with the mortality from malarial
and typhoid fever for Baltimore and Washington for
the census year 1890.

loo American Economic Association.

MORTALITY FROM MALARIAL AND TYPHOID FEVER IX THREE CITIES.
(Per 100.000 of Population.)

Malarial Fever. Typhoid Fever.

White. Colored. White. Colored.

Charleston, 1865-1894 . 42.45 66.63 67.34 100.73

Washington, 1S90 . 25.21 77-94 74-34 112.29

Baltimore, 1890 . 27.78 29.72 42.49 68.35

The mortality for the colored race exceeds that of the
white in all three cities for both diseases, but the greatest
difference is shown for Washington, where the mortalit}-
from malarial fever is more than three times as great for
the negroes as for the whites. As we have seen, the
homes of the colored population in this city are better
situated as regards the mean elevation than are those of
the whites ; hence the great excess of negro mortality
from malarial disease is remarkable for this city. For
Baltimore the excess of negro mortality from this cause
is very slight, but if we examine the mortality rates for
various ages, we shall find that it is only at the earliest
ages, when the mortality from these diseases is very
slight, that the rates for the colored race fall below those
of the white.

MORTALITY FROM TYPHOID FEVER AND MALARIA FOR WASHINGTON
AND BALTIMORE, ACCORDING TO AGE AND RACE.— 1890.1

Typhoid

Fever.

Ages. 5-

-15

15-

-45

45 and

1 over.

White.

Colored.

White.

Colored.

White.

Colored.

Baltimore . .

20. 1 1

64.62

5904

81.62

39-58

2S.46

Washington .

• 35.09

II9.I0

99-57

149-80

59.60

41.32

Malarial Fever.

Baltimore . .

. 25.37

15-98

17.87

23.69

58-63

75-90

Washington .

• 21.53

87-43

23.95

63-85

32.78

107.44

1 vital statistics of Washington and Baltimore, page 2S and 29.

The two tables are ver}' instructive and need little ex-
planation. It is shown that for all age groups the negro

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. loi

mortality in both cities exceeds that of the whites, ex-
cepting the age group 5-15 for Baltimore. The proof
is therefore complete as regards the greater susceptibility
of the colored race to malarial and typhoid fevers at the
present time, and the fact brought out is one of consid-
erable economic importance as well as of general value.
For with a greater susceptibility to malarial diseases,
the economic importance of the negro as a laborer in the
alluvial and swamp regions of the South is materially
affected. The two following tables will illustrate the
importance of this point better than a textual discussion,
and at the same time afford proof of another tendency
of the colored race which seems to have escaped those
who have so frequently discussed the various aspects of
the so-called ' race problem,' namely, the smaller in-
crease in the colored population living in the coast
swamp regions of the South and in those parts of the
country which have an altitude under 100 feet.

WHITE AND COLORED POPULATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, i8So
AND 1890, IN THE COAST SWAMPS AND ALLUVIAL REGIONS OF
THE MISSISSIPPI.!

A. Coast Sw-amp Region.

White population .
Colored population

White population .
Colored population
1 Census of 1890, Population, Vol. I, p. xlvi, et seq.

WHITE AND COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1880
AND 1S90, LIVING AT AN ALTITUDE OF LESS THAN 100 FEET.i

Percentage of in-
1890. 1880. crease 1880-1890.

White population . . . 8,679,000 6,774,000 28.12

Colored population . . 1,708,000 1,499,000 13-94

' Census of 1890, Population, Vol. I, p. xlviii, et seq.

Percentage of in-

1S90. iSRo.

crease 1SS0-1890.

1,035,000 867,000

1938

774,000 702,000

10.26

Alluvial Region of the Mississippi.

1S90. iSSo.

348,000 275,000

26.55

537.000 408,000

31.62

I02 American Economic Association.

It will be seen that the white population, while pro-
portionately less in numbers in the low and swamp
lands of the country, nevertheless increased at a much
greater rate during the decade 1880-90 than the colored
population. The larger increase in the colored popula-
tion on the alluvial lands of the Mississippi is in part
due to the migration of colored people from other parts of
the country. But the significant fact here brought out
is that in just those regions which we have been told
time and again were only fit for the habitations of the
colored race or of a mixed race, the white race is in-
creasing at a much greater rate than the colored. This
progress of the whites we must largely, if not solely, at-
tribute to the increasing power of vital resistance of the
white race and its lesser susceptibility to malarial and
typhoid fevers than the colored race. The statis-
tics of Charleston prove that even in those sections which
years ago were subject to the most excessive death rates
the white race can live and increase without immigra-
tion. What is true for Charleston is no doubt true more
or less, for all the southern states ; otherwise it would
be impossible to explain the larger increase in the white
than in the colored population in the swamp and low
lands of the country.

I called attention in the beginning of this chapter to
the excessive mortality from fevers among the white
troops in the West Indies in the early part of this cen-
tury. It will be of value to compare the condition at
that time with the experience for recent years. The
next table of comparative disease prevalence and mor-
tality has been abstracted from the Army ^Medical Re-
port for 1893 and shows the rates for the period 1886-92
and for the year 1893.

Mortality.

Admissions
to hospital.

1893.

Mortality.

I.16
2.08

30.1

34-7

0.79
None.

1893.

Admissions

to hospital.

Mortality.

757-7

None.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 103

DISEASE PREVALENCE AND MORTAUTY FROM MALARIAL FEVERS IN

THE BRITISH WEST INDIES— 1S86-1893.

Per 1,000 mean strength.

Admissions
to hospital.
White Troops, 45.5

Colored Troops, 120.6

DISEASE PREV.\LENCE AND MORTALITY FROM MALARIAL FEVERS IN

WEST AFRICA— 18S6-1893.

Among the Colored Troops only,

18S6-1892.
Admissions

to hospital. Mortality

Colored Troops, 939-1 9.40

In the beginning it was stated that the mortality from
all fevers per r,ooo of mean strength, for the period 1817
-35, was 36.4 for the whites, and for the colored troops only
4.6. We have here the proof that this condition has rad-
ically changed and that at the present time it is the negro
who is most subject to malarial fevers, even in those re-
gions which it has been argued could only be inhabited
permanently by the colored race. The admission rate
to hospitals is nearly three times as great for the colored
as for the whites, while the mortality is more than twice
as high. Surely the " conditions of life " cannot possi-
bly have anything to do with this inordinate mortality
of the negro under the same military conditions as the
white soldier and under the influence of a climate which
we have been told is peculiarly adapted to his needs. If
we examine the mortality records of the colored troops on
the west coast of Africa, we find a still more remarkable
condition, the admission rate being 939.1 per 1,000 for
the period 1886-92 and a corresponding death rate of
9.40.

From the very meagre data at my command it is not

I04 Amcricayi Econojuic Association.

possible to arrive at any intelligent idea as to the in-
fluences responsible for such an inordinate disease prev-
alence and mortality from malarial fevers among the
colored troops in west Africa ; but it is possible that ow-
ing to the fact that many of the soldiers had formerly
lived in the West Indies, they fell victims to climatic
influences which more than fifty years ago sealed the fate
of countless white soldiers in the same locality. The
subject is deserving of further investigation in view of
the many colonization schemes constantly brought to
the attention of the colored people of the South,'

^ According to the African Repository for January, 1S92, p. 31,
the total number of emigrants settled in Liberia by the American
Colonization Society, had reached 16,349, yet according to the "States-
man's Yearbook" for 1894, the total Afro-American population of Libe"
ria was only 18,000 in 1S94. Hence there does not seem to have been
any natural increase in the emigrant popnlalion. I have found it al-
most impossible to obtain accurate information on the health of Libe-
ria, but am informed by Mr. Wilson, the secretary of the above-named
society, that " the health statistics of Liberia, if it were possible to
obtain them, would compare favorably with those of the colored peo-
ple in our Southern States." Since the health of the colored people
of the Southern States is far from favorable, we must conclude that
the climate, etc., of Liberia are equally unfavorable to the progress of
the colored race. That the early emigrants to the colony suffered
severely is evidenced by the frequent references to the subject in the
work of Mr. Alexander on the "History of African Colonization"
from which I quote the following passage : " The health of the colo-
nists had suffered much during the year (1834) and the mortality
among the emigrants by the latest expeditions had been unusually
great. Out of six hundred and fort)'- nine emigrants, one hundred
and thirty-four died. Though all were more or less subject to the
fever, those who came from the northern part of the United States
suffered by far the most. . . . The emigrants were imprudent and
did not sufficiently guard against the exciting causes of fever ; espe-
cially those from the southern part of the United States, who sup-
posed that they were not liable to be attacked by the African fever.
And when sick, instead of following the advice of those in the colony
who had experience, they listened to those of their own number who
professed to have skill," (pp. 437 and 43S). This experience of sixty
years ago found its repetition in the fate of a party of colonists sent
out to Liberia on the 19th of March, 1895, by the International Emi-
gration Society of Birmingham. According to a dispatch to the

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 105

On the basis of all the facts here brought together we
may assert that the tendency of the colored race towards a
higher death rate and disease prevalence from malaria,
is of comparatively recent origin ; that this tendency is
to be observed in the South as well as in the West In-
dies, in marked contrast with the lesser susceptibility of
the white race ; and that this favorable condition of the
whites cannot be attributed to better conditions in life,
but must be attributed to an increasing power of vital
resistance. If the claim of Dr. Lewis, the secretary of
the North Carolina state board of health,' and others, as
to the cause of malarial fever be true, and better sanitary
conditions be brought about, it is doubtful whether the
negro would benefit by such improved conditions of life
to the same extent as the white race, for, as we have seen
in discussing the effect of altitude and density on the
death rate, his inordinate mortality is about the same,
proportionally, under the best as under the worst con-
ditions. Any amelioration of his unfortunate condition
in this respect would undoubtedly be of the greatest pos-
sible value from an economic as well as from every other
standpoint ; but the race tendency towards an excessive
mortality would only be slightly affected.

Yellow fever is another disease to which it has often
been claimed the negro was not liable, or if at all, to only
a very slight degree. According to Dr. Cartwright " they
are not liable to the dreaded el vomito, or yellow fever, at
least they have it so lightly that I have never seen a ne-
gro die with black vomit, although I have seen a num-

Evening Post of September 7, 1895, out of 211 who comprised the
party sent out in March, only half survived the ravages of the fever,
aggravated by privation. Those who were able returned to the United
States, while many were too ill or too poor to leave.

' 5th biennial report, North Carolina state board of health, pp. 148
ei seq.

io6 American Economic Association.

ber of yellow fever epidemics. " ' Dr. Nott laid down
the proposition that " mulattos, like negroes, although
unacclimated, enjoy extraordinary exemption from yel-
low fever when brought to Charleston, Savannah, j\Ig-
bile, and New Orleans. " '" In Cuba, according to the
United States yellow fever commission of 1879, " "lany
physicians assert that negroes enjoy an absolute immu-
nity from yellow fever. " ^ Topinard also speaks of the
immunity of negroes and their cross breeds from yellow
fever. '

The dearth of statistical material for the early part of
this century makes it impossible to prove that the im-
munity of the negro from this most dreaded disease ever
existed in fact. That he was comparatively less liable
to its ravages there is not the slightest doubt, and it is
very likely that this comparative infrequency of the dis-
ease among the slaves caused the impression that there
was an absolute immunity. If we consult the mortality
records of Charleston for the period 1822-48, we shall
find that while the disease was infrequent among the
colored, it was not entirely absent.

MORTALITY FROM YELLOW FEVER IN CHARLESTON, 1822-1848.

White. Colored.

1S22-30 352 8

1S31-40 579 6

1S40-48 3 o

There were, therefore, 14 deaths from yellow fever re-
corded among the cole red population of one city alone
during the j)eriod 1822-48. This record may be compared
with the record of the same city for the period of 187 1-
76.

' DeBow, "South and Vest," vol. 2, p. 319.
^ " Types of Mankind ", p. 373.
3 National Board of Health Report, iSSo, p. 48.
*" Anthropology ", p. 412.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 107

MORTALITY FOR YELLOW FEVER, CHARLESTON, 1871-76.

• AVhite. Colored.
[871-76 256 27

With very slight changes in the proportion of the
white and colored populations of the city we find sub-
stantially different condition as to the liability of the
colored race to this disease.

Since 1877 there has been no yellow fever in Charles-
ton and hence we cannot compare the mortality of the
two races for a more recent period for this city. But
we may recur again to the mortality experience of the
army during the war. The comparative number of
cases and deaths from yellow fever among the white and
colored troops was as follows :

SICKNESS AND MORTALITY FROM YELLOW FEVER AMONG THE
WHITE AND COLORED TROOPS DURING THE WAR.'

White Colored

Cases 1181 190

Deaths 409 27

' " Medical History of the War," Vol. I, page 636 et seq.

There was, therefore, no immunity from tliis disease
among the negro soldiers during the war.

Among the colored refugees under the care of the
Freedmen's Bureau there were 512 cases of yellow fever
and 38 deaths during the period 1865-72. During the
great epidemic of 1878 at New Orleans 383 deaths
occurred among the whites and 183 among the negroes,
and the same year in South-west Louisiana there were
454 and 154 cases for the two races respectively. It
had already been observed, during the epidemic of
1869 at New Orleans, that the colored troops were by
no means free from attacks of yellow fever. The ex-
perience of the army gave a rate of 866 cases and 256
deaths per 1,000 whites, and 521 cases and ■^^i (leaths
per 1,000 blacks. Thus the case prevalence among the

io8 American Economic Association.

negroes had very closely approached that of the white
population, but still the comparative mortality was very
much lower." During the Memphis epidemic of 1878
the proportion of deaths from yellow fever to the num-
ber attacked was 42 per cent, among the whites and
among the blacks only 1 1 per cent.^ During the epi-
demic in Decatur, Alabama, the case prevalence and
mortality were as follows :

SICKNESS AND MORTALITY FROM YELLOW FEVER AT DECATUR. ALA.

White Colored

Cases 100 30

Deaths . 30 5

Percentage of deaths 30.7 16.7

The Decatur epidemic shows a lower mortality rate
for the whites and a higher mortality rate for the colored
than was observed during the Memphis epidemic. The
number of cases and deaths, however, is probably too
small for safe deductions.

The most recent experience is furnished by the epi-
demic of Brunswick, Georgia, of 1893. From a report
of the surgeon in charge, I abstract the following sta-
tistics : ^

SICKNESS -A-ND MORTALITY FROM YELLOW FEVER IN BRUNSWICK,
GA., 1S93.

White Colored

Cases 353 7i7

Deaths 35 10

Percentage of mortality 9.9 1.35

This epidemic shows a still greater case prevalence
but a lower rate of mortality. The proportion of cases
to the population is not given, but the colored popula-

' National Board of Health Report, iSSo, p. 149.

* First Annual Report, State Board of Health of Tenn., 1877-1S80,
page 93-

^ For the statistics for Brunswick I am obliged to Dr. Walter Wy-
man, Surgeon-General of the U. S. Marine Hospital service, Wash-
ington. D. C.

Race Traits and Teyidcncies of the American Negro. 109

tion was in the large majority. Hence the number of
cases does not prove conclusively that the proportion of
cases was greater for the colored than for the whites ;
but the fact is clearly shown that the colored race is to-
day as liable as the white to the disease, though still
having a lower mortality rate from this cause.

With respect to the negro in the West Indies we have
it on the authority of the yellow fever commission of
1879 that "it is not true, as has been so often asserted,
that Cuban negroes are immune against the disease."^
The report also refers to the epidemic of 1802 at Mar-
tinique, where " the African negroes acting as nurses in
the hospital of Fort de France, were attacked and all
died, except some old men."^

Yellow fever is becoming less and less the curse of
the large cities of the South. In New Orleans, where
the disease was a constant menace during the early part
of the century and up to comparatively recent times,
the decrease in the mortality from this cause will appear
from the following summary :

MORTALITY FROM YELLOW FEVER IN NEW ORLEANS, 1845-94.
Total. Average per Annum.

1845-55 18. 131 1.684

1856-67 8,546 777

1868-78 5,084 462

1879-89 27 2.4

1890-95 None None

The same diminution in the mortality from this dis-
ease is to be observed in Charleston.

1 Annual Report, National Boar-d of Health, p. 148.
"^Ibid., p. 148.

no AmeHcan Economic Associatio7i.

MORTALITY FROM YELLOW FEVER FOR CHARLESTON, i799-iS95-

Total. Average per Anuuin.

1799-1808 829 82.9

1809-1818 270 27.0

1819-1828 503 50.3

1829-1838 456 45.6

1839-1848 136 13.6

1849-1858 No record

1859-1868 No record

1869-1878' 284 2S.4

1879-1888 None None

1889-1895 None None

' 213 deaths in 1871, 30 deaths in 1876.

This remarkable change in the prevalence of this
most dreaded disease in the large cities of the south
would seem to prove that the susceptibility of the white
race to yellow fever has diminished while that of the
colored race has comparatively increased. It is not a
question whether this favorable condition for the whites
has been brought about by sanitation or more scientific
methods of dealing with the disease ; the point is that
the white race has become master of the conditions that
produced the disease, and by this means the average dur-
ation of life has been considerably increased. The col-
ored population, while indirectly benefitted by this im-
provement, is not directly concerned in this favorable
change in the conditions of life at the South. Much to
the contrary the liability of the race to this disease has
enormously increased, if we can rely on the records of
comparative mortality during the period of ser\'itude.

It is commonly supposed that the colored race suffers
more from small-pox than the white race. The supposi-
tion is fairly supported by statistical proof. The mor-
tality from eruptive fevers among the colored troops in
the West Indies during the period 1817-35 was 2.5 per
1,000, while for the white troops it was almost 7iil. In
Sierra L/Cone during the same period the rate for the

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, iii

negroes was 6.9 while among the whites there were no
deaths at all from this cause. The records of Charleston,
S. C, for the period 1822-48 show a large preponderance
of negro mortality from small-pox, there being 45 deaths
among the white population and 149 among the colored.
The experience of the army with this disease during the
war w^as as follow^s :

prevalence; of small-pox in the army during the war.

(Per 1,000 of mean strength.)

Cases Deaths

White troops 5.49 1.95

Colored troops 36.62 12.21

> " Medical History of the War," Vol. Ill, p. 624.

The excess of mortality and disease prevalence among
the blacks was very large according to the above record.
It does not appear, however, that out of the same num-
ber of small-pox cases a larger number died among the
colored than among the whites. This fact is supported
by the statistics of the Freedmen's Bureau, according to
which the mortality and disease prevalence were as
follows :

PREVALENCE OF SMALL-POX AMONG THE WHITE AND COLORED

REFUGEES TREATED AT THE HOSPITALS OF THE FREEDMEN'S

BUREAU.

Whites Colored

Cases 155 10,299

Deaths 24 1,802

Percentage of mortality 15-49 17-55

These figures support those previously given and
prove that while small-pox is proportionally more pre-
valent among the colored population it is not for this
reason much more fatal proportionally. In the New^
Orleans epidemic of 1875, the mortality was as follows :

112 Amen'cafi Economic Association.

PREVALENCE OF SMALL-POX IN NEW ORLEANS IN 1S75.

Whites Colored

Cases 4»5 477

Deaths 131 201

Percentage of uiorlalitj- 3'-53 42.14

In this epidemic the case mortality of the colored was

in excess of that of the whites, an excess slightly more
than 33 per cent. In the epidemic of 1S74 in the same
city the number of cases per 1,000 of population was
4.59 for the white population and 11.30 the colored.

These figures do not show that there is any specific race
tendency towards a higher mortality or even towards a
greater prevalence of the disease among the negroes than
among the whites. On the contrary the statistics
for the last twenty years show that if subjected to vac-
cination and re-vaccination, the prevalence of this disease
can as readily be prevented among the colored as among
the white population. The experience of New Orleans
proves this very plainly, for the large number of vacci-
nations among the colored population have virtually
banished the disease from that city.' With the excep-
tion of the epidemic of 1884 the city has been compara-
tively free from small-pox for the last twenty years.
For Charleston, S. C, the figures are even more instruc-
tive. The city had a small-pox epidemic in 1865-66
which caused the death of 48 white and 366 colored
people. The next epidemic was during 1872-74, when
12 whites and 122 negroes died; and since 1874 there
has been but one death from small-pox among the col-
ored and none among the white population.

' During 1S95 there were 46 deaths from small pox among the col-
ored population of New Orleans against one death from this cause in
1S94. JJuring the same two years there were vaccinated 30,845 white
persons and 22,592 colored persons, the vast majority of whom, how-
ever, were vaccinated during the last three months of 1895 when the
epidemic had run its course. An ounce of prevention would have
prevented the larger part of the mortality of 1895.

Race Traits and Tcndendcs of the American Negro. 113

I have not been able to obtain satisfactory statistics as
to the comparative mortality among vaccinated and nn-
vaccinated colored persons. The oldest records on this
snbject are probably those of Boston for 1752 and 1792/
bnt the nnmber of cases is small and the figures contra-
dict each other. For the same reason the statistics for
Philadelphia for 1893 and 1894 are unsatisfactory. It
would be of value, however, to obtain trustworthy data
on this point, to ascertain whether the colored popula-
tion, properly protected by vaccination, is more or less
liable to small-pox than the white race. The great de-
crease in the mortality from this' dreaded disease among
all civilized peoples who have made vaccination compul-
sory is well known. In England alone the mortality
i-:,"t from this cause has decreased from 219.3 per million
during iS^^-^o to 13.2 during 1886-90. The dimin-
ishing mortality from tbis disease among the colored
population would therefore prov£ that in this respect
they do not differ materially from the white rg/:e. If,
therefore, the colored people would subject themselves
to vaccination to the same extent as the whites, there is
no reason why the mortality for this disease should not
become equally as low.

For measles^ scarlet fever., diptheria and croups the
mortality among the colored is undoubtedly less than
among the whites. There does not seem to be any
tendency towards a change in this fortunate condition
affecting child life. There are occasional exceptions to
the rule, but if we take into consideration that the prev-
alence of these diseases is very much influenced by con-
ditions of life, especially overcrowding of the popula-
tion, and inefficient sanitary supervision of schools, we

' Shatuck on the Vital Statistics of Boston, Jotirnal of the Medical
Sciences, April, 1S41.

114 Americayi Econoynic Association.

may account for the occasional excess in negro mortality.
The table below will show the comparative mortality
among the white and colored populations of Charleston,
Washington, and Baltimore.

MORTALITY FROM MEASLES, SCARLET FEVER, DIPHTHERIA AND
CROUP IN CHARLESTON, S. C— 1S65-1894.

Rate oer

Rate per

Excess of White

No. of deaths. 100,060 No. of deaths. 100,000

Mortality rate.

White.

populatiou

Colored.

population

(per 100.000)

Measles . . .

. . 84

12. 1

Ill

J3-4

1-3'

Scarlet Fever

. . 124

17.S

6.5

II-3

Diphtheria .

• . 555

79-9

227

27.4

52.5

Croup ....

. . 106

15-3

9-3

6.0

1 Excess in rate for Colored.

MORTALITY FROM MEASLES, SCARLET FEVER, DIPHTHERIA AND

CROUP IN WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE— 1890.

(Per 100,000 of Population.)

Washington, D. C. g'ltimore, Md.

White. Color/j ^vhite. Colored.

-^I'^asles . I q/ 3.96 55.56 40.12

Scarlet Fever 7.76 7.93 14.16 10.40

Diphtheria an^ (^0-up . . gy.ss 114.93 60.19 32.69

COMPARATIVE MORTALITY FROM DIPHTHERIA AND CROUP.

Age o-i. Age 0-5. Age 5-15.

White. Colored. AVhite. Colored. White. Colored.

Baltimore . . 171.00 434.78 405 65 203.38 72.38 None

Washington. 103.66 445.01 421.05 499 79 164.91 296.10

For Charleston there is a slight excess in the mortality
from measles, which, however, fell entirely on one year.
For the other three diseases the mortality among the
colored people was less than that for the whites. For
Washington all three diseases are more prevalent among
the colored, but as I have said, local sanitary conditions
may be largely responsible for this. For in Baltimore
we find that the mortality among the whites for all three
diseases is considerable above that of the colored. No

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 115

definite rule seems, therefore, to prevail, but on the
whole the colored race would seem to be less liable to
these diseases than the white race.

I shall have to deal briefly with the less fatal diseases
only a few of which can be considered here. Deaths
from child birth., and puerperal diseases are about
equally frequent for the two races. For Baltimore and
Washing-ton the rates were as follows :

DEATHS FROM CHII^DBIRTH AND PUERPERAL SEPTICEMIA.
( Rate per 100,000 women, age group 15-45. )

White. Colored.

Washington, 1890 40.64 42.31

Baltimore, " 33.10 27.01

For Charleston the rates for the period 1865-94 were
as follows :

DEATHS FROM PUERPERAL FEVER.

Deaths. Rate per 100,000 of population.

White 61 8.8

Colored 150 .. . • . . . . 18. i

The excess of negro mortality from puerperal fevers is
almost exclusively the result of the conditions of life
under which these people live. The employment of ig-
norant colored women as nurses and midwives has been
so frequently condemned as to need only to be referred
to. As a race., the colored people do not seem to suffer
more from deaths in childbirth than the whites : as ig-
norant or indifferent individuals they do, just as does the
foreign population of our large cities in the North. The
point is of sufficient interest to permit me to present the
following tables for the cities of New York and Brook-
lyn, for the census year 1890.

ii6 Amerkayi Economic Association.

DEATHS FROM CHILDBIRTH AND PUERPERAL DISEASES.'
( Per 100,000 women, 15-45 years of age. )

New York. Brooklyn.

Native whites 49-72 50.21

Native colored ^1-54 29.04

Of English parentage 45.56 51-38

Of Irish parentage 85.95 73-62

Of German parentage 96.20 67. oS

Of Russian Jewish parentage . . 81.36 89.69

' Vital Statistics of New York and Brooklyn, p. 4S.

The agreement between the rates of the native whites
and those of English parentage is significant. That the
rates for those of German parentage should be so high
is dne entirely to the fact that among the Germans and
the Jews, midwives instead of physicians are almost ex-
clusively employed in cases of childbirth, in contrast
with the English and native Americans who rarely make
use of this class of would-be doctors. The high rates for
the Irish, and negroes (excluding Brooklyn for the latter,
on account of small numbers of negroes in population),
are probably due to the same cause, that is, the employ-
ment of ignorant old women as nurses during childbirth.
If there is another explanation, it will be of interest and
great value to have this point more fully discussed by
qualified medical men.

Cancer and tumor would seem to be more frequent at
the younger and less frequent at the older ages among
the colored population, if the statistics of Baltimore and
Washington represent fairly the general prevalence of
these diseases. In the report of Dr. Billings these two
diseases have been combined and the following table
will show the comparative mortality from these two
causes for two age groups.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 117

MORTALITY KROM TUMOR AND CANCER.
(Per 100,000 persons of corresponding ages.)

White. Colored.
15-45

Baltimore, 17-87 39-49

Washington, . . . 25.21 31.92

White. Colored.

45 and over.
290.22 161.29
199.67 115.70

According to the reports of the health officer of Wash-
ington the average ages at which death occur from can-
cer have been as follows :

MORTALITY FROM CANCER, WASHINGTON, D. C.
(Average age at death.)

'S93.
[894,

White.

Colored.

ales. Females.

Males. Females.

57 55

35 54

60 55

51 53

The above table would indicate a slightly lower aver-
age age for the colored persons who died of cancer.

Whether cancer has been on the increase among the
colored it is impossible to say, more so in view of the
fact that it is a disputed point whether the disease has
increased among the whites.^ The fact that more deaths
from cancer are now recognized may be entirely due to
better medical diagnosis. The disease has always pre-
vailed more or less among the colored people, and prob-
ably to about the same extent. The statistics for Balti-
more and Washington would indicate that the mortality
is greater among the colored people of middle age than
among the whites of the same age. If this condition
prevails generally an increase in the mortality from can-
cer among negroes may be expected. As to the frequen-
cy of cancer of the uterus, on which a good deal has been
written, it can easily be proven that those who believed

'See a valuable paper of Arthur Newsholme, M. D., and George
King, F.I. A., on the Alleged Increase of Cancer, Proceedings
Royal Society , Vol. 54, pp. 209 et seq.

ii8 Avicrican Economic Association.

this disease to be rare or entirely absent in the negro race
have drawn their conchisions contrary to the facts. Dr.
]\Iiddleton Michel of the South Carolina INIedical College
and the Charleston board of health has clearly disproved
the theory of Schroeder that " carcinoma uteri, or any
form of carcinoma seldom affects the negro woman "^ Ac-
cording to Dr. IMichel there have been 48 cases of cancer
of the uterus among the white and 53 cases among the
colored females of Charleston during the period 1878-91.
These figures are supplemented by the following table
for the same city showing the comparative prevalence of
this affliction during the period 1822-48.

CANCER OF THE UTERUS. CHARI,ESTON, 1822-48.

White. Colored.

1822-30 O O

1831-40 5 O

1S41-48, 4 8

The above figures would indicate that the disease was
rare among both races, an indication which is probably
more the result of the failure of physicians to recognize
the disease than of its actual infrequency.

The annual reports of the state health officer of Ala-
bama contain some interesting statistics which may be
of value in connection with those of Dr. Michel.

CANCER OF THE UTERUS IN ALABAMA, 1890-94.

White. Coloi

1890 22 15

1891, 19 18

1892, 26 21

IS93 25 19

1894 27 24

Medical News, October, 1892.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 119

The statistics for this state would indicate about an
equal degree of prevalence of this disease among the two
races. The more accurate statistics of Charleston, and
perhaps better still, those for the city of Washington
for the period 1874-94, prove that cancer of the Uterus
is by no means an infrequent disease among colored
women. But there would seem to be a distinct difference
in the liability of unmarried females of the colored race
to this disease, as will be observed in the next table.

DEATHS FROM CANCER AMONG WHITE AND COLORED FEMALES
FROM SEPTEMBER i, 1874, TO JUNE 30, 1894,— WASHINGTON, D. C.i

White Females. Colored Females.
Conjugal Condition. Conjugal Condition.
Mar- Wid- Spin- Mar- Wid- Spin-
Cancer of Total ried. owed, sters. Total ried owed sters.

Breast 191 77 74 40 89 32 45 12

Uterus 350 217 105 28 166 77 70 19

Ovary 18 il 5 2 5 4 i

Stomach 113 40 48 25 57 16 32 9

Liver 64 29 22 13 8 4 3 i

Face, head, neck,

mouth and throat 49 16 23 10 14 6 3 5

All other 169 83 48 38 55 26 19 10

Total .... 954 473 325 156 394 165 173 56

1 Annual report of the Health Officer of the District of Columbia, 1S94, pp. 149-50.

Among the unmarried white females only 17.95 P^^
cent, of the deaths from cancer were from cancer of the
uterus, while 33.93 per cent, of the deaths among un-
married colored females were from this particular form
of cancer. In contrast with this fact we find that can-
cer of the breast was more frequent among single females
of the white race than among those of the colored. The
figures to be trustworthy should be based on the number
of those living at the same ages, but it is probable that
there would be no material difference, relatively speak-
ine. Dr. ]Michel deserves much credit for having- called

I20 American Economic Association.

attention to the facts as to this interesting phase of the
pathological history of the race.'

I may here refer briefly to the liability of the negro
to appendicitis. It has been claimed that this disease is
extremely rare among the colored population, some hav-
ing maintained that the race is not liable to it at all.
Dr. Ashmead of New York seems to favor the latter
view, while Dr. Gaston of Atlanta, Dr. Hand of Shubuta,
Miss., and Dr. Baldwin of Columbus, Ohio, in letters to
the Medical New^ bring forward their own experiences,
which prove that the disease docs occasionally occur
among the colored population. I nn'self have record of
twelve deaths of colored persons from this cause, of whom
five were females. According to the report of the board of
health of New York city, 129 persons died in New York in
1892, from typhilitis, perityphlitis, and perforation of the
vermiform appendix, of whom only one was colored. But
I am not inclined to attach much value to this apparent
immunity, for it is only for a very recent period that
these diseases have been extensively recognized. Thus
in New York city during the period 1881-92 the deaths
from this cause have increased as follows : 1881, 10
deaths; 1884, 10 deaths; 1888, 72 deaths; 1892, 129
deaths. With the exception of the one case in 1892
there is no record of any other death from this cause
among the colored in the city of New York.^ I do not

^The disease prevalence and consequent mortality from Cancer
among the persons cared for by the Freedmen's Bureau during the
period 1868-72 was as follows :

Cases. Per 1,000 Deaths. Per 1,000

Whites 23 1.04 I 0.05

Colored 462 1.07 62 0.14

According to these figures the disease was about equally prevalent
among both races, but much more fatal among the colored than
among the whites.
= Oct. 7, IS93-

3 No annual report of the New York board of health has been
published for the last three years.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 121

know of any trustworthy statistics by which this doubt-
ful matter can be cleared. It is probable that in time,
as the disease becomes better recognized, the number of
reported cases will increase, which, however, will not
prove that the disease did not exist in equal proportions
during the past. There is therefore no immunity, as
has been claimed, but possibly a less degree of suscepti-
bility to appendicitis, in the colored race.

Desirable as it would be to deal in this manner with
all of the important diseases which affect the colored
race, it is not possible for me to do so here. I have con-
sidered those which I have taken pains to investigate to
a limited extent, and on which it is desirable that data
should be brought together in order to encourage further
research. But before I conclude this part of my work I
wish to deal, as briefly as possible, w4th the prevalence
of three diseases which bear on the morbid psychological
nature of the negro rather than the purely physical.

Alcoholism.^ insanity and suicide are three important
phenomena of the sociology of the colored race, to which
frequent reference has been made in medical, anthropo-
logical and economic literature. But few facts have been
brought forward to support one view or the other. This
is largely due to a paucity of data ; which, however, is
no excuse for the expression of unwarranted opinions.

" Alcoholism among negroes," we are informed by Dr.
Norman Kerr, than whom few have more thoroughly
dealt with the subject of inebriety, " differs materially
from the same disease in the white and Indian races.
The negroes, with their vivacity and enthusiasm, from
their nervous sensitiveness, are easily excited. Their
drunkenness is more demonstrative than profound, but
the anaestethic influence is less lasting. They may be
characterized as more readily intoxicated than the white

122 American Econoinic Association.

men of western countries but less liable to the diseased
condition which I designated narcomania, intoxicate
mania or inebriety.'"

This view of Dr. Kerr is supported by a considerable
body of reliable statistics of which those of the United
States Army during the war are the most valuable in
view of their completeness.

According to the reports of the Provost-Marshal Gen-
eral the rate of rejections for chronic alcoholism was as
follows for the principal nationalities :

REJECTIONS FOR CHRONIC ALCOHOLISM, U. S. A., i86l-65.>

United States, white 0.535 per x.ooo examined

" " colored ••.... 0.310 " "

Natives of Germany 0.619 " "

British N. America . . . 1.848 " "

" England and Wales . . . 2.346 " "

" Ireland 3.779 " "

I Report Provost-Marshal General, Vol. II, p. 431, et seq.

The rate of rejections for chronic alcoholism was
therefore the lowest for the colored race and the highest
for the Irish. It will prove of interest to know how far
this relation was maintained during the progress of the
war.

COMPARATIVE DISEASE PREVALENCE AND MORTALITY FROM
INTEMPERANCE.'
U. S. Army, 1861-66.

Whites. Colored.

Cases. Deaths. Cases. Deaths.

Delirium tremens 3.744 45° 12 4

Intemperance 5.589 no 22 2

Chronic alcoholism 920 45 6 i

Total 10,253 605 40 7

I " Medical History of the War," Vol. I, p. 636, et seq.

This is truly a remarkable record and one which pre-
sents perhaps the most hopeful side of the negro char-

1 "Inebrietj- or Narcomania," by Norman S. Kerr, M.D., p. 131.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 123

acter. The corresponding mortality rates were one death
to every 220 for the white soldiers, and one to every
4,500 colored. The figures therefore prove that while
the race had a lower rate of rejections for alcoholism be-
fore active service, it did not develop under the influences
of the hardships of war times a tendency toward a higher
rate of intemperance. The experience of the Freed-
men's Bureau brings out this fact with still greater force.

COMPARATIVE DISEASE PREVALENCE AND MORTALITY FROM

INTEMPERANCE.'

Persons cared for by the Freedmen's Bureau, 1865-72.

Whites. Colored.

Cases. Deaths. Cases. Deaths.

Delirium tremens 49 2 65 i

Inebriation. . 51 o 48 2

Chronic alcoholism 11 i 19 12

Total in 3 132 42

' " Type of Disease," p. 16, et seq.

The total number of cases under treatment for all
causes was 430,466 for the colored and 22,053 for the
whites ; hence the figures show largely in favor of the
colored race, and support the experience of the army be-
fore and during the war. Dr. Reyburn comments on
the infrequency of this form of disease among the freed
people in the following words :

^ The small number of cases of delirium tremens met with among
the freed people, being only sixty-five, with one death, presents
marked contrast in frequenc}' when compared with the large number
of cases met with among the white population of our country. This
may be partially explained by the fact that chronic alcoholism is not
so frequent among the colored people as among their neighbors of the
Caucasian race ; still, there does seem to be even among those of the
freed people who habitually use intoxicating drinks, a marked ex-
emption from this disease. In the Freedmen's Hospital, under
my charge, at Washington, D. C, which has had under treatment
from 1865 to the present tiuie about 5,000 patients, I remember seeing
only one or two cases, and these were mild in type.

My own belief is that the true explanation of this exemption is to
be sought for iu the waut of development of the cerebral hemispheres.

124 American Economic Association.

which so often exists among the negroes. Delirium tremens is pre-
eminently a disease causing disorder of intellection, and hence the
continued abuse of alcoholic drinks in the negro race is more likely
to produce eleptiform convulsions or mania than delirium tremens.

If we now consider the prevalence of thi.s form of
disease at the present time we find snbstantially the same
infrequency of intemperance among the colored popnla-
tion. For the state of Alabama the records for five
years (1890-94) show 46 deaths among the whites and
14 among the colored from alcoholism. For Washing-
ton and Baltimore the death rates for the censns year
have been as follows :

DEATHS FROM ALCOHOLISM, •
(Per 100,000 of Population.)

Washington ,
Baltimore . .

White.

Colored.

16.81

3.96

10.35

II.S9

' Census Report of Dr. Billings, pp. 28-29.

The above table shows a larger death rate from al-
coholism for the colored population of Baltimore than
for the white, but I am inclined to believe that this rate
is rather accidental and largely due to the small number
of cases on which the rate is based. For during the six
years 1885-90 there were only 27 deaths from alcoholism
among the colored population of Baltimore and 190
among the white population. It is therefore plain that
the rate for 1890 was exceptionally high. The compar-
ative infrequency of the disease among the negroes still
exists.

If it is argued that the mortality from alcoholism does
not fully determine the prevalence of intemperance,
since many other diseases are the indirect consequence
of the intemperate use of alcoholic drinks,- I would call

'"Type of Disease," p. 14.

•See Newsholme, "Vital Statistics," page 215.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 125

attention to the table below which shows the compara-
tive mortality from diseases of the liver, which is com-
monly accepted as a sequel of intemperance. The death
rates are for two age periods and of exceptional interest
in view of the preceding tables.

MORTALITY FROM LIVER DISEIASES.*

(Per 100,000 of same age.)

Ages 15-45.
White. Colored.

Washin<fton 10.08 17- 19

Baltimore 11.92 15.80

Ages 45 aud over.

Washington 77-48 49-59

Baltimore 70-36 28.46

1 Census Report of Dr. Billings, pp. 28-29.

This table presents a most interesting phase of the
question of the comparative frequency of alcoholism. In
both cities the mortality from disease of the liver is
higher for the negroes than for the whites for the age
period 15-45, while it is lower in both cities for the age
period 45 and over, which includes largely the " old
stock." If reliance can be placed on these figures, and
there is no reason to believe that the conditions in other
cities would vary greatly, the mortality from the effects
of intemperance is on the increase among the present
generation of colored j)eople. It is not possible at pres-
ent to determine whether this is an actual tendency, and
such related facts as I have consulted would rather tend
to prove that alcoholism in its violent form is not as
frequent among the young colored people at the present
time as among whites. Thus the statistics for Charles-
ton show 936 white and 625 colored persons arrested for
drunkenness during the three years 1892-94, and for
the city of Savannah during the same period the arrests
were 300 white to 127 colored. In both cities the col-
ored population is in excess of the white.
9

126 Avicrican Econoviic Association.

Thus whatever the condition may be in the North
it is not shown that the negro at the South reveals
any positive tendency to a higher rate of mortality
from alcoholism. The subject, however, needs fur-
ther investigating before a definite conclusion can be
arrived at. Personally I have observed very little in-
temperance among the older colored people, but have
met with many cases among the young men of the pres-
ent generation. But, while it is probable that the negro
indulges in liquor to a considerable extent, there is no
doubt that he suffers less from the consequences of over
indulgence, and this may account for the low mortality
rate from this cause. It is to be hoped that this phase
of the subject will be thoroughly investigated by some
one more familiar with the facts and with better oppor-
tunities for observation. If the race is still as free from
alcoholic taint as it was before and during the war and
reconstruction period, such exemption will prove of con-
siderable economic advantage in the struggle for life.

Insajiity and lunacy are less common among the col-
ored population than among the whites. Accurate sta-
tistics on this point, so far as I know, have never been
collected and those of the census are mere approxima-
tions. According to the census of 1S90 there has been
a decrease in the rate of insane per million of popula-
tion, for both races ; but it is admitted that the statistics
are incomplete. It is the opinion of many writers that
insanity is on the increase among both races, but I have
been unable to obtain satisfactory proof of this. There
are various elements bearing on statistics of insanity
and idiocy which are often ignored by those who
have discussed the subject from the statistical stand-
point.^ The number remaining in institutions at the

^ For a valuable discussion of the value of statistics of insanity see
General Report on the English Census, 1891, p. 74, et seq.

Race Traits and Tendc7icics of the American Negro. 127

end of the year is largel)- affected by the niiniber of re-
coveries and the rate of mortality, while the average
number of admissions is largely affected by the amount
of hospital accomodation.

With respect to the rate of mortality I find that in
Virginia the mortality rate was 6.9 per cent, for the
white patients and 8.5 per cent, for the colored, during
the year 1894. In Georgia during the same year the
mortality of the white patients at the state lunatic
asylum was 6.5 per cent, against a colored rate of 11.6
per cent. It requires only a simple calculation to show
that this excessive mortality of the colored insane would
seriously affect the total' number remaining at the end
of the year, and that, consequently the actual rate of in-
crease would be greater than the apparent rate. With
respect to hospital accomodation it is plain to any one
who will look into the subject that there is an insuf"
ficient accomodation for the insane of both races in many
states, and the rate of admission is governed more by
changes in political control or the condition of the state
treasury, than by the actual increase of the number of
insane in the population. The superintendent of one of
the largest institutions of the South refers to this point
as follows : " The number of patients received was not
as great last year, due to the fact that no addition was
made to the hospital as was the case the year before."

Mere statistics of cases of insanity and idiocy are also
of little value as long as no distinction is made between
the different forms of insanity. It is generally admitted
that it is extremely difficult to draw the line of distinc-
tion between one form and another, yet it is evident that
the forms of insanity differ materially for the two races.
The broad distinction between idiocy, " in which the pro-
cess of mental development has not been carried far

128 American Ecojiomic Association.

enough," and insanity " in which it has been carried in
the wrong direction," ' is hardly sufficient for the pur-
pose of establishing the traits and tendencies of a race ;
and in the absence of a thorough study of the statistics
of insanity of the negro it is difficult to deal with the
question.

The most reliable data are probably those of the army
during the war, which have been so frequently made use
of in this work. According to the statistics of the Pro-
vost-Marshal General the rate of rejections for insanity
was 0.808 per 1,000 for the white applicants for enlist-
ment, and 0.503 per 1,000 for the colored. This would
give an excess of 60.6 per cent", for insanity among the
white males of military age. During the war the dis-
charge rate was 0.34 per 1,000 for the whites and 0.18
for the colored, a difference of almost one hundred per
cent, in favor of the colored troops. While the rate of
rejections was less among the colored, the rate of dis-
charges for mental diseases was still lower, as compared
with the white troops. These statistics support the
general opinion that insanity was not a common disease
among the colored population before the war.

If we compare this low rate of insanity among the
colored men in the army, with the prevalence of this
disease among the colored refugees cared for by the
Freedmen's Bureau, we meet with a somewhat different
condition.

INSANITY AMONa THE REFUGEES CARED FOR BY THE FREEDMEN'S
BUREAU.

Cases of

Per

Deaths.

Per

Insanity.

100.000.

100,0000.

White . . . ,

235

1-3

Colored . . ,

1,171

272

16.6

'Sanity aud lusauity," by Dr. Mercer, p. 2S7.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 129

It is here sliown that the number of insane patients
and the number of deaths from insanity was larger
among the general colored population than among the
whites during the period immediately after the war. I
am not inclined to believe that these figures indicate
an actual increase in insanity, since the effect of the war
on the general colored population may have been a ma-
terial factor in the large number of cases. More espe-
cially do I believe this in view of the fact that we
have no information as to the forms of insanity, and
since it is highly probable that insanity of a serious
nature was not frequent ; for there is no proof of such
an increase in the statistics of the Government Hospital
for the Insane at Washington, into which colored per-
sons have been admitted almost from the time the in-
stitution was opened in 1856. As a matter of fact,
the superintendent of the asylum calls attention to
the matter in the following words, which apply to both
races: "Contrary to the anticipations which history
authorized us to entertain at the outset of the struggle,
the admissions of civil cases in this institution, situated
in the very midst of the perturbations of the war, have
been fewer during the last two years than before."^ It is
therefore very- doubtful whether the higher rate of in-
sanity among the colored refugees indicated an actual
increase of insanity. The table below will show the ad-
missions to the Government Hospital for the period 1856
-1894.

' Report of the Sup't of tlie Gov't Hospital for the Insane, 1S60-63,

p. 21.

128

1,096

937

119

731

i6o

715

iSi

870

127

214

977

153

261

loS

1,129

192

253

141

130 American Econoviic Association.

ADMISSIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE,
WASHINGTON, D. C— 1856-1894.

1S56-59
1860-64
1865-69
1870-74
1875-79
18S0-84
1S85-S9
1890-94

The increase of colored patients during the period of
1865-69 was ahnost entirely among males, and of the
75 admissions 34 were soldiers. As I have said before,
it is extremely difficult to reason from the statistics of
insanity, and not having been able to study in detail the
published data, I submit the following tables for Vir-
ginia, Georgia and Pennsylvania, principally for the pur-
pose of calling attention to the need of a thorough in-
quir}' into the subject.

YEARLY ADMISSIONS OF INSANE PERSONS TO THE CENTRAL AND

EASTERN HOSPITALS FOR THE INSANE IN THE

STATE OF YIRGINIA.i 1S8S-1S94.

Central Hospital— Colored. Eastern Hospital— White.
Male. Female. Male. Female.

188S 108 98 44 6

1889 99 76 51 20

1890 89 67 65 13

1S9I 141 102 70 22

1892 44 29 63 33

1893 121 114 35 26

1894 99 77 70 42

1 Annual reports of the Eastern and Central State Hospitals, 1888-1894.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 131

INSANE PERSONS CONFINED IN HOSPITALS IN PENNSYLVANIA AT
THE END OF EACH YEAR FOR THE PERIOD 1887-1894.'

Males. Females.

White. Colored. \Vhite. Colored.

1687 ...... 30S1 84 2999 65

iSSS 3231 70 3"4 95

1SS9 3434 76 326S 106

1S90 3697 89 3495 118

1891 3S03 92 3641 113

1S92 3923 9S 3725 109

1S93 4065 105 3805 129

1894 . . . 4346 127 4013 130

' Annual reports of the Pennsylvania state board of lunacy, 1887-1894.

INSANE PERSONS CONFINED IN THE STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM OF
GEORGIA AT THE END OF EACH YEAR FOR THE PERIOD 1890-94.1

Males and Females.
White. Colored.

1890 I0S9 477

189I II42 523

1892 io6r 509

■1893 1146 530

1894 1204 539

'Annual reports of the Georgia State Lunatic Asylum, 1S90-94.

The statistics of the Government Hospital for the In-
sane would indicate a considerable increase in insanity
among the colored population of Washington ; but if the
increase in population and the admission of colored
soldiers from all parts of the country is taken into ac-
count, as well as the possible admission of colored
patients from the surrounding country, it remains to be
proven whether there has been an actual increase of
insanity or not. According to Mr. Bruce, who had ex-
ceptional opportunities for observation, lunacy is very
uncommon among the colored population of Southside
Virginia, and this is true for other parts of the state, as
I know from personal observation. The irregular num-
ber of admissions to the colored insane asylum do not
afford a fair means of estimating the probable increase,
and the statistics for Georgia and Pennsylvania are for
too short a period to prove a decided tendency towards a

;2 American Economic Association.

greater prevalence of insanity among the colored popula-
tion. The following table will show the proportion of
admissions to Virginia state institutions for various age
groups of both races :

NUMBER OF INSANE AT EACH AGE AND PROPORTION TO TOTAL AT
TIME OF ATTACK OF INSANITY.

Age. Colored.' Percentage. White.2 Percentage.

Under 15 87 2.85 83 3.88

15-20 333 10.89 186 8.69

20-25 3S6 12.63 302 1412

25-30 406 13-29 270 12.62

30-35 371 12.14 23S II. 13

35-40 365 11-94 22.S 1066

40-45 2S9 9.46 1S2 8.51

45-50 216 7-07 153 7-15

50-60 207 6.77 190 8.89

60-70 134 4-39 112 5.23

70-80 56 1.83 31 1-45

80 and over ... 10 .33 i 0.05

Unknovvu .... 196 6 41 163 7.62

Total 3056 100.00 2139 100.00

1 Admissions to the Central State Hospital from the beginning to September 30,
1894.

2 Admissions to the Eastern State Hospital from 1S6S to September 30, 1894.

It would appear from this table that there is a very
slight tendency towards a higher rate of admissions for the
earlier age groups of the colored race. This might in-
dicate an increase of insanity since such increa.se would
probably appear first in the younger generation. In the
absence of comparative statistics I give the information
for the benefit of those who may wish to pursue this in-
teresting subject farther than it has been possible for me
to do. It must be taken into consideration that insanity
is more frequent among the natives of Africa than might
be supposed. The only statistics wdiich have come to
mv notice are those of the lunatic asylum of Sierra
Leone for the period 1843-53. The table abstracted
from Dr. Clark's report may be of enough interest to
warrant its being inserted here.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 133

NUMBER OF LUNATICS UNDER TREATMENT, AND DEATHS, IN THE
COLONIAL HOSPITAL AT SIERRA LEONE. WEST AFRICA— i843-i853.»

1S43. . ■

1S49. . .

IS44. . .

1850 . . .

IS45 • •

1851 . . .

1846 . . .

1S52 . . .

IS47 ■ • •

1853 . . .

1848 . . .

Total .

ases.

Deaths

I I

98 23
729 181

'^Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Vol. XIX, p. 8i.

It will be observed that the number of lunatics ad-
mitted during the period covered by this table was 727,
which would clearly prove that insanity was not an un-
common disease among the natives of Africa at the time.
The prevalence of the disease at the present time may,
therefore, be as much due to the consequences of heredity
as to the effects of the struggle for life. In the West
Indies, where the colored population leads an existence
free from all mental strain and physical over-exertion, I
find that the rate of insanity is about the same as
the census rate for the colored population of the United
States. The statistics of insanity for the West Indies
are, however, subject to all the objections that have been
advanced against the data for the United States ; though
the element of error is probably the same in the English
colonies as in this country.

RATES OF INSANE TER i,ooo OF POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES
AND THE WEST INDIES— 18S1-1891.

iSS-i.

1S91.

United States (colored) . .

2.4'

2.3'

Jamaica

1.4

1.8

1.1

Trinidad

1-9

2.8

Grenada

British Guiana

2.2

Leeward Island

2.0

Barbadoes

2.6

' For 1880 and 1890.

134 Aynerican Economic Association.

I have diligently searched for more reliable informa-
tion on the rate of insanity and the tendency of the
colored population with regard to it, and the statistics
here given constitute what seemed to me the most re-
liable body of facts bearing on the subject. They do
not prove that there has been any decided tendency
toward an increase in the insanity rate of the colored
population — which, however, a more careful inquiry
might disclose.

Suicide among the colored population is very rare
and the most careful examination of the available sta-
tistical material fails to disclose any decided tendency
towards a change. There have been frequent statements
to the contrary, and even so careful a writer as ]\Iorselli'
speaks of " the extraordinary propensity of blacks to
suicide." The New York Medical Examiner a few
years ago quoted with approval the statement : " It is
said that before the war suicide among the colored popu-
lation was very infrequent, but since they have been
compelled to earn their living by their own exertion,
this form of death has become quite common." But, as I
have said, there is no proof for this assertion, and suicide
among the colored population is apparently as infrequent
now as it was before the war. In fact, there have been
times when self-destruction among the slave or freed
colored population prevailed even to the extent of an
epidemic, and suicide among the slave population has
been recorded by many writers on the negro in Africa and
on this continent. One of the earliest references to
negro suicide I find, is in the history of a negro settle-
ment in Brazil, sometime in the seventeenth century.
At the time of the Dutch invasion, some negro slaves
escaping from Pernambuco settled in the forest of Pal-

' " Suicide," page 133.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 135

mairas, in the province of Alagoas. Their number soon
increased to several thousands and for more than sixty
years they maintained their independence, repulsing first
the attacks of the Dutch and afterwards those of the
Portuguese, and were not subdued till 1679, by an army
from S. Paulo. When defeat was certain, several negro
chiefs leaped from a high rock to death, which they pre-
ferred to slavery.' An almost identical case is cited by
Bryan Edwards in his history of the West Indies,- where
some of the IMaroons, when defeat was inevitable before
the advancing forces of the British, hurled themselves
over the precipices and were dashed to pieces on the
rocks below.

Epidemics of suicide among negro slaves have been cited
by H. W. Bates in his work on " Central x\merica, the
West Indies and South America," (London, 1878). The
cause of these was a simple resolution on the part of the
slaves to die e7i masse., and was not due to any ill treatment
on the part of their masters.^ These epidemics may have
been due to a belief that after death they were to be restored
to their native land and enjoy their friends' society in a
future state.^ In a report on " The Medical and Miscel-
laneous Observations Relating to the West India Islands,"
Dr. John Williams, in 181 7, refers to this interesting
phase of the subject as follows: "The ill-disposed
toward their masters will sometimes be guilty of suicide ;
or by resolute determination resort to dirt eating and

1 " Hand Book of Brazil," page 10.

2 Bryan Edwards, " History of the British Colonies in the West
Indies," London, iSor, Vol. I.

'O'Dea, " Suicide," page 197.

*"They [the negro slaves on the Central American plantations] will
form a general resolution to poison themselves all round and will
carry it out with the greatest stoicism, and this without being nec-
essarily driven to it by ill treatment." W. H. Bates, quoted by O'Dea,
"Suicide," p. 197.

136 American Economic Association.

thus produce disease and at length death. It is often
necessary to check this spirit, and as negroes imagine
that if decapitation be inflicted after death the transition
to their native country cannot follow, a humane princi-
ple leads the proprietor to have the head of such a negro
placed in some prominent situation and such has been
found a salutary mode of deterring the rest from conduct
so destructive."'

The method here applied to check the tendency to
suicide is very much the same as that in the case of the
Milesian virgins. That dirt eating was resorted to by
resolute determination to suicide is very doubtful,
however, for clay eating is not infrequent even at the
present time and can hardly be connected with a ten-
dency to suicide. If the habit can be called a disease,
and it probably is, it is met with among negroes under
all conditions. Thus the liberated slaves cared for at
the colonial hospital at Sierra Leone were " frequently at-
tacked with mald^'estoinac or dirt eating."- According to
Dr. Robert Clark it was induced by nostalgia.^ According
to Cartw;right,* dirt eating was not uncommon among
slaves and was largely due to a depressed mental condition
induced by superstitious fears of having been poisoned or

1 DeBow, "South and West." Vol. I, pp. 92-93.
'^ Journal Royal Statistical Society, 1856, p. 61.

•'The prevalence of and mortalitj- from nostalgia among the white
and colored soldiers during the war was as follows :

Cases. Deaths. Deaths per 1,000 cases.

White troops . . . .5.213 5^ "-6

Colored troops ... 334 J 6 499

Among the freed people under the care of the Freedmen's Bureau there
were loS cases of nostalgia among the colored and 6 cases among the
white refugees, a rate of 2.5 per 1,000 for the former and 2.8 for the
latter. While therefore the disease was about equally prevalent, it
was much more fatal among the colored soldiers during the war.
* DeBow, "South and West," Vol. II, p. 321.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 137

conjured. According to Ribot,' dirt eating presents a
curious instance of morbid heredity, and according to
Humboldt, it is met with in all tropical countries. In
Alabama at the present time (Winston Co.) several hun-
dred white families are addicted to this habit and as a
cause or effect they are extremely superstitious. TIius
it is extremely doubtful whether dirt eating has a direct
relation to suicide, unless it creates a morbid state of
mind favorable to the act.

In Hayti we have record of the suicide of Christophe
and others who preferred death to imprisonment or a
worse fate at the hands of their enemies. B. S. Hunt,
in his pamphlet on " Hayti and the Mulatto," writes
that " suicide, y&rw^r/j JO common amongst the slaves
is now almost unknown in Hayti. Since 1842 [this was
written in i860] only three instances of it in which
Haytians were the subjects, have come to my notice.
One, an officer disgraced, hanged himself ; a retired citi-
zen, insane, cut his throat ; a merchant embarrassed in
his affairs took poison. All were men of education and
light color." 2 I could give many other instances of this
order, but will conclude with a reference to the case cited
by Burmeister, of the negro slave who, after building a
house for his master, was refused his freedom and in a
fit of despondency put an end to his life.'^ Darwin quotes
Reade to the effect that even among the negroes on the
west coast of Africa suicide was common.'

It is therefore plain from the facts before us that
suicide was more or less frequent among the negro pop-
ulation under various conditions and as the result of a
variety of causes. In no wise does the negro show a

' Heredity," p. 88.

2 Pages 18-19.

=* Essay ou the negro of Brazil, page 15 ; Evening /l>j^ reprint, 1S56.

•*" Descent of Man," Ch. IV.

138 American Eco7iomic Association.

special race characteristic. The cases cited could be
duplicated by those of other races.' Nowhere is there
shown a specific tendency towards self destruction. Only
under exceptional conditions, such as have at all times
induced people to end their own existence, do we find
the negro giving way in a moment of despair.-

For Charleston, S. C, the record for the period 1822-
48 shows that only nine colored persons killed them-
selves during the twenty-eight years, while 40 whites
took their own lives. During the 6 years 1889-94 there
were three suicides among the colored and twelve among
the whites. This is at the rate of one suicide to every
two years, a number too small to have any definite rela-
tion to the population in general. For Philadelphia I
have the records for 1866-94 which fail to indicate any
decided tendency towards an increase in negro suicides.^

'See article on "vSuicide atiiong Primitive Peoples" in the Ameri-
can^ Anthropologist, 1S94.

^ From such statistics as have come to my notice, suicide would
appear nearly twice as frequent among the American Indians as
among the colored population. The following are the number of
suicides as reported to the Commissiouer of Indian affairs :

Year. No. of Suicides. Year. No of Suicides.

1882 13 1S89 12

1883 6 1890 II

1884 2 1S9I 14

1885 3 1892 13

1886 6 1893 12

1887 * 1894 14

1888 * 1895 16

* Not reported.

On an estimated population of 250,000 the above figures would give
an average rate per million of 52.6 for the seven 3-ears 18S9-95 in con-
trast with an average rate of 28.1 for the colored population of eight
representative southern cities, during the period 1890-94.

^ During the war there were only nine colored suicides in the army
and during the twenty years since the war (1870-90) only seven
Among the 400,000 patients of the Freedmen's Bureau only three com-
mitted suicide, although 1171 were treated for madness.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 139

SUICIDES AMONG THE COLORED POPULATION OF PHILADELPHIA,

1866-1894.'

No. of

Year.

cases.

Year.

cases.

Year.

cases.

Year.

cases.

1866

None

1873

None

1S80

None

18S7

1S67

None

1874

None

i88r

None

18SS

None

1S6S

None

1S75

None

1SS2

None

1889

1S69

1S76

None

1883

None

1890

1S70

1877

None

1SS4

None

1891

1S71

187S

None

18S5

None

1892

1S72

1879

None

18S6

None

1S93
1894

2
2

1864-96.— sixteen during twenty-nine years.

'Annual report Philadelphia Board of Health, 1894, pages 333-334.

According to Dr. Billings the rate for Philadelphia
per 100,000 of population over 15 years of age was 3.20
for the colored population, while the rate for the whites
was 12.99, ^"^ that of the foreign population, 23.57.
But if this rate had been calculated on 1891 the rela-
tion would have been entirely reversed. Instead of three
we had only one colored suicide, and instead of jj whites
there were 107. Hence the futility of reasoning from
rates based on too small a number of cases, and the need
of taking account rather of the actual numbers. The
table which follows ^shows the actual number of col-
ored suicides for the period 1876-94, with the records
for a few years wanting. The table is for the four
cities, Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans and Rich-
mond, all representative cities of the South.

SUICIDES AMONG THE COLORED POPULATION OF SOUTHERN CITIES.

Washington. Baltimore. New Orleans. Richmond.

1876 - - t t

1877 - - . I

1878 - - I ■(-

1879 - - I . -

1880 2 - I ' -

1881 - - I t

1882 2 - I I

1883 2 - 5

1884 I I 5

t No record.

140 American Economic Association.

1885
1 886
18S7
1 888
1SS9
i8;)o
1S91
1892
1S93
1894

^'asliingtou.

Ballimore.

cw Orleans.

Rich

4
3

•'

t No record.

This table does not show that there is any decided
tendency towards an increase in the number of suicides.
In fact it shows that in proportion to the population
there has rather been a decrease. But I would not argue
on the basis of the population, for such basis can only
be applied when there is an actual relation between the
general population and a certain series of ob.served facts.
With the possible exception of New Orleans there
is no regularity in the number of cases of colored sui-
cides, and hence, I doubt whether there is any influence
in the physical, mental or moral life of the colored peo-
ple tending to increase the number of suicides. In New
York city, where the conditions of life are probably most
unfavorable for the negro, only 12 cases of suicide oc-
curred among the colored during the six years 1885-90,
an average of about two cases per annum. In Brooklyn
during the same period only three occurred, while in
Boston only one case was recorded during that period.'

The negro commits suicide, as a rule, only in a fit of
passion, during loss of self control, or as in most cases, to

' During the census year euding Isl&y 31, 1S90, there were reported
3S16 white suicides and 116 colored. In proportion to the
population this would give a rate of 69.5 per niillion for the whiles
and 15.5 per million for the colored. Hence the white rate is shown
to be34S.4 per cent, in excess of the colored rale. \Ve may compare

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 141

escape the consequences of his crimes. I have been able
dnring a number of years to collect the facts concerning
18 suicides among colored people and the following is
an analysis of the motives that prompted them.

Out of the 18 one was a woman who ended her life at
the age of 32 because her husband proved her guilty of
adultery with a white man. Another woman killed
herself because the man she wanted to marry already
had a wife. Of the 16 males, 9 were guilty of crime
at the time of their death. Eight had killed either
wife or mistress or the wife of some other man be-
fore ending their own lives. In one case a man was
accused of theft by a railroad company and rather

this calculation, based, as it must be admitted, on incomplete returns,
with the statistics for eight representative southern cities for the
period 1890-94.

MORTALITY FROM SUICIDE IN EIGHT SOUTHERN CITIES DURING

THE FIVE YEARS i890-i894.i

(Per million of population.)

White. Colored.

Savannah, Ga 344-8 16. i

Nevp Orleans, La 195. i 51.4

Nashville, Tenn 194.0 36.S

Washington, D. C 1S0.2 26.9

Memphis, Tenn 176.0 24.3

Atlanta, Ga 104.7 12.7

Charleston, S. C . 91. i 18.8

Richmond, Va 57.4 11. 9

Eight cities 171.3 28.1

1 Mean population of eight cities 18(30-94, White, 573,173

Colored, 335,008

Total number of suicides 1S90-94, . . . White, 491

Colored, 47

According to this table, which is as accurate as present registration
methods can make it, the white suicide rate was 171. 3 per million
against a colored rate of only 281. There would therefore seem to
be no decided tendency on the part of the negro population to com-
mit suicide under the influences of city life, but rather under any
exceptionally abnormal condition, not necessarily connected with the
struggle for life in the cities.
10

142 American Economic Association.

than stand trial shot himself. Two negroes, one in
New York and the other in Chicago, killed themselves
to escape arrest. Two were apparently insane when
they committed the act, one from the effects of la
grippe, and the other (a teacher) from canses not
ascertained. Another case was that of a man in Ala-
bama, who had once been a prosperous farmer ; but bad
crops had ruined him and rather than give up his
mortgaged horses he deliberately drove them over a
bluff, killing the horses and himself. One, a jockey,
killed himself because the woman with whom he was
living in adultery deserted him. The last case was that
of a young colored man who attempted suicide ' because
his mistress had treated him shabbily." In all of the
instances cited, the underlying motive appears to have
been criminal or ani-social. In none of the cases can
we trace any of the more subtle moti\'es which only too
often prompt the unsuccessful or weak of more cultured
and advanced races.

From the facts given there does not appear to be any
decided tendency toward an increase in the suicide rate ;
and this agrees with the facts brought out regarding the
prevalence of alcoholism and insanity. ]Mr. Bruce in

^ It may be of interest to give the following facts in regard to the
methods employed in the commission of suicide. The data have
been compiled from the census of iSgoand show the actual numbers
as well as the per cent, of each group in the total for all suicides.
Whites. Percent. Colored. Percent.
Method. Cases. Cases.

Shooting 1,035 27.1 31 26.7

Drowning 217 5.7 7 6.0

Poison S29 21.7 29 25.0

Other method. . . . 1,735 45.5 49 42-3

Total 3,816 100.00 116 100.00

According to this table there would seem to be no distinct trait in
regard to the means selected, but rather a close similarity to those
made use of by the white population.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the America^i Neg7-o. 143

his work on the " Plantation Negro as a Freeman," re-
marks : " As a corollary of their comparative immunity
from insanity for moral reasons, it is found that the
blacks rarely commit suicide, a fact easy of explanation
when a full knowledge of the character of the race has
been obtained. In the first place no cause of anxiety
presses long enough upon the mind of the individual
negro to foster a desire to put an end to life ....
then, too, he lacks the coolness and fortitude to destroy
himself: above all he has a peculiar horror of death,
owing to his morbid imagination and not improbably
to his tendency to live wholly in the present."

SLuicide, according to IMorselli " preponderates in those
states which are most advanced in civilization and above
all in intellectual development. . . . The inferior
races, just because they withhold themselves from the in-
fluences of civil progress do not acquire any increased ten-
dency, even amid contact with Europeans, or at least
only by slow degrees and in proportion as they adopt
our civilization." ^

Now it is true that suicide is most frequent in those
states where intellectual culture has advanced most, but
it is not true that it is intellectual culture which has
caused the increase, but rather the want of it or the mal-
adjustment of the individual to the conditions of life.
As Morselli has said elsewhere, " all transition is pain-
ful " and the lesson of life which so few will accept, is
that during individual as well as social evolution we
must have patience and do our duty in whatever manner
it is placed before us. The individual who attempts by
some means or others to overcome by force the obstacles
that hinder him from reaching the level of others will
often, in despair, end his own life, but more often be-

' "Suicide," page 118.

144 American Economic Association.

cause he violated the common law and lacks courage to
face the result.

" It may confidentially be assumed," writes ]\Ir. Hum-
phreys, " that the most important branch of vital statis-
tics is that which deals with deaths and rates of mor-
tality. This is not only the most complex branch of the
subject, deserving the most careful study, but the in-
fluence of health on the human race is so powerful for
good or evil that statistics of deaths, and rates of mortality
acquire their greatest value for their acceptation as trust-
worthy indications of public health." That this con-
clusion is fully warranted, has, I trust, been proven by
the preceding pages, which so far as I know, represent
a summary of the most important and reliable data
pertaining to the comparative mortality of the two
races.

As to the value of the conclusions arrived at, or rather
as to the results brought out by the comparative mor-
tality rates, I accept the statistical method as the most
useful and reliable which has yet been devised for
reaching conclusions more definite and scientific than
individual observation or opinions. By the statistical
method we have before us a picture of the condition,
past and present, of the whole race, and by the compara-
tive method we can obtain information which will
present with much accuracy the probable' tendencies of
one race in comparison with another.

In regard to the statistics of mortality for American
cities, it cannot be denied that to a limited degree they fall
short of a representation of the actual facts. But, in the
words of Mr. Milme, " it may reasonably be presumed
that the returned numbers are always in the same ratio
to the true, and this is all that is necessary to the truth

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro, i

of the inferences drawn . . . . for it is not abso-
lute numbers, but their relative proportions only that
are essential to the calculations.' " On the assumption,
therefore, that the statistics of mortality represent fairly
the actual differences between the viability of the two
races, the following conclusions seem warranted :

First. The excess of births over deaths is greater for
the white race than for the colored in the southern states.

Second. In the northern states the colored race does
not hold its own, for the deaths outnumber the births.
The apparent increase in the population is due exclu-
sively to migration.

Third. For ten representative southetn cities the mean
death rate for five years (1890-94) was 20.12 per 1,000
for the white race, and 32.61 for the colored. The ex-
cess of mortality represents a loss of 16,046 lives on the
basis of the rate of mortality for the whites during the
five years, of 3,209 per annum, in the ten cities. On
the basis of Farr's normal death rate of 17 per 1,000,
the loss in lives was 35,457 during the five years. On
whatever basis we may estimate the value of a life, the
economic loss alone must be enormous.

Fourth. The excess of negro mortality is greatest at
the age period under fifteen and least at the higher ages.
This is largely the result of an excessive mortality of
infants and children under five.

Fifth. The number surviving to productive and re-
productive ages is in consequence of this excessive infant
mortality considerably less for the colored than for the
whites, and by just so much their comparative social and
economic efficiency is diminished.

Sixth. The expectation of life at birth is from 12.5
to 1 7. 1 1 years less for the colored than for the white

^ •' Value of Annuities and Assurance," Vol. II.

146 American EconoDiic Association.

population in four cities for which life tables were cal-
culated at the census of 1880.

Seventh. The effect of altitude and density of popu-
lation on mortality is about the same for both races and
the differences in mortality of the two races remain prac-
tically the same. The effect of the conditions of life
is, therefore, comparatively unimportant, while to the
effect of race and heredity are largely due the existing
differences in the mortality of the two races.

Eighth. The mortality of the colored race is on the
increase, in contrast with a diminishing death rate for
the white race. This increase in the negro death rate
appears entirely in the period which has elapsed since
emancipation.

Ninth. The colored race is subject to a higher death
rate than the whites from the following diseases :

(i). All diseases of infants, including premature and
still births.

(2). Consumption, at all ages, but most especially for
the age group 15-45. The mortality from this disease
before the war was less for the colored than for the
whites. The present tendency is towards a still higher
death rate among the colored, in contrast with a steady
decrease of the rate among the whites.

(3). Pneumonia, the mortality being greatest at the
early ages. This disease is also on the increase.

(4). Scrofula and venereal diseases. These are much
more prevalent among the colored, and are on the in-
crease.

(5). Malarial fevers, contrary to general opinion, are
more prevalent among the colored population, with a
decided tendency towards an increase.

(6) Typhoid fever is more prevalent at the ages be-

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 147

low 45, and less prevalent at the ages above 45. The
tendency is towards an increase.

Tenth. The facts for the other diseases may be sum-
marized as follows :

Yellow fever, contrary to general opinion, occasion-
ally prevails among the colored race, though with less
severity than among the white race. There is a decided
tendency toward an increase in the susceptibility to this
disease among the colored population.

Smallpox is more prevalent among the colored, but
this is due almost entirely to an unprotected condition.
When vaccination is properly attended to the mortality
is easily reduced, and there is a decided tendency to-
wards a decrease through this means.

Measles, sc.irlet fever, and diptheria are as a rule less
prevalent among the colored population, and there are
no positive indications of an increase. The opinion held
by some, that the negro is not liable to scarlet fever, is
disproved.

Deaths from childbirth and puerperal fever are more
frequent among the colored, but the diseases are subject
to control. The high mortality is entirely the result of
ignorance and want of proper medical attendance.

Tumor and cancer are less prevalent among the col-
ored, but on the increase among the population below
the age of 45. Carcinoma uteri, from which some writers
have supposed the negro exempt, is prevalent, though to
a less extent, among the colored population.

Appendicitis, another disease to which it was supposed
the negro was not liable, is prevalent, though apparently
to a less extent than among the whites.

Alcoholism is less prevalent than among the whites
and there is no positive proof of a tendency towards an
increase.

148 American Economic Association.

Insanity is also less prevalent with no positive proof of
a tendency towards an increase.

Suicides are rare with no positive indications of an in-
crease of the number.

The general conclusion is that the negro is subject to
a higher mortality at all ages, but especially so at the
early age periods. This is largely the result of an inor-
dinate mortality from constitutional and respiratory
diseases. Moreover, the mortality from these diseases is
on the increase among the colored, and on the decrease
among the whites. In consequence, the natural increase
in the colored population will be less from decade to de-
cade and in the end a decrease must take place. It is
sufficient to know that in the struggle for race suprem-
acy the black race is not holding its own ; and this fact
once recognized, all danger from a possible numerical
supremacy of the race vanishes. Its extreme liability to
consumption alone would suffice to seal its fate as a
race. That alone would suffice to make impossible
numerical supremacy in the southern states. " Sufferers
from phthisis," writes Mr. Haycraft,^ " are prone to other
diseases such as pulmonary and bronchial attacks, so
that over and above the vulnerability to the one form of
microbe, they are to be looked upon as unsuited not
only for the battle of life but especially for parentage
and for the multiplications of the conditions for which
they themselves suffer."

^ Haycraft, "Darwinism aud Race progress."

Chapter III.

ANTHROPOMETRY.

In the following pages I shall discuss as fully as the
limited material will permit, the anthropometric charac-
teristics of the colored race as compared with the whites.
In view of the preceding discussion I shall confine my-
self almost entirely to data having a direct bearing on
the longevity of the two races and consequent social and
economic efficiency. The most essential characteristics
falling under this restricted class of facts are, weight,
play of chest, lung capacity_and frequency of respiration.

Tile close^felation of weight to longevity is a fact suf-
ficiently established to need little further explanation.
The uniform result of statistical investigations of life
insurance companies has been to prove that persons
under average weight have a decided tendency towards
pulmonary diseases. The elaborate investigations of the
medical departments of the New York Mutual Life in
1874,^ the Washington Life in 1886,^ the Prudential In-
surance Company of America^ in 1895, and the New
York Mutual Life in .1895,^ prove conclusively that low
weight in proportion to age and stature is a determining
factor in the susceptibility of an individual to consump-
tion. It is therefore of importance to ascertain whether
the colored man, subject to such an inordinate mortality
from pulmonary and respiratory diseases, is on the aver-
age of lesser weight in proportion to stature than the

^ " Mortuary experience of the Mutual Life Insurance Co.," New
York, 1S77 ; Vol. II., page 44, et seq.

''■ " Experience of the Washington Life Insurance Co.," New Yoik,
1889, page 148, el seq.

^ Statistics of Consumption, by Edward Haniill, M.D., "Transactions
of the Association of Life Insurance Medical Directors," 18S9-95, page
95, et seq.

'"Statistics of Consumption, Mutual Life Insurance Co.," New-
York, 1S95, page 12, et seq.

150 A7}ierican Econoviic Association.

white. I may anticipate the data which follow by say-
ing that he is not ; but on the contrary he is on the
average of greater weight in proportion to age and
height than the white.

The most elaborate collection of facts bearing on this
point is in the statistics of the Sanitary Commission' and
of the Provost-Marshal General.- The former work
deals with recruits at the time of application for
enlistment, while the latter deals with the soldier in the
field. I give below the mean weight of white and col-
ored soldiers according to age and stature. The in-
stances cited will suffice to bring out the fact that the
colored males almost without exception weigh more than
the whites. '

MEAN WEIGHT OF WHITE AND COLORED SOLDIERS ACCORDING TO
AGE AND STATURE.'

Age 20. Age 25.

Stature.2 White. Colored. White. Colored.

Inches. Lbs. Lbs^ Lbs. Lbs.

64.5 1304 138-8 128.8 136 7

655 133-8 137-9 137-7 142.5

66.5 138.5 141. 7 142.7 147.1

67-5 142.8 145.0 146 2 152 5

68.5 , 147.3 150.9 149-8 156.9

69-5 147.4 156.0 157.6 152.5

70.5 154-7 1448 i6[.S 166.4

Age 30. Age 35.

645 135-0 143-5 131 5 143-6

65-5 136.4 142-6 140.6 137.7

66.5 1470 142 o 147-0 146.4

67-5 148.2 150.8 149.3 170.0

68.5 152-7 153-9 i5'-9 148.1

69.5 . . . . 1590 160.4 145-4 i6r.S

70.5 156.5 154-9 157.2

1 Gould, " Military Statistics," pp. 426-433.

2 For colored soldiers the mean statures are 64.25, 65.25, 66.25, 67.25, 6S.25, 69.25
and 70.25 inches.

1 " luvestigatious iu the Military ami Authropological Statistics of
American Soldiers." By Benjamin Apthorp Gould, Actuary to the
Sanitary Commission. Cambridge, 1S69.

- " Statistics, Medical and Anthropological, of the Provost-Marshal
General's Bureau," vol. 2. By T. H. Baxter, A.M., M.D., (Washing-
ton, 1875).

I''J 1

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 151

According to this table the colored males weigh more
at all ages and for any stature than the whites. The
very few exceptions are of no importance, since the
variations from the normal are due to the smaller num-
ber of observations for these ages. The above result may
be differently presented in a comparative table of weight
•and stature, in which the element of age is not taken
into account. I give below a theoretical table showing
the average weights of white and colored soldiers, their
stature varying from 60 to 72 inches. The table, ab-
stracted from the work of ]\Ir. Gould, was calculated from
actual measurements.

THEORETICAL WEIGHT FOR DIFFERENT STATURES.^

Stature, Whites, Blacks,

Inches. Lbs. Lbs.

60 II3.6 I18.7

6r II7-4 122.7

62 121. 3 126.7

63 125.3 130.8

64 129.3 135-0

65 • • 133 3 139-3

66 137.5 143-6

67 141-7 148.0

68 145-9 152-4

69 150.3 156.9

70 154-7 161. 5

; 71 I59-I 166.2

1 72 163.6 170.9

1 Gould, " ^iTTilary Statistics," pp.409 and 417.

This valuable table fully confirms the preceding one
and clearly establishes the fact that colored adult males
weigh more than white males of the same class. By
still another method we ma}- compare the average
weights with regard to circumference of the chest ; and
here again the result is decidedly in favor of the colored
race.

152

Americaji Economic Association.

MEAN WEIGHT OF WHITE AND COLORED SOLDIERS ACCORDING TO
CIRCUMFERENCE OF CHEST.»

Circumference of Chest. White Soldiers. Negro Soldiers,

luches. Lbs. Lbs.

32 "S.93 129.05

32.5 123 31 131.02

33 '26.25 133-76

33-5 12S.12 135.5S

34 132.03 15907

34-5 134-18 143-25

35 137.93 U6.21

35-5 140.69 147-S4

36 143-33 150.6S

365 147-18 152.71

37 150.01 154-43

37.5 152.04 16059

38 156.27 161.94

38.5 158.78 166.79

39 161.24 174.00

39-5 163.76 166.55

40 168.30 168.51

1 Gould, " Militarj' Statistics," pp. 454 and 456, ^^^,„— - '

The excess of weight for the colored soldier is there-
fore proven, and it remains to be shown whether this
favorable condition has been persisted in to the present
time, j

The data for an investigation of the comjDarative
weight in proportion to age, stature and circumference
of the chest, are very limited, and one might hesitate to
make use of the published facts did they not so fully
confirm one another as to leave no doubt of their accu-
racy. For the United States Army recent anthropometric
statistics have been made public for the three years 1893,
'94 and '95. Limited as is the number of observations,
and few as are the points covered, they are nevertheless
of considerable value.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 153

AVERAGE HEIGHT AND WEIGHT OF ACCEPTED RECRUITS, U. S. A.,
1892-94.1

Height, (inches.) Weight, (Ib.s.)

Year. White. Colored. White. Colored.

1892 6742 67.26 14507 148.0S

1S93 67.47 67.14 144.10 14S.25

1S94 67.39 67.21 145-65 I49-'9

1 '^"iTipil"^ fr^m tn^'Trrmmil rppnrts nf Ihft S^irg""" General, U. .S. A./ 1S93-4-5.

The above table shows that while the average stature
of colored recruits was slightly less than that of the
whites, the average weight was invariably greater. This
is true for all ages irrespective of stature, as was shown
in the tables of Mr. Gould, I have calculated from the
data before me the proportionate weight to stature for
different groups, that is the number of pounds to an inch
of stature. By this method the effect of the smaller stat-
ure of the colored soldiers is eliminated.

PROPORTION OF WEIGHT TO HEIGHT ACCORDING TO AGE GROUPS,
RECRUITS IN U. S. ARMY, 1892-94.1

White. Colored.

I Age. Lbs. to an inch Lbs, to an inch

in Stature. in Stature.

Under 20 2.03 2.06

20-24 •2.02 2.17

25-29 2.17 2.21

30-34 2.21 2.26

35-39 2.24 2.33

40-49 2.27 2.27

50 and over 2.26 2.32

All ages 2.15 2 21

1 Compiled from the annual reports of the Surgeon-General, U. S. A., 1S93-4-5.

This table reads that at the age group 20 to 25, for
example, the average weight of a white soldier to every
inch of stature was 2.12 pounds, as compared with 2.17
pounds for the colored soldier. The difference is small,
but it is important to know that the difference exists.
According to life insurance experience " even a moderate
variation from the standard of weight is of considerable

154 American Economic Association.

influence in diminishing or increasing the mortality from
consumption." In the experience of the New York
Mutual Life Insurance Company, it was pointed out that
nearly 80 per cent, of those who died of consumption
were below the standard weight. In the experience of
the Washington Life Insurance Company it was shown
that ' for light weight, coupled with a predisposition to
consumption, the rate of mortality from consumption was
greatest.' The latest investigation of this point by the
]\Iutual Life Company, of New York, fully confirms this
view. On the strength of these investigations, fully es-
tablishing the rule that " even a slight excess of weight
is almost sufficient to annul a consumptive tendency," it
is remarkable that we should find in the colored race an
excess of weight coupled with an inordinate mortality
from consumption.

It cannot be argued that army recruits, who differ
materially from the general male population from which
they are drawn, on account of the element of favorable
selection, represent an exceptional condition in this re-
spect ; for it was ascertained by j\Ir. McCauley that of
the insurance applicants from the West Indies the aver-
age weight for the negro applicants was greater than
that of the whites, and my own data of fifty measure-
ments of adult colored males support the figures of Mr.
McCauley.^ According to the latter the average weight
of the white applicants of 5 ft., 8 in. in height was 153.2
pounds, while the negro applicants of the same average
stature weighed 154 pounds. The difference is very
small, but as I have pointed out before, it is of value to
know that there is any difference at all. The mulatto
applicants weighed less than the whites, only 149

^Publications of the American Statistical Association, June, 1891,
p. 292.

Race Traits a7td Tetidcnries of the American Negro. 155

pounds. According to Gould the niulattoes weighed on
the average as much as, if not more than, the pure
negroes.

The table below will show the average weight
among fifty colored males, according to girth of chest.
For purposes of comparison I add the average weight of
white males. The measurements were taken by a
physician of exceptional experience and may be accepted
as accurate. The numbers are sufficiently large for the
purpose of showing that under various conditions there
exists a difference in weight between negroes and whites
having the same physical proportions.

COMPARATIVE WEIGHT OF NEGRO AND WHITE ADULT MALES
ACCORDING TO GIRTH OF CHEST.i

Girth of Chest.
Inches.

32.5 • . .

33- • • •

33-5 • ■ •

34. . . .

34-5 ■ • .

35- • . •

35-5 • • .

36.5 ■ . .

37- • • •

38. . . .

38 5 . . .

39-5 . - .

40.5 • • .

41. . . .

44-5 • • •

45. . . .

Colored.
121
123
145
150
155
147
154
168
176
170

175
180
207
190
240
230

-Weight, lbs.-

White.
133
136
139
141

143
145
152
164
155
167
168
176
1 88
201
230
226

Colored men examined all lived in

1 MeaSTTTeTHenlFcolIecfed by the writer.
New Jersey.

This table is not comparable with the table of ]\Ir.
Gould in that the individuals included were weighed in
ordinary indoor clothing while the soldiers are weighed
either naked or under different conditions than life in-
surance applicants. But the result is the same as shown
in Mr. Gould's table.

156 American Economic Association.

I have obtained, through the kindness of Dr. Hamil-
ton D. Wey, of the Ehnira Reformatory, the compara-
tive measnrements of i£ white and 12 colored jnvenile
delinquents. According to the measnrements fnrnished
me the average weight of the white inmates measured
was 127.2 lbs. against 136.6 lbs. for the colored. The
average age of the whites was 20.4, while that of the col-
ored inmates was 21.3 years. The average stature of
the whites was 64.8 inches in contrast to an average of
65.6 inches for the colored. This excess of height for
the colored is exceptional, since as a rule the colored
fall below the white in the average height according to
age or weight.'

I must add to this collection of facts bearing on stat-
ure and weight, a table for children compiled by the
superintendent of schools of Kansas City, Mo., who de-
serves the thanks of investigators for his interest in this
subject. The table is for the year 1890 and shows for
boys and girls the average height, weight and pounds to
an inch in stature, for the ages from 10 to 17^

HEIGHT AND WEIGHT OF KANSAS CITY SCHOOL CHILDREN.— JS90.1

(

10 to 17 j'ears of age.)

Relation of Weight

Height.

Weight.

to Stature.

Girls.

Lbs. to In

in Stature.

White. Colored

White. Colored.

White.

Colored.

Age.

Inches. Inches.

Lbs. Lbs.

Lbs.

10 .

51.7 49.8

65.9 74.6

1.27

1.50

II .

52.7 52.8

66.2 79.9

1.26

1.84

12 .

54 0 54.0

So. 6 82.8

1.49

I 53

13 •

57-4 56.9

91.7 97.2

1.60

1. 71

14 .

60.3 58.8

i<X).o 105. 8

1.65

1.77

15 •

62.0 61.5

109.4 no. I

1.76

1-79

16.

62.5 62.8

III. 2 117. 0

1. 78

1. 86

17 •

62.9 66.0

117. 1 128.0

1.86

1.94

1 Annual report of the Superintendent of Kansas City

schools for I

590-91. The

tables in full for 1PS6 and 1S90

are reprinted in the bullet

in of the Tennessee state

board

of health, March, 1S92.

^The excess in stature may be due to the greater average age of the
colored inmates, -which exceeds that of the whites by nearly one year.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 157

Relation of Weight

Height.

Weight.

to Stature.

IJoys.

Boys.

Lbs. to In

. in Stature.

White. Colored.

White.

Colored.

.^ge

Inches. Inches.

I.bs. Lbs.

Lbs.

52.0 5I.O

67.5 72.7

1.30

1-43

53-0 53-4

70.9 78.3

1.34

1.47

56.0 53.7

78.3 83.0

1.40

1-55

56 6 56.0

87.5 89.0

1.55

1-59

58.6 58.9

93-5 93-6

1.60

1-59

62.4 61.0

III. 3 112. 0

1.77

1.84

63 9 64.4

119.0 121. 0

1. 86

1.88

64. S 65.0

126.6 130.0

1.94

2.00

The tables confirm the others that have thus far been
introduced and show that even for the young genera-
tion a distinct physical peculiarity of the colored race
has remained the same. We have here for the colored
children, both boys and girls, a smaller stature and greater
weight than for the whites. The table is further con-
firmed by a similar investigation made by the same teach-
er in 1886. It is to be hoped that in the future teachers
will follow this example, and collect anthropometric
data which will be of value to the student of the subject
as well as to themselves.

The results from these tables are at variance with the
accepted rule that a high mortality from consumption
attends a low average weight as proportioned to stature.
The negro, therefore, in this respect presents entirely
different characteristics from the white race. I am not
aware that this exception to a general rule has hereto-
fore been discussed. Yet the result was not wholly con-
trary to my expectations. It is a fact already referred
to by Dr. Hunt,^ that the negro is a hearty eater ; that,
well-fed, he is capable of enduring hardships of military
service even better than the white, but ill-nourished, he
soon falls a victim to melancholy and despair. Yet it is

' " The Negro as a Soldier," Anthropological Review, 1869, p. 43.

158 A})ierican Economic Association.

the quantity with him, not quality, and the amount of
flesh put on may be of less firmness and more subject to
degenerative processes than that of the white race.

However, this would not explain the variation from the
rule of lesser susceptibility to consumption as an increase
of weight is met with. It only proves that a physiolog-
ical law may hold good for one race and not for another.
Thus, for instance, the Bengalese are of very low weight,
so much so that the normal increase in weight with ad-
vancing stature is only t^.},}) pounds to the inch, in con-
trast with an average of 4. 1 7 pounds for the white soldiers
and 4.35 pounds for the colored during our civil war. Yet
we are informed by Surgeon-Captain W. J. Buchanan, of
Bhagalpur, India, that " if a man in India reaches this
standard, he will be able to perform the severest form of
hard labor." A similar difference is met with among
the Jews of East London, who with the distinct physi-
ological characteristic of lighter weight than the English,
show a much lower mortality, not only from all causes,
but from consumption in particular. •

Another fact which is brought out by these tables, is
that on the whole the conditions of life of the colored
people must be fairly satisfactory so long as we meet
with proof of better nurture among them than among
the whites. Thus among the Kansas City school chil-
dren the contrast is marked, and the excess of weight
clearly proven. At the same time the condition of
life of the colored population of Kansas City seem, on
the whole, to their disadvantage when measured by the
standard of life of the white race. But is it an actual

* The mortality of the Jews in comparison with other races has been
fulh' discussed by the writer in the Spectator, an insurance journal,
for November 7 and 14, 1S95. For reprint of the principal tables see
Public Health for June, 1S96.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Anierica^i Negro. 159

disadvantage or only an apparent one? The negro
mortality of Kansas City is far in excess of that of the
whites ;' yet from the standpoint of the ratio of height
and weight the school children, at least, present a better
physical type than do the children of the whites.

The effect of weight as a determining factor in the
dnration of life, and especially as a predisposing cause
to consumption, in cases where the individual falls below
the average standard, is of less influence on the colored
race than it is on the white, and we must seek for other
physiological traits in explanation of the excessive mor-
tality of the colored race.

In the second chapter of this work I quoted from Dr.
Hunt : "A careful series of weights of normal lungs to
contrast with weight of an equal number of whites is a
great desideratum. It should be reinforced by measure-
ments of the volume and expansion of the living thorax."-
On the first point I have knowledge of only one series
of measurements, made by Dr. Russel, who in a report
to the Sanitary Commission, states that the ave:rage
weight of the lung of the negro is four ounces less than
that of the white.^ I do not know the number of obser-
vations on which this conclusion was founded, but
it is probable that a sufficient number of cases were
investigated by Dr. Russel before publishing his conclu-
sion. The result confirms the view of Dr. Hunt that " the
negro has a small or tropical lung." It remains for me
to show how far this view is supported by measurements
of the living thorax and the actual capacity of the

'Approximate mortality, 1894 : whites, 11.5 per 1,000; colored, 20.4
per 1,000.

'^Journal, Anthropological Society, vol. 7, 1S69.

•' "Sanitary Memoirs of the War of the Rebellion," page 333 ; con-
tributions relating to the causes and prevention of diseases, edited by
Austin Flint, M.D., New York, 1867.

i6o A/neri'mn Economic Association.

lungs. The data on this important point are fairly com-
plete and of greater determining value than those of
weight and stature. The following three tables are ab-
stracted from the report of the Provost-Marshal Gen-
eral, and show the relation of girth of chest to increas-
ing stature, weight and age. The last two tables also
show the chest mobility, that is, the difference be-
tween forced inspiration and forced expiration. The
results of the first table are based on measurements
of 25,828 colored soldiers, while those of the two follow-
ing tables deal only with yj-j measurements. For the
white troops the number of cases in all tables is, of
course, much larger.

RELATION OF GIRTH OF CHEST AT EXPIRATION TO INCREASING
HEIGHT IN MEN, 18 TO 45 YEARS OF AGE.»

Native White Troops Native Colored Troops

(315,620.) (25,828.)

Stature. Girth of Chest. Girth of Chest.

Inches. Inches.

-Under 61 inches . ... 30.84 31-25

61-63 31.13 31.68

63-65 31-98 32-84

65-67 3292 • 33-65

67-69 3365 34-34

69-71 34-23 34-77

71-73 34-72 35.15

73 and over ... 35.16 35.56

Mean 33.42 33-69

1 Report of the Provost-Marshal General of the Army, Vol. I, p-as.-"'^ /

RELATION OF HEIGHT, GIRTH OF CHEST AND MOBILITY OF CHEST
.TO INCREASING WEIGHT IN MEN, iS TO 45 YEARS OF AGE.»

Native Whites (6359). Colored '377 men).

Mobility Mobility

Height- Girth. of Chest. Height. Girth. ofChe.st.

Weight. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches.

Under 100 lbs.. .64.00 29.71 3.07

100-120 .. 65.19 30.47 3.15 63.79 30.14 3.33

120-140 . . 66.86 31.99 3.24 65.32 32.05 3.21

140-160 . . 68.42 33.64 3.29 67.07 33 47 3.22

160-180. .69.92 34.99 3.29 69.19 35.11 3.27

180- . . 70.22 36.55 3.27 69.75 35-25 3-38

Mean . . . 67.30 32.49 3.24 66.39 32-84 3-23

1 Report of Provost-Marshal General, Vol. I, pp. 39-46.

Race Traits and Teudejtcies of the American Negro. i6i

RELATION OF HEIGHT, GIRTH OF CHEST AND EXPANSION OF CHEST
TO INCREASING AGE IN MEN, i8 TO 45 YEARS OF AGE.

Native Whites (6359).

Colored (377

men).

Height.
Inches.

Girth.
Inches.

Mobility
of Chest.
Inches.

Height.
Inches.

Girth.
Inches.

Mobility
of Chest.
Inches.

Under 20 years

. 66.49

31-32

326

65-56

31.64

3-17

20-25 . .

. 67. 48

32.49

325

66.23

32.73

3-28

25-30 • •

■ 67.54

32.94

3.22

66.97

33-27

3-25

30-35 • •

■ 67.59

33-14

3.22

66.59

33-29

3-19

35-40 . .

. 67.80

33-30

3-26

67-55

33-95

3-i8

40- . .

• 67.74

33-63

3.18

65. 84

33-28

3-34

Mean . .

. 67.30

32.49

3-24

66.39

32.84

3-23

[ Tt will be observed that almost without exception the
girth of chest (by which is meant the chest at expira-
tion) is greater for the negro than for the white. The
same fact is brought out in the last two tables, which
show the mobility of the chest in addition to girth.
Neither stature, weight nor age exert an influence on
this condition, and the result is almost without excep-
tion in favor of the colored soldier. It must, be taken
into consideration that the recruits here dealt with pre-
sent probably a better type than the average colored
male of the same period ; nevertheless the difference is
striking. If we compare this table with the one which
follows we shall find that the recruit of the present day
does not present the same favorable characteristics, but
to the contrary invariably falls below the standard of the
white. The table shows also for both periods, the mean
degree of chest mobility for white and colored recruits.

COMPARATIVE CHEST MOBILITY OF U. S. RECRUITS, 1861-65 AND 1892-94.'

U. S. Army. 1S61-65. 1
Age Periods. White. Colored. Excess in

Under 20 . 3.26 3.17 favor of white.

[J. S. Army, 1892-94.
White. Colored. Excess in

2.82 2.56 favor of white.

20-24 • - 3-25 3-28 "

" col'd.

2.86

2.52 "

25-29 . . 3 22 3.25 "
30-34 . . 3-22 3-19 "

" white.

293
2.96

2.62 "
2.64 "

35-39 - - 3-26 3.18 "
40-49 .3-18 3.34 "
All ages 3.24 3.23 "

" col'd.
" white.

2.94
2.84
2-93

2-57 "
2.52 "
2.58 "

1 Compiled from the report of the Provost-Marshal General (Vol. I) and annual
reports of the Surgeon General U. S. A., 1893-94-95.

l62

American Economic Association.

If the data here presented may be relied upon, they
would prove a lower vital power for the negro of the
present time than for the negro of about thirty years ago.
The table shows that at the present time the negro is ;
invariably inferior in chest expansion to the white. The
dearth of data on this point make it difficult, however,
to prove whether there is a decided tendency in this
direction, — such a tendency we should expect to find in \
view of the inordinate mortality of the race from pul-_J
monary and respiratory diseases.

It was proven by Gould that the average lung capacity
of the negro was considerably less than that of the
white. The result of his investigations are abbreviated
in the table below which shows the average capacity of
the lungs for both races according to stature and cir-
cumference of chest. Both methods bring out the same
result.

PULMONARY CAPACITY ACCORDING TO -STATURE.'

Stature. White.

I Inches. Cubic Inches.

I 60 138.5

j 61 145.0

i 62 151.O

63 157-5

64 163.5

65 170.0

66 .... 176.0

67 182.5

68 188.5

69 194-5

70 200.5

71 206.5

72 212.0

1 Gould, " Militarj- Statistics," p. 4S0,

Negro.
Cubic Inches.

Mean Difference

in Favor

of Whites.

Cubic Inches.

130-5

8.0

136.0

9.0

141. 0

10.0

146.0

II 5

151-5

12.0

156.5

135

162.0

14.0

167.5

15.0

173-5

15-0

179.0

15-5

185.0

155

191.0

15-5

197-5

14-5

— ■

Race Traits and Tetidendes of the American Negro. 163

PULMONARY CAPACITY ACCORDING TO CIRCUMFERENCE OF CHEST.'

Girth of Chest, White. Colored. Mean

Inches. Cubic Inches, Cubic Inches. Difference.

30 '149-5 1240 25.5

31 156.5 132.5 24.0

32 163.0 141.0 22.0

?>:!) 169.5 148.5 21.0

34 ■ 175-5 156.0 19.5

35 181. o T65.0 18.0

36 186.5 170.5 16.0

37 192.0 178.0 14.0

38 1965 185.5 ii.o

39 200.5 194.0 6.5

40 204.0 202.0 2.0

^1 Gould, " Military Statistics," p, 493. /

The contrast is very marked and suggests the question
why there should be a smaller lung capacity in view of
the slight difference in chest expansion. The rule was
laid down by Dr. Hutchinson that " the size of the chest
and the quantity of air a man can breathe have no direct
relation to each other. The circumference of the chest
has also no relation to vital capacity ; but it has to
weight, increasing an inch for every ten pounds."^ We
must, therefore, consider both series of measurements in-
dependent of each other ; but the greatest value must be
attached to the comparative degree of vital capacity, for,
as has been pointed out by the same writer, " by disease
the vital capacity decreases by from lo to 70 per cent."
The only data which I have been able to obtain with
respect to the negro of the present day are those of
twelve inmates of the Ehnira Reformatory, furnished me
by Dr. Hamilton Wey. According to this authority, the
average vital capacity of the colored inmates was 180 cu-
bic inches, in contrast with 196 cubic inches for the white
inmates. In respect to weight, circumference of waist
and strength of chest, the negro was superior to the

' Medico Cliinigical Transactions, xxix, p. 248.

164 Amen'ca?i Economic Associatio7i.

white, but in respect to vital capacity he proved himself
decidedly the inferior to the white inmate.

In consequence of this inferiority the following re-
mark of Dr. Wey is justified : " It has been noted here
[the New York Refonnatory] as in other institutions,
that color exercises an influence in disease resistance.
Thus, other things being equal, the white opposes the
greatest resistance ; next comes the full blooded negro,
or the best type of the blooded negro found in this
locality ; while the mulatto is most susceptible, as if the
inferior elements of two colors combined in him pro-
duced a strain ill-calculated to resist disease." ' Accord-
ing to Gould the average lung capacity of white soldiers
was 184.7 cubic inches, of blacks 163.5, and of mulattos
158.9.^ The mean circumference of the chest was 35.8
inches for whites, 35.1 for blacks, and 34.97 for the
mixed races. ^

The inferior vitality of the mixed race is, therefore,
sufficiently proven by both methods. On the hypothesis
that lung capacity differs in man according to age,
height, weight and disease, the smaller lung capacity of
the colored race is in itself proof of an inferior physical
organism, and this assertion is proved by the greater mor-
tality of the race as compared with the white. The effect
of disease on lung capacity is clearly brought out in the
table below, which shows for white, black and mulatto
soldiers the lung capacity in usual vigor, and with vigor
impaired. The table is very interesting and supports
those previously introduced, as well as the rule of Hutch-
inson that there is a direct relation between lung capacity
and disease.

1 Eighteenth Year Book, New York Reformatory, p. 17S.
= Gould, "Military Statistics," p. 471.
^ Ibid, p. 316.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 165

AVERAGE LUNG CAPACITY OF WHITE AND COI^ORED SOI^DIERS.'

1861-1865.

Color ^" Usual Vigor. With Vigor Impaired.

(Cubic Inches). (Cubic Inches).

White soldiers 187.9 166.3

Full blacks 165.3 149.7

Mulattoes 161.6 145.4

Gould, " Military Statistics," p, 471.

Closely related to lung capacity and girth of chest is
the respiratory movement of the chest. On this point the
only information I know of is in the statistics collected
by Gonld. They are admitted to be of less value than
those pertaining to other bodily measurements, but on
the whole they may be accepted as representing fairly the
functional differences of the two races in this respect.
The tables which follow give the number of respirations
per minute for whites, blacks and mulattoes, between
the ages 17 and 35, in usual vigor and with vigor im-

MEAN FREQUENCY OF RESPIRATION ACCORDING TO AGE.>

Ages. Whites.

Under 17 16.40

17 16.55

'8 16.39

19 16.36

20 16.41

21 16.53

22 16.45

23 16.47

24 16.50

25 •••... . 16.46

26 16.36

27 16.33

28 16.3S

29 16.51

30 16.41

31-34 16.37

35 and over ..... 16.50

Mean .... 16.44 17-75 i9-Oi

Usual Vigor.

Blacks.

Mulatto

18.45

1832

18.05

17-73

18.43

18.20

19-37

19-50

18.74

1955

18.15

18.74

17.59

18.55

17.46

18.57

16.96

20.06

17-54

19.91

16.69

1947

16.87

18.42

17-36

19.29

16.74

18.26

17.03

18.85

17.09

19.10

18.04

1882

'Gould, "Military Statistics," pp. 521-22.

1 66 American Economic Association.

MEAN FREQUENCY OF RESPIRATION ACCORDING TO AGE' '

With Vigor Impaired.

White. Black, and Mulatto.

Under 17 17.32 20.50

17 16.95 20.50

18 16.76 19.62

J9 1655 18.54

20 16 63 19.82

21 16.76 22.59

22 16.60 22.78

23 16.89 21.21

24 16.69 20.91

25 16.92 22.65

26 16.34 19-70

27 17-07 22.54

28 16.40 21.00

29 16 91 21.21 j

30 17.16 22.60 \

31-34 16.70 20.21 ;

35 and over 17.16 18.97

Mean 16. 84 20.71

'Gould, "Military Statistics," p. 522.

paired. The distinction as to vigor is necessars- to meet
the point raised in the discussion of vital capacity as to
the effect of disease. For those with impaired vigor the
data for pure and mixed races have not been separated
by ]\Ir. Gould on account of the small number of cases,

(294).

Under conditions of health and disease the number of
respirations is least for the white and greatest for the
mulattoes. The number of respirations increases during
disease. According to the tables before us, the average
number per minute was 16.44 ^^^^ the whites in usual
vigor, and 16.84 with vigor impaired. For the blacks
the rate was 17.75 in usual vigor and for the mulattoes
19.01. For the two races combined the rate was 20,71
for those with vigor impaired. The differences in favor
of the whites exist at all ages and are fairly constant.
Since the accelerated respiration falls almost entirely on

Race Traits and Tcndc7icics of the American Negro. 167

the colored race it is self-evident from these figures and
those pertaining to lung capacity that on the whole the
colored race, even at the time of a favorable rate of mor-
tality, presented characteristics which in part explain
the inordinate mortality peculiar to the race at the pres-
ent time.'

Inferior vital capacity is closely associated with slight
physical strength. The data collected by Mr. Gould
proves this to be true, and as the table below will show,
the mean lifting strength is less at nearly all ages for
the colored soldiers as compared with the whites. This
is contrary to the prevailing notion that the average
negro possesses superior physical strength, but in full
accordance with the lower power of vital resistance and
consequent susceptibility to disease.

I know of no comparative data for the colored male of
the present day, with the exception of the twelve meas-
urements of colored boys in the Elmira Reformatory al-
ready referred to. The results of Dr. Wey's measure-
ments confirm this point and show that while the aver-
age strength of the back and legs are 274.8 lbs. and 369.8
lbs. respectively for the white inmates, the averages for
the colored were only 270.4 lbs. and 349.4 lbs. respec-
tively. The dearth of data makes a more accurate com-
parison impossible.

' The same unfavorable condition is to be observed in the rate of the
pulse, which increases during disease even in its incipient sta,;.',e. In
the comparison below, the full blacks show the most favorable rate
while tile least favorable rate is shown by the mulatto both in health
and disease.
^ MEAN FREQUENCY OF PULSE.'

/ Usual Vigor. Vigor Impaired.

Whites 74-84 77-21

Full blacks 74-02 76.91

Mulattoes 76-97 S3.12

'Gould, "Military statistics,'

[68 Amcricayi Econoviic Association.

MEAN LIFTING STRENGTH OF WHITE AND COLORED SOLDIERS.*

Age. White. Colored.

Lbs. Lbs.

Under 17 250.4 258.9

17 292.8 295.0

18 312.6 2S5.8

19 320.7 297- 1-

20 331.2 316.2

21 337-4 327.4

22 343-3 3296

23 35S 4 334S

24 355S 347-2

25 365-1 349-5

26 363.0 33S.9

27 350.1 343.2

28 367-6 354- 1

29 3659 356.9

30 351-2 349-8

31-34 361-9 366.S

35-39 366.0 339.2

40-44 347-0 ^ 336.6

45-49 325-7 * 328.7

50 and over. . . 321.2 297.0

1 Gould, "Militarj' Statistics," pp. 461 and 465.

There is one more subject concerning which the sta-
tistics I have collected may be of value, and that is,
vision. I regret that the limited range of data on this
important point makes a full discussion difficult, if not
impo.ssible ; but the subject is one which is well deserv-
ing of being more fully investigated. The work of
Gould contains considerable information which, however,
deals more fully with the eyesight of the white soldier
than of the colored. The actual power of vision was
greatest for the Indian and least for the full black. The
mean distance at which a test object could be read was
47.3 inches for the white, 45.5 for the full black, 46.6
for the mulatto and 51.8 for the Indian.^ But the small

1 Gould, "Military Statistics," page 530.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Americaii Negro. 169

number of observations (253) on mulattoes impairs the
value of the figures for this class. The superiority of
the vision of the white over that of the negro is, how-
ever, clearly shown.

If we consider the comparative prevalence of color
blindness we meet with an entirely different result, as
2.2 per cent, of the white soldiers were color blind, and
only I.I per cent, of blacks and 0.3 per cent, of the
mulattoes.' There is therefore apparently no distinct
relation between power of vision and color blindness.

We are fortunate in having some valuable and reliable
data on this point for the present time for the state of
Alabama, from the official reports of which I have com-
piled the following table showing the comparative fre-
quency of cases of color blindness and defective vision in
four years.

AVERAGE NUMBER OF REJECTIONS FOR DEFECTIVE VISION BY THE
STATE BOARD OF EXAMINERS FOR ALABAMA, 1888-1891.1

Per Cent, of
Color. No. Examined. No. of Rejections. Rejections.

While 7,403 285 3.9

Black ... . 1.253 24 1.9

Mulatto .... 265 5 1.9

^ Annual reports of the Alabama .State Board of Health, 188S-1S91.

V^ This table presents the results of examinations made
during 1888-91 of persons employed or desiring to be
employed in the railway service. The class rejected or
disqualified includes those with visual defects of all
kinds and therefore the results are not strictly compar-
able with those of Mr. Gould's investigation, which deals
with color blindness only. But the result is largely in
favor of the colored, and to an equal degree for mulattoes
and full blacks. A similar result is brought out by the
following table abstracted from the reports of the Sur-

' " Militarj' Statistics," p. 554.

170 American Eco7iomic Association.

geon-General of the army and showing the rejections for
diseases of the eye during a period of eight years.

REJECTIONS rOR DISEASES OF THE EYES FOR i,cx30 MEN EXAMINED, \
1887-1894.1 j

Year. White. Colored.

18S7 74.2 50.9 \

1888 90.0 76.7

1S89 89.1 77.5

1890 89.1 55.1

1891 86.7 40.8

1S92 S8.3 64 5

1^93 82. o 51.2

i?^94 Sd^T 30^7

1 Annual reports of the Surgeon-General of the Array, 1S88-1895. ___^y

Without exception the rejections for diseases of the
eye are most frequent among the whites, and there does
not seem to be any tendency towards a change in this
favorable condition for the colored race.

The conclusions deducible from the preceding tables
of anthropometric statistics may be summarized as
follows :

First. The average weight of the colored male of
military age, and of colored male and female children, is
greater than that of whites of the same classes. This
excess in weight prevails irrespective of age, stature, or
circumference of the chest.x'

Second. The average stature of the negro is less than
that of the white, and the difference, though slight, pre-
vails at all ages.

Third. The greater weight and smaller stature of the
negro as compared with the white are found to prevail
practically the same today as thirty years ago. The
race has therefore undergone no decided change in re-
spect to these conditions of bodily structure.
<. Fourth. The average girth of chest of the negro male

Race Traits atid Tendencies of the Anierica^i Negro. 171

of thirty years ago was slightly greater than that of the
white, but at the present time the chest expansion of
the colored male is less than that of the white. This de-
crease in the size of the living thorax in part explains
the increase in the mortality from consumption and res-
piratory diseases.

Fifth. The capacity of the lungs of the negro is con-
siderably below that of the white. This fact coupled
with the smaller weight of the lungs (4 oz.) is without
question another powerful factor in the great mortality
from diseases of the lungs. ^

Sixth. The mean frequency of respiration is greater
in the negro than in the white. As accelerated respira-
tion indicates a tendency towards disease, the fact just
stated fully supports those regarding inferior vital capac-
ity and lesser degree of mobility of the chest.

Seventh. The mean lifting strength of the white is in
excess of that of the negro. The prevailing opinion
that the negro is on the whole more capable of enduring
physical exercise is therefore disproved. This fully
agrees with the facts regarding excessive mortality,
which in itself is proof of a lesser degree of physical
strength.

Eighth. The power of vision of the negro is inferior
to that of the white, but he is less liable to diseases of
the eye, especially color blindness.

The facts brought together in the preceding section
prove conclusively that there are important differences
in the bodily structure of the two races, differences of
far-reaching influence on the duration of life and the
social and economic efficiency of the colored man.
Superficial writers,' either ignorant of or indifferent to

'Davy "On the Character of the Negro." Journal, Anthropological
Society, vol. vii, p. clvi et seq.

172 American Econotnic Association.

the facts, have maintained that snch differences were
only trivial and of no importance. All the researches of
and investigations from Soemmering' to Gonld have
clearly proven that the differences are vital. Sir Dnncan
Gibb, in his remarks on the paper of Dr. Beddoe,^ well said
that " the vital energies of a people had a great deal to
do with the state of the body, and that the capacity of
the chest should count for something very considerable
as an indication of national power. He thought that
the British people as a race were superior to most other
people in consequence of the vigour they possessed in
that respect." ''

The apparent decrease in the vitality of the negro is
in marked contrast to the favorable change in th.e white
population. Taking account only of students we have
it on the authority of Professor Hitchcock that " The
physique of the Amherst student is altered very
considerably from what it was in the sixties. The
young man now in college has at his entrance
less of the simple, flabby, weak appearance than had
the young collegian of 186 1. . . . There are
two facts in our statistical history which illustrate
this point. One is the test of actual strength. Almost
from the first beginnings of our department we have
possessed and used the two well known tests known as
the ' dip ' and the ' pull up '. . . . The records of
tests with these instruments applied to all the colleges,
were averaged for the period 1861 to 1888, with the re-
sult that the ' dip ' stood at 6, and the ' pull up ' at 9.
For the sake of comparison we have averaged the same

' S. T. SotnTiiering, " Ueber die korperlichen Verschiedenheiteu
der Neger von Europaern," Frankfurt a. M., 1785.

2 " The Stature and Bulk of Men in the British Islands."
^Journal of the Anthropological Society, Vol. 7, p. ccxxi.

lace Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 173

ite: lis for the past five college years and find the 'dip'
to be 7.1 and the 'pull up' 9.9, that is, we register a
gain of 9 and 8 per cent, respectively. Another test is
found in our record of time lost on account of sickness.
Statistics taken from 1861-65 showed that each student
during that period averaged a loss of 2.18 days annually
during term time from being too sick to study. The
records for 1885-89 show an average loss of 1.75 days, a
gain in health of 8 per cent. The deaths during 1861-
70, exclusive of those who fell in the v/ar were 6. i per
cent, of the whole number graduated ; the deaths during
1881-90 were 3.4 per cent, of this number. This cer-
tainly indicates a greater vitality now than twenty-five
years ago."^

In contrast with this favorable change of physical
condition for the white race, we have abundant proof of
the physical deterioration of the colored race. Before
emancipation he presented in many respects a most ex-
cellent physical type, a type even superior to the aver-
age white man examined for military service under
similar conditions. The opinions as to his fitness for
military service were so very emphatic, and so largely
in his favor, that I cannot do better than quote a few of
the many recorded views of the examining surgeons,
who had excellent opportunities for observation. The
Kentucky negro of thirty years ago was described by Dr.
James Foster, of London, Ky., as follows :

For symmetry, muscular strength and endurance, I do not think
the Kentucky negro can be surpassed by any people on earth. The
stoutest and most muscular men I ever examined were the negroes

I examined at this office I think the negro, if he was

better informed, and as a consequence, possessed of more moral
courage, would be more enduring as he is certainly more muscular

' Annual report of the Professor of Hygiene and Physical Education
of Amherst College, 1891.

174 American Economic Associatio7i.

thau the white man. He is, in addition generally better devel ipel in
the chest than the white man.'

Dr. John C. Maxwell, of Lebanon, Ky., wrote a.s fol-
lows :

I think I may state without fear of contradiction, that the colored
man in this locality, if bone and sinew, chest measurement and gen-
eral physique are the criteria, presents the greatest physical aptitude
for military service. -

In the eastern states the opinion of the examining
surgeon was equally favorable. Dr. John Streeter, of
Boston makes the following report :

I have not examined a very large number of colored men, not
exceeding 300, consequently I cannot speak from large experience.
Those that I have examined compare favorably in intelligence and
aptitude for military service with white recruits. In muscular de-
velopment and freedom from physical disqualifications they are
superior to the average white men I have examined. The finest
specimens of physical development I have seen were among the
colored recruits. I am not aware why the colored race should not
furnish as efficient soldiers as ever were in service.^

Dr. R. G. McLord, of Norwich, Conn., wrote as fol-
lows :

The negro possesses in general a sound and vigorous body, with a
powerful development of the thorax and superior extremities, and
is in ever}' way physically adapted for garrison dut}', assailing earth
works, as well as for short marches. '

The opinion of Dr. Stevenson, of Camden, N. J., was
given as follows :

The negro race physically are well developed, muscular and
strong. . . With the exception of a greater tendency to scrofulous
disorders, they are quite as free from disease as the whites. The
negro then would seem to be well adapted to endure the fatigues of a
long march and in those duties where manual labor is required, ought
to be superior to the white man.^

Finally I may quote the opinion of Dr. H. B. Hub-

^ Provost-Marshal General's report, vol. I, p. 3S4.
^ Ibid, p. 370.
^ Ibid, p. 201.
* Ibid, p. 237.
^Ibid, p. 285.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Americaii Negro. 175

bard, exaiiiiuing surgeon of the 2nd Mass. district, who
observed the negro in British Guiana :

An experience of some months' practice among this class some
years since in Denierara, enables me to give a decided opinion that
the negro is generally of good physique . . . and fully as able,
(as the white) to support fatigue and endure hardship. I think the
negro lias ever}' physical qualification for military service. I refer to
the pure or nearly pure, bl.ick ; for although I have known some
muscular and healthy niulattoes I am convinced that, as a general
rule, any considerable admixture of white blood deteriorates their
physique, impairs the powers of endurance and almost always intro-
duces a scrofulous taint.'

This testimony as to the sound physical condition of
the negro previous to emancipation, M^as ahnost unani-
mous. Those who disagreed with the favorable opin-
ions in regard to the negro's fitness for military service
found fault largely with the lack of muscular develop-
ment of the calf of the leg, and the extreme flat-foot-
edness, and, among those of mixed blood especially,
tendency to scrofula. In regard to the first two
objections the opinion of Dr. Sanford Hunt may be
quoted, according to whom " the large flat inelastic foot
of the negro was at first considered an objection,, but
consequent experience has not sustained the idea.. I
have known a command of about 1,500 negroes to marcli
78 miles in 76 hours with remarkable ease and without
increasing the sick list except for blistered feet. The
general experience of army officers has decided that the
negro marches as well as the majority of the troops."^

Hence we have an almost perfect agreement of widely
separated authorities and investigators, that the negro
of thirty years ago was physically the equal if not the
superior of the white, and this view has been fully sus-
tained by the statistics of mortality, which also ranked

^Provost-Marshal General's report. Vol. I, p. 199.

^ "The Negro as a Soldier"; Anthropological Review, Vol VII, p. 43.

176 American Economic Association.

him the equal if not the superior of the white of thirty
years ago. While it is not possible to demonstrate as
clearly as is desirable the present physical condition of
the colored race, enough facts have been introduced to
show that a process of deterioration has been going on
in this respect, which is revealed by the inordinate mor-
tality of the race from consumption and respiratory
diseases. And the opinion is warranted that if facts
were collected in the same comprehensive and scientific
manner as was done by Mr. Gould and Dr. Baxter, they
would prove that in vital capacity, the most important
of all physiological characteristics, the tendency of the
race has been downward. This tendency if unchecked
must in the end, lead to a still greater mortality, a lesser
degree of economic and social efficiency, a lower
standard of nurture and a diminishing excess of births
over deaths. A combination of these traits and ten-
dencies must in the end cause the extinction of the race.

Chapter IV.

RACE AMALGAMATION.

In this work, the terms "colored" and "negro" have
been used indiscriminately, but I have made the more
extended use of the former, since the type of the pure
negro is rarely met with. The race is so hopelessly
mixed that it is difficult to arrive at a clear definition,
and the term " colored " will probably serve as well as
the awkward phrase, " persons of x^frican descent."

Of the original African type few traces remain, and
the race is largely a cross between the African and the
white male ; for no considerable crossing of negroes
with white females has ever taken place. The instances
where white women have married colored men are very
rare and the few cases that occur cannot possibly have
affected the traits and tendencies of the race. On the
other hand, the infusion of white blood, through
white males, has been widespread, and the original
type of the African has almost completely disappeared.
A small settlement near Mobile, Ala., a few years ago
was asserted to have preserved the purity of the race :
but I am informed by Dr. D. T. Rogers, the health officer
of Mobile, that this is no longer true.^ It is therefore a

' This settlement consisted originally of thirty full blooded Daho-
meyans, brought over in the " Clothilde" in 1859, the last cargo of
slaves brought to this country. They were exceedingly fine speci-
mens of the nati%'e African and in the course of a few years became
an industrious, peaceble community. For a considerable period no
intercourse with the native colored population took place, but of
late years they have mixed and intermarried with the latter.
The result of this inter-marriage is given fully in the following
extracts from a letter of Dr. Rogers, written from Mobile, Ala.,
Dec. 18, 1895, who kindly investigated the matter for me.
'• The settlement is located about three miles from Mobile. Some

lyS American Economic Association.

question of great importance to know what influence,
favorable or otherwise, the infusion of white blood has
had on the physical, moral and mental^aracteristics_of
the race. It is of further importance to ascertain, if
possible, whether there is a decided tendency towards a
mixture of the two races, and if so, whether this tend-
ency is in the direction of lawful marriage or of concu-
binage and prostitution.

It is an open question whether crossing leads to the
improvement or deterioration of races. There is no agree-
ment amongst high authorities. Gobineau maintains
that intermixture of different races leads to final extinc-
tion of civilization. Serres and others maintain that
crossing of races is the essential lever of all progress.'
Topinard holds that crossing of races anthropologically
remote does not increase fecundity ; while M. :Quatre-
fages holds the contrary opinion. Nott, Knox and Per-
rier hold that intermixture of races would lead to decay,
while M. Bodichon declares that the era of universal
peace and fraternity will be realized by crossing. The
latter opinion is shared by Waitz, Deschamps, and many
others.

But it would seem that the majority of the writers
draw their conclusions from insufficient evidence and

years ago they all lived together on tlieir own land, which was given
to them, but in the course of time, as they have married, they have
moved away from the old place and now are scattered over a section
of about two square miles. The old original Afiicans were fine
specimens of the African race, all being tattoo marked and speaking
their own language. Thej' are large, well developed and healthy,
and in this respect superior to the other colored people. They have
largely married among themselves but also among other colored
people in this section. The increase in the population has not been
greater than that of the native colored people. The offspring of
those who have married native born colored persons exhibit character-
istics of an inferior physique to those of the original Africans and
they do not enjoy good health."
'Waitz, " Anthropology," p. 347.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 179

isolated cases of fecundity or sterility, which had little
or no bearing upon the future progress of the races, I
have failed to find in any of the works on Anthropology
a statement of facts which would warrant definite con-
clusions one way or the other.

The imperfect state of vital statistics, even at the
present time, makes it difficult if not impossible to settle
scientifically the question of increase or decrease in
fecundity. This question would seem to have been the
main object of the many inquiries in regard to the effect
of crossing, and the physiological effects seem to have
been generally ignored. Not one of the many writers
on the subject deals in a satisfactory way at all with the
comparative vitality of mixed races, and although many
statements as to comparative mortality are made, they
are usually based on insufficient evidence. Finally, it
would seem that past inquiries have been directed rather
to establishing one theory or another as to the
unity or plurality of the human race, than to the
far more important end of proving in a scientific way
whether a race has actually been benefitted intellectually,
morally, or physically by crossing. Again, the distinc-
tion pointed out by Topinard has not been sufficiently
drawn, that there is or may be a wide difference in the
effects of crossing of races anthropologically remote from
each other, as compared with races which have arrived
at about the same stage of development

That races of similar culture and physical and psy-
chical development can intermarry- to mutual advantage
is too patent a fact to need instances in its support-
That the children of mixed parentage of Indo-German^
stock, irresjjective of nationality, are superior to the r
ents, is a fact which we observe in every day life. I
is an entirely different matter when Germans and It

i8o America7i Economic Associatioyi.

English and Spaniards, Swedes and Turks intermarry
and have children'. And it may be said, only with
emphasis, that the cross-breed of white men and
colored women is, as a rule, a product inferior to both ^
parents, physically and morally. Waitz himself expres-
ses the opinion that " with regard to sexual intercourse
and the quality of the offspring there exists both in
individuals, as well as between different nations,
not exactly antipathy, but incompatibility which
though not explicable as to its origin, is sufficiently
established. "-

Xhat^such antipathy does exist is siifficienth- prov^n^
by tVif^ far^f fViQf wTiitf^ xyo^nen of this country^ do not
and never have shown a decided inclination to marrv
negroes, andthe most careful inquiry fails to show that
J;h£i£. hasjjeen developed any tendency towards a change
in Jtheir attitude. The underlying cause for this antip-
athy is what Westermark calls "thejf?w nf siliTJl^^^llJ^'
which, according to this eminent writer ^^ does moretlian
anything else to maintain the sepf^ ration of the different
classes." " A ciyilized race," he writes, "does not
readily intermingle with one less advanced in civiliza-
tion, for the same reasons \vhich prevent a lord from.
marrying a peasant girl. And, more than anytliing
else, . . . the enmity, or at least the want of
sympathy, due to differences of interests, ideas and
habits, which so often exists between different peoples or
tribes, helps to keep the races separate."^

Again, " Affection depends in a very high degree upon_

^sympathy. Though distinct aptitudes, these two classes

pet

/(9Mf7Zrt/ of the Royal Statistical Society, 1S65, pp. 274-75.

^^^^^ Introduction to Anthropolog}'," by Dr. Theodore Waitz, (London,

istics oj Vol. I, p. 185.

they do ^.Mnan Marriage," p. 2S2.

1 Waitz,

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. i8i

of emotions are most intimately connected : affection is
strengthened by sympathy and sympathy is strengthened
by affection. Community of interest, opinions, senti-
ments of culture and mode of life, as being essential to
close sympathy, is therefore favorable to close affection.
The contrast must not be so great as to exclude sym-
pathy."' Finally, " want of sympathy prevents great
divisions of human beings, such as different races or
nations, hereditary castes, classes and adherents of differ-
ent religions . . . from intermarrying, even where
personal affection plays no part in the choice."^

There would seem therefore to be in operation a most
powerful cause, which for ages to come will make amal-
gamation of the white and colored races, in this country
at least, an impossibility. " Between him (the negro)
and the white, the race antipathy seems too strong for
any great degree of amalgamation ever to take place
while the mulatto has the infertility of a hybrid." ^ But
we have to face the fact that the races do mix in spite of
the effect of the law of similarity which makes intermar-
riage of such rare occurrence. The crossing of the white
and colored races in this country is, therefore, not within
the lawful bounds of marriage, but outside of the pale of
the moral lavv^. That an immense amount of concubinage
and prostitution prevails among the colored women of the
United States is a fact fully admitted by the negroes them-
selves. It is most prevalent, as is natural, in the large
cities, but exists also to a large extent in the rural por-
tions of the country. Of the two evils, prostitution for
gain prevails the more widely, and it is but natural that
we should find on investigation that the inevitable con-

' "Human Marriage," p. 362.

•' Ibid, p. 544.

•'Charles Morris, "The Aryan Race," p. 316.

i82 Afncnca7i Econoviic Association.

sequences of a life of sexual immorality have very seri-
ously affected the physical and moral characteristics of —
the colored race.

These consequences fall most heavily on the offspring.
The children of colored women and white men, of
whatever shade of color, are morally and physically the>^
inferiors of the pure black. It has been stated by Nott
and proved by subsequent experience, that the mulatto
is in every way the inferior of the black, and of all races
the one possessed of the least vital force. I cannot do
better than give in full the opinions of the examining
surgeons of the army during the war, as to the vitality
and general physical condition of the mulatto. The
following are excerpts from the report of the Provost-
Alarshal General.

There are few if any pure Africans [in Vermont], but a mixed
race only. They probably lose in vitality what they gain in symmetry
of form by admixture ; they die early of scrofula or tuberculosis. '

Although I have known some muscular and healthy mulattoes, I
am convinced that, as a general rule, any considerable admixture of
white blood deteriorates the physique and impairs the powers of en-
durance, and almost always introduces a scrofulous taint."^

1 believe a genuine black far superior in physical endurance to
the mulatto or yellow negro ; the last named are with few exceptions,
scrofulous or consumptive.''

The colored men, as far as my observation goes, make excellent
soldiers, . . . The mulatto, however, is comparatively worthless,
subject to scrofula and tuberculosis.*

The chief disability being among those of mixed

blood, a tendency to scrofula. ■"

The majority of those rejected were of northern birth and gener-
erally mulattoes."

In this country the mixture [of the colored] with the whites con-

'Page 192, B. F. Morgan, M. D., Rutland, Vt

2 Page 199, H. B. Hubbard, M. D., Taunton, Mass.
^Page 225, C. G. McKnight, M. D., Providence, R. I.
^Page 261, C. L. Hubbell, M. D., Troy, N. Y.

^Page 302, J. Rallston Wells, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa.
«Page304, J. H. Mears, M. D., Frankfort, Pa.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Americaji Negi'o. 183

tributes greatly to lower their health and stamina and we find com-
paratively few of mixed breeds who are free from scrofula.'

The pure Africans, that is, with no admixture of white blood, as a
class were the most muscularlj' developed of any men examined.
The mulattoes have more intelligence . . . but they were scrofu-
lous and consumptive.'^

The African race, when pure and not mixed with white blood, is
more capable of enduring hardships . . . than the white race.*

The pure bloodeil African is in every way physically the equal to
the European. . . . Their mixture witli the white race deterior-
ates very much from their physical development.*

The conviction arising from an examination of a few hundred of
various shades of color is that the negro proper is well adapted for
military service, but that the mulatto and all varieties of mixture of
black and white blood have degenerated physically, being very often
found with tuberculosis and other manifestations of imperfect organ-
ism.^

Ill contrast with the foregoing opinions, in only one
instance was an opinion given, which was favorable to
the mixed type and that was based on only two cases,
which make it of no determining value.

These emphatic opinions of qualified medical men,
with abundant opportunity for observation, is fully sup-
ported by the results of the investigations of Dr. Gould,
Some of the data collected by Dr. Gould have already
been referred to in the previous chapter, but the follow-
ing summary of comparative physical measurements of
the pure and mixed races may not be out of place at
this time. As regards weight, there is very little differ-
.ence. The average was 141. 4 lbs. for the white, 144.6
for the full black, and 144,8 for the mulatto. As I have
stated before, I attach less value to this test, as applied
to the colored race than to the white race, since the in-
crease in weight is one of quantity only instead of quan-

1 Page 311, R. H. Sm.th, M. D., West Chester, Pa.

' 'Page 353, Thos. F. Murdoch, M. U., Baltimore, Md.

3 Page 394, J. R. Veeter, M. D., Jefferson City, Mo.

* Page 403, David Noble, M. D,, Hillsborough, Ohio.

* Page 418, Iv. M. Whiting, M. D., Alliance, Ohio.

184 American Economic Association.

tity and quality combined. The average circumference
of the chest was 35.8 inches for the white, 35.1 for the
full black, and 34.96 for the mulatto. The difference is
in favor of the full black, but too slight to be of any im-
portance.

The capacity of the lungs, the most important of all
determining factors among physical measurements, was
184.7 cubic inches for the white, 163.5 for the full black
and only 158.9 for the mulatto. This low vital capacity
is without question the most serious fact affecting the
longevity of the mixed races, and one which explains
the lower vitality and less resistance to disease than is
found in the negro of pure blood. The rate of respira-
tion is also unfavorable for the mixed race, and accord-
ing to Gould is 16.4 per minute for the white, 17.7 for
the pure black and 19.0 for the mulatto in usual vigor.

On the basis of these observations, the conclusion is
warranted, that the mixed race is physically the in-
ferior of the white and pure black, and as a result of
this inferior degree of vital power we meet with a lesser
degree of resistance to disease and death among the
mixed population, in contrast with the more favorable
condition prevailing among the whites and pure blacks.
Morally, the mulatto cannot be said to be the su-
perior of the pure black. In the absence of compara-
ative statistics it is next to impossible to prove this
assertion, based largely on individual observation, which
may and may not be accurate. This much, how-
ever, is probably true, that most of the illicit intercourse
between whites and colored is with mulatto women
and seldom with those of the pure type. From such
jinstances as have come to my notice, the few white men
who have married colored females usually prefer the

Race Traits and Tejidcncies of the American A^egro. 185

mulatto, and the same selection no doubt prevails anion o-
tliose who disregard the law of sexual morality.

Intellectually, the mulatto is undoubtedly the superior
(^ of the pure black. Of this there is much evidence suffi-
cieuLly welf^riown not to need presentation in detail.
It may, however, be of value to give a few data showing
the physiological changes that have taken place in the
mixed races as a consequence of the infusion of white
blood. In the work of Gould information is given show-
ing the comparative cranial measurements of the pure
black and the mixed type, and it is shown that as re-
gards circumference of the head and the facial angle,
the mulatto approximates the white race more nearly
than the pure black. As regards the former, the aver-
age circumference of the head was 22.1 inches for the
white, 22.0 for the mulatto, and 21.9 for the full black.
The facial angle measured 72.0° for the white, 69.2° for
the mulatto, and 68.8° for the full black. These facts
are fully supported by the observations of Dr. Sanford
B. Hunt, who carefully investigated the weight of the
brain as affected by crossing. According to Dr. Hunt
the average weight of the brain increases according to
the extent of crossing, so that the type presenting the
largest admixture with the white, presents also the
heaviest weight of the brain. The table of Dr. Hunt is
given in full on account of its great value.

WEIGHT OF THE BRAIN OF WHITE AND COLORED SOI^DIERS.i
(Grammes.)

No. of Cas^s.

Degree of Color.

Weight of Brain.

whites

three parts white

1424 grammes
1390

othe 47

half white

1334

' 51
«f^ 95

one-fourth white
oue-eighth white

1319
1308 "

tal 1 22

one-sixteeuth white

1280

uca 141

pure negroes

1331

of '«/AV/.*«/«^,>^

r/ l?^ii,\>'!,f \rjf 11 "rv.^ •NT„ c^

i86 Ajuerican Econoviic Association.

The tabic clearly proves that there is an increase in
brain weight with an increase in the proportion of white
blood, and this fact agrees with what we should expect
from the greater circumference of the head and the
larger facial angle of the mulatto as compared with the
pure negro. {vVe have, therefore, the contrast of the
mulatto being physically and possibly morally the in-
ferior of the pure blooded negro, while intellectually
he is the superior. )

This statistical fact could easily be supported by
numerous instances of exceptional individual progress,
which as a rule has been made by those who had a large
proportion of white blood in their veins. But important
as these exceptional instances may be, they must not be
compared, as they too often are, with the intellectual pro-
gress of the whites. I cannot do better in illustration
of this point than to quote Vogt's remarks on the well
known case of Lille Geoffroy, who was the offspring of
a Frenchman and a negro woman of Martinique : "As
a proof in favor of the scientific and artistic capacity of
the negro, we find cited in nearly all works the instance
of INIr. Lille Geoffroy, of Martinique, an engineer and
mathematician and correspondent member of the French
Academy. The fact is that the mathematical perform-
ances of the above gentleman were of such a nature that,
had he been born in Germany of white parents, he
might, perhaps, have been qualified to be a mathematical
teacher in a middle class school or engineer of a railway ;
but having been born in Martinique, of colored parents,
he shone like a one-eyed man among the totally blind.
M. Lille besides, was not a pure black but a mulatt- ^y

This distinction, so ably pointed out, is almost al

, . ,. . , . ,, , men

lost sight of m discussions on the intellectual

"^ the

'Vogt, "Lectures on Man," pp. 192-3. — '

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 187

gress, not only of the mulatto, but also of the negro.
Yet it is the most important, since it alone will separate
the real from the unreal,'

I may state here that together with an increase in so- -
called education there has not been as much progress in
morality as would take place if the education were
genuine and not, as it is in fact, a mere varnish of ques-
tionable value. And for this reason the mere fact that
there has been an increase in brain weight, in cranial
capacity, is of very little importance as compared with
the fact that there has been a decrease in vital force by
reason of the infusion of white blood. It is only another
illustration of the fact that when a race of a lower de-
gree of civilization comes in contact with a superior race
it will first imitate the superior race in the external, I
might say the ornamental, characteristics, rather than in
the useful and permanent. Thus the long heel of the
negro has decreased from 0.82 inches in the black to
0.57 inches in the mulatto, compared with 0.48 inches in
the white. The same has been shown to be true as re-
gards the facial angle, which is of no possible value as a
vital factor. Other points could be given to show that

'The remarks of Vogt are applicable to the numerous receut in-
stances where degrees from colleges and universities, and honors as
class orators, have been conferred upon negroes who, had they been
white men, would never had been for an instant considered deserving
of such exceptional appreciation of their intellectual efforts. Honors
thus easily gained by niembersof thecoloredrace, must in the end prove
moteof ahinderance than a help to real intellectual progress, since the
distinction thus conferred is out of proportion to the efforts or achieve-
ments by the person thus distinguished. The consequences of such
utterly unjustifiable action on the part of great institutions of learn-
ing are met in the excessive laudations of their own intellectual or
other efforts on the part of the negro writers themselves, and a want
of genuine respect for great learning and hard and unremitting men-
tal labor. And as a result the more subtle and important effects of ed-
ucation and the higher life are lost, and only vanity and foolish pride
of race are fostered.

i88 American Economic Association.

in the least important physical characteristics the mixed
race has a tendency to resemble the white, while in the
more important, that is in vital and moral characteris-
tics, it is inferior even to the pure black.

On the strength of the foregoing facts and observa-
tions, the conclusions would seem warranted that the
crossing of the negro race with the white has been detri- \
mental to its true progress, and has contributed more
than anything else to the excessive and increasing rate
of mortality from the uiost fatal diseases, as well as to
its consequent inferior social efficiency and diuiinishing
power as a force in American national life.

If the above conclusion is accepted, it is of no small
importance to ascertain whether the tendency of the race
is towards amalgamation or isolation. It was brought
out in the first part of this work that there is a positive
tendency on the part of the colored population in the
rural sections of the South to congregate in coun-
ties w^iere the race is most numerous. For the large
cities the same tendency was shown in the congregation
of the colored population in a few wards, usually the
worst sections of the city from a sanitary or moral stand-
point. It was also shown, for Chicago at least, that
this congregation was towards the section containing
large numbers of houses of ill-fame, and the conclusion
is inevitable that the majority of the colored living in
this section were directly or indirectly connected with
this lowest phase of city life. Hence, as regards the
large cities, it is doubtful whether the congregation of
the negroes into a few wards indicates a tendenc}^ towards
race isolation and race purity. If in this connection we
take into consideration the further fact that in the colored
race the females outnumber the males more greatly than
is true for the white race, the conclusion seems fairly

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 189

warranted that large numbers of colored women who
drift from the country into the cities, from whatever
cause, adopt a life of prostitution for gain. And for this
unfortunate social fact, the lower classes of white men
are almost entirely responsible. For while irregular
sexual relations between the two sexes of the colored
race prevail all over the South, it is more in the nature
of concubinage than prostitution for gain. That lawful
marriage between the two races is rare and of even less
frequent occurrence now than thirty years ago, will
presently be shown by such statistics as I have been able
to collect. Before I consider the available data, I wish
to deal briefly with the theory of race amalgamation as
it has been advocated with more or less persistency dur-
ing the present century.

One of the earliest discussions on the subject of the
gradual absorption of the colored race of this country by
the whites, I have met with in the Edinbiirg Review
for 1827, which contains the following statement : " We
entertain little doubt that when the laws which create
a distinction between the races shall be completely
abolished, a very few generations will mitigate the
prejudices which those laws have created and which they
still maintain. ... At that time, the black girl
who, as a slave would have attracted a white lover,
will, when her father gives her a good education and can
leave her a hundred thousand dollars, find no difficulty
in procuring a white husband."

The laws which made a distinction between the races

have been abolished, and at least one generation has

passed since then, but the two races are to-day more than

ever removed from amalgamation by means of lawful

marriage. Even the wealth of a colored girl would not

procure for her a good white husband. A marriage for
13

I go American Economic Association.

a consideration would, of course, be a return to marriage
by purchase, which, fortunately, is gradually passing
away. A ' lover ' who would be attracted by a $100,000
girl would be such in name only.

Lyell, in 1849,' expressed a similar opinion in the fol-
lowing words : " This incident [the runaway match of
a white man with a mulatto seamstress] is important
from many points of view, and especially as proving to
what an extent the amalgamation of the two races would
take place, if it were not checked by artificial prejudices
and the most jealous and severe enactments of law."

But the most determined attempt to create a national
sentiment in favor of race assimilation on a large scale
was made during the period of the war by a !\Ir. Croly
and others, who brought together in a pamphlet their
views on the subject, views which were fully shared by
the more zealous advocates of the abolition of slavery.
Thus Mr. Wendell Phillips in his Fourth of July oration
of 1863, advocated " amalgamation to the fullest extent."
Mr. Theodore Tilton, editor of the Indcpcndoit, in a
speech expressed himself as follows : " I am not advo-
cating the union of whites and blacks. This is taking
place without advocacy. It neither waits for the per-
mission of an argument in favor of it nor stays at the
barrier of an argument against it. I am often asked,
' would you marry a black woman ?' I reply . . I
have a wife already and, therefore, will not. I am asked,
' do you think a white man ought ever to marry a black
woman ?' I reply, when a man and a woman want to
get married, it is their business, not mine or anybody
else's." And again by the same writer : " The history
of the world's civilization is written in one word — which

' "Second Visit to the United States," (New York, 1849), Vol. II,
p. 2l6.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 191

many are afraid to speak — many afraid to hear — and
that is amalgamation."

But neither Air. Phillips nor Mr. Tilton went as far
as the authors of " Miscegenation," who advocated com-
plete amalgamation not only of whites and blacks but
also of whites and Chinese and all other races of what-
ever state of culture.

All that is needed to make us the finest race on earth is to engraft
upon our stock the nej^ro element, which Providence has placed by
our side on this continent. Of all the rich treasures of blood
vouchsafed to us, that of the negro is most precious because it is the
most unlike any other that enters into the composition of national
life.

The white people of America are dying for want of fresh blood.
They have bone and sinew, but they are dry and shriveled for lack of
the healthful juices of life.

The fact may be startling, but the student of ethnology will be
willing to admit that in course of time the dark races must absorb the
white.

Let the war go on, until church and state and society recognize
not only the propriety but the necessity of the marriage of white and
black ... in short, until the great truth shall be declared in our
public documents and announced in the messages of our Presidents,
that it is desirable that the white man shall marry the black woman
and the white woman the black man. . . . It is only by the in-
fusion into the very system of the vital forces of a tropical race, that
the white race may regain health and strength.^

It is not necessary to comment on any of the foregoing
utterances. They are reproduced for the purpose of
showing, that, for a time at least, the complete absorp-
tion of the negro by the white race, or of the white by
the negro race, was seriously discussed and advocated by
some of the foremost men of the day.

The fundamental error, which underlies the argument
in favor of race assimilation or absorption, has been
pointed out in the beginning. To ignore the law of
similarity would, in itself, lead to disastrous conse-
quences. It is, for instance, a well known fact that a

^ "Miscegenation," by D. G. Croly and others. New York, 1864.

192 American Economic Association.

lower fecundity prevails in the case of marriages be-
tween Jews and Christians than for marriages among
persons of the same creed. This is atributed by Walcker'
to the dissimilarity of the two contracting parties, the
disappointment which follows such unions on account
of the inability of the Christian to adopt the mode of
living or sympathize with the inner life of the Jew and
vice versa. That is to say, the barriers which make
marriages of Jews and Christians less fruitful are psyche
logical rather than physiological. It has been found that
the number of children to a marriage was 4.35 where both
persons were of the same religion (Christian), but only
1.58 where the father was Christian and the mother
a Jewess. When both were Jews the number of births
to a marriage was 4.21, but only 1.78 where the father
was evangelical, and 1.66 where the father was a Cath-
olic.^^

After all the centuries of contact of the Jews with
Christians only about five per cent of them marry persons
of any other religion than their own. In Algeria, inter-
marriages of Jews with Christians are not on the increase
-and the same has been said of the Jews in other countries.^
Yet the differences that separate the Jew from the Gen- ^
tile are as nothing compared with the gulf that separates
the white from the colored race. Frequently as races
have intermixed with one another they have been

1 Dr. Karl Walcker, " Grundriss der Statistik " (Berlin, 1889), p. 138.

^Journal 0/ the American Statisticat Association, vol. Ill, p. 245.

^Marriages of Jewish women to European men, 1888-90, 26 cases ;
1891-3, 20 cases. Marriages of Jewish men to European women, 19
cases during the first three years ; 15 cases during the last three years.
Only one marriage of a Jewish woman to a Mussulman is recorded
during the six year period and none between a native woman and a
Jewish man. For further details see "Statistique G^ndrale de 1' Al-
gerie," Alger, 1891 and 1S94.

Race Traits and Te^idencies of the Amcrica^i Negro. 193

usually of types of similar degree of culture aud mental
development.

Among more recent writers, Dr. Leffingwell has ad-
vanced the opinion that " before half a dozen centuries
have expired, the African will have as completely
merged his race in the three hundred millions of people
on the American continent as Phenician and Greek, Sar-
acen, Roman and Norman have blended into the Nea-
politan who basks in the sunshine of San Lucia." '

The few generations of the editor of the Edinburgh
Review have been expanded by Dr. Leffingwell into a
few centuries. The former have passed and no amal-
gamation has taken place, nor are there any indications
whatever that a few centuries will accomplish what has
not been accomplished thus far. The opinion of Dr.
Leffingwell, that as a matter of course " the greater part
of this change (from pure to mixed races) will be effected
by lawful marriage " is not supported by a single statis-
tical fact. Evidence of this will be produced farther on,
when it will be shown that intermarriage between the
two races is less frequent now than ever before, although
it has been at all times of rare occurrence.

I\Ir. T. T. Fortune, the editor of the New York Age,.
(a paper devoted to the interest of the colored race), at
the Africa Congress of the Atlanta Exposition, ex-
pressed his view in the following words: "The min-
ority race alongside a majority race is destined to be
absorbed by the majority race. If the white race did
not want to absorb the black it ought to have left it in
Africa. If the white man did not want to be absorbed
by the black race it ought to have staid out of Africa."
In contrast with the view of Dr. Leffingwell and Islx.
Fortune, we have the opinion of Dr. Alexander, the

' "Illegilimacy," p. 75.

194

Amen'caji Economic Association.

author of a history of African colonization, who wrote
fifty years ago : " Two races of men, nearly equal
in numbers, but differing as much as the whites and
blacks, cannot form one harmonious society in any other
way than by amalgamation ; but the whites and blacks
in this country by no human efforts, could be amalga-
mated into one homogeous mass in a thousand years." ^
Mr. Bruce, in his work, " The Plantation Negro as a
Freeman," asserts, that illicit sexual intercourse between
the two races has diminished since the war.

A far more remarkable evirlence of social antipathy of the white
people to the negro is the fact that illicit sexual intercourse between
the races has diminished so far as to have almost ceased outside the
cities and towns, where the association being more casual, is more
frequent. This is due to the attitude of the whites, for the negresses
are less modest as a class than they were before the abolition of slavery,
since they are now under no restriction at all. In consequence of this
reserve on the part of the white men, the mulattoes are rapidly de-
creasing in numbers with the progress of time, and the negroes as a
mass are gradually but surely reverting to the African type.
As his skin darkens in its return to that of his remote ancestors, the
prospects of blacks and whites lawfully mixing their blood fades to
the thinnest shadow of probability. . . . The few white women
who have given birth to mulattoes liave always been regarded as mon-
sters ; and without exception they have belonged to the most impov-
erished and degraded caste of whites, by whom they are scrupulously
avoided as creatures who have sunk to the level of the beasts of the
field. ■'

The opinion of ]\Ir. Bruce is accepted by ]\Ir. Bryce,
who also holds that there is less intercourse between the
white male and the colored female under conditions of
freedom than there was under slavery. In the Scottish
Geographical Magaziiic^ he expresses his opinion, wliich
is in marked contrast with the view of those who believe
in the possibility of an extensive race amalgamation.

' "A History of Colonization on the West Coast of Africa," (Phila-.
delphia, 1846), p. 17.

2 Bruce, "The Plantation Negro as a Freeman," pages 53-55.

Race Traits a7id Tendencies of the American Negro. 195

Nothiiij? better illustrates the assimilative power of a vigorous
community than the way in which the immigrants into the United
States melt like sugar in a cup of tea, and see their children grow up
no longer Germans or Norwegians or even Irish or Italians or Czechs,
but Anglo-Americans. With the negroes, on the other hand, there is
practically no admixture ; and so far as can be foreseen they will remain,
at least in the subtropical part of the South, distinctly African in their
physical and mental characteristics for centuries to come. The same
remark holds true of the white and black races of South Africa, where
the process of blood mixture, which went on to some extent between
the Dutch and the Hottentots, has all but stopped. ^

According to Mr. Br^xe there is therefore to be ob-
served not only a decrease in the tendency towards mix-
ture of the white and colored races in this country, but
also as between the whites and blacks of South Africa.
Hence, neither do the whites absorb the negroes of this
country, nor the negroes of Africa the whites who have
settled there.

Instances where two or more races have dwelt together
for ages without amalgamation are frequent and need
not be dwelt upon at length here. According to Mr.
Westermark, " marriages between Lapps and Swedes
rareh- occur, being looked upon as dishonorable by both
peoples. They are equally uncommon between Lapps
and Norwegians and it rarely ever happens that a Lapp
marries a Russian." Count de Gobineau, according to
Westermark remarks that " not even a common religion
and country can extinguish the herditary aversion of
the Arab to the Turk, of the Kurd to the Nestorian of
Syria, of the ]\Iagyar to the Slav."'

An interesting instance is presented in the case of the
Ainos of Japan, who are a distinct race from the Japan-
ese, and who, after centuries of close association, are as

>" Assimilation of Races in the United States," etc.. Professor
James Bryce in Scottish Geographical RIagazinc, 1892. Reprinted
in Smithsonian Report, 1893, page 5S6, et seq.

- " Human Marriage."

196 American Economic Association.

distinct in their character and habits of life as if they
had never come in contact with the superior race of
Japanese. It is said that the Ainos, being unable to
affiliate more closely with the Japanese, are doomed to
extinction. The half castes die out with the third or
fourth generation and the children of Japanese and Ainos
are never vigorous and healthy.'

The Eurasian race of India present almost identically
the same problem as the negroes of this country. Accord-
ing to Sara J. Duncan there is no remote chance of its
ever being re-absorbed by either of its original elements,
the prejudices of both Europeans and natives being far
too vigorous to permit intermarriage with a race of peo-
ple who are neither one nor the other. I may be per-
mitted to give here the consequences of such inter-
mixture of Europeans with Indians in Calcutta, where
some 20,000 of Eurasians live.

It is a hard saving, but il suffers little contradiction, that morally
the Eurasians inherit defects more conspicuously than virtues from
both races from which they spring. Drunkenness is not common
among them, nor is brutality. . . . But their indolence and un-
thrift are proverbial, as are their cupidity and instability of character.
. . . The social evil among the lower classes is very hideous.
They seem to have a code of their own, which is capable of infinite
infraction, and they touch a level of degradation which is far lower
than any reached by the pure heathen about them. This is apparent-
ly an ineradicable thing, for it has its root in physical inheritance and
its reason is racial.^

In the West Indies the coolies of Trinidad do not mix
with the negro or the mulatto. According to Froude
they are proud and will not intermarry with the African.^
According to the registrar-general of Trinidad "very
few East Indian women have intermarried with the

' " The Ainos of Yezo, Japan," by Romyn Hitchcock, report of the
National Museum, Smithsonian Institution, 1S90.
' Popular Science Monthly, Nov., 1S92.
3 "The English in the West Indies," p. 74.

Race Tf-aiis and Tendencies of the Amcricaji Negro. 197

native colored population in which the gradations from
white to black are so fine that no census enumeration by
complexions has been attempted."^

Intermarriage of the negro with the Indian of this
country has also been infrequent, although there has at
all times been a considerable intermixture of the Indian
with the white race. Of the evil effect of such marriages
the agent in charge of the Crow agency of Montana
wrote as follows :

One great drawback to the advancement of these people [Crow
agency, Montana] is the intermarriage of white men among them.
As a rule, any white man who will marry an Indian woman is unfit to
associate with the Indians. The presence of such men is a great det-
riment to the Indian. The average Indian is far superior to the ma-
jority of whites who marry Indian women. . . . Asa rule, the full
blooded Indian stands a much better chance to become a man than
the half-breed. The presence of these men causes more trouble in
the management of the Indian than all other causes combined.^

This severe condemnation of intermarriage of whites
with Indians is fully confirmed by the investigations of
Dr. Holden, who lived for a good many years among the
Indians as Agency physician : " Tribes who have been
isolated, or who have held aloof from the whites, re-
tained their tribal relations and declared for non-inter-
course with the whites, are chaste and free from taint.
The tribes who have opened their arms to receive the
white man have been subdued by him, have been de-
bauched and inoculated with venereal poison.'^

There is therefore abundant proof that there is a
natural aversion between some races and that attempts
to cross this natural barrier, determined by the ' law of
similarity' have invariably lead to the most disastrous
consequences. It is largely to the frequency of illicit

' Census of Trinidad, 1891, p. 18.

^ Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1S74, page 261.

"^ American Journal of Obstetrics, 1S92, p. 58.

198 American Eco7iomic Associati07i.

intercourse between white males and colored females
that we must attribute the wide prevalence of syphilis
and scrofula among the mixed population, as well as the
excessive mortality, the lower fecundity, the increasing
tendency to consumption and other tubercular diseases,
the smaller chest expansion and vital capacity. All are
the consequences of a union of two races in violation of
a natural law — a law which superficial writers hav
hoped to see overcome by legislative enactment.

The following facts will prove that such marriages
are becoming more and more infrequent in this country
as w^ell as in the West Indies. The table below will
show for the state of Michigan the marriages that have
taken place between whites and colored of both types,
that is, pure black and mixed. The table covers a
period of 20 years and is of exceptional value as indicat-
ing the tendency of the race in the direction of amalga-
mation by lawful marriage.'

INTER-MARRIAGES OF WHITE AND COLORED IN MICHIGAN.— 1874-1893.

White Males Mar-
ried to

White Females
Married to

Periods.

Black
Females.

Mulatto
Females.

Black
Males

Mulatto
Males.

Total.

1S74-78 . .

79-S3 • •

. 12

84-88. .

. . I

89-93 • •

20 years, 74-93 . .

III

According to the table before us, during a period of
twenty years only i8 white men married colored females,
w^hile 93 white females were married to colored men.
On the basis of the number of persons married during
the first ten years, there was one mixed marriage to
every 6,220 persons married, as compared with a rate

' For this table I am under obligations to the Hon. Washington
Gardner, secretary of state of Michigan.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 199

of one to every 7,931 during the next ten years. It is a
matter of some surprise to find that the numbers of
blacks and mulattoes who married white women were
ahnost equal, indicating no decided preference on the
part of the white woman for colored persons of mixed {y
parentage ; but among the white men who married
colored women, the larger number selected mulattoes.
This fact supports my observation that for purposes of
prostitution and concubinage women of mixed blood are
preferred to those of the African type.

The next two tables give the same information for
the state of Rhode Island, the city of Providence and
the state of Connecticut.

INTER-MARRIAGES OF WHITES AND COI^ORED IN RHODE ISI^AND.

1S81-1S93.

1S81
1882
1883
1884
1885
1 886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
1893

13 years

Rhode Island.

Providence.

No return

58^

1 In 1RS4 more mixed marriages were reported in Providence than in the state
of Rhode Island. I have not been able to ascertain the cause of this error, which
is ijrobablj' a clerical one in favor of Providence.

- Eleven years, 51 white females, 7 white males.

INTER-MARRIAGES IN CONNECTICUT.— 1883-1S93.

Year. No. of Cases. Year. No. of Cases.

1883 7 1889 6

1884 4 1890 8

1885 6 1891 7

1886 ^ 1882 6

1887 3 1893 4

188S 8

II years, 1883-93, 65 cases.^

'Mixed marriages, 1894, 10.

200 Aynericayi Economic Association.

In the table for Rhode Island, which has been com-
bined with the data for Providence, a numerical as well
as relative decrease is shown. The rate of intermar-
riages was one to every 1,012 persons married, for the
period 1884-88, and one to every 1,327 for the period
1889-93/

For the city of Providence, in which the large majority
of such marriages in the state of Rhode Island are
shown to occur, the rate of mixed marriages to total
of persons married was one in every 579 persons
married during 1881-85, one in every 612 during the
five years, 1886-90, and one in every 1,030 during the
period 1891-94. For Connecticut the ratio was one
to every 1,951 persons married during 1883-88, and one

' For Boston, I have not been able to obtain a complete record, but
the table below, compiled from the reports of the city registrar of
Boston, 1855-1890, will show that while mixed marriaj^es increased to
the period 1873-77, they have since remained almost stationary- in
numbers, and in proportion to the increase in the population they
have materially declined. The registration reports for very recent
years no longer contain information on this point, for, in the words of
the registrar, "it cannot possibly interest anyone to know how
many white persons marry colored individuals." It is a fact, not
generally known, that a few years ago a bill was introduced in the
Massachusetts legislature by the only colored member of that body,
by which the use of the word "colored" was to be prohibited in all
public documents. Considerable opposition was necessary to prevent
the passage of this uncalled for measure.

MIXED MARRIAGES IN BOSTON, MASS., 1885-1890.

Total. Average Per Annum.

1855-1859 50 10.

1862-1S66 45 9-

1867-1871 88 17,6

1873-1877 172 34-4

1878-1882 121 24.2

1883-1887 124 24.8

1890 24 24.

It is not at all improbable, however, that in some of these cases the
woman were octoroons, passing as white when obtaining their mar-
riage certificate.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 201

to every 2,036 in 1889-93. On the basis of these figures,
therefore, the conclusion seems fully warranted that in
this country lawful marriage between whites and blacks
is on the decrease.

As will be seen from the table below for Bermuda,
the same holds true for the West Indies.

MIXED-MARRIAGES IN BERMUDA, W. I.,

72-1S95.1

Year.
1872 ,

1S73 .
1S74

1875

1876 ,

1877

1878

1879

1880

1S81

1882

1883

No. of Cases.
5
10

Year.

1884
1885
1886
1887
1 888
1889
1890
1 891
1892

J 893
1894
1895

[2 years

109

12 vears .

No. of Cases.
2

I
6

3
8

4
4
4
8
9

1 Compiled from the reports of the registrar general of Bermuda, W. I., 1S72-
iS95-

In Bermuda mixed marriages have decreased from 107
during the twelve years 1872-83, to 58 during the
twelve years 1883-95. The rarity of such marriages in
the West Indies is referred to by Mr. Froude, who cites
the case of a Scotchman, the keeper of the reservoir of
the water works of Port-of-Spain, who had married a
colored woman, as " a remarkable exception to an almost
universal rule."

That the whites of the West Indies are leaving the
islands and that the proportion of whites to colored is
gradually decreasing is a well known fact. It is, there-
fore, no surprise that in some of the islands the mixed
element should gradually decrease and revert to the
original type, if we accept the theory that the mixed

202 American Econojnic Association.

type of the negro can only maintain itself by constant
infusion of new blood. In Barbadoes the proportion of
those of mixed blood has decreased from 24.5 per cent,
in 1871, to 24.1 per cent, in 1891, while at the same time
the proportion of pure blacks has increased from 65.5
per cent, in 1871, to 67.3 per cent, in 1891. The whites
decreased during the same period from lo.o per cent, in
187 1, to 8.6 per cent, in 1891.' That is to say, the loss
in white population was made good by the pure blooded
negro and not by the mulatto. Hence, neither in this
country nor in the West Indies is there any decided
tendency towards the amalgamation of the two races by
lawful marriage.

It is an open question whether there is a decrease in
sexual intercourse outside of matrimony between the
males of the white and the females of the colored race.
IVIr. Bruce maintains, and Mr. Bryce seems to accept the
conclusion, that there is less intercourse between whites
and blacks now than formerly. It will always be diffi-
cult to prove this point. ]\Iy own investigations indi-
cate that there is an immense amount of prostitution for
gain prevailing among the colored women in large cities.
]Mr. Bruce dealt entirely with the country negro as he
knows him in Southside, Virginia. In such large cities
of Virginia, as Richmond, and Norfolk, the conditions
in the past cannot have been worse than they are at
the present time. Even in the Capitol City the
number of illegitimate births is more than ten
times as large for the colored as for the whites. The
comparative percentages of illegitimates in the total
number of births were as follows :

' Census of Barbadoes, 1891.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 203

ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS IN WASHINGTON, D. C.

Percentage of illegitimate atnong total births
White. Colored.

1S79 2.3 176

1SS3 3.6 19.0

1889 3-6 23.5

1894 2.6 26.5

Average for 16 years . 2.9 22.5

Making an allowance for an improvement in the
registration of births, it is nevertheless clear that there
is no tendency towards a decrease in the illegitimacy,
but very probably the reverse tendency. As I have
stated before, the larger amount of illicit intercourse
prevails between mulattoes and whites, and hence the
figures as regards the rate of illegitimacy are of some
value. They are fully supported by similar information
from Knoxville, Tenn., and Mobile, Ala., but want of
.space forbids my giving the figures here. Statistics for
the West India Islands prove that there, too, immorality,
as shown by the rate of illegitimate births, is on the in-
crease, and the hopeful view of those who expected that
emancipation would speedily change the former condi-
tion of excessive immorality and vice into one of virtue
and chastity has not been fulfilled.' On the contrary,
we are reliably informed that never at any time in the
past was vice so flagrant and marriage treated with such
indifference as at the present time.

The fact that lawful marriage between the races is
not on the increase, so rare, indeed, as to have no in-
fluence whatever on the destiny of the race, does not,
therefore, prove that intermixture through prostitution
is less frequent now than formerly. It is my firm con-
viction that unlawful intercourse between the two races

'" The. Negro iu the West Indies" Publications of the American
Statistical Association, Vol. IV, p. 195, et seq.

204 American Ecotiomtc Association.

is excessively prevalent at the present time in the large
cities as well as in the rural sections of the country.

The question may be asked, among what class of
white women is marriage with colored men most fre-
quent, and what class of white men marry colored
women ? It is not easy to reply to this question in a
satisfactory manner. So far as I know, no one has taken
the trouble to investigate this point in a scientific way,
but perhaps my own investigation, based unfortunately
on a very limited number of cases, may prove a stimulus
towards a more elaborate inquiry.

I have been able during a number of years to collect
information of a fairly reliable character in regard to 37
mixed relations of which 8 were those of white men
who lived with colored women and 29 those of white
women who lived with colored men.

Of the eight white men, four were lawfully married
while the other four were living openly in concubinage.
Three of the men were criminals or under suspicion of
being such ; one man had killed another for insulting
remarks concerning his negro wife, one killed his mis-
tress in a fit of jealousy, one was stabbed and horribly
burned by vitrol by his colored mistress, one killed his
colored mistress by slow poison to obtain possession of
her property, the ill gotten gains from a house of ill-
fame. The others w^ere more or less outcasts. One was
a saloon keeper, one had deserted his family for his
negro mistress, two were men of good family but them-
selves of bad reputation.

Of the twenty-nine women, only nineteen were law-
fully married to the colored men with whom they were
living, while ten lived in open concubinage. So far as
my information goes only five of the nine were of for-
eign birth, one English, one German and three Irish.

Rlxcc Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 205

Of the nineteen that were married, four were known
prostitutes, two were guilty of bigamy, four either sued
for divorce or had deserted their husbands. Five were
apparently of respectable parentage and living in con-
tent with their husbands ; while for four the informa-
tion is wanting. Of the ten who were not married,
eight were known prostitutes, one was insane and only
one was known to be the daughter of respectable parents.
Of the twenty-nine colored men who married or lived
with white women, only one, an industrious barber, was
known to be of good character. Five were of fair
repute ; nine were idlers, loafers or drunkards ; eleven
were of proven criminal and anti-social tendencies ; while
for three the character coiild not be ascertained. Of the
eleven criminals, two were murderers, three were thieves,
three w'ere guilty of bigamy, one was the keeper of a
house of ill-fame, while the last two were arrested for
inhuman cruelty to their own or foster children. The
result of the twenty-nine cases of race mixture prove
that of the women, twelve were known prostitutes, three
were of ill repute, charged in addition with cruelty and
abuse of children, two were murdered by their colored
husbands, one committed suicide, one became insane,
two sued for divorce, two deserted their husbands,^ five

' 111 the first of these two cases the woman when leaving her col-
ored husband wrote him a letter from which I give the following ex-
cerpt : " It is just two }-ears and five months since we were united to
love and obey each other, but time has changed us and I have not
the least love for you any more. I have learned to love another man
who wants to marry me and I hope you will give me my freedom in
black and white. The love I had for you was only a childish fancy.
. . . . I am tired of knocking about this hard world and want to
get a home, as I want to travel up the ladder and not fall down as I
did. I am going on twenty years old and want to make a true and
upright woman for this man that wishes to make me his wife and give
me a home." (New York Sun, March 24, 1896.)
14

2o6 American Economic Association.

were apparently satisfied with their choice, while for
four the information could not be obtained. Thus out
of twenty-nine instances only five gave any indications
of not having been absolute failures and of the five in
only one instance is the proof clear that the marriage
was a fair success.

Comment on these cases is hardh- necessar}-. They tend
to prove that as a rule neither good white men nor good
white women marry colored persons, and that good
colored men and women do not marry white per-
sons. The number of cases is so small, however, that
a definite conclusion as to the character of persons inter-
marrying is hardly warranted. However, it would
seem that if such marriages were a success, even to a
limited extent, some evidence would be found in a col-
lection of thirty-six cases. It is my own opinion, based
on personal observation in the cities of the South, that
the individuals of both races who intermarry or live
in concubinage are vastly inferior to the average types
of the white and colored races in the United States ;
also, that the class of white men who have intercourse
with colored women are, as a rule, of an inferior type.

Hence the conclusion is unavoidable that the amalga-
mation of the two races through the channels of prosti-
tution or concubinage, as well as through the inter-
marrying of the lower types of both races, is contrary to
the interest of the colored race, a positive hinderance to
its social, mental and moral development. But aside
from these considerations, important as they are, the
physiological consequences alone demand race purity
and a stern reprobation of any infusion of white blood.
Whatever the race may have gained in an intellectual
way, which is a matter of speculation, it has been losing
its greatest resources in the struggle for life, a sound

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 207

physical org-anisiii and power of rapid reproduction.
According- to Herbert Spencer ("sexual relations unfav-
orable to the rearing of offspring, in respect either of
number or quality, must tend to degradation or extinc-
tion." ' j All the facts thus far brought out in this work
prove the truth of this assertion. All the facts obtain-
able which depict truthfully the present physical and
moral condition of the colored race, prove that the under-
lying cause of the excessive mortality and diminishing
rate of increase in j^opulation is a low state of sexual
morality, wholly unaffected by education.

This condition can be improved only by the develop-
ment of a higher morality. Amalgamation with whites
by means of lawful marriage is a remote contingency,
which needs no consideration on the part of those who
concern themselves with the amelioration of the condi-
tion of the colored race. The conclusion of Mr. Tucker
that, " Seventeen years since the war have brought great
changes to the colored race, great improvements in many
things to some of them, but no change in morals,."'^ is
fully applicable to the race of the present day,, thirty '
years after the war. The fact that more than one-fourth,
of their children, are admitted to have been boni out
of wedlock, in the Capitol City of the country,
where opportunities for moral advancement have been
better than elsewhere, fully justifies the application of.
Mr. Spencer's condemnation of unchastity as ," tending
towards the production of inferior individuals and, if,
prevailing widely, as a cause of decay of society." Un-
chastity, " conflicting as it does with the establishment
of normal monogamic relations ... is adverse to

' " Principles of Ethics," Part II, page 448.

'^"The Relations of the Church to the Colored Race," (Jackson,
Miss., 1882,) p. 18.

2o8 Americayi Economic Association.

those higher sentiments which prompt such relations.
In societies characterized by inferior forms of marriage,
or by irregular connections there cannot develop to any
great extent that powerful combination of feelings . .
affection, admiration, sympathy, . . . which in so
marvelous a manner has grown out of the sexual instinct.
And in the absence of this complex passion, which mani-
festly pre-supposes a relation between one man and one
woman, the supreme interest in life (the raising up of
members of a new generation) disappears, and leaves be-
hind relatively subordinate interests. Evidently, a pre-
valent unchastity severs the higher from the lower com-
ponents of the sexual relation : the root may produce a
few leaves, but no true flower." '
' " Inductions of Ethics," p. 463.

Chapter V.

SOCIAL CONDITIONS AND TENDENCIES.

Man, since we first encounter him, has made ceaseless progress
upwards, and this progress continues before our eyes. But it has never
been, nor is it now, an equal advance of the whole of the race. Look-
ing back we see that the road by which he has come is strewn with
the wrecks of nations, races and civilizations that have fallen by the
way, pushed aside by the operations of laws which it takes no eye of
faith to distinguish at work amongst us at the present time as surely
and as effectively as at any past period.^ — Kidd.

' " Social Evolution."

The social tendencies of the colored race are fairly de-
picted in the statistics of religion, education, crime,
pauperism and immorality. The material for a study
along these lines is abundant, but much to my regret I
shall have to confine myself in this part of my work to
a very few of the more important social phenomena.
Want of space forbids any extended comment on the
various statistical tables which will be given, but most of
them will be sufficiently clear to need but little textual
explanation.

No exact data as to the religious condition of the
colored race at the time of emancipation are in existence,
but sufficient evidence is at our command to show that
the growth of religious associations among the colored
people has been very great indeed. In i860, according
to Mr. H, K. Carroll, special agent of the census on
church statistics, the great majority of the colored popu-
lation were either members of the Methodist Episcopal
church South, or Regular Baptists. It is estimated that
there were 275,000 of the former, and 250,000 of the
latter, a total of over half a million out of a population

2IO Aniericaji Econo77iic Association.

of 4,442,000.* During the thirty years following i860,
the membership of t'he Methodist Episcopal church
South increased among the colored to 1,190,860, while
the Baptists increased to 1,403,559. The latter denom-
ination therefore shows the larger increase. In 1890
the census gave a total of 23,462 organizations, with 23,770
churches and 2,673,977 members, of whom 2,594,419
were members of the Baptist or Methodist church. A
summary of the number of members of the various de-
nominations is given in the table below, which has been
abstracted from the report of Mr. Carroll.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE PRINCIPAL RELIGIOUS
DENOMINATIONS OF THE COLORED RACE— 1890.

Communicants.

•Aggregate number of communicants 2,673,977

Regular Baptists i,34!^,989

African Methodist Episcopal 452,725

African Methodist Episcopal, Zion 349. 78S

Methodist Episcopal 246,249

Colored Methodist Episcopal 129,383

Regular Baptists North 35,221

Disciples of Christ 18,578

Primitive Baptists 18,162

Presbyterian (Northern) 14,961

Roman Catholic 14.5 '7

Cumberland Presbyterian 12,956

All other denominations (17) . . 34,448

This table gives in detail the various denominations
in the order of their numerical importance. The very

'According to Mr. Edward Ingle, "It was estimated, in 1S54, that
one-fourth of the slaves in South Carolina were Methodists, that one-
third in the synod of South Carolina were blacks, and that more than
half of the Baptists in Virginia were of the same race. In 1859, o^
468,000 negro church- members in the South, 215,000 were classed as
Methodists, and 175,000 as Baptists. For benevolent purposes 5,000
slaves in South Carolina contributed $15, too in 1853 ; and one-third of
the negro population in Savannah supported three pastors at salaries
ranging from $800 to $r, 000 a year."— "Southern Sidelights," (New
York, 1896,) pp. 273-4.

J^art: Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 211

small number of Roman Catholics is surprising, but may
be due, in part to the fact that the larger number of col-
ored communicants of Catholic^churches would be classed
as white, since few separate Catholic churches for colored
people exist. A statement in the Kansas City Catholic
gives the number of colored Catholics at about 200,000, a
wide variation from the census figures. According to an-
other newspaper waif, " of the many.[?] colored Catholic
congregations, all with one exception have white priests.
The exception is Chicago." A tendency towards indi-
vidual preference is shov.-n in the fact that 265 colored
persons were members of the sect known as " Old-Two-
Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists," while 211
were members of the "Lutheran Synodical conference,"
and 94 of the "Lutheran United Synod in the South."

The reports show one communicant to every 2.79 of
the negro population, and one to every 3.04 of the white
population, indicating proportionally a larger church
membership for the colored than for the white race.
The amount of church property of the Colored popula-
tion is estimated at y$26,626,448 for 1890, most of which
has of course been accumulated since emancipation. It
must, however, be taken into consideration that the race
has been materially assisted by the various religious
associations, and to a large extent the vast sum just
given has been the result of generous aid on the part of
the large religious bodies and generous philanthropists
of the white race.

The tendency would seem to be rather favorable for
the church, although the complaint is not infrequently
made that the young people take less interest in the
church than the old. The Augusta, Ga., Sentmel
speaks of " the monstrous indifference manifested by our
young educated colored people to the church and reli-

212 American Economic Association.

gion. . . . Many come from school wedded to fonns
of ritualistic ceremonies and are led off from the masses,
believing that education has placed them above people,"
The education of the colored race has formed the sub-
ject of so many essays, speeches and discussions that it
might be assumed that little remained to be added to the
mass of information and statistical data pertaining to the
subject. But this work would be incomplete did I
neglect to bring forward some data as to the past and
present condition of the race from the educational stand-
point. Abundant as the statistics of education are, they
fail in many respects to afford a true picture of the in-
tellectual progress of a race. It is more in the effects,
or rather in the expected results of education, that we
must look for the value of educational processes applied
to the elevation of a race from slavery to citizenship.
--_ Previous to emancipation efforts to educate the colored
race were made only in isolated instances and on a small
scale. In most of the southern states education of slaves
was forbidden by law. In Georgia a law had been in
force since 1770, which read as follows : " All and every
person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter
teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write,
or read writing, or shall use or employ a slave as a scribe
in any manner of writing whatsoever, every such person
and persons, shall for every offence, forfeit the sum of
twenty pounds sterling.'" In 1829 another law was
passed which substituted a fine and whipping and im-
prisonment in the common jail as punishment for the
education of slaves. Attempts to educate the slaves and
instruct them in religious principles had, however, been
made since 1705 by the Society for the Propagation of

'Cobb's Digest of Georgia laws, p. 9S1.

'Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 213

the Gospel in Foreign Lands, and in 1752 it was reported
in the proceedings of the Society that " a flourishing
negro school was taught in Charleston by a negro of the
society under the inspection and direction of the worthy
rector, Garden, by which means many poor negroes were
taught." '

But such exceptions were rare and, on the \\'hole,
without effect on the race, which at the time of emanci-
pation was almost wholly illiterate. The first systematic
effort to educate the colored people was made by the
American Missionary Association in 1861, through the
opening of a school for ' contrabands ' at Hampton, Va.
By June, 1S62, 86 teachers were at Avork in various parts
of the South. In 1863, General Grant placed the duty
of superintending the colored people of the region in-
cluded in the army operations, in the hands of Rev.
John Eaton, who in 1S66 had over 770,000 of these peo-
ple under his charge. But in 1865 a change was made
in the educational work, and the Freedman's Bureau was
organized under General Howard. The Bureau con-
tinued in existence from January i, 1865, to August 31,
187 1, and over five million dollars, it is estimated, were ex-
pended through it for the education of the freedmen.

During the past twenty-five years the education of the
race has been largely in the hands of the state govern-

' Amon*^ the freed negroes, however, considerable progress in educa.
tion had been made, as is evidenced by the table below, abstracted
from the census reports for 1S50 and i860 and reprinted in Mr. Ingle's
"Southern Sidelights."

ILLITERACY AMONG FREE NEGRO ADULTS 20 YEARS AND OVER.
1S50 AND i860.

1S50, South
North

1S60, South
North

Population.

Illiterates.

Percentage.

115,231

61,031

52.96

104,289

33.594

32.30

126,803

62,492

49-36

120,303

33.369

27-73

214 American Economic Association.

ments, all of which provide to the extent of their aljility
for primary and even higher education. The efforts of
the sontlicrn states have been materially aided by money
and individual efforts on the part of various religious and
philanthropic bodies, of which the vSlater and Peabody
funds are the most important.

Some attempts have been made to estimate the total
amount expended on the education of the negro since
emancipation, and the total is indeed a vast sum. It is
therefore a question of importance to ascertain whether
the race has made intellectual progress in proportion to
this expenditure, and if so, whether the education thus
acquired has been of benefit to the 7'acc and not merely
\ to a few isolated individuals.

In the matter of attendance at the common schools
there was a greater increase among the negroes during
the last census period than among the whites, as the fol-
lowing table will show.

NEORO PUPILS IX COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES
IN iSSoAND 1890.1

1880 856,123

1890 1,416,202

1 Report on Education and Institutions, census of 1S90, pp. 50 and 51.

WHITE AND COLORED PUPILS IN COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE SOUTH-
ERN STATES.— 18S0-1890.

Increase
18S0. 1890. Per Cent.

White pupils 2,3or,8o4 3409.061 48.10

Colored pupils 797,286 1,288.736 6r.64

PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION ENROLLED AND AVERAGE AT-
TENDANCE.—iSoo.

White pupils .
Colored pupils

Percentage of

Perentage of

Enrollment in

School

Population.

Attendance.

21. 84

63.3

18.67

62.4

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Ameriean Negro. 215

According- to the above figures the increase in school
attendance has been 61.64 P^^ cent, for the colored and
z^8. 10 per cent, for the white race. While the percentage
of population in schools is greater for the whites by a
small fraction, the average attendance at school is almost
the same for both races.

The higher education of the race is provided for by a
large number of institutions, denominational or non-sec-
tarian under state control, covering practically all the
higher branches of learning. The number of pupils at-
tending institutions of this kind was 22,963 in 1885-6,
against 34,129 in 1891-2, showing a substantial increase
during the short period of only 6 years. The following
table v/ill show in detail the various branches of learn-
ing selected by the more ambitious of the colored race.
The table is incomplete in that it does not show the
number of colored students who have been admitted to
the colleges and universities for the whites, the number
of which, however, cannot be very large.

INSTITUTIONS FOR THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF THE COLORED
RACE.^— 1885-86 AND 1S91-92.

No. of Instructors. No. of Pupils.

18S5-S6 1S91-92. 1SR5-85 1S91-92.

Normal schools 281 324 6,207 8,042

Institutions for secondary education . 270 396 9,970 16,237

Universities and colleges 238 - 369 5. 119 8,116

Schools of tlifcology- no 65 1,297 577

Schools of medicine and dentistry . . 22 51 208 457

School of law 16 16 98 119

Schools for the deaf, dumb and blind, 40 146 139 5S1

Total 977 1,367 23,038 34,129

1 Annual report of the Commissioner of Education, 1S85-S6, pp. 652-64; 1890-91,
pp. 1234-37.

-In the 1RS6 report many students were classed as theological students when
thejfshould have been reported a>; college, normal or secondarj- students. Hence
the apparent decrease is largely due to the correction of the erroneous classifica-
tion of 1SS6.

2i6 Amcricaji Economic Association.

By far, the larger number of students in institutions
of higher education select teaching as a profession, al-
though medicine attracts quite a number. The general^
opposition in the South to white teachers in colored
schools has opened a vast field for the educated negro, of
which he has not been slow to take advantage, even at
the temporary disadvantage of lower wages than those
paid to white teachers. The matter of lower wages will
be dealt with in the succeeding part of this work, on
the subject of the economic tendencies of the race.

The few facts here brought together show that the
colored race has not failed to take advantage of the op-
portunities for intellectual advancement in the higher
as well as in the lower branches of learning. Towards
the expense of these great educational opportunities the
race has contributed only an insignificant fraction.' The
larger part of it was a free gift to those who cared to
take advantage of it, and it is something to the credit of
the race that it has not been behind the white race in
. patronizing the schools established for its own use. But
it remains to be shown whether the educational process
which the race has undergone during the past quarter
of a century and the additional efforts and opportunities
for religious instruction have materially raised the race
from its low social and economic condition at the time
of emancipation.

The main object of education is stated to be " the
'eradication or modification of undesirable tendencies and
their development into favorable ones." From the

According to an estimate of the Bureau of Education, the Southern
States have expended from 75 to 80 million dollars for the education
of negro children since 1S76. Of this large sum. raised almost en-
tirely by direct taxation, the negro has paid but a very insignificant
part.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 217

standpoint of this definition we should expect a gradual
transformation of anti-social tendencies into such as
make for the general well-being and happiness of the
individual and the society of which he is a member.
^ Crime, pauperism, and sexual immorality are without
question the greatest hindrances to social and economic
progress, and the tendencies of the colored race in re-
spect to these phases of life will deserve a more careful
investigation than has thus far been accorded them.

During slavery the negro committed fewer crimes than
the white man, and only on rare occasions was he guilty
of the more atrocious crimes, such as rape and murder
of white females. Whether from cowardice or respect
and devotion to his master, he respected the persons of
his master's household, and few indeed are the recorded
attempts at insurrection and revolt on the part of the
southern slave. Criminal statistics of the colored popu-
lation previous to emancipation are difficult to obtain,
and on account of the abnormal condition of servitude
would have little value for purposes of comparisons with
the wholly different conditions of freedom.^ In dealing
with statistics of crime and pauperism I shall, therefore,
have to confine myself more especially to a statement of
present conditions, which, however, may be contrasted
with the well-known fact that neither crime nor pauper-
ism prevailed to any extent among the colored population
during slavery.

According to the census of 1890, the total number of
colored prisoners in the United States was 24,277, of

' Otken, in his work on "The Ills of the South," gives some
valuable statistics of crime among the free negrosin the northern states,
which show without exception an excess of criminality on the part of
the negro as compared with the white race in the same sections. (See
"The Ills of the South," pp. 228-29.)

2l8

American Economic Association.

which 22,305 were males and 1,972 were females. The
comparative figures for both races are given below, to-
gether with the respective proportions of colored prison-
ers to the total, and the proportion of the colored to total
population. This method of comparing the number of
criminals with the proportion of the colored to tlie total
population has been employed throughout this part of
the work. Wherever possible, I give the population
over fifteen years of age, but as the census figures have
not all been published, this has not always been possible.

PRISONERS IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1890.

Aggregate.

Male.

Femnle.

White , .

. .

5S,052

53.5'9

4.433

Colored .

. .

24.277

22 305

1,972

Total . .

• •

82,329

75.924

6,405

Per Cent.

Proportion

lie;

^ro criminals to total .

29-38

30-79

Proportion

lie;

rro po;

pulation to total,'

10.20

11.09

1 Population over

15 years of

age.

This table shows, that of all the male prisoners in the
United States, 29.38 per cent, were colored, as compared
with a proportion of 10.20 per cent, of negro males in
the total male population. Of female prisoners 30.79
per cent, were colored, while only 11.09 P^''^ cent, of the
total female population were of African descent. For
both sexes therefore there is about the same excess of
negro criminality. The table which follows will show
similarly for both races and sexes the proportions ac-
cording to specified classes of offenses, thus bringing out
the specific criminal tendencies of the colored race.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 219

SUMMARY OF OFFENSES COMMITTED BY PRISONERS IN THE UNITED
STATES IN iSgo, ACCORDING TO COI,OR AND SEX.

OfTenses against the government . .

" " 'societ}-

" " " person

" " " property . . .
OfFeiises of a miscellaneous character
Aggregate 75,924

Proportion of colored population over
vears of age in total (males) . .

Offenses against the government . .

" " society

" " person

" " property . . . .
Offenses of a miscellaneous charactei
Aggregate

Mal
Total No. of

Colored

Prisoners.

Priso'.iers.

Prisoners.
Per Cent.

',823

175

, 9-65

15.033

2,577

17.14

16,511

6,30s

3S.21

36.3S2

10,924

30.03

6,175

2,320

37-95

75.9^4
5

22,305

, 29.38
10.20

Females.

12.50

3--^32

6S3

17-58

770

432

56.10

1.325

655

49-43

462

200

43.29

6,405
5

1,972

3079 .

Proportion of colored population over 15

years of age in total (females) . . . 11.09 I

It has been stated that the proportion of colored males
in the total male population is 10.20 per cent It is
shown in this table that of the total number of male
prisoners charged with crimes against the person, 38.21
per cent, were colored, and of the female prisoners, 56.10
per cent. That is to say, as regards the most serious of
all crimes the number of negro criminals is out of all
proportion to the numerical importance of the race.
The same holds true for all other groups, with the excep-
tion of crimes against the government, — a group which
however, furnishes only a comparatively small -number
of offenders. ]More detailed information is given below,
where I have arranged the particular offenses for the two
principal groups of crimes — those against tlie person and
against property.

220 American Economic Association.

SPECIFIED OFFENSES COMMITTED BY PRISONERS IN THE UNITED
STATES IN 1890.

Crimes Against the Total No.

Person. of Prisoners,

Hoiuici.le 6.95S

Rape i,3«7

Abduction 140

Abortion 25

Assault 8,001

Crimes Against Property.

Arson 806

Burglary 9-647

Robbery 2,350

Larceny 7.978

Grand larceny ...... 6,411

Petit larceny 3.475

Percentage of colored in total pop-
ulation over 15 yrs. of age (males)

Crimes Against the Person.

Homicide 393

Assault 346

Crimes Against Property.

Arson So

Larceny 425

Grand larceny 320

Petit larceny 266

Percentage of colored in total popula-
tion over 15 yrs. of age ( females )

Male Prisoners.

Colored (Per Cent, of

Prisoners. Colored.

2,5 t 2 \

36.10

567 1

40. 88

22.86

8.00

3.195

39 93

372 i

46.15

2,710 (

28.09

555

23.62

3. '26

39- '8

1,774

27.67

1.055

3036

1-EM.\T.E Prisoners.

227

5776

1 98

57-23

6t.25

225

5294

159

4969

37-22

11.09

The table fully explains itself and needs little com-
ment. Of homicides the colored prisoners formed 36. i
per cent. For the most atrocious of all crimes, rape,
40.88 per cent, of the prisoners convicted were colored,
and for assault 39.98 per cent. The proportion of col-
ored females charged with homicide was even greater
than that of males and the same is true for the cases of
assault. The large proportion of colored among prison-
ers charged with arson attests the wisdom of the recog-
nized policy of fire insurance companies in restricting

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Americayi Negro. 221

the amount of fire insurance obtainable by colored per-
.sons. For all crimes against property, the pro-
portion of colored criminals far exceeds the propor-
tion of colored in total population.

The facts brought out in the.<^e tables are so significant
that the following supplementary tables for various
states and cities may prove of value in that they confirm
the census figures, while of course they were largely
derived from the same official sources. The table below
will show for the state of Pennsylvania the proportion
of colored inmates in the two penitentiaries for the years
1886 and 1894.

CONVICTS IN PENNSYLVANIA PENITENTIARIES iSS6 AND 1894.1

Males.

Total.^ Colored.
1886 . . 1,730 244
1S94 . . . 2,312 384

Percentage

of Col'd.

14.10

16.61

Total.
41
52

Females.

Colored.
14
18

Percentage
of Col'd.
34.15
34.61 .

Percentage of col'd in total

population over 15 years
of age, 1890,

2.23

2.09

1 Annual reports of the State Board of Charities and Lunacy, 1886 and 1894.
- Remaining on Sept 30.

The table shows that in Pennsylvania in 1894, 16.61
per cent, of the male inmates and 34.61 per cent, of
females were colored ; yet in the whole population of the
state over 15 years of age only 2.23 per cent, of the
males and 2.09 per cent, of the females were persons of
African descent, showing an excessively high proportion
of colored convicts. The figures are confirmed by the
statistics of arrests in the city of Philadelphia for 1888-
94, which show that 6.04 per cent, of the males arrested,
and 12.17 per cent, of the females were colored ; while
only 3.78 per cent, of the total male, and 5.04 per cent.

222 American Economic Association.

of the total female, population over 15, were colored.
The table below has been furnished me by Robert J.
Linden, superintendent of police, Philadelphia.

ARRESTS IN PHILADELPHIA, 1888-1894.

Males.

Per cetit.

Females.

Per cent.

Total.

Colored.

Total.

Colored.

1888 . .

. . 40,305

2,340

5.81

6,594

570

8.64

1889 . .

. . 37.565

2,074

552

5,108

540

10.57

1890 . .

. . 43,605

2,480

569

5,441

687

12.62

1891 . .

. • 47,343

2,847

6.01

5,84^

697

11-93

IS92 . .

. . 47,143

2,729

5-79

5,801

702

12.10

1893 . .

. . 51,467

3,239

6.29

5.830

839

1439

IS94 . .

. . 55,136

3,856

6.99

6,342

949

14.96

1888-94 .

. . 323,665

19.565

6.04

40,957

4.984

12 17

Percentag

'e of colored in total pop

ulation

over 15 years

of age, .

3-89

425

It is significant that in the state at large as well as in
the city of Philadelphia the proportion of arrests and
convictions of colored people has increased during the
.period under observation. Almost identical conditions
as regards the disproportion of colored criminals in the
.total population are met with in New Jersey during the
period 1890-94.

CONVICTS IN NEW JERSEY PENITENTIARY, 1890-94.1

1890,

1891

1892

1893

1894

1890-94

Males.

Percentage

Females

Percentage

otal.

Colored.

of Col'd.

Total.

Colored

of Col'd.

877

143

16.30

34.28

960

175

18.22

27-58

918

167

1S.19

3103

936

154

16.45

37-50

992

166

16.73

41.17

4,682

805

159

Percentage of col'd in total pop-
ulation, over 15 years of age,

3-40

34 59

3-46

Annual reports of the keeper of the N. J. State Prison.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro.

223

The proportion of colored among the male convicts
during the five years was 17.19 per cent, in contrast with
3.40 per cent, of colored in the total population over fif-
teen years of age. For females the rate is 34.59 per cent.,
against 3.46 per cent, of colored females in the total female
population over fifteen years. Comparing the results of
this table with the results of the table for Pennsylvania,
it will be seen that the proportion of colored male con-
victs was 16.61 per cent, for Pennsylvania and 17.19 per
cent, for New Jersey ; for colored females, 34.61 per
cent, in Pennsylvania, and 34.59 per cent, in New Jersey.'

In some of the western cities, especially Chicago, the
disproportionate number of colored criminals in the pop-
ulation is even more marked. The fact that in Chicago
as well as in most of the other large cities of the country,
the colored people live in the slum sections, must be
taken into account in estimating the tendency of the
race in the anti-social direction. Bearing in mind the
fact so forcibly brought out in the " Hull House Maps
and Papers," that in the section of the city where the

I The increase in crime among the colored population of Pennsylr
vania during the past fort}' years is shown for decades in the following
table compiled from the 66th annual report of the inspectors of the
Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. The table
also shows the colored population of the state at the census year of
the period.

AVERAGE NUMBER OF CONVICTS IN THE EASTERN PENITENTIARY
OF PENNSYLVANIA.— 1856-95.

Period. Colored Census Average No,

Population. of of Convicts.

1856-65 56,949 (i860) 79.5

1866-75 65,249 (1870) 137.0

1876-85 85,535 (iSSo) 183.9

1886-95 107,596 (1890) 275.0

SUMMARY.

Increase in population, i86-)-90 88.9 per cent.

Increase in convicts in Eastern Penitentiary, 1856-95 . 245.9 P^r cent.

224 American Economic Association.

larger per cent of the colored population live, houses
of ill-fame and dives of the lowest order abound, the
table below will be more fully understood.

ARRESTS IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO, 1S80-1894.

Total

Colored

Per cent.

Percentage of Col'd

Arrests.

Persons.

Colored.

in Total Populat'n.

1880-84. .

. . 165,614

8,429

509

,.29'

TS85-89. .

. . 230,315

16.826

7.31

1890-94 . .

. . 407,912

40,120

9.84

1.30^

1 Census of 1880.

2 Census of 1890.

With only 1.29 per cent, of colored in the total popula-
tion in 1880, the percentage of colored among the persons
arrested during the five years, 1880-84, ^^^^ 5.09. This
rate increased to 7.31 per cent, during the next five years,
and to 9.84 during the period 1890-94. At the same
time the proportion of colored in total population re-
mained practically the same during the decade 1880-90.

This increase agrees with the results of the table for
Pennsylvania and Philadelphia. The proportion of
negro arrests is, however, much greater in Chicago than
in Philadelphia, due probably to the more unfavorable
congregation of the colored population of Chicago in the
worst section of the city. But it is not all a result of
ihe " conditions of life." The colored people are not
alone in their tendency to congregate under conditions
of vice and crime. The Italians are as densely crowded,
if not more so, in the immediate vicinity of the negro
colony, and so are other foreign nationalities. But the
extent of crime among the foreign elements is almost
always, excepting for the Irish, in proportion to the
population.

I have abstracted data from the police reports of the
city for 1890, and compared the same with the percent-
ages of population for the purpose of showing whether

1.2

Race Traits and TeJidcncics of the American Negro. 225

the conditions of life, wliich are without question more
severe for the Italians, Polanders and Russians than for
the negroes, affect the other nationalities to the same
extent as the colored element. The table below will
show that this is not the case, but that on the contrary,
the colored race shows of all races the most decided
tendency towards crime in the large cities.

percentage; of arrests according to nationauty, and pro-
portion OF EACH nationality TO TOTAL POPULATION (1890).

Percentage Percentage

Nationality or Race. of Total of Total

Population. Arrests.

Irish 6.4 10.3

Germans 14.6 ii.i

Norwegians 2.0 1.3

Swedes 3.g 2.5

Russians 0.7 o.S

Bohemians 2.3

Polanders

Italians

Negroes 1.3 g.S

SUMMARY.

Principal foreign nationalities. . . . 32.6 30.1

Negroes 1.3 g.s

All others 66.1 60.1

Of the various nationalities enumerated in this table,
the Irish and Italians sliow a percentage of arrests de-
cidedly above the average, yet small when compared
with that of the colored element. If all the leading
foreign nationalities are combined, we have 31.1 per
cent, of the arrests for 32.6 per cent, of population, a
showing decidedly in favor of the foreigner when con-
trasted with the negro. If it is further taken into con-
sideration that the proportion of males of " criminal,
age," that is over 15 and under 60, is greater among some
of the foreign nationalities than among the native, whites.

2.2 1.7

0.5 1.2

226 American Economic Association.

and negroes, the showing is even more favorable for the
foreigner. Unfortunately the reports of the police de-
partment do not give the ages of those arrested, hence
nothing but a crude comparison could be made.

In southern cities the excess of negro criminality is
less marked on account of the larger proportion of the
colored element living in the cities. I leave the method
employed in the previous tables unchanged, although a
different method of comparison would bring out more
clearly the disproportion of crime to population among
the colored in the cities of the southern states. The
table below is for Louisville, Ky., and covers the five
years, 1890-94.

ARRESTS AXD COMMITTMENTS TO THE WORKHOUSE, LOUISVILLE.
KY., 1S90-1894.

Arrests (Males and Females).

Commitments to the Work-

house (Males and Females).

Per Ct. of

Per ct. of

Years.

Total. Colored.

Colored.

Total.

Colored

Colored.

1890 .

7,621 2,862

37-55

1,580

653

4r.32

1S91 .

6.93S 3. 1 13

44.86

1,499

581

38.75

1S92 .

7,133 3.247

4552

1,62s

651

3998

1893.

7,079 3,536

49-95

1,431

524

36.61

1894.

8,390 3.901

46.49

2.438

985

4040

1S90-1894 .

37,161 16,659

44.83

8,576

3.394

39 58

Percentage

of colored iu total

erceiitage

of colored

population

17.78

in population . .

'7.78

The proportion of colored in the total population is
17.78 per cent., but the percentage of the arrests was
44.83 for the colored, and of commitments to the work
house, 39.58 per cent. In Charleston, S. C, where the
colored population forms 56.39 per cent, of the total, the
proportion of colored among the male criminals was 65.58
per cent., and among the female criminals, 79. 19 per cent.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Atnerican Negro. 227

ARRESTS IN CHARLESTON, S. C, 1890-1894.

Males. Females.

Total Percent. Total Per Cent.

Arrests. Colored. Colored. Arrests. Colored. Colored.

1S90 . . . 2,75s 1,745 63.27 527 434 82.35

1891 . . . 2,752 1,754 63.73 549 437 79-59

1892 . . . 2,961 1,913 64.57 514 3S5 74-90
1893. . . 2,579 1,771 68.67 413 327 79-17
1894 . . . 3,098 2,093 67.55 506 404 79-S4

1 890- 1 894 . . . 14,148 9,276 65.58 2,509 1,987 79.19
Percentage of colored in total
population, both sexes . . 56.39 56-39

The criminal statistics of Charleston are given in
snfficient detail to enable me to prepare an abstract for
the six years, 1889-94, showing the proportion of crimes
due to specified causes. The percentage of colored
criminals must not be compared with that for the country
at large, since the proportion of negroes in the total pop-
ulation is nearly four times as great in Charleston as for
the United States at large.

CAUSES OF ARREST IN CHARLESTON.— 1889-1S94.

Percentage

Crimes Against the Person. Total. Colored. of Colored.

Homicide 67 55 82.09

Rape 18 17 94-45

Assault 942 765 81.21

Wife beating 60 58 96.67

Crimes Against Property.

Larceny 1,581 1,489 94- 18

Grand larceny 351 310 88.32

Gambling 546 510 93.41

Percentage of colored in total population 56.48

-"^The negroes are responsible for 82.09 per cent, of the
homicides, while they form but 56.4 per cent, of the whole
population. They are responsible for practically all the
cases of rape, and for other crimes against person and
property largely out of proportion to their number in
the total population. As a fact of possible interest I

228 Americaii Econojuic Association.

have added the arrests for wife-beating, which were
ahnost entirely confined to the negroes. Gambling is
also largely prevalent among them, bnt the small nnm-
ber of arrests of whites on this charge is no proof that
in its less flagrant form, betting and private gambling
are not as prevalent among the whites.

All the tables for various states and cities confirm the
census data, and show without exception that the crim-
inality of the negro exceeds that of any other race of any
numerical importance in this country. Only a very
searching inquiry can fully disclose the most important
phases of this subject, but it has been shown that in this
respect education has utterly failed to raise the negro to
a higher level of citizenship, the first duty of which is to
obey the laws and respect the lives and property of
others.

"^ One fact, however, must not be overlooked. Owing
to his characteristic negligence the negro when guilty
of capital crimes is more easily apprehended than the
white criminal. As has been pointed out by Mr. Bruce,
" The final detection of the parties to such crime is
always assured, not onl}- because there are so many clues
that set the officers upon the proper track, but also be-
cause the parties generally confess, in their terror, the
moment they are accused." "The guilty companions,"
]\Ir. Bruce remarks in another place, " do not attempt to
remove the various traces of their crime ; the act is com-
mitted with awkward but relentless coolness and feroci-
ty, the booty is collected, and then the spot is deserted,
being left with every evidence of the fatal struggle, in-
cluding the corpse itself, to bear silent testimony to the
awful details of the tragedy of which it has recently been
the scene." ^

' "The Plantation Negro as a Freeman," pp. S2-83.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negi'o. 220

This fact, however, does not materially affect the pro-
portion of colored to white criminality, and rather con-
firms the conviction of those who know the race by years
of personal contact, that while few of the guilty escape,
there are few who are convicted wdien innocent.

Some reference has been made to rape in the preced-
ing tables. It was shown that 567 colored persons were
in United States prisons waiting trial for this crime.
In the city of Charleston during six years eighteen men
were arrested for rape, of whom seventeen were colored.
This would prove that not all of the negroes charged
with this crime have " met with summary punishment "
at the hands of an infuriated mob.

The lynching of colored men is usually for rape, but
occasionally also for murder, robbery, miscegenation,
etc. The evidence on this point is not such as would
recommend itself to an investigation of this kind, in
which official data are the main reliance. In the ab-
sence of an official investigation or report on the subject,
I have to rely almost entirely on newspaper evidence.
During the past few years I have been able to collect in-
formation of 129 attempts at lynching, of which 83 were
successful. By attempts I mean instances of mob vio-
lence where colored or white men charged with rape or
other crimes were in imminent danger of summary jus-
tice. Of the 129 persons thus charged, 102 were colored
and 27 white ; 102 of the attempts occurred in the south-
ern states and 27 in the North and West. The details
are summarized in the table below •}

' In addition I have collected information in regard to eight attempts
at lynching by colored men. In four cases the mob was successful.
The cause was rape in three cases and murder iu five. Of the persons

230 American Economic Association.

ANALYSIS OF 129 ATTEMPTS AT LYXCHIXGS IX THE EXITED STATES,
1891-1895.1

Colored.
Southern states .

Northern states .

White.
Southern states .
Northern states .

Colored.
Southern states .
Northern states .

White.
Southern states .
Northern states .

No. of

Attempts.
90

Successful
Attempts.

Per Cent.

Succes.'iful,
72.2

No.

of Persons
Lynched.
78

25.0

12
15

6
9

50.0
60.0

9
14

90
12

Causes of Lynchings.
Rape. Murder.
5» 22
6 5

All Other.
10

12
15

I
7

5
6

6
2

It will be observed that out of the 129 attempt.s at
lynching, 72 were for rape, and in 64 of these cases the
crimes were tlie acts of colored men. Of the other crimes
38 were homicides and 19 of a miscellaneous character.
The result of this investigation agrees with the statistics
previously given, which brought out the large proportion
of negroes connected with crimes against women and
chastity. With only about 10 per cent, of the population
over 15 years of age, they are responsible for 40 percent,
of the cases of rape in tlie country at large.

^The fact is fairly proven that lynchings at the South
are not the result of race antipathy, but are due to crimes
which meet with summary justice in cases of whites and
blacks alike. That the crime is on the increase is the
opinion of those most competent to judge. From data
collected by the Chicago Tribune which has for years
made a specialty of collecting criminal statistics not
officially reported, it would seem that the crime is in-
creasing at an alarming rate. The table below may be

whose lives were in danger three were white and five were colored.
Those actually h-nched were all colored.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro.

2X\

accepted as substantially correct, since few public h-ncli-
ings fail to be reported in the newspapers, on account
of the peculiar horror attached to such occurrences.

JUY^XHINGS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1S86-1894.

1886 .' 133

1887 ~ . . . 123

1S88 '. . . 144

18S9 175

1S90 125

1S9I 236

1893 200

1894 165I

1 Niue months only.

Of course not all of the above cases were those of
colored men lynched for rape, but the majority undoubt-
edh' were, and the rate of increase in lynchings may be
accepted as representing fairly the increasing tendency
of colored men to commit this most frightful of all
crimes. In the words of Mr. Bruce, " Their disposition
to perpetrate it has increased in spite of the quick and
summary punishment that always follows ; and it will
be seen that this disposition will grow in proportion as
that vague respect which the blacks still entertain for
whites declines, . . . There is something strangely
alluring and seductive to the negro in the appearance of
a white woman ; they are roused and stimulated by its
foreignness to their experience of sexual pleasures, and it
moves them to gratify their lust at any cost and in spite
of any obstacle. . . . Rape, indescribably beastly
and loathsome always, is marked, in the instance of its
perpetration by the negro, by a diabolical persistence
and a malignant atrocity of detail that have no reflection
in the whole extent of the natural history of the most
beastial and ferocious animals. He is not content

232 Avicrican Econojnic Associatio7i.

merely with the consuinination of his purpose, but takes
that fiendish delight in the degradation of his victim
which he always shows when he can reek his vengeance
upon one whom he has hitherto been compelled to
fear. . . . His invariable impulse after the ac-
complishment of his purpose, is to murder his victim,
that being the only means suggested to his mind of
escaping the consequence of the act, and this impulse is
carried into effect with the utmost barbarity, unless he
is accidentally interrupted and frightened off." '

Mr. Bruce, from whose admirable little work on the
" Plantation Negro " the above quotations are taken,
had exceptional opportunities for observation, and few
writers on the negro have so thoroughly grasped the in-
tricate details of their subject. In all the endless dis-
cussion on the subject of lynching, few of those who
write in bitterness against the South and its people,
take into accoiint the peculiar horror of the crime, a
horror which can only be understood by those who, after
years of residence in the South, are thoroughly familiar
with local conditions. The true sentiment of the south-
ern people is perhaps nowhere better expressed than in
the following passage of an editorial in the Atlanta Con-
stit7Uio7i.

We advise our northern contemporaries to deal as gently as they
can with the manifestations of human nature which take place in the
South and are duplicated at the North whenever the opportunity offers.
That they are deplorable is not to be denied. But the cause that leads
to them — the situation out of which they are developed — is more de-
plorable still. It is no light thing, may it please your honor and
gentlemen of the jury, for the women and girls of the whole country
side to live in practically a state of seige— to be afraid to venture to a
neighbor's or a school house lest some black beast shall leSp from the
bushes and give them over to a fate worse than death. Let us think
of these things when we become critical enough to take on judicial
airs.

' Bruce, " The Plantation Negro as a Freeman."

Race Traits and Taidcncics of the American Negro. 233

Attempts to stop lyiichiiigs have been made in many'
of the sonthern states where snch crimes have become
only too frequent. In South Carolina the new constitu-
tion of that state provides that " In all cases of lynching
where death ensues, the county where such lynching
takes place shall, without regard to the conduct of the
officers, be liable in exemplary damages of not less than
$2,000 to the legal representative of the person lynched."
In the Virginia Senate a bill has been introduced which
provides that " Whenever a lynching occurs in any
county, city, or town, it shall be the duty of the Super-
visors or the Council of the city or town as the case
may be, to lay a tax levy of $200 for every thousand
inhabitants, which is to be collected as other county
taxes are collected, the proceeds to be paid into the
treasury by the treasurer of the county." In Missis-
sippi the attorney general in his last annual report
makes commendations of the same character for the
suppression of the crime.

At various times the militia of the state has been
called out and large expenses have been incurred to pre-
vent lynchings of men of whose guilt there was not the
slightest doubt. Yet there has been no abatement of the
crime and no decrease in the number of lynchings, the
due consequence of the crime, in spite of all that has
been done and said and written about the subject, and /
in spite of the fact that all over the South the best peo- \
pie are fully agreed that 'lynchings must be stopped.' ,

Lynchings rarely occur more than once in the same \
community or section, but they are met with in all sec- >
tions of the South, especially in remote districts. In
Florida, for instance, wdiere in 1895, 12 negroes were re-
ported as having been lynched, the crime of rape has
been most frequently committed by negroes from the

234 American Economic AssociatioJi:

phosphate mines, which seem to have attracted the
vagrant elements from South Carolina and other adjoin-
ing states. The commission of the crime seems to be
largely confined to this vagrant and worthless element,
but the race as a whole suffers greatly from the result-
ing antipathy of the whites.

Mr. Aloncure D. Conway, agent for an English commit-
tee, has expressed the opinion that " In some of the south-
ern states the crime seems nearly to have disappeared, and
the curious phenomena has appeared that in these orderly
states such as Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina,
with their large negro population, no suggestion is ever
heard of the negro propensity to rape." This statement
is not at all warranted by the facts ; for not only have
lynchings increased in. these three states from 7 in 1891
to 12 in 1895, but the police statistics of Charleston
alone show that in six years 18 colored men were ar-
rested for rape, proving that there is neither an absence
of propensity to rape, nor a decrease in the number of
lynchings in that state.

The crime of lynching is the effect of a cause, the
removal of which lies in the power of the colored race.
Rape is only one of the many manifestations of an in-
creasing tendency on the part of the negro to miscon-
strue personal freedom into personal license, and this
tendency, persisted in, must tend towards creating a still
wider separation of the races. The fact that lynchings
should be frequent is a natural consequence of a social
and political condition under which the frequent com-
mission of the crime of rape is possible. Until the
negro learns to respect life, property, and chastity, until
he learns to believe in the value of a personal morality
operating in his everyday life, the criminal tendencies
brought out in the foregoing tables will increase.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 235

and by so much the social and economic efficiency
of the race will be decreased.

The low state of sexual morality among the colored
population is a fact which, it would seem, has been
inadequately treated by those who have written on the
subject of negro morality. In this work reference has
been made to the subject in the statistics of syphilis and
other venereal diseases ; but the following table of ille-
gitimate births in Washington will show more emphat-
ically the tendency of the race towards a low level of
sexual immorality and vice.

ILLEGITIMACY IN WASHINGTON, D. C, 1879-1894.1
(Percentage of illegitimate in total number of births.)

White. Colored

1879 2.32 17.60

1880 2.43 19.02

1881 2.33 19.42

1882 2 09 19.73

18S3 3-U 2095

1884 3.60 J9.02

1885 3.00 22.88

1886 328 22.86

1887 3 34 21.27

1888 3.49 22. iS

1889 3.59 23.45

1890 3-34 26.50

1891 2.90 25.12

1892 2.53 26.40

1893 2.82 27.00

1894 2.56 26 46

Average 1879-94 . . . 2.92 22.49

SCMM.\RY 1S79-94.

Total birth.s, 1S79-94 34.803 27,211

Illegitimate births, 1S79-94 .... 1,032 6,iS6

Percentage illegitimate births ... 2.92 22.49

1 Report of the health office of the District of Columbia, 1S94, page 152.

The average rate of illegitimacy is 22.49 P^^ cent, for
the colored population and 2.92 per cent, for the whites.

236 American Economic Association.

The rate of increase for the earlier years of the period
1879-94 is affected by a more perfect registration during
the latter part of the period ; but even if allowance is
made for this probable element of error, and we assume
that in the earlier part of the period the same amount of
unchastity prevailed as at present, the results are scarcely
less significant. That under a civilized government
one-fourth of the children of one race should bear " the
bar sinister " is a fact which is fraught with far-reaching
consequences.

rl have given the statistics of the general progress of
the race in religion and education for the country at
large, and have shown that in church and school the
number of attending members or pupils is constantly in-
creasing ; but in the statistics of crime and the data of
illegitimacy the proof is furnished that neither religion
nor education has influenced to an appreciable degree the
moral progress of the race. Whatever benefit the indi-
vidual colored man may have gained from the extension
of religious worship and educational processes, the race
as a w^hole has gone backwards rather than forwards.
While it is not possible to prove by statistics that the
moral condition of the slaves was exceptionally good, all
the data at my command show that physically the race
was superior to the present generation, and no physical
health is possible without a fair degree of sexual mor-
ality. It is true that the sexual relations were as lax as
they are now, but they were lax in the nature of con-
cubinage or irregular sexual intercourse, in which affec-
tion played at least a small if not an important part. In
the irregular sexual relations of the present day prosti-
tution for gain is the prevailing rule, and one of the
determining causes of the inordinate mortality and high
degree of criminality.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 237

In Washington the colored race has had exceptional
educational, religions and social opportunities. Even
in an economic sense the race is probably better off
there than anywhere else. According to the census there
were in Washington in 1890, 77 churches for colored
people, valued at $1,182,650, with 22,965 communicants.
There were 250 colored teachers in charge of 13,332
colored pupils ; but there were also during the year 483
young mothers, whom neither education nor religion had
restrained from open violation of the moral law.

In Delaware the low moral condition of the colored
population in this respect, is perhaps best illustrated by
the following newspaper report, clipped from the Balti-
more American of recent date.

A wholesale marriage ceremony was performed in Odd Fellows'
Hall at Hockessin, a few miles from Wilmington, Del., on Sun-
day afternoon. Right couples of colored people were married
simultaneously by the Rev. William Jason, president of the State Col-
lege for Colored Students. The ceremony was witnessed by more
than three hundred people. Explaining the circumstances which
brought about the wedding, Mr. Jason said : "God must know that
when I went among these people and tried to bring them to God, they
were a bad lot. At first I did not get much encouragement, but after
I had labored with them for several months, I saw that even the
hardest of them were touched. In nearly every instance where a man
and woman were living together, no marriage ceremony had been
performed between them. I told them that it was wrong and sinful.;
that it was a violation of the civil law and an offence against divine
law. That's why I performed this wholesale marriage. At first they
objected, but when one couple who had been living together for four
years consented to let me marry them, the others gave in and I hope
in time that all the rest will follow in their footsteps."

For other states similar information could be given,
but it would be merely cumulative evidence. The con-
dition is everywhere the same. In Mobile and Knox-
ville, as well as in Washington, the rate of illegitimacy is
about 25 per cent, of the total births, against an average
of about 2.5 per cent, for the whites. The figures here
16

238 American Economic Association.

given are only those of births admitted \.o be illegitimate.
The actual number if known would of course, give a
much higher rate, but the margin of error is probably
about the same for both races. The facts brought out
show a state of immorality such as does not often pre-
vail in a community claiming even a moderate degree of
civilization.

What is true of the negro in the United States is even
more true of the colored population in the West Indies.
I have elsewhere dealt fully with the social statistics of
the negro in the West Indies, and need here to give only
a few data to round off this picture of the lowest phase
of the social life of the American negro.'
"^ It was a favorite argument of the opponents of slavery
that freedom, education and citizenship would elevate
the negro to the level of the white in a generation or
two. One writer in a report to the Anti-Slavery Society,
which was widely circulated, made use of the following
language in regard to the effects of the emancipation of
the slaves in the West Indies: "The abolition of
slavery gave the death blow to open vice. Immediate
emancipation instead of opening the floodgates was the
only power strong enough to shut them down. Those
great controllers of moral action, self respect, attachment
to law and veneration of God, which slavery destroyed,
freedom has resuscitated."

The West India slaves were completely emancipated in
1838. About 30 years later The American Missionary in
commenting upofi the people of Jamaica used the follow-
ing language : " A man may be a drunkard, a liar, a Sab-
bath breaker, a profane man, a fornicator, an adulterer,
and such like and be known to be such, and go to

^"The Negro in the West Indies," Quarterly Publicatioiis of the
American Statistical Associatio7i, Vol. 3.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Americaji Negro. 239

chapel and hold up his head there, and feel no disgrace
from those things, because they are so common as to
create a public sentiment in his favor." ^ About 25
years later James Anthony Froude wrote of the negro in
the West Indies in the folUowing severe terms :

"Morals in the technical sense they have none, but they cannot
be said to sin, because they have no knowledge of a law and there-
fore cannot commit a breach of the law. They are naked and not
ashamed. They are married, as they call it, but not parsoned. The
woman prefers a looser tie that she may be able to leave the man if
he treat her unkindly. A missionary told me that a marriage con-
nection rarely turned out well which begins with legal marriage. The
system is strange, but it answers. There is evil, but there is not the
demoralizing effect of evil, they sin but they sin only as animals sin,
without shame because there is no sense of wrong doing ; they eat the
forbidden fruit, but it brings with it no knowledge of the difference
between good and evil — in fact these poor children of darkness have
escaped the consequences of the fall, and must come of another stock
after all. " '•'

The statements of the various writers on the social
condition, of the West India negro are supported by re-
liable statistical evidence. The table below, compiled
from, the annual reports of the registrar-general of
Jamaica bears mute testimony on this point.

ILLEGITIMACY AND ILLITERACY IN JAMACIA.

Percentage of Females
Percentage of Signing Marriage

Illegitimate Register With

Births. Mark.

1880-81 57.7 66.8

1881-82 58.2 67.7

18S2-83 58.9 68.6

1883-84 58.9 68.8

1884-85 59-9 67.7

1885-86 59.6 64.0

18S6-87 59.8 64.8

1887-88 60.6 64.8

18S8-89 60.5 65.5

18S9-90 61.7 64.9

1890-91 60.7 63.7

1891-92 60.6 61.6

1892-93 60.1 60.0

1893-94 60.6 59.4

1894-95 60.8 57.1

^ Seaman, " Progress of Nations," p. 518.

- " English in the West Indies," pp. 49-50. (The italics are mine.)

240 American Economic Association.

After fifty years of educational and religious influence
under conditions of freedon, sixty out of every hundred
births are acknowledged to be illegitimate.' On the
other hand, education has progressed at such a rate that
in the year 1894 only 40 per cent, of the women who
married could not write their own names. The
progress of education is shown by the table below :

PROPORTION OF POPULATION OF JAMAICA OVER FIVE YEARS OF AGE
WHO ARE ABLE TO READ AND WRITE.'

Per Cent.

1861 31-3

1871 350

1881 45-7

1891 52v5

'"The Negro in the West Indies." Publications of the American Statistical As-
sociation.

One of the most recent reports on the condition of
the negro in Jamaica was published in the New York
JEvening Post in November, 1895, and contains the fol-

'Oii this point the registrar general, Mr. S. P. Smeeton, in his an-
nual report for 1895, writes as follows: "The subject, (illegitimacy)
is not a savour}- one, and when discussed ' time ' and ' education ' are
generally mentioned as the remedies to be relied upon. It may, how-
ever, be pointed out that the published registration figures for 17
3'ears past show no improvement in the matter, and that an ever in-
creasing educational force has been for that same period in operatiofi
without, apparently, any sign of cleansing away this social cancer.
From time to time great and praiseworthy interest is shown for the
development of the material concerns of the island and extensive or-
ganizations are formed for the benefit of these, but is there any island
product of more value, from any point of view, than the population
one ? What are all others if this be uncared for, and 60 per cent, of
it be allowed, as we say in Jamaica, to ' run into bush ' ? I have in a
previous report quoted the w-ords of Cardinal Manning : ' On the do-
mestic life of a people the whole political order of human society re-
poses. If the foundation be ruined what will be the superstructure ? '
and they will bear repetition here, for, while it is beyond question that
the people of Jamaica are capable of reaching a high state of civili-
zation, it is equally certain that this goal cannot be reached so long as
the very root element of social progress is lacking, viz., a morally
healthy family life. " (The italics are mine. )

Race Traits and Tendencies of the A?nerica?i Negro. 241

lowing : " We have seen such sights as one of their
naked voodoo priests standing in the middle of a stream
holding a rod in one hand and the other outstretched
over the water apparently without moving a muscle for
upwards of three hours, while thousands of naked men
and women crowded into the stream below him. But
this is tame compared to their horrible midnight orgies
carried on in their mountain homes, which the white
man is not allowed to witness. We can only form an
idea of their barbarity from the rumors that come to us
from time to time or the reports of some of their more
enlightened brethren."

The same condition is met with in other islands :
everywhere we find the evidence of grossest immorality,
and nowhere do we meet with the anticipated effects of
education and political freedom. The main purpose of
education, " the eradication or modification of un-
desirable tendencies and the development of favorable
ones," has, according to these facts, not been accom-
plished. After nearly sixty years of freedom in the
West Indies and after thirty years of freedom in this
country, during which the most elaborate efforts have
been made to improve the moral and social condition of
the race, we find that its physical and moral tendency
is downwards. A low degree of social and economic effi-
ciency must result from such anti-social conditions. A
race living under such conditions can hardly be expected
to develop the essential virtue of Indo-Germanic races,
thrift. Pauperism with all its consequences is the nat-
ural and inevitable result of crime and immorality.
/ Thrift is the result of self hel^ It is developed
under the most adverse circumstances and once ac-
quired forms the most persistent virtue of a race. It is
the result of self-denial and self-sacrifice, developed in

242 American Economic Association.

races only after a struggle against adverse conditions
which would have reduced a race less sturdy to barbar-
ism and savagery.

All attempts to ameliorate the condition of the lower
races in which the vital element of self-help is ignored,
must in the end, prove a failure. A system of philan-
thropy that is based on the notion that easy conditions
of life are essential to human development must fail in
its effort, honorable and unselfish as the motives maybe.
No system of state socialism will benefit a race^ much
as it may occasionally prove of benefit to the individual.

The violation of this fundamental principle of
economics on the part of the state or an association of
individuals, or individuals working alone for the
amelioration of the condition of the lower classes must
in the end produce the very effects and tendencies shown
to be in operation among the colored population,
namely, an increasing mortality, decreasing vitality, and
increasing immorality, criminality and pauperism.
Such, in the words of Mr. Francis A. Walker, " may be
the effects of foolish laws. The legislator [or the phil-
anthropist and social reformer, I would add] may think it
hard that his power for good is so closely restricted ; but
he has no reason to complain of any limits upon his power
for evil. On the contrary, it would seem that there is no
race of men, whom a few laws respecting industry,
trade and finance passed ... in defiance of economic
principles could not in half a generation transform into
beasts."^

This principle is as applicable to general social con-
ditions as to those which fall strictly within the domain of
economics. Even political liberties, granted with dis-
regard for natural inequalities or stages of human

' "Political Ecouonu', " p. 362.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negi'O. 243

progress, must affect injuriously, in the end, the race
on which they were thus conferred. " Self-govern-
ment," writes Mr. Fronde, " is a beautiful subject for
oratorical declamation. If the facts corresponded to the
theory and if the possession of a vote produced the ele-
vating effects upon the character which are so noisily-
insisted upon, it would be the welcome panacea for
political and social disorder. Unfortunately the fact
does not correspond to the theory. The possession of a
vote never improved the character of any human being
and never will." •

We may, in conclusion, consider the facts relating to
pauperism and general dependency. The table below
will show for ten northern and ten southern states the
number of negro paupers per million of population, as
compared with the white population. The table also
shows the average age according to sex.

WHITE AND COLORED PAUPERS IN ALMSHOUSES IN 1S90, PER MIL-
LION OF POPULATION.!

Southern States.

Whites. Colored.

Virginia i,i'7 I1658 Colored in excess

North Carolina 886 992 " "

South Carolina 794 306 Whites "

Georgia 545 42S << «

Florida 76 42 " "

Kentucky 7S8 1,208 Colored "

Tennessee 756 1,239 " "

Alabama 386 443 " "

Mississippi 376 388 " "

Louisiana 204 14 Whites "

Northern States.

Massachusetts 2,097 3>352 Colored in excess

New York 1,696 3,045 " "

New Jersey 1,846 2,895 " "

Pennsylvania 1,604 3.599 " "

Ohio 1,968 3,931 " "

Illinois 1,406 1,659 " "

Indiana 1,316 2,212 " "

Kansas 372 1,603 " "

Missouri 834 1,785 " "

Michigan 906 1,809 " "

1 Census report on Crime, Pauperism and Benevolence. Part II, pp. 654-658.
' " The English in the West Indies," p. 166.

244 American Economic Association.

AVERAGE AGES OF WHITE AND COLORED PAUPERS IN ALMSHOUSES
IN iSgo.i

Males. Females.

Southern States. White. Colored. White. Colored.

Virginia 44.08 51.28 43- 30 46.11

North Carolina .... 49-28 48.06 48.22 48.30

South Carolina .... 52.40 4S.77 54.45 58.75

Georgia 52.22 58.85 51.60 54.36

Florida 55.11 39.75 45.20 7767

Kentucky 49.05 44.07 40.46 41.82

Tennessee 46.40 45-72 41-53 46.81

Alabama 51.35 52.43 47.47 61.04

Mississippi 49-75 54-48 48.93 61.50

Louisiana 62.76 57-^o 67.04 56.33

Northern States.

Massachusetts .... 53.08 41.25 51.09 41 59

New York 56.64 56.75 54.78 49.77

New Jersey 48-51 51-9' 46-75 44-34

Pennsylvania 51. 68 42.92 4S.53 43.57

Ohio 53.31 4625 48.63 42.48

Illinois 48.73 38-36 4428 38.71

Indiana 48-36 39-62 42-52 34-39

Kansas 46.70 40.97 42-82 36.23

Missouri 46.70 4^-39 42.21 47.75

Michigan 53.35 50.10 47.09 46.00

1 Census report on Crime, Pauperism and Benevolence. Part II, pp. S19-20.

It will be observed that with only four exceptions, the
ratio of colored paupers is greater than that of the whites.
The exceptions are Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and
Louisiana, all of which are in the extreme South — sec-
tions where indoor pauperism is met with to only a very
limited extent. In all the northern states the colored
paupers outnumber the whites, which contradicts the
statement frequently made that while the negro race fur-
nishes more criminals, it furnishes fewer paupers than
the white race.

Pauperism, North and South, cannot be compared, on
account of the difference in prevailing relief methods.
In the South the need of indoor relief is ver)' small ; the
conditions of life are much easier and outdoor relief is

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Americayi Negro. 245

usually sufficient. Able-bodied paupers, such as we meet
with in the alms-houses in the North are rare. The ac-
commodations furnished by almshouses are, on the whole,
not such as would encourage pauperism, even among
the negroes. With the increase in wealth and general
economic progress, the South is making better provision
for its dependent classes, and an increase in the number
of paupers would prove rather a shifting from outdoor to
indoor relief than an actual increase in pauperism.

It will also be observed that the average age of paupers
in the South is on the whole about the same for the col-
ored as for the white. But in the northern states, the
average age of the colored is, with only two exceptions,
considerably below that of the whites. In Massachusetts,
for instance, the average age of the white male paupers
was 53, as against 41 for the colored. This would clearly
indicate that the colored in the northern states become
paupers at an earlier age than in the South, where condi-
tions of indoor relief are less encouraging to chronic
pauperism.

Outdoor relief to colored persons is exceedingly com-
mon in the southern states. It is not given in the form
of money, but in the form of free fuel, free fruit, free
land for cultivation, free medical attendance and, most of
all, free burial in the potter's field. In addition there is
an almost unseen agency of outdoor relief, perhaps of all
the most pernicious, which furnishes the family of a
negro servant with the remnants of the table of the em-
ployer.

The difference in the extent of outdoor and indoor re-
lief is illustrated in the table for Cincinnati, in which a
comparison is made between the indoor and the various
kinds of outdoor relief. The method of comparison is
the same as that made use of in the criminal statistics.

246 Amc7-ican Economic Association.

and the proportion of colored panpers to total is com-
pared with the percentage of colored in total popnlation.

CHARITY AND PAUPERISM IN CINCINNATI.— 1894.

Indoor

Out-door Relief.

(Al

mshouse)

Pro-

Coffin.s,

Relief.

visions.

Fuel.

Etc.

450

2,391

1.932

197

488

369

4.89

20. 4 r

19. 09

32.49

Total number receiving relief.

Colored •

Percentage of colored ....

Percentageofcol'd population in total 3.93 3.93 3.93 393

The proportion of colored in the total population of
Cincinnati was almost four per cent, in 1890. The propor-
tion of colored paupers in almshouses was almost five
per cent., an excess amounting to one-fifth of the per-
centage of population. The percentage of outdoor relief
for the colored was, for provisions 20.41, for fuel 19.09 ;
while for pauper funerals the rate was 32.49 per cent, of
the total. That is to say, with only 3.93 per cent, of
the population, the negroes were the beneficiaries of one-
fifth of the out-door relief and one-third of the expendi-
tures for pauper funerals.

Pauper funerals, as I have stated, are extremely fre-
quent among the colored population and nowhere else
dees absence of thrift so clearly manifest itself as in the
indifference to a burial in the " potter's field." Whoever
has witnessed the pauper funeral of a negro, the bare pine
box and the common cart, the absence of all that makes
less sorrowful the last rites over the dead, has seen a
phase of negro life and manners more disheartening per-
haps than anything else in the whole range of human
misery. Perhaps only the dreary aspect of the negroes'
" potters field," the low sand hills, row after row, partly
washed away by the falling rains, unrelieved by a single
mark of human kindness, without a flower and without a

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 247

cross, only the pauper lot itself, may be more sad and
gruesome than the displa}- of almost inhuman apathy at
the funeral. By this I do not wish to be understood as
saying that the negro is entirely indifferent, for he is
not, and often mourns the loss of a near one as sincerely
as the member of any other race, but his indifference is
to a condition imposed upon him not on account of his
poverty, but on account of his lack of thrift.

In the two tables which follow I give the white and
colored pauper funerals in Washington and Charleston
for a period of seven years. The table also shows the
percentage of colored in total pauper burials and the pro-
portion of colored in total population.

PAUPER FUNERALS IN WASHINGTON, D. C— 1888-1S94.

Percentasje of
Total. Colored. Colored.

18S8 391 331 84.65

1889 42S 368 85.98

1S90 411 375 91-24

1S91 487 404 82.95

1892 506 406 80.23

1893 512 424 82.81

1894 527 444 84.25

1888-1894 .... 3,262 2,752 84.36

Percentage of colored population in total 32.89

PAUPER FUNERALS IN CHARLESTON— 1SS8-1894.

Percentage of
Total. Colored. Colored.

188S 375 366 97.60

1SS9 36S 356 96.73

1890 336 331 98.51

1S91 327 304 92.96

1892 377 366 97.08

1S93 351 339 96.58

1S94 395 3S5 97.46

1888-1S94 .... 2,529 2,4.^7 96.76

Percentage of colored population in total 56.48

248 American Economic Association.

The above tables show, that in Washington 84. 36 per
cent, of the pauper funerals were those of colored per-
sons, while only 32.89 per cent, of the total population
were colored. In Charleston 96.76 per cent, of the
pauper funerals were those of negroes, with only 56.48
per cent, of colored in the total population. The tables
must not be compared with each other on account of the
difference in the distribution of the two races in the two
cities. A comparison is made however in the following
summary, in which the percentage of pauper funerals in
the total number of burials is shown for each race, in
both cities.

PROPORTION OF PAUPER FUNERALS IN TOTAL NUMBER OF DEATHS.

Charleston.

Washington.

Total Pauper Percent-

Pauper Percent-

Burials, funeral.s. age.

Burials, funerals. age.

White . . .

. 3,672 82 2.23

21,979 510 2.32

Colored . .

. 9,388 2,447 26.07

iS,oS6 2.752 15.22

According to this table the proportion of colored pau-
per funerals in the total number of burials was 26.07
per cent, for Charleston and 15.22 per cent, for Washing-
ton. That is to say, while one out of every four negroes
dying in Charleston was buried at public expense, only
one out of six was buried in this way in Washington,
showing a decided improvement in this respect for the
colored people of the latter city. But it is a question
not easily answered, whether this lower rate for Wash-
ington may not be due in part to local conditions which
make pauper burials more difficult. For in Cincinnati
it has been shown that one-third of those who were
buried at public expense were colored, and similar rates
are met with in other cities, data for which would only
burden this work with cumulative evidence. The
rational explanation would seem to me to be the de-

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 249

velopment in the Capitol City of a higher degree of
social pride, which, while not a strictly moral element,
is nevertheless of high social and economic valne. The
principle of association for benevolent pnrposes, assist-
ance in sickness and insurance at death, has also, with-
out question, largely affected the colored population of
Washington, more perhaps than that of any other city.

The beneficient effect of this change is, however,
more developed in the seen than in the unseen, and the
attention paid to ceremonial matters has had no in-
fluence in developing the more important regard for
sexiial morality and monogamic marriage. Improved
economic conditions have therefore affected the less im-
portant phases and tendencies of life, rather than the
more important ; they have affected changes in the sur-
face conditions, but have failed to go to the root.

I cannot do better than close this chapter with the
timely words of ]^»I. Leroy-Beaulieu, which are as ap-
plicable to the colored race as they are to the white or
any other race, — and even to a greater degree, since the
downw^ard tendencies are so much more distinctly recog-
nizable among the colored than among other races :

We need hardl)^ point out that it is far from our intention to con-
demn either education in general or that of women [negroes I would
add] in particular, but it is rather our desire to point oat what appears
to be necessary to improve and modify its tendencies. Every age is
characterized b}' its peculiar craze. The present craze is for educa-
tion, unlimited and injudicious, and for philanthropy equally un-
limited and injudicious, both absolutely superficial. Bj' their aid we
have succeeded in producing a mental condition and creating social
circumstances which are most unfavorable to the growth of the
population. 1

^Journal of tlie Royal Statistical Society, 1891, p. 3S4.

Chapter VI.

ECONOMIC CONDITION AND TENDENCIES,

The general economic condition of the negro race is a
subject on which much has been written from the stand-
point of the casual observer, or the interested investi-
gator ; but no attempt has ever been made by govern-
ment, national or local, to deal with the subject in a
comprehensive manner. This is the more to be regretted
since much that is now done in behalf of the race is the
result of investigations and observations naturally
limited and inadequate. If, instead of the numerous in-
vestigations into phases of social life, (with which the
government could not interfere even if it desired), an
annual or quinquennial investigation were made by a
competent commission to ascertain the moral and
material condition of the race, in the same way that the
government of India prepares its annual and decennial
summary reports on the moral and material condition of
the people of India, a most important step toward a more
scientific view of the needs and wants of the negro would
be gained. As matters stand, it is difficult to discuss
the subject in a satisfactory way, and this attempt to
bring together the most important facts is rather in the
nature of a contribution to a more comprehensive study
than an attempt to deal comprehensively and exhaust-
ively with the economic condition and tendencies of the
colored race. I have confined myself to a few points on
which the necessary data were fairly reliable and com-
plete enough to permit a discussion as to the probable
future tendency of the race in the direction of material

Race Traits and Tc?idencies of the American Negro. 251

well being, and its influence as an economic factor in the
development of the nation.

The Negro as an Agricultural Laborer.

The vast portion of the colored population of the
southern states are still agricultural laborers, and the
observed tendency of the negro population to drift into
the cities has not affected a very large proportion of the
total colored population. The attempts made to migrate
to the western states or to emigrate to Mexico, Liberia, or
other foreign countries, have had very slight influence
on the population at large. The fact that of this vast
population the majority are tillers of the soil, productive
factors in the highest economic sense, invests the probable
tendencies of the race with an unusual degree of public
interest. Does the negro as an agricultural laborer pro-
duce as much as a white man under the same conditions ?
Does he as a free man produce as much as, or more than,
he did under the regime of slavery ? To these two ques-
tions at present no satisfactory answer can be given, for
the reasons stated at the beginning of the chapter. Yet
some data are available which may be worth recording,
and may serve at least the purpose of showing the dearth
of data for this part of my investigation.

The diflficulty in deciding as to the comparative effi-
ciency of white and colored labor is enhanced by the
conflict of opinion even among those most competent to
judge of the negro as an agricultural or industrial
worker. " I know of no subject," said the late General
Armstrong, " on which you hear such diametrically op-
posite opinions as you do about the colored people. I
have heard two men in the same town, each of them a
large employer of colored labor, and each, of them with

252 Americayi Ecojiomic Association.

equal experience, say the direct opposite, the one claim-
ing that the colored race might be developed to any ex-
tent, the other that there was nothing to be done for
them.'" This difficulty is emphasized in two letters to
the Chattanooga Tradesman from southern planters.
The first, from Mr. Alf. Stone, of Greenville, Miss.,
maintains that " the negro as a field hand is a failure,"
and advises planters to substitue " the thrifty foreigner,
Italians, Germans, Norwegians." A Mr. Massey, of
Friars Point, INIiss., replies that " the negro is the most
docile and tractable of all laborers and under proper
management the most contented and profitable. The
thriftlessness generally ascribed to the negro is more the
fault of the employer than of the laborer." -

In the Coiinti'y Gentleman a few years ago, a Con-
necticut farmer gave his experience with negro labor,
mostly from Virginia, concluding his remarks with the
following words : " In the course of several years others
came to our town from the same region, and I cannot
recall a single instance in which they did not prove
efficient and reliable workmen. . . . Those whom
we employed were pure-minded and honest-hearted and
possessed skill and judgment to a degree which has
seldom been equalled by any workman on our farm."
The experience of a Virginia planter. Col. Henry Stokes
of Prince Edward county, showed that " under the
direction of a level head, . . . 20,000 hills of
tobacco to the hand were cultivated, in contrast with only
10,000 hills under slavery, demonstrating that a free
man is worth just twice as much as a slave." '

These favorable views of experienced farmers are in

^L. D. Powles, "Land of the Pink Pearl," (London, 188S), p. 193.
■^ Tradesman, January 15, 1892.
3 Farmville/o«r«a/.

Race Traits and Tendeyicics of the Americari Negro. 253

contrast with the opinion of the former commissioner of
agricnlture of Tennessee, Mr. Killebrew, who, in the
Tradesman of Jannary i, 1895, writes as follows : " The
great and leading differences between white and colored
labor is this, the first has ambition, calculates possi-
bilities, and looks forward to the future ; the latter en-
joys the present, is indifferent of what is to come, and is
utterly incapable of that self denial which makes thrift
and prosperity possible."

Reference has been made to the value of free labor in
the cultivation of tobacco in Virginia. Mr. Bruce, who
studied the negro in the section of Virginia where to-
bacco is extensively cultivated, writes of the pres-
ent day negro as follows : " In all those counties of the
tobacco region of Virginia in which the crop is culti-
vated and prepared for market entirely by negroes, there
has been a notable decline in the quality of the staple as
well as in the character of its manipulation, now that
the majority of the hands who were trained for many
years under the eye of their master or the overseer are
fast dying off. . . . Tobacco requires the most
thorough information and the most discriminating skill
from the hour that the plant expands in the patch, to
the moment the leaf is prized in the hogshead. Under
the old system each plantation had its circle of slaves
who were carefully educated from childhood to do gen-
eral or special work, and the individual of that circle at-
tained to much expertness in the various tasks of the
barns and fields ; but under the present system this is
impossible and the result is that labor of the new regime
is generally inferior in character." '

The production of tobacco in the counties in which

' " The Plantation Negro as a Freeman," p. 183.
17

254 American Economic Association.

it was most extensively produced previous to the war,
was less in 1889 than thirty years ago. If we select
five representative counties, as has been done in the
table below, it is shown that the product has ver\- ma-
terially decreased since 1859.

TOBACCO PRODUCTION OF FIVE SELECTED COUNTIES OF VIRGINIA,
1S59 and 1889.

Population, 1890. Tobacco Production, (Lbs.).

White. Colored. 1859. 1889.

Albermarle 18,133 '4,245 5.429.390 557.364

Charlotte 5.714 9.3^3 5,666,600 1,762,000

Halifax 14.891 19.533 8,544,500 5. 432. 500

Mecklenburg . . . 9,192 16,167 6,631,800 2,737,600

Prince Edward . . . 4,750 9,944 4.231,500 1,633,800

Five Counties . 52,680 69,252 30,504,090 12,123,264

The production for 1859 ^^^^^ ?P-b "'ilhon pounds ;
the production for 1889 was only 12.1 million pounds.
Leaving out of consideration the increase in the popu-
lation during this period, the falling off is remarkable.
It will be observed that in these five counties the
colored are greatly in the majorit)\ Only one county
of the state, Pittsylvania, reported a larger production
in 1889 than in 1859 (^ ^^^"^ speaking here only of those
counties the total product of which in 1859 was in excess
of four million pounds.) In 1859 ^^"^^ production of to-
bacco in this county was 7.9 million pounds, against 12.3
million pounds in 1879 ^^^ '^^ million pounds in 1889.
But in this county the whites exceed the colored by a
small majority (31 to 29), the former having increased
at a higher rate than the latter during the period 1880-
90. Hence, the possible argument that the large pro-
duction of the period previous to the war exhausted the
soil and caused an overproduction per acre, hardly holds
good. At least it would seem difficult to account for
the falling off on this ground, in view of the statement

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 255

of the correspondent of the Farmville Journal that a
laborer now takes care of twice the nnmber of plants
that was customary previous to emancipation.

We may compare, however, the five counties of Vir-
ginia with four counties of Kentucky having a colored
population of less than five per cent. The four counties
produced about 90,000 pounds of tobacco in 1859 as com-
pared with more than 10 million pounds in 1889. It must
be taken into consideration that the large proportion of
laborers in these counties must necessarily be white.

TOBACCO PRODUCTION OF FOUR COUNTIES OF KENTUCKY, 1859-1889.

Population. Tobacco Production, (I,bs.).

White. Colored. 1859. 1889.

Lewis 14,618 185 35.595 2,340,984

Campbell 43>496 712 40,520 1,733-227

Bath 11.228 1,58.5 4,542 4.555,912

Mercer 11,924 3,iio 9,681 1,414,733

Four Counties. . 81,266 5,592 90,338 10,044,856

It is of course an open question whether the increased
production of tobacco in these counties is not the- re-
sult of cultivation of new soils not previously exhausted ;
but that is immaterial for our purpose. The point, to
be observed is that in counties containing a great
majority of negroes the production is falling off, while
in other sections of the country containing only a small
proportion of colored population, the production has
greatly increased. This is true of the production per
acre as well as of the total yield. The average product
per acre was 396 pounds for the five Virginia counties
as compared with 879 pounds for four Kentucky counties.

It is therefore apparent that Mr. Russell was in error
when he declared ' that " tobacco cannot be cultivated
in the Free States by hiring and employing laborers, it

^" North America: Its Agriculture and Climate," (Edinburgh,
1857), p. 141.

256 Amcricayi Economic Association.

is only cultivated there by small farmers," and that
" free labor cannot successfully compete with slave
labor in the production of tobacco, for among other
reasons, slave owners can always command the quantity
as well as quality of labour that are required to raise
this crop economically.'" In Virginia, with 38.7 per
cent, colored in the total population, the tobacco crop of
the state has fallen off from 12 1.8 million pounds in 1859
to 48.5 million pounds in 1889. In Kentucky, where
the colored population forms only 14.7 per cent, of the
total, the production has increased from 108. i million
pounds in 1859 to 221.9 million pounds in 1889.-

In view of these facts, it would seem that the opinion
of Mr. Bruce as regards the deterioration of colored
labor in the production of this staple was justified, and
that the falling off in the tobacco production of the
five selected Virginia counties is more the result of a
diminishing economic efficiency in the negro in this
branch of agriculture than of changes in the productive-
ness of the soil, or the substitution of other crops, etc.
I am fairly familiar with the conditions of one county,
and have had opportunity to observe the effects of the
migratory tendency of the race on the changes in the
agricultural condition of a given locality. In Charlotte
county, for instance, where previous to the war a crop of
over five million pounds \vas raised, almost exclusively
by slave labor, many of the farm hands have migrated
to the new cities of Roanoke, Newport News, etc.
Hence the valuable special knowledge, so much insisted
upon by writers on the subject, is largely wasted and
the planter has to face the serious question of either
educating constantly a new number of hands, any one

1 "North America : Its Agriculture and Climate," pp. 140-41.
* Extra census bulletin, No. 13. Washington, D. C, 1S91.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 257

of whom may leave the locality the next year, or of
abandoning- the cultivation of this particular crop. On
the other hand, the farm laborer in the new cities has to
meet new conditions in which his ignorance handicaps
him from the beginning, and while thousands of me-
chanics are imported from the factories and ship yards
of the North, earning excellent wages, he fills only a
menial position and earns only the wages of unskilled
labor.

The economic disadvantage of this tendency to de-
teriorate in efficiency in a branch of agriculture which
is constantly opening up new sections of the country,
is perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the case
of South Carolina, where the almost exclusive produc-
tion of cotton and rice of the ante-war period is
gradually giving way to the production o'f other staples,
of which tobacco is today considered one of the most
promising. A writer in the Columbia State of a recent
date, in dealing with the subject of changes in the agri-
cultural condition of the state, refers to the subject as
follows : " The tobacco business will not be overdone in
South Carolina until the quantity produced is quin-
tupled. For the present it is the best money-making
crop in the state, for here the yield is greater and the
quality is better than in Virginia or North Carolina."
The production has increased from 104,000 pounds in
1859, to 223,000 pounds in 1889 and more than three
million pounds in 1894. Hence a field in which this
special knowledge of the cultivation of a valuable crop
would have been of very great advantage to the colored
race, is gradually being abandoned and left to the white
race.

In South Carolina the negro has at all times been an
indispensable factor in the production of another staple*

258 Aniericayi Economic Association.

rice ; and it may be of value to add the statement of
one who has made this a subject of scientific investiga-
tion. j\Ii-. Milton Whitney, M.S., in a chapter on
" Rice Soils of South Carolina," forming part of a
special report by IVIr. Amory Austin, B.S., to the Depart-
ment of Agriculture, refers to the subject of negro labor
in the rice lands of South Carolina as follows :

There are at present in South Carolina, and doubtless the same
conditions hold good in other rice growing states, thousands of acres
of the finest rice lands, which have been abandoned and are now lying
idle. . . . The principal cause which has brought about the exist-
ing conditions of things and has caused the abandonment of so much
rice land is the lack of capital due to heavy losses sustained by the
planters during the late war. . . . Another fact which has brought
about the present condition of affairs and explains in part why so
much rice laud has been abandoned, is the scarcity of negro labor, by
which practically all the field work has been done. The phosphate
industry along the coast in South Carolina and Florida has drawn
large numbers of these negroes away from the rice fields, attracting
them by higher wages and what they consider a more independent
life. It is difficult to secure enough labor to handle the crops and the
negroes who remain on the plantations are not as steady, as efficient
or as reliable as the older generations were before the war. With the
phosphate works almost in sight of their dwellings, and an abundance
of fish and game, and a mild climate making it easy to live, they are
so irresponsible that it is diflficult to control labor. They are very un-
willing to work in the ditches and canals, and it is almost impossible
to keep the ditches and canals clean and of a proper depth by the
available negro labor . . . '

This despondent view of the present value of negro
labor in the rice fields is met with in most of the refer-
ences to the future of rice culture. It is clearly sup-
ported by the statistics of rice production in South
Carolina and Georgia where the annual production since
the war has been considerably below the nonnal yield
of previous years under the regime of slavery. The

^ " Rice : Its Cultivation and Distribution," (Department of Agri-
culture, 1S93), p. 77 et seq.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Arnerican Negro. 259

summary below will show the production of rice in
three states during the period 1850-89.

South Carolina. Georgia. Louisiana.

Year. Lbs. Lbs. Lbs.

1850 159,930,000 38,950,000 4,425,000

1880 52,077,000 25,369,000 23,188,000

1889 31,689,000 14,057,000 76,221,000

The increase in Louisiana is in part explained on the
ground that large areas of former sugar plantations near
the delta of the Mississippi have been utilized in the
cultivation of rice. The method of cultivation, how-
ever, does not seem to be such as would insure the same
degree of permanency as prevailed in South Carolina
previous to the war. The replacing of sugar culture
by rice culture is at the same time only a quasi-public
benefit. In recent years, so far as I have been able to
ascertain, there has been some improvement in the pro-
duction of rice in South Carolina. The annual product
for 1894 is estimated by the South Carolina Agriculture
College at 70 million pounds. This is still less than
one-half the production of 1850. The annual produc-
tion of the United States was 215 million pounds in
1850 and only 1 1 5. 5 million pounds in 1894. In this
industry therefore, as well as in the tobacco production,
w^e must attribute a decreasing production more to the
growing inefficiency of negro labor than to other
economic causes.

In the testimony of i\Ir. John Schreven before the
ways and means committee of the Fifty-first Congress,
having under consideration the change of the duty on
rice, the statement was made that "since the emancipation
of the slaves the cost of agricultural labor in the South
has been largely increased. In the rice districts of
Georgia and the Carolinas, field labor ranges from 40

2fio Arnericaji Economic Association.

to 60 cents, and the best expert (not mechanical) labor
to one dollar per diem . . , this without the efficiency
to be expected from free labor. The laborers frequently
refuse to undertake tasks, easy under a sterner system
and essential to nice cultivation. A day's labor is com-
monly reduced to six hours instead of ten. The con-
sequences of these conditions are reduced production,
and commonly, minimum crops.'"

In the report of Amory Austin, already referred to,
the statement is made in regard to rice culture in
Georgia, that the decline in the culture of rice is due to
"the dislike of the negro to the work upon the marshes."^

In the production of cotton, in which it is commonly
assumed the negro participates more largely than in
the production of any other southern staple, it would
seem that the tendency is in the same direction, that is,
the work is slowly drifting from the negro into the
hands of the whites, both in the states which contain
the largest proportion of colored population and in
Texas where the whites predominate.

Texas, according to the last census, contained a pro-
portion of 28 colored to every hundred of white popu-
lation. In i860 the proportion was 43 to 100. Hence
we have for this state a larger increase in white population,
the majority of which are of foreign birth or are native
settlers from other states.^ Now, it was one of the dic-
tums of the believers in the value of negro labor in
cotton production that " where the greatest amount of

' Hearings of ways and means committee, Fifty-first Congress, p. 931.

^ " Rice : Its cultivation" etc. Washington, 1S93.

* According to the census of 1890, Texas had a total popula-
tion of 2,235,523, of which 1,745,935 were white. Of the latter 1,408,-
880 were native whites of native parentage, but only 825,280 had been
born in Texas. Hence, only 47.8 per cent, were natives in the re-
stricted sense of the word.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 261

cotton is produced there will be found tlie greatest negro
population, and as the one decreases the other does also,
though not necessarily in the same ratio."^ This is no
longer applicable in the production of cotton as a south-
ern staple. We may compare the two states IMississippi
and Texas to illustrate this point.

COTTON PRODUCTION OF MISSISSIPPI, 1860-1894.

Colored Cotton Average Net Weight

Population. Bales. of Bales.

1S60 437,404 1,202,507 461 Lbs.

1890 747.720 1,154.725 478 "

1894 ... 1,167,881 474 "

COTTON PRODUCTION OF TF;XAS, 1860-1894.

Colored Cotton Average Net Weight

Popiilation. Bales. of Bales.

i860 182,921 431,462 461 Lbs.

J890 303.384 1. 471. 242 478 "

1894 . . 3,073,821 474 "

With le.ss than one-half as large a colored population
as Mississippi, the state of Texas produced in 1894 almost
three times the cotton crop of the former state. With
almost twice the colored population of i860, Mississippi
in 1894 produced less cotton than 34 years ago. Thus it
is seen that it is not merely the presence of a large
colored population to which the cultivation of a large
cotton crop must be attributed. For other states similar
results could be shown, but the instance cited will
suffice.

It is therefore a question to what extent white labor
enters into the production of cotton. In the uplands
the whites have always cultivated their own cotton. In
the alluvial lands along the Mississippi river, of course,
the larger part of the crop is grown by negro labor.

' Report on internal commerce, Washington, D. C, 1886, p. 560.

262 American Ecoyiomic Association.

The only investigation of which I have knowledge in
which it was attempted to ascertain the proportion ,of
the cotton crop raised by colored and white labor re-
spectively, was made in 1876, and is reported by the
Commissioner of Agricultnre. The results of this in-
vestigation were a surprise to many who up to the time
held the belief that the whites participated but slightly
in the production of this, the greatest of southern crops.

PROPORTION OF COTTON CROP GROWN BY WHITE AND COLORED
LABOR. (1876.)

North Carolina
Soutli Carolina
Georgia . . . ,

Florida

Alabama . . . .
Mississippi . . ,
Louisiana . . .
Texas ...
Arkansas ...
Tennessee . .

In 1880 it was estimated that of the total cotton crop,
2,553,000 bales were grown by white labor, against
3,212,000 bales grown by colored labor. In other words
over 40 per cent, of the total crop was the result of
w^hite labor. In ]\Iississippi, according to a report of
the board of immigration and agriculture in 18S0, out
of a total of 955,800 bales, 328,568 bales, or over 34
per cent., was grown by white labor. It is an open
question whether this proportion of cotton production
by whites in the states formerly the main producers of
this staple, has increased during recent years.

The elaborate investigation of the Senate committee
into the condition of cotton growers, failed to deal with
the problem of labor in an adequate manner. Only one

Colored.

White.

Per Cent.

.^5

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 263

decided opinion was given in regard to the present value
of negro labor, in connection with this industry, and on
account of its exceptional value I give the quotation in
full.

Of all causes mentioned as contributing to the financial depression
of the cotton raiser, the want of reliable labor is perhaps the most
important and most difficult to remedy. As stated previously, our
crops are mainly cultivated by negro labor. For several years after
the close of the war, the manumitted slave was, from previous train-
ing and force of habit, a very desirable laborer, but as the generation
of the ex-slave passed away and a new generation sprang up, they be-
came more lazy, thriftless and unreliable, until they will soon attain a
condition of total depravity and utter worthlessness. . . . The
negro laborer, notwithstanding he gets one-half of the crop, and is
subjected to no expense, will, upon an average not work more than
four hours a day, nor more than three days per week. I can only
suggest one remedy for this state of affairs and that I admit is im-
practicable, if not impossible. That is, for the government to deport
and colonize the negro in Liberia or the Sandwich Islands. If such a
thing could be accomplished we might suffer some temporary incon-
venience and pecuniary loss but the place of the negro would soon be
filled by active, honest and industrious whites from the middle,
northern and western states, and Europe. Relieve us of this incubus
and your name shall be blessed, even unto the tenth generation.^

In this statement the same complaint is made, that
" the negro w411 work only a few hours a day, and only
a few days out of the whole week." In the production
of the great staples as well as in agriculture in general,
nothing is more important than continuous application
of labor until the crop is harvested. The uncertainty as
to the permanency of this labor supply has induced
many planters to discontinue cultivation on a large scale.
Of the labor in Louisiana, Mr. Henry G. Foster, U. S.
Treasury expert, of New Orleans, wrote ten years ago
as follows : " The labor in parts of Louisiana is inclined

1 Report of the Senate committee on agriculture. Vol. I, p. 362,
(Washington, D. C, 1895). The quotation is from a letter to the
chairman, Senator George, by Mr. I. A. Wimbish, of Cuerro, DeWitt
County, Texas.

264 Amcricafi Econotnic Association.

to be nomadic ; many of them quit the plantation after
the crop is picked and baled, and work during the
winter months on the steamboats, in the cotton yards or
on the levee of New Orleans. This irregular mode of
life demoralizes them and injures their usefulness. They
rarely return to the same plantation which they quitted,
and they become less reliable as steady laborers." '

This view is again supported by the results of an elab-
orate investigation made into the wages of farm labor
in 1892.- The investigation was conducted by the regu-
lar correspondents of the Department of Agriculture, and
nearly every important county in the South was covered
by the report. From all sources the complaint was made
that the present labor supply was not of a satisfactory
quality, oftentimes insufficient in quantity. A few of
the most emphatic statements are given as follows :

[Mississippi, Perry county]. "Labor abundant but of an exceed-
ingl)- unreliable character. As a rule no crop can be wholly made by
colored labor, we have no other kind." . . . [Alcorn county].
" Farm labor is scarce because of the tendency of the negroes to
move westward to the Mississippi and Yazoo bottoms and to Ar-
kansas."

[Louisiana, Franklin parish]. " Farm laborers very scarce . . .
many, both men and women have drifted into little hamlets and vil-
lages, where they eke out a precarious living." . . . [West Feli-
ciana parish]. " Laborers are gradually leaving the hills and concen-
trating near rivers and town."

[Georgia, Randolph county]. "An increasing scarcity each year,
as the colored people move to towns." . . . [Habersham county]
"We have no difficulty in procuring farm labor, although the negro
is uncertain, he is indifferent about work if he has a little ahead."
. . . [Lincoln count)']. " Farm labor scarce, owmg to the vagrant
disposition of the negro."

[South Carolina, Georgetown county]. "Farm labor scarce be-
cause the young negroes do not like field work and go to cities, and
the women who constitute the strength of the work in the rice fields

^Report on Internal Commerce, 1886, p. 511.

2 " Wages of Farm Labor in the United States, 1866-1892." Wash-
ington, D. C, 1892.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Amcrica7i Negro. 265

are lazy and do not more than six hours work in a whole day, so that
forty cents may be said to be paid for six hours work.

[Virjjinia, York county]. Farm labor plentiful but very unreli-
able [Charles City county]. Farm labor is more and

more uncertain and indifferent. . . . [Accomack county].
" Farm laborers abundant in numbers could they be induced to work.
After earning a few dollars they quit work until it is gone.

In none of the linndred.s of reports have I found any
evidence that colored farm labor is improving in quality,
least of all in quantity. The great majority of the cor-
respondents agree that the negro is drifting from the
farm into the new industries of the South, that the
higher wages paid in railroad building and public works,
coal, copper and sulphur mining, saw-mill and general
timber industries and turpentine works, are attracting
large numbers. To this may be added the demand for
labor in the oyster industries of Maryland and Virginia
and the phosphate mines of Florida and South Carolina.
The women are attracted by such work as picking straw-
berries, peanuts and green peas and the gathering of
sumach.

In view of these facts it is not at all surprising that
the negro should be paid less for his labor than the
white man under the same conditions, but rather that
the difference should be so small as it is. No accurate
separation was made of colored and white farm labor in
the report of the Agricultural Department, but from the
returns made the approximate wages were ^23.75 per
month, (without board), for white labor, and $14.25 for
colored. With board the rates were $16 for white labor
and $9.75 for colored. Since the negro lives in comfort
on much less than the white laborer, the lower wages
inflicts no hardship.

To low wages for farm labor is generally attributed
the tendency of the negroes to drift into the cities or to

266 American Economic Association.

leave the farm for the saw-mill or coal mine. But it is
a question whether the change has been an economic ad-
vantage to the race. In many directions it undoubtedly
has not. In the building of railroads, in public works,
in the development of southern cities, or better, the
" boom " towns, he was drawn into work of only a tem-
porary character. Railroad building in the South dur-
ing'recent years has come almost to a standstill. Since
1887 the number of miles constructed has steadily fallen
off. During the year 1895 only 82 miles of road have
been built in Georgia, 53 in Alabama, 32 in Arkansas,
25 in Kentucky, 43 in Virginia. In the timber indus-
try the work is also less steady than in general agricul-
ture and truck farming, and the negro is generally
employed only for a small part of the year.

In the report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, al-
ready referred to, an attempt was made to ascertain to
what extent the freedmen had secured the ownership of
individual homes. The report states that " so far as re-
ported the proportion of freedmen occupying their own
land is 4 per cent, in Tennessee and Alabama, 5 per
cent, in South Carolina and Texas, between 4 and 5 per
cent, in North Carolina and Georgia, between 5 and 6
per cent, in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas, and 8
per cent, in Florida. The average, if it fairly represents
the unreported cotton area, indicates that nineteen out
of twenty have no homes " ' [of their own]. Since 1876
no attempt has been made by the general government to
ascertain the proportion of the colored population of
the agricultural sections who own and cultivate their
own land.

So far as I know, the only state in which the informa-
tion is collected and published in a form permitting its
^ Report of Commissiouer of Agriculture, 1S76, p. 137.

Race Traits ajid Tendoia'es of the American Negro. 267

use in a work of this kind, is Virginia.' In this state

the appraisements of real estate for 1891 and 1895 give

in detail the proportion of land owned by whites and

colored ; also the value of the land, the value of the build-

j
ings on the land, the value of city lots and the value of

buildings on city lots, x^s will be seen in the following
brief abstract from the valuable reports of the state
auditor, the number of acres and the aggregate value of
lands owned by negroes has increased considerably dur-
ing the five years, while the contrary is true for the
white population.

ASSESSED VAI^UATION OF LAND AND LOTS OWNED BY WHITE AND
COLORED PERSONS IN VIRGINIA IN 1S91 AND 1895.

Yea
1 891
1895

1S9I
1895

Owned by Whites.

Acres of Land.

Assessed
Valuation.

Assessed Value
Per Acre.

25,285,981

$123,882,236

$4.88

25.154,781

113,129.317
Owned by Colored.

450

698,074

2,938,064

4.21

833,147

3,450,247

4.14

It will be observed that the number of acres owned
by negroes has materially increased during recent years.
This increase is in part due to the shrinkage in values,
as a result of which the negro has been enabled to
buy land at low prices. The possession, by negroes
of more than three-fourths of a million acres of land
in one state is an economic fact of much significance.
The question is whether they will make use of their
land to the same extent that the whites do, — a ques-

' Through the kindness of Col. Wm. Wright, the state comptroller
of Georgia, I am enabled to give the following facts in regard to
negro ownership of land in that state which are not published in the
regular annual reports on the finances of the state :

No. of acres of land owned by colored persons, . 1,038,824 acres

Aggregate assessed value of laud, 54, 159,960

Value of horses, mules, sheep and other stock, . 2,288,850

268 American Economic Association.

tion that has not as yet been satisfactorily answered.
From all the available facts it would seem that as a
proprietor the negro produces only enough for his own
wants, thus curtailing the general production.

An editorial in The Progressive South., May i, 1894,
indicates the view held by those who are not in favor
of negro ownership of land :

We cannot see any exalted place for the negro in agriculture. His
methods are of the poorest and his efforts the least intelligent to be
found throughout the South. It is not possible to build up waste
places either through negro ownership of lands or through a tenant
S3Stein which permits negroes to cultivate farms without supervision
or direction of a mind better suited to the work. . . . That the
negro makes a good laborer, is acknowledged by all Southern people,
when his labor is under direction of competent persons. But it is
seldom that sufficient executive ability is found in a negro to permit
him to manage and cultivate even a small farm. When his land is
paid for, his labor becomes impaired in its value to the community in
wliicli he lives, as he will subsist on next to nothing and only work
when necessity compels.

The point insisted upon by those who believe with
the above writer, is the need of an effective sup>ervision.
" In the cultivation, management and harvesting of the
great staples of the south, cotton, sugar, rice and
tobacco," writes Mr, Killebrew, former commissioner of
agriculture of Tennessee, " the colored laborers are emi-
nently successful when directed by intelligent supervi-
sion." Mr, Massey, whose favorable view of the negro
as a laborer has been referred to, speaks of him as " the
most docile and tractable of all laborers and under proper
supervision the most contented and profitable." A cor-
respondent of the New York Evening Post., June 10, 1895,
quotes the superintendent of an Alabama mine as follows :
" There is everything in knowing how to handle negroes.
. . . I have a gang of negroes who are as good men
as I should want to have under me, but put a man in
charge of them who doesn't understand them and they

Race Traits and Te7idencies of the American Negro. 269

would not be worth the powder to blow them up." And
on the same point Mr. Bruce remarks : " An uninter-
rupted superintendence is necessary to their activity. A
gang of men that will labor with the most cheerful and
unremitting industry under the eye of a firm and watch-
ful overseer, without requiring a word from him to urge
them on, will, if he withdraws, begin at once to lag . .
or if they continue to work, the effort will be irregular
and languishing.'"

This supervision is practiced to the fullest extent on
the steamboats of the Mississippi river, where the ut-
most amount of labor is secured from ' roust-abouts ' by
methods falling just short of the actual use of the lash.
But there is no rebellion, no fault found. The work is
done cheerfully and effectively. But without constant
supervision rapid and thorough work, such as is needed
in the handling of freight, would be impossible with
negro hands.

The absence of this supervision, it would seem, seri-
ously impairs the value of the negro as a tenant farmer
or small proprietor. From personal observation I in-
cline to agree with the writer who sees little benefit
accruing to the community from negro ownership of
land. As a rule their " farms " are such in name only,
and the cultivation of the soil and the condition of the
grounds, are of the lowest order. The value of the
negro as an agricultural laborer becomes impaired. The
small produce of his farm, together with the earnings
of his wife and children in the peanut or strawberry
season, enable him to live in comparative comfort, add-
ing little or nothing to the aggregate wealth of the com-
munity. He lives, in a word, the life of the West India
peasant of whom Froude says : " The earth does not

' " The Plantatiou Negro as a Freeman," p. 179.
18

270 American Economic Association.

contain any other peasantry so well off, so well cared
for, so liappy, so sleek and contented." ' Bnt in the
West Indies the work is gradually passing into the hand
of the imported coolies, and in our southern states it is
only a question of years when the labor now passing
from the hands of the negro will fall to the willing
worker from Europe, or the class of southern whites de-
scribed 30 years ago by j\Ir. Cairnes as being below the
slaves in economic efficiency."

The Neg7'0 as an Industrial Factor.

Previous to emancipation, the race had little op-
portunity to become closely associated with industrial
pursuits. There were colored mechanics, slave and free,
on all the plantations, and in the towns a considerable
amount of other than agricultural labor was performed
by them on their own account or for the whites ; but it
was labor in the non-competitive sense, labor which had
little or no relation to the struggle for life and the de-
velopment of the qualities which would make the negroes
more fit for the struggle which was to come. But it
would be a very great error to suppose that they had
not a great many opportunities for the development of
any latent industrial capacities, had they been disposed
to exert themselves as did the white mechanics and
common laborers. The following interesting and almost
unknown summary of occupations followed by the slave
and free colored populations of Charleston, nearly fifty
years ago, will show conclusively that the negro of ante-
bellum days had as many, if not more, opportunities to
become acquainted with the mechanical arts and trades
than at the present day.

' "The Engl.sh iu the West Indies," page 7S.

2 " The Slave Power," (London, 1863), page 358, et seq.

Race Traits ayid Tendencies of the American Negro. 271

REPRESENTATION OF THE SLAVE AND FREE COLORED POPULATIONS
OF CHARLESTON, AMONG DIFFERENT OCCUPATIONS.

(Census of Charleston, South Carolina,

Bricklayers

Carpenters

Painters

Plasterers

Wharf builders . . . .

Barbers

Bootmakers

Dry goods

Shoemakers

Tailors

Bakers

Butchers

Confectioners . . . .

Cooks

Fishermen

Hotel keepers . . . .

Gardeners

Huxters

Cigar-makers . .
Tavern keepers . . .
Market dealers . . . .
Cabinet-makers . . .

Tinners

Upholsterers ...

Sextons

Book-binders . . , .

Printers

Coachmen

Coach-makers ....
Draymen

Mantua makers . . .

Laundresses

Seamstresses

Washerwomen ....

Cooks

Tailors

Fruiters and huxters
Market sellers ....
Hotel keepers ....

Pastry cooks

House keepers ....
Monthly nurses . . .
Nurses

Males. Males.

Slaves. Free. Slaves. Free.

68 10 Saddlers 2 i

no 27 Wheelvyrights i

9 4 Livery stable i

16 . Boatmen 7

10 . Sailors 43 I

4 14 Ship carpenters ... 51 6

4 3 Millwrights 5

. . I Blacksmiths 40 4

2 14 Brass foundry workers i i

39 42 Coopers 61 2

36 I Mechanics 45 2

6 4 Apprentices 43 14

4 2 House servants . . . . 1,888 9

3 16 Laborers 838 19

15 14 Porters 35 5

. . I Stevedores 2 i

3 . Janitors i

4 Millers I

5 I Storekeepers 5

. . I Wood factors 3

. . I Superannuated and

8 . disabled 38 i

I I Total 3,534 264

I 4 Total slave male popu-

3 . lation between 10

5 . and 70 years of age . 3,685
15 4 Total free male popu-

3 . lation between 10

67 II and 70 years of age . 349

P'emales. Females.

4 128 Servants 3,384 28

. . 45 Apprentices 8 7

20 68 Laborers 378 2'

33 . Superannuated and

11 . disabled 54 4

12 I Total 3,913 326

6 4 Total slave female pop-
. . I ulation between 10

1 16 and 70 3^ears of age 4>463,
. . 4 Total free female col-

2 . ored poplation bet.

ID 10 and 70 yrs. of age 685

It is clearly shown in this table that the negro did
not lack opportunity to develop his latent abilities in the
field of mechanical industry ; and also that he must have

272 American Econoviic Association.

been possessed of a considerable degree of ability to have
been thus extensively employed in all the leading in-
dustrial pursuits of one important southern city.

A similar condition existed in other southern cities.
In New Orleans we are informed by Mr. Ingle, the
negroes were employed as car-men, carpenters, laborers,
masons, planters, tailors, merchants and shoemakers.
In Virginia, Mr. Bruce informs us, they were extensively
employed as mechanics on the plantations, principally
as smithies, wheelwrights, masons, and carpenters. It
will be of value to compare the past with the present ;
which unfortunately is extremely difficult, in view of
the paucity of data on the subject of the occupations
followed by the colored population at the present time.
The ninth and tenth censuses contain nothing on the
subject, and up to this writing no information of the
kind has been made public from the returns of the
eleventh census.

The most important private investigations, to my
knowledge, were made by the Chattanooga Tradesman
in 1889 and 1891, covering the following points: Num-
ber of colored men employed, number of skilled and
common laborers, wages paid, degree of efficiency in
comparison with white labor, permanency of employ-
ment in representative industries, gain in efficiency,
benefits of education to the younger generation, and the
effect of education upon the negro's efficiency as a
laborer.^

Replies to inquiries covering the above questions were
received from 196 employers of negro labor, residing in
the South and employing 7,395 colored laborers, 978 of
whom were reported as skilled. The highest wages re-

^See The Tradesman, (Chattanooga, Tenn.) Aug. 15, 1891.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 273

ported as paid for skilled labor was $3 per day, the low-
est $1.10; the average being $1.75. The highest wages
paid unskilled laborers was $1.50 per day, the lowest 60
cents, and the average $1,10. As regards comparative
efficiency of common and skilled labor as compared with
white labor in the same work, 27 employers, with 1,379
colored workers in their service, see no difference ; 35
employers with 1,441 colored workers, prefer white
labor, and 49 employers, with 3,214 colored laborers,
prefer them to white men in the same capacity.

In reply to the question, " Is the negro increasing in
efficiency?" 67 men employing 2,413 colored laborers,
say with emphasis that the efficiency of their workmen
is increasing ; 43 men employing 2,279 colored laborers,
say their men have not improved ; 15 employers, speak-
ing for 1,369 laborers, were in doubt as whether or not
there had been any improvement. In reply to the ques-
tion, " Does it add to his efficiency to educate him ?" 30
employers, speaking for 2,860 laborers, answer that the
education received by the younger negroes has been of
benefit to them and that it adds to their efficiency ; 13
employers, speaking for 392 men, expressed no definite
opinion, while 96 employers, with 3,820 colored laborers
in their service, express the opinion that such education
as the younger members of the colored race have received
has not been of benefit to them, and that, generally
speaking, it detracts from a negro's efficiency to educate
him.

The brief summary given above, shows only imperfectly
the results of the investigation. The significant fact is,
that so many should favor the negro as an industrial
worker in view of the fault that is found with him as an
agricultural laborer. An equally significant fact is that
only 21 per cent, of the employers should consider educa-

274

American Economic Association.

tion an aid to the negro's efficiency as a laborer, while 69
per cent, declare themselves convinced of its failnrc to in-
crease his efficiency. It has been shown in the preceding
part of this work that education has failed to improve
materially the moral condition of the race ; we have here

[^the testimony of those who come in daily contact with
negro laborers to the effect that education has failed to
benefit the race in an economic sense. Surely such em-
phatic opinions must have some substantial foundation.
If education, as it is at present carried on, proved to be
of material value to the negro, the men who make use
of this class of labor would welcome any means which
would increase his efficiency as an industrial worker,

J since such increased efficienc}- would benefit alike em-

( ployer and employee.

^"'i may give in full some of the views of those who find
that education has not improved the efficiency of the
negro. A manufacturer of furniture writes from North
Carolina : " Our observation is that those who arc edu-
cated endeavor to do without work, and the effect is de-
moralizing to those who do labor. A limited education
might not harm those who are settled, but upon the
young we believe the effect is to detract from their use-
fulness as laborers." An emplo}-er of colored labor in
mining and milling ore in South Carolina, writes as
follows : " Education of the young ruins them. No
educated negro will condescend to an^-thing beneath
teaching school and preaching. The educated negro
will not do manual labor if he can get bread and butter
in any other manner." The writers here quoted, and
the great majority of the 69 per cent, who agree that
education has not benefitted the race from an economic
standpoint, unconsciously emphasize the position of
M. Leroy-Beaulieu, that the aim of schools ought to be

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 275

rather directed to the inculcation into the minds of the
pupils, if not of contentment with their lot, at least of
more modest ideas, and of resignation to manual labor.

But on the whole the results of this investigation of The
Tradesman are favorable to the negro as an industrial
worker. It will be observed that the great majority are
unskilled ; only a small number having so far succeeded
in filling the more responsible positions. In the rapid
development of southern industries during the period
1880—92, large numbers of negroes were employed in the
coal, iron and phosphate industry, and an even larger
number found work in the construction of public works
and railways. Work on the latter has practically come
to an end, but in the former he holds to-day an important
position as a common laborer whose place could only be
filled by immigration.

As regards remuneration, it has been shown that the
average wages are $1.10 for common and $1.50 for
skilled labor. According to the investigation of The
Tradesman the wages of colored men are on an average
about 80 per cent, of those paid to white men for the
same class of work ; but this difference should be
charged not to discrimination on account of color, but
to difference in efficiency. The real cause of the
difference in wages is stated by the superintendent
of an Alabama coal mine as follows : " The Englishman
and the German come to us with some ambition to get
ahead. The negro has no such aspiration. If he does
one extra good day's work he feels so elated over it that
he is good for nothing the next day, and probably stays
at home. On such occasions he is always sick or rest-
ing."^ This is the view of one who has ' as good a gang
of negroes as he should want to have,' and one who

'New York Evening Post, June 24, 1895.

276 Amen'cafi Economic Association.

thinks that the negro, properly handled, is of excep-
tional value as a laborer in the mine.

It would be contrary to our common experience if we
failed to meet with considerable opposition on the part
of white laborers in the same capacity. During the
great miners' strike of 1894 many conflicts took place
between the striking miners and negroes who had been
brought from a distance to take the place of the strikers.
Outbreaks of hostilities have been reported at various
times from all parts of the countr>' between whites and
negroes, usually on account of labor difficulties. Near
Dunbar, Pennsylvania, a riot took place between Hun-
garians and negroes, the result of a quarrel of many
months' standing. At Spring Valley, 111., Italians and ne-
groes came to clash with deplorable results. At Black
Rock, Ark., violence was threatened, and White Cap
methods resorted to, to drive negro laborers out of the
town on account of preference given them in the saw-
mills. At Brookside, Ala., white and colored miners
came to clash and four colored men were killed.

But the most serious outbreak of last year took place
during the cotton handlers' strike at New Orleans. It was
a question of colored men being employed at the same
work with white men. After a period of riot, murder,
and incendiarism, the colored men gained their point
and the white cotton screw men agreed to work for any
employer, whether he employed union hands or not,
and to work with negroes. The union agreed to admit
twenty gangs of negroes to membership and bound
itself not to interfere with the working of the negroes.
The defeat of white organized labor in this instance
was a most valuable victory for the negro, since the em-
ployment as cotton screwmen and other levee work is
remunerative and fairly constant. In East Boston,

Race Traits and Tendc7icics of the American Negro. 277

Mass., colored stevedores and freight handlers a few
years ago took the place of strikers on the Cunard ships
and ever since the work has remained in their hands.

It wonld seem therefore that the difhculties arising
out of labor disputes will be overcome gradually, and
that the present discrimination in wages will disappear
as soon as the negro acquires an equal degree of
efficiency and thrift, and also the habit of constant ap-
plication to his work. His efforts to adapt himself to
the modern conditions of southern life, especially in the
mining and transportation industries, would seem so far
to have been to his economic advantage, seriously as it
may have interfered with his physical and moral well
being.

In the development of one great industry he has not
taken part. In the cotton mills of the South no negroes
are employed in any of the skilled work. The question of
employment of negro labor in the mills has been very
frequently discussed, but the opinion prevails generally
that while he would possibly be as good a mill hand as
a white person, it would be impossible to work a mill
with both classes of labor. To use colored labor ex-
clusively has been suggested, but it is asserted by many
experienced mill superintendents that this would be im-
possible. Training schools have been suggested but such
would be costly and the risk of failure would be great.

A valuable investigation into the subject was made
by the Manufacturers^ Record of Baltimore, in 1893,
with the result stated as follows : " At the outset the
student of this question is inclined to condenm the
colored help as incapable of training for cotton mill
purposes, but it will be seen from the views expressed
by several managers of long experience that colored
labor can be trained for almost any work in a cotton

278 American Economic Association.

mill. The substance of the views of the majority is
that in its present condition the colored laborer of the
South is totally unfit for cotton-mill work, but under
favorable conditions and with suitable training this
labor can be utilized to good advantage.'"

Some of the expressions of experienced mill superin-
tendents may be worth giving here in full. Mr. H. H.
Hickman, president of the Graniteville ]\Tauufacturing
Co., of Augusta, Ga., writes as follows :

I do uot believe that cotton factories will be run successfully by
negroes in this generation. Very few of them will ever become skilled
laborers in a cotton mill. I employ a few to do common work, but
none are put to a machine except to feed the pickers ; this requires no
skill. White labor will not work with the negro at the machine.
You cannot mix them in a cotton mill ; if employed they must run
the mill alone. If we concede the fact of capability, unreliability
would be a sufficient cause for not employing them.

j\Ir. William Entwistle, superintendent of the Pee
Dee Manufacturing Co., Rockingham, X. C, writes as
follows :

We have never had a single application from any colored person
for such employment, and under no circumstances would we employ
them in any department where while girls are employed. Apart from
this we do not think that they are adapted to the close confinement or
capable of conforming to the S3'stem and discipline incident to factory
labor. We employ colored men in the yard and in the dye house. As
only a few are so employed we can select from the main' those best
suited for the work. Under such circumstances and in such ca.sesthey
make very good help. A small proportion of them make fair masons,
bricklayers, etc. More of them might, but for their inherent indis-
postion to work more than is necessary to procure a bare subsistence.
. . . Over twenty years of experience and close observation in the
South convinces the writer that industrious rural life is in all respects
best suited to the welfare and happiness of the negro colored race and
the prosperit}- of the country.

These opinions of experienced men are shared by the
great majority of those who are in charge of cotton mills.
The enormous development of this industry in the South

^Manufacturers' Record, (Baltimore, Md. ) Sept. 22, 1S93.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 279

in recent years has natnrally snggested the use of the
negro as a factory worker. But so far it would seem
that, leaving out a very few localities, there is an abun-
dance of white labor, fully competent and reliable.

The number of persons employed in the cotton mills
of the southern states increased from 21,150 in 1880 to
41,642 in 1890. The total wages paid increased from $2,-
750,000 in 1880, to $7,1 17,000 in 1890. In South Carolina
alone the number of spindles has increased from 82,334
in 1S80, to 838,036 in 1895. This enormous develop-
ment will explain the frequent allusions to the possibility
of colored labor in the cotton mills of the South. Not
that the negro has shown any inclination towards
work of this kind, but because the promoters of such in-
dustries in isolated parts of the southern states have felt
doubtful regarding the supply of white labor. The
question may be solved, however, by the erection of a
cotton mill at Aniston, Ala., to be owned and operated
entirely by colored persons. It is intended to employ
about one hundred persons at the start. But even if
successful the possible consequences of such a forced
condition of negro labor give reason for grave considera-
tion. From all that has been shown in regard to his
physical deterioration when in contact with the forces
of competitive life in the large cities and subject to the
conditions of city life, it would seem absolutely certain
that the employment of negroes in the cotton mills
would materially shorten his duration of life.

So far I have taken into consideration only the negro
in the South. If we now consider the industrial capaci-
ties and tendencies of the negro in the North, we must
again draw our conclusions from very limited statistical
facts.

In the North the negro rarely cultivates the ground.

28o American Economic Association.

Few farmers employ negroes and the inclination of the
latter is too strongly in the direction of city life to make
useful workers on the farm. It has been shown in the first
part of this work that in the North the great majority of
negroes live in the cities, where they are crowded into the
most undesirable sections. It would only be in the nature
of things that we should find them occupied in voca-
tions which are in harmony with this condition of life ;
that we should find a tendency to seek employment
along the lines that would permit of the largest degree
of liberty, idleness, and most of all, mobility. The tend-
ency of the negro to shift from one occupation to another,
from one employer to another, is nowhere better illus-
trated than in the summary of the principal occupa-
tions for six fairly representative northern cities.

From the partial returns of the state census of New
York for 1892 it is possible to obtain a fair idea of how
the various occupations are distributed among the colored
population of some of the principal cities. It is much
to be regretted that the information is not available for
New York city and Brooklyn, as no returns have been
made public for these cities. In the following table I
have consolidated the returns of the occupations of
1,314 colored males living in six cities of the state.
Syracuse, Albany, Buffalo, Auburn, Utica and Bingham-
ton contain, according to the census of 1890, 1,628 colored
males over 21 years of age ; hence the number enumerated
by occupations according to the census of 1892 may be ac-
cepted as representing with a fair degree of accuracy the
working population of the colored race in those six cities.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 281

REPRESENTATION OF COLORED MAIZES AMONG DIEFERENT

OCCUPATIONS IN SIX CITIES.i

(New York State Census, 1892.)

Agents

Bakers

Bartenders

Butchers

Bootblacks

Barbers

Blacksmiths

Bell boys and men . . .

Butlers

Cooks and caterers . . .

Carpenters

Clergymen

Cigars and Tobacco . .

Clerks

Coachmen

Conductors

Coopers

Doctors

Dog fanciers

Druggists

Engineers (stationary)
Farmers, (gardeners) .

Glass-workers

Hotel keepers

Hostlers

Iron-workers ....

Janitors

Kalsominers

Laborers

Lawyers

Lamp-lighters ....

358

Laundry workers . .
Liverymen . . . .

Masons

Managers

Merchants

Mattress-makers .
Messengers . . , .
Musicians . . . .

Mechanics

Machinists . . . .
Moulders ...

Printers

Painters

Peddlers

Polishers . . , .
Paper-hangers . . .
Policemen ....
Postmen (carriers)

Porters

Shoe-makers . . .

Stewards

Tailors

Tanners

Teachers . .

Teamsters

Tinsmiths

Upholsterers. . . .

Valets

Waiters

Wood-workers . . .
Not given

Total

337

l,3U

1 Eleventh annual report of the New York state commissioner of labor, 1894.

Leaving " laborers " out of the consideration, we find
that waiters are in the majority. Next come cooks and
caterers, followed by teamsters, coachmen and hostlers.
If we combine the last three we have 149 connected with
the care of horses. The skilled trades and professions
are represented by very few. The majority are employed
at occupations which require no permanent settlement.

282 American Economic Association.

A waiter, a barber, a cook or a hostler can find work
almost anywhere. The occupations selected are exactly
those that we should expect to find on the basis of the
facts previously presented. While useful in their way,
these occupations, followed largely to the exclusion of
others, must affect the home life and general usefulness
of the negro as a factor in society. The large variety of
occupations followed proves that he is not lacking so
much in ability as in inclination, for the trades in which
he is only slightly represented, such as tailoring, masonry
and carpentry.

The argument that labor unions are opposed to his
entering these trades has no force. It only proves the
absence of will power in the individual to become master
of his own fortune. Nor does this objection hold good
in regard to such trades as shoe-making and tailoring,
since the negro could easily find work enough among
his own people to make these occupations remunerative.
In Boston one of the leading tailors of the city is a col-
ored man. Good colored shoe-makers are not at all rare
in the Soutli, nor are carpenters, blacksmiths and saw-
mill hands. In smithcraft, we are informed by Mr.
Bruce, the Virginia negro had a wide and favorable field,
but from this occupation " the average young negro
shrinks with the greatest aversion as it is the most ex-
acting and confining of all mechanical pursuits." ' In
the various manufacturing industries, such as the turn-
ing out of cotton goods, hosiery, men's clothing, shirts,
collars and cuffs, boots and shoes, few if any negroes are
employed. In the city of Newark, New Jersey, there are
some 4,000 negroes, but not one of them is employed in
the thread works of the Clarks, employing some 5,000
hands. I have investigated this matter in various large es-

' " The Plantation Negro as a Freeman " , p. 233.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 2S3

tablisliments in New York and New England, but I have
never found an instance where numbers of negroes were
employed as operatives in factories.

It is true, of course, that his position is exceptional
and one which in itself must produce many obstacles
difficult to be overcome by individuals. But, generally
speaking, there does not seem to be any tendency on the
part of the negro in the large cities of the North in the
direction of indoor occupations and factory work, but
rather the tendency is in the direction of the occupations
which allow him the greatest amount of liberty and re-
quire the least application of continuous labor, and
which almost always will afford him a means of making a
living in an humble way.

^ A comparison might be made between the occupations
followed by the Indians on the New York reservations ;
but the conditions, of course, are not exactly similar.
In a general way, taking the negro as we find him, and
the Indian on the state reservation, the comparison will
result in favor of the latter along the line of greater
economic usefulness and advancement in individual
prosperity. Out of 1,738 Indians employed in various
occupations, 590 were farmers, 712 laborers, 32 car-
penters, 10 mechanics, 185 basket makers, 5 lumbermen,
etc. The Indians on this reservation cultivated during
1889-90, 20,763 acres of land, raised $97,887 worth of
agricultural produce, owned $128,120 worth of livestock,
and $63,159 worth of agricultural implements. The
total value of all the lands owned by them (the popula-
tion being about 5,200) was $1,810,700 in 1890, the
value of personal property $1,309,493. Is there a com-
munity of negroes anywhere in the South that can show
for 5,000 people an aggregate of wealth and an amount
of productive labor surpassing this ? Had it been pos-

284 Amen'rati Economic Association.

sible without curtailing other matter, I should have
been glad to deal with the two races at various places in
this work, but this would have carried me beyond my
original purpose. The comparison, whether it be made
in the field of criminality, morality, industry or thrift,
would result invariably in favor of the Indian of the
New York reservation, for whom but little has been
done, of whom but little has been said, and for whom
few have even a word of kindness or regard.

As regards the difficulties which hinder individual
colored men in obtaining employment in other vocations
than those referred to, and which hinder women in tlie
field of domestic labor, they are probably even greater in
the North than in the South. Not long ago, in a sermon
preached in the Trinity Methodist Episcopal church of
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., a public plea was made for the
employment of young colored people in the stores or
offices of the city. In Leavenworth, Kan., a petition
was circulated among the merchants requesting them to
give employment to colored young men and women.
About a hundred colored families agreed to patronize
only those merchants who would grant their petition.
So far as I can learn, in neither of the two instances was
the plea successful. In not one of the large department
stores of New York city, Newark or Boston, are young
colored women employed as clerks or for any other pur-
pose. On none of the surface railway lines of New York
or New Jersey have I ever met with a colored man as an
employee.

In the professions the difficulties are even greater.
For a colored person to secure a position as a teacher in
one of the public schools of the large cities in the
North is almost impossible. Only very recently a case
occurred in Jersey City where a mulatto woman, a

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 285

graduate of the city high school, who had passed a
satisfactory examination, was most bitterly opposed
when appointed to a temporary position as a teacher in
a pnblic school. About the same time a case occurred in
New York where a }'oung mulatto woman of good
parentage and fully competent was refused an appoint-
ment on account of her color. Even an appeal to the
courts failed to aid her.

In law as well as in medicine, instances of such difficul-
ties are not infrequent. A few years ago a colored physi-
cian brought suit against the Post-Graduate Hospital of
New York city because, according to his statement, ad-
mission was refused him on account of his color. In
another case a young negro lawyer was refused admis-
sion to a law students' association of New York city.

Of course such difficulties must prove a slight check
on the aspirations of the race, yet only to a very small
extent. The number of young colored people who have
been educated at public schools or in private institutions,
and who believe that they possess the ability to cope
with whatever difficulties may come in their way, is very
large and constantly growing. The experience of others
is in this respect no check, and thousands come every
year to the cities, ill-prepared for the struggle for life.
The same result is met with in every direction ; a scant
living is eked out by those who could have lived in
comfort on the farms of their fathers. By force of cir-
cumstances, by weakness of will and by evil associations,
the majority are forced into localities where vice and
crime are the rule and virtue and honesty the exception.
In dark out-of-the-way places, in dingy alleys, or among
brothels as is the case in Chicago, it is no wonder that
criminals and prostitutes are common. Men and women
19

286 Avierican Economic Association.

who might have lived useful aud happy lives ou the farm
or in the small rural towns of the South, are thus reduced
by thousands to the anti-social condition which the col-
ored race sustains in the large cities. Men and women
who might have been useful factors in the material devel-
opment of the nation, advancing the race as well as their
own individual fortunes, become public burdens falling
heavily on those who have to bsar them. With a
marked tendency towards those occupations which
afford the least guarantee of permanency of income and
development of local attachments, the race is drifting
towards a condition which before many years will be
worse than slavery. While here aud there some able
men of the colored race have sounded the word of
warning and have preached the gospel of hard work
and self-help, the great majority of those who have
undertaken to direct the fortunes of the negro race have,
through a false education, diverted the tendencies of
the race in a direction which must lead to disaster.

Such men as Professor Hugh M. Browne of Washing-
ton, have fully grasped the danger. As coming from a
colored man, the following observations are deserving
of wide circulation :

White men have risen to wealth and fame through the very classes
of labor which we foolishly despise as menial, aud they are bringing
science and art into these to-day and elevating them beyond our
reach. ... In my boyhood days, the household servants of the
wealthy in this section of the country were colored, but now one finds
the trained white servants, versed in ' household science' and 'domes-
tic art.' Then the ribbons of the private equipage were held by
colored hackmen, but now they are handled by the trained white
man, versed in veterinary science and the social etiquette of his posi-
tion. The walls and ceilings of their mansions received in the spring
their pure white dress from the white-wash brush of the colored man,
but naw they are decorated, frescoed, etc., by the skilled white artisan. '

^Washington Evening Star, Dec, 1893.

Race Traits aiid Tendencies of the American Negro. 287

And in another able paper in The Tradesmaji of Feb.

15, 1894, he writes :

Happy will be the day for us if we shall become the preferred
labor in all classes of unskilled labor. . . . I have always believed that
as fast as we receive as common laborers the plaudit " well done " just
so fast will we receive invitations from employers of skilled labor to
come up higher. . . . The spirit of fair play is too firmly rooted in
the white race to permit them to check the worthy and competent
efforts of another race to rise, or to withold from that race the legiti-
mate rewards of these efforts.

Unfortunately, for the negro, the course of the race
is influenced by those who have filled his mind with
false ideals, who commencing with ' forty acres and a
mule,' have ended with the prospect of an education in
colleges or industrial schools, not one of which can take
the place, not one of which ever has taken the place^ of
the hard but more useful school of everyday life and
work. By the substitution of artificial conditions, by
misdirected education and an extravagance of charity,
the race has within thirty years been reduced to almost
the level to which the English poor sank through' the
workings of the old poor law in the thirties.

Acciumilation and Taxaiio?i.

Statements as to the aggregate accumulation of prop-
erty by the colored population since the war are freq^uent.
Estimates vary from |ioo,ooo,ooo to 1300,000,000 of tax-
able values. In an address delivered by Bishop Peniiick
of the Protestant Episcopal church, the amount is
given as $200,000,000. In another address by a colored
minister on "The Progress of the Colored Race," de-
livered in Baltimore a few years since, the amount was
estimated at $225,000,000.

In view of the fact that these statements are so very
frequently made, and usually coupled with the assurance

288 American Economic Association.

" that during thirty years no other race ever made such
progress in wealth, culture and all the other achievements
of civilized life," it may be of value to give a few facts
as they have been compiled from official data, showing
the amount of taxable property owned by colored per-
sons, the amount of taxes paid by them and the public
expenses incurred in behalf of the race.

In the first place, there is absolutely no basis for a
statement of the aggregate wealth of the colored people
of this country, since no data are in existence from wliich
even a safe estimate could be calculated. In only three of
the southern states is the information as regards property
owned by negroes collected and published, and only for
these three states, Virginia, Georgia and North Carolina,
is the information obtainable. But even for these states,
only the taxable property is listed, and no estimate can
be arrived at, with any degree of accuracy, as to the
amount of untaxed property owned by the colored popu-
lation of these states.

Before I deal with the data which have been made
public by the state auditors of the three states mentioned,
I wish to notice briefly one indication of economic pro-
gress among the colored population, to which, probably
on account of its unfortunate termination, reference is
rarely made in the literature of the day on the progress
of the race.

In March, 1865, Congress incorporated the " Freed-
man's Savings and Trust Company," and in June,
1874, the bank was closed. After an existence of less
than ten years the bank failed, with an excess of liabilities
over assets of one and a quarter million dollars. The bank
was organized for the purpose of meeting the economic
and commercial wants of the freed people, for the safe
keeping of the pay and bounty money of the colored

Race Traits and Tendencies of the Amei-ican Negro. 289

soldier, and other charitable purposes. Among its fifty
incorporators were such men as Peter Cooper, William
Cullen Bryant, A. A. Low and many other philanthropic
and patriotic citizens. From its modest beginnings the
institution grew into an institution of respectable pro-
portions and large influence, extending all over the
South by means of branch offices, reaching during the
period of its active operations more than seventy thous-
and depositors, and handling more than fifty-five million
dollars of deposits.

The bank failed on account of the inefficiency and
dishonesty of the management. An amendment to the
charter had been obtained from Congress in 1870, which
embodied a radical and, as subsequent experience proved,
hurtful change in the character of the securities in which
the trustees were empowered to invest the deposits of the
institution. The change opened the way for speculative
loans, offered opportunities for easy infidelity to official
trust, and invited a class of borrowers hurtful and
dangerous to any fiscal institution.

It was brought out in the official investigation by a
special committe of the Senate,^ that the funds of the
bank had been used for private purposes, that loans had
been made which on their face bore the evidence of be-
ing insecure and made in the interest of the borrower
instead of the lender. When the crash came at least one
and a quarter million dollars were lost to the ignorant and
innocent depositors, many of whom had their all de-
posited in the bank, the security of which they thought
was guaranteed by the government." How far the bank's

' Report of the select committee of the Senate, Forty-sixth Con-
gress, 2nd session, 1880.

'Through the kindness of the Comptroller of the Currency in
charge of the liquidation of the affairs of the failed bank, I am able
to give the following additional facts. At the time of the company's

290 American Economic Association.

influence extended, how largely the colored people availed
themselves of the opportunity for investing small savings
and had faith in the security it ofiFered for their hoarded
sums, is seen in the following table, showing the aggre-
gate amount deposited each year as well as the annual
gain.

BUSINESS OF THE FREEDMEN'S SAVINGS BANK, 1S66-1S72.1

Total Amount

Deposit Each

Balance Due

Gain Each

Years.

of Deposits.

Year.

Depositors.

Year.

1866 . . .

% 305.167

1 199.283

5 199.283

1S67 . . .

1.624,853

i,3'9.686

366,338

167.054

186S . . .

3.582,378

1.957,525

638,299

271,960

1869 . . .

7.257,798

3.675.420

1,073.465

435.166

1870 . . .

12,605,782

5.347.983

1,657,006

583.541

1S71 . . .

19.952,947

7,347.165

2,455.836

798.829

1872 . . .

31,260,499

11,281,313

3.684.739

1,227.927

1873 . . .

4,200,000

1874^. . .

55,000,000

3.013.670

•Senate Report, No. 440, 46th Congress, 2nd session, p. 41, Appendi.v.
2 Bank failed in 1874.

The table is complete to the year 1872. The balance
due depositors in 1873 was $4,200,000, representing the
accumulated savings of less than eight years. The total
amount that had been deposited to the end of 1872 was
over $31,000,000 ; by the end of 1874, when the failure
came, over $55,000,000 had been on deposit in the bank
at one time or another. While, therefore, the remnant was
not so very large, the sphere of influence of the bank as
an educator in thrift must have been very great.

The faith of the depositors in the bank was implicit,
and the reports issued by the bank gave not the slightest
hint of possible danger. In 1872 when the bank was
practically insolvent, the seventh annual report closed

failure in 1874, it consisted of 33 branches with 61,131 depositors, and
the balance due these depositors at the time was 13,013.699 . . . .
The total payments to March, 1896, were $1,722,548, leaving a bal-
ance unpaid of $1,291,121. The present cash balance in the hands of
the government receivers amounts to $30,476.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 291

with the following remarks : " There are no stock-
holders in this company, and all of the profits, over and
above expenses, go at each interest day to the credit of
the depositors' interest. . . . The past history of the
bank is a matter of just pride to all. . . . trustees and
depositors alike. . . and its future is full of promise.
Before the next annual meeting we shall be able to re-
port five million dollars due depositors." Less than
two years after this was written the bank failed and
with its failure went the confidence of a large body of
colored people in institutions for savings.

Not that the amount lost was so very great : to the
average depositor the loss was probably small ; but it
was the wrecked hopes, the loss of faith in thrift and
accumulation as a means towards improvement of their
humble condition, that injured the race to such an ex-
tent that its effects will be felt through several genera-
tions.

For the crimes thus committed against a helpless
people, no one seems ever to have been punished. An
investigation was made into the conduct of the officials,
but the president and the actuary of the bank had in
the meantime died, and the other persons sharing the
responsibility, so far as they came before the Senate
committee to be questioned, pleaded forgetfulness or
ignorance of the violated law, or good intentions and
philanthropic motives, and, all other excuses failing,
placed the responsibility for all questionable acts upon
their dead associates.'

Previous to emancipation, the slaves and freed people
of color owned but a small amount of property. The
ownership of land to any extent by slaves was out of

' Report of the select committee of the United States Seuate,
1880) p. vi.

292 American Economic Associaiion.

the question and no institutions for savings existed to
encourage thrift in this direction. Many, however, ac-
cumlated a sum sufficiently large to purchase their own
freedom ; and since the value of a slave was considerable
during the last twenty or thirty years of slavery, their
capacity for self-denial for a future end was of considera-
ble economic importance. Of course the underlying
motive in this habit of thrift was the desire for bodily
freedom, in contrast with the underlying motive of
modern thrift, economic freedom.

We have no information for years previous to 1879 ^^"^
regard to the accumulation of property by the colored
population of any southern state. But since 1879 the
information is available for Georgia, although the data
refer only to taxable values and not to propert}' in
general. In none of the last three census enumerations,
dealing with wealth, debt and taxation, has an effort
been made to obtain information on this most important
point. Hence the statistics for Georgia, as a representa-
tive southern state, extending over a period of nearly
twenty years, are of more than ordinary interest and
value. For the purpose of comparison the amount of
property owned by white persons is also given in the
table below, which covers the period 1 879-1 895.

Race Traits a7id Teiideticies of the American Negro. 293

ASSESSED VALUATION OF PROPERTY OWNED BY WHITE AND COL-
ORED PERSONS IN GEORGIA, 1879-1895.1

Whites. Colored.

1879 $219,911,021 % 5,182,398

iSSo 233,i69,8:,3 5.764,293

1881 • • 247,773,679 6,478,951

1882 261,930,100 6,589,876

1883 277,300,555 7.582,395

1SS4 286,863,845 8,021,525

1SS5 290,993,408 8,153,390

1SS6 297,852,280 8,655,298

1S87 316,605,329 8,939,479

1S88 318,232,060 9,631,271

1S89 335,523.507 10,415.330

1890 365,044,781 12,322,003

1891 388,389,733 14,196,735

1S92 406,189,434 14,869,575

1893 410,644,753 14,960,075

18^ 388,428,748 14,387,730

1895 370,739,521 12,941,230

1 Reports of the Comptroller Geueral of Georgia.

It will be observed that in 1879 the aggregate amount
of taxable property owned by colored persons was
slightly ill excess of five million dollars. We may
properly consider this amount as representing the ac-
cumulations during tlie period 1865-79, °^ during a
period of about fifteen years. In 1894 the aggregate
amount was in excess of 14 million dollars, or about ten
million dollars above the amount for 1879. Hence if
the period 1865-79 ^^ represented as the first period of
freedom, and the last fifteen years the second period,
we have an indication that the rate of increase in wealth
during the last period was twice that of the first. Of
course in this calculation no account is taken of the in-
crease in population.

To represent more clearly the rate of increase in
\tealth and at the same time the contrast with the
wealth of the w-hite population, I give in the table below

294 Americaji Eco7iomic Association.

the per capita wealth for the two census years 1880 and
1890.

ASSESSED VALUATION OK PROPERTY AND PER CAPITA VALUATION
IN 18S0 AND 1S90.

White Population.
Population. Value of Property. Per Capita,

1880 816,906 $233,170,000 I285.40

1890 973-462 365,044,781 374-90

Colored PopuUition.

1880 725,133 5.764.293 7-95

1890 863,716 12,322,003 14.26

According to this table the per capita value of assessed
wealth has increased from $285.40 to $374.90 for the
white population, and from $7.95 to $14.26 for the col-
ored, during the ten years, 1880-90. For every dollar
owned by the colored people, the whites own and pay
taxes on about $27 ; and of the aggregate wealth owned
by both races, the colored in 1879 owned 2.3 per cent.,
and in 1892, 3.5 per cent. The percentage of colored in
total population was 47.02 in 1880, and 47.01 in 1890.
The disparity between the ratios of wealth and popula-
tion is seen to be still very great, and it is also shown
that even an addition of $10,000,000 in wealth during
the period 1879-92 has affected but slightly the percent-
age of wealth owned by negroes. To this must be added
the fact that during the period 1891-94 only slight
additions have been made to the aggregate value of
property owned by the colored population. The
disparity between the wealth of the whites and that
of the colored is still very great. While progress has
been made, and some property has been accumulated,
the colored race holds but a very small share of the
aggregate public wealth in Georgia ; and we shall find
the same condition prevailing in the two other states
for which the facts are available.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 295

For the state of Virginia the data as to property owned
by colored persons has been made public since 1891 in
such detail that a more complete view of the economic
condition of the race is possible for this state than for
any other. In the table below I have brought together
the returns of the state auditor for five years, showing
for both races the aggregate amounts of taxable values
on both real and personal property.

ASSESSED VALUATION OF PROPERTY IN VIRGINIA, 1891-1895.1

Owued by White Persons.

Real Estate. Personal Property. Total.

1891 1286,192.615 1^93,5 6,029 1379,708,644

1892 291,292,281 92,525,131 383,817,41;!

1893 296,371,055 90,373.044 386,744,099

1894 .... 300,038,625 S3.349.044 383.387,669

1895' 291,308.592 79,955.026 361.263,618

Owned by Colored Persons.

1891 8,995,514 3,094,451 12,089,965

1892 9,425,085 3,342,950 12,768,035

1893 9.829.583 3.465.370 13.294.953

1894 10,162,889 3,241,144 13,404,033

1895' • . ■ • • 10.759.548 3.^74.450 13.933.998

1 Reports of the auditor for public accounts, 1891-1895.
- Re-assessment.

The table shows that the whites in 1895 owned 361.2
million dollars worth of real and personal property listed
for purposes of taxation, while the aggregate wealth of
the negroes is given at 13.9 millions. Of the total wealth
of both races the negroes, therefore, in 1891 owned 2)-'^ per
cent., or 0.4 per cent, less than the proportion for Georgia.
The per capita wealth in 1891, according to the fore-
going figures, was approximately $374.20 for the whites,
and $18.90 for the colored population. While the whites
of Virginia and Georgia have about the same amount of
taxable values per capita, the colored population of
Virginia shows $4.60 per capita more than the colored
population of Georgia.

296 A??icrica?i Economic Association.

The distribution of the accumulated wealth of the two
races in Virginia, according to various kinds of real
property, is given in the table below, which shows the
amounts assessed against lands, houses on lands, lots and
houses on lots, together with the number of acres of land
owned and the proportion of each class of property to the
aggregate amount of real property. A comparison is
also made for the two years, 1891 and 1895 ; but the
period is rather too short to afford a clue as to the
tendency of the colored population in the accumula-
tion of real property.

COMPARATIVE VALUATION OF REAL PROPERTY OWNED BY WHITE
AND COLORED PERSONS IN VIRGINIA, 1891 AND 1895.

Owned by White Persons.

No. acres of laud .

1S91.
25,285.981

Percent-
age of
Total.

1S95.
25.154,781

Percent-
age of
Total.

Value of laud . .

$123,497,236

43.28

$113,129,317

38.S3

Value of bldgs. on

land,

39.362,942

13-75

40.408,200

i.3-«7

Value of town lots

52.:,9o,S94

18.3S

63.074,643

21.65

Value of bldgs. on

lots,

7o,356,.543

2459

74,696.432

25-65

Total value ....

286,192,615

700 00

2QI.308,5Q2

100.00

Owned by Colored Persons.

No. acres of laud .

698,074

833.147

Value of laud . .

2,938,064

32.66

3,450,247

32.06

Value of bldgs. on

land,

1,39.3.766

1549

1.909. 154

17-74

Value of town lots

1,954.394

21.73

2,142,196

19.92

Value of houses on

lots .

2,709.290

30.12

3-257.951

30.28

Total value ....

8,995,514

100.00

10,759.548

100.00

It is shown in this table that in 1891 the whites
owned 25,285,981 acres of land, decreasing their hold-
ings to 25,154,781 acres in 1895. The colored popula-
tion owned 698,074 acres in 1891 and increased their
holdings to 833,147 acres in 1895. In 1891 the wdiites
owned 97.3 per cent, of the aggregate acreage as against
96.8 per cent, in 1895.

The increase in the ownership of land held by

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 297

negroes in this state has previously been referred to. It
is here shown that during the depressed condition of ag-
riculture the colored population has been gaining by
what the whites have lost. That is, the increase in the
holdings of the colored population has been due not so
much to an increase in the aggregate acreage by a
utilization of former waste lands, as to purchase
for cash or on time, of the land formerly under culture
by the white. Of the aggregate taxable values of real
estate, the whites ov/ned 57 per cent, in agricultural
values (lands and houses) in 1891, and only 52.7 per
cent, in 1S95, showing a decrease of 4.3 per cent.
or an increase by that much of the values of city real
estate. The colored people's taxable accumulations con-
sisted of 48.2 per cent, in agricultural values in 1891, and
49.8 per cent, in 1895, showing an increase of rural over
urban valuation of nearly two per cent. Hence during
the past five years the tendency among the colored
population has been in the direction of acquiring agri-
cultural property rather than lots and houses in town,
whereas among the whites the tendency has been the
other way. It remains to be seen whether this condi-
tion will be persisted in under more favorable conditions
as regards the returns from labor upon the land in this
state. In view of the considerable migration of negroes
from the country to the cities, it is remarkable that
those who remained in the country should have been
able to acquire and to keep as much property as the re-
turns show they actually hold.

In North Carolina the assessment of 1891 gave the
value of real and personal property owned by each race
in that state. According to the reports of the state
auditor, the whites owned $234,109,000 worth of taxa-
ble property, while the negroes owned a little in excess

298 American Economic Association.

of $8,000,000. Or, of the aggregate taxable wealth,
the negroes owned about t,.;^ per cent. The per capita
wealth of the whites was $223.10 and of the negroes
$14.10. The returns for this state as well as those for
Georgia and Virginia have been consolidated in the
table below for the purpose of easy comparison. The
general agreement of the figures supports the claim that
the ofRcial data are approximately correct in their rep-
resentation of the taxable wealth of the negro in these
three states.

COMPARATIVE VALUATION OF TAXABLE PROPERTY OWNED BY
WHITE AND COLORED PERSONS IN NORTH CAROLINA, iSoi.

Whites.

Colored.

Percentage of
Total Property
Owned by Col-
ored Persons.

Per Capita
Value of Prop-
erty Owned.
Whites. Cord.

N. Carolina, 1S91

$234,109,568

$ 8,018,446

3-3

5223.1 5 '4- I

Virginia, i.Sqo .

379,708,644

12,089,965

3-1

374 2 18.9

Georj^ia, 1890 .

365,044,781

12,322,003

3-5

374-9 143

Three states

978,862,993

32,430.414

3-2

322.3 15-7

In the three states the whites own 978 million dollars
worth of taxable property as compared with 32 million
dollars worth owned by the negroes. The per capita
wealth is $322 for the whites and about $16 for the
negroes. Of the aggregate the colored population owns
3.2 per cent.

It is shown in this summary that there are only slight
differences between the three states as regards the pro-
portion of wealth owned by the colored population.
The per capita is largest in Virginia and lowest in
North Carolina. The largest per capita wealth of the
whites is in Georgia, and the lowest in North Carolina.
The total white population of the three states is
S^'^Sy^SSS^ the colored 2,071,755. Hence with 40.5 per
cent of the population the negroes own only $3.20 out

Race Traits and Tende7icies of the American Negro. 299

of every hundred dollars of taxable wealth in these
three states. The claim of an aggregate valuation of
one hundred million dollars is probably based on this
average, since a per capita of $15.70 applied to the ag-
gregate colored population of the southern states would
give about no million dollars. But it is extremely
doubtful whether this average would hold good for all
the southern states. For such states as Mississippi,
Louisiana and South Carolina, the average per capita
wealth is probably much less than for Georgia and Vir-
ginia,

But valuable as these figures are in indicating how far
there may be a tendency to a higher economic stage,
the data are insufficient, and fall far short of presenting
a true picture of the economic progress of the race.
The aggregate amount of taxable values is only one
measure of economic progress. The amount of taxes act-
ually paid, not merely on the property assessed, but also
from other sources is even more significant. And in addi-
tion to this we should know, for a full and comprehen-
sive view of the negro as an economic factor in the de-
velopment of the South, the proportion that he bears of
the public burdens.

It is only for the state of Virginia that these import-
ant questions can be answered with any degree of ex-
actness. For North Carolina my information is limited
to the amount of taxes paid for school purposes only.
In Virginia taxes are paid on real estate and personal
property, on incomes over $600 per annum, and a capita-
tion tax on males over 21 years of age. The aggregate
amounts received from these sources are given in the
table below, which covers the five years 1891-95.

300 Af?iericaii Economic Association.

AMOUNT OF TAX ON REAL ESTATE, PERSONAL PROPERTY AND
INCOMES ASSESSED IN VIRGINIA, 1891.

Assessed Taxes.
White Population. Colored Population.

iSgt I'. 796,576 $163,175

1892 .... . . 1,816,134 171,144

1893 1,824,153 ^72,391

1894 1,807.698 172,124

1895 1,808,234 174,808

The above table show.s the assessed taxes only. It will
be observed thatwdiile the whites in 1895 were assessed for
$1,808,234 of taxes, the colored population were asses.sed
for only $174,808. It is not possible to give the exact
amount of taxes actually paid, but I have been favored
with an explanatory letter from Mr. INIorton ]\Iarye, the
auditor of public accounts of Virginia, wdiicli enables
me to present the following facts bearing on this point.

Of the total taxes, those assessed on real and personal
property as well as on incomes are practically all col-
lected, but of the capitation taxes a large proportion is
not collected. In 1895, the whites failed to pay $55,233
of the capitation tax, or 23.6 per cent, of the total capi-
tations assessed against them, while the negroes failed
to pay $57,925 or 48.3 per cent. If we compare the
unpaid taxes wath the aggregate of taxes assessed for
all purposes we have the following result.

APPROXIMATE AMOUNT OF TAXES PAID BY EACH RACE IN VIR-
GINIA, 1895.

Total Assessed Unpaid Capita- Taxes Percentage of

Taxes. tion Taxes. Paid. Taxes Paid.

Whites. . 11,808,234 I55.233 $1,753,001 964

Colored. . 174,818 57,925 116,893 66.8

Of the aggregate amount of taxes paid, only 6.2 per
cent, w^as paid by the negroes, although they form 38
per cent, of the total population. On the basis of the

Race Traits and Tcndcyicics of the American Negro. 301

census of 1890 the per capita taxes paid by the whites
amounted to $1.75, as against a per capita tax of only
18 cents paid by the colored population of the state.
The economic consequences of this anomaly can hardly
be overestimated.

It has been stated that the unpaid taxes fall largely
on the assessed capitations, and it may be of value to
know the proportion of capitations to the whole amount
of assessed taxes. The following table will show for
the year 1895, the proportion of each class of assessed
taxes to the aggregate amount assessed. The table
affords other valuable information, especially with
respect to taxes on incomes, which it will be observed
amounted to only $16 for the colored population in 1895.^

DISTRIBUTION OF THE ASSESSED TAXES IN VIRGINIA, 1895.

White Percentage Colored Percentage

Kind of taxes. Population. of Total. Population. of Total.

Real estate $1,210,688 66.95 % 41,823 23.92

Capitation 234,268 12.95 120,152 68.73

Personal Property . . 320,269 17.72 12,827 7-34

Income 43,009 2.38 16 i

Total $1,808,234 100.00 $174,818 100.00

It is shown in the above table that of the total

taxes for the white population, 12.95 P^^ ^^^t- ^^^

assessed on capitations, and for the colored 68.73 P^^

cent. That is to say, the kind of tax most easily

evaded comprises almost two-thirds of the total assessed

taxes of the colored population, and as a result we

find that the amount of public revenue is materially

reduced by the non-payment of the capitation tax. For

the whites only about one-fifth of the total is assessed

^ Besides the taxes enumerated in this table, the state assessed taxes
upon railroads, insurance companies, banks, and license taxes, to the
aggregate amount of $1,136,603, all of which is collected, and of which
the colored people practically pay nothing.

302 American Ecoyiomic Association.

on capitations, and the non-payment of the amount
given affects the aggregate returns to a much smaller
degree. Thus the proportion of tlie public burden
borne by the colored race comes down in final analysis
to a per capita tax of only iS cents.

It will be noticed that of the income taxes, the whites
paid $43,009 ; while the colored population paid only $16,
this amount coming from Richmond, and Charlotteville,
and Chesterfield county. The tax on incomes is one dol-
lar for every hundred in excess of six hundred dollars ;
hence in only two cities and one county were there found
negroes who paid tax on incomes in 1895 exceeding $600.
Of course there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, whose
incomes exceed this amount, and the fact that the tax
is not paid shows that the class of the colored popula-
tion of which we hear so much in the newspapers and ser-
mons, the class who it is claimed have made such excep-
tional individual progress, accumulating wealth any-
where from five to one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars, are wanting in that sense of public morality
which demands that a man shall pay the taxes which his
income, property or political privileges impose upon him.

Income taxes have always been disliked and no
doubt there are thousands of the whites wdio do not pa}-
them. But it must be taken into consideration that the
whites pay a larger proportion of taxes on real and
personal property, and further that of the capitation tax
only 23 whites per 100 fail to pay, as against 48 negroes.
The amount of the income tax has declined in recent
years, and the decline for the colored race has reduced
the amount to practically nothing. Only about a
year ago a correspondent of the New York Sun in an
article on the negro section of Richmond, gave a list of
12 colored persons whose aggregate wealth, it was

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 303

stated exceeded a quarter of a inillion dollars. There
was one woman who was said to own $150,000
worth of property, and five cases were given where men
owned more than $10,000 worth; 3'et only $1.75 was
paid in taxes on the incomes of the entire colored popu-
lation of this city. This evasion of the payment of
taxes is very general among negroes throughout the
South, excepting for real property, on which the negro
is usually prompt to pay.

In North Carolina the data available do not afford a
clear insight into facts. The table below will show for
the state the amount of taxes for school purposes levied
during five years, but the reports do not show the amount
actually paid.

TAXEIS FOR SCHOOr, PURPOSES ASSEJSSED IN NORTH CAROLINA IN
1891-1895.

White Population.

General Property Tax. Poll Taxes.

Total.

IS9I . . .

$283,953

$299-994

$583,947

1892 . . .

364,012

237,461

601,473

1893 . . .

354,221

240,912

595,133

1894. . .

378,248

243,992

622,240

1895 . . .

363,158

250,458
Colored Population.

613,616

I89I . . .

8,735

90,420

99,155

1892 . . .

12,373

93,589

105,962

1893. . .

12,274

92,870

105,145

1894. . .

13,071

92,139

105,210

1895 . . .

12,861

94,436

107,297

The total amount of school taxes levied in 1895 was
$765,510, 80.17 P^^ cent, of which was assessed to the
whites, and 14.01 per cent, to the colored, the remaining
5.82 per cent, being derived from other sources. In the
same state the school population in 1890 was 64.9 per cent,
white and 35.1 per cent, colored. Hence with 35.1 per
cent, of the school population, the colored people were

304 Amcricati Econojuic Association.

charged with only 14. i per cent, of the taxes. It would
be interesting to know what proportion of these taxes
were actually paid. Since the larger proportion of the
taxes levied against the negroes were poll taxes, it is
doubtful if more than half of them were collected.

The economic consequences of this disproportion of
taxes to population, and the great differences between
benefits received and services rendered, are nowhere
better illustrated than in the case of Virginia.

In his work on " The Old South," Mr. Thomas Nelson
Page has called attention to the fact that during twenty
years (1870-90) the total cost of negro education alone
was equal to nearly six million dollars, while for the
whites during the same period 17.5 millions were ex-
pended for this purpose. These expenditures Mr. Page
compares with the taxes assessed in 1891, and shows that
while 25 per cent, of the public funds for school pur-
poses were devoted to negro education, the negroes were
charged with only 8.3 per cent, taxes. ]\Ir. Page, more-
over, gave the assessed taxes and not the actual amount
of taxes paid, which for the colored would approximate,
on the basis of the figures for 1895, only 6.2 per cent.

Mr. Morton Marye, the auditor of Virginia, a few
5^ears ago was asked by a representative of the American
Association of Educators of the Colored Youth, " What
is the negro doing towards his own education ?", and
replied with the following statistics :

By the tables which have been prepared from the official records it
appears that the colored people of the state pay into the treasur}' the
sum of 1103,565, and that the state pays out in their behalf:

For criminal expenses $204, 018

For education 324,864

For care of lunatics 80,000

Total expenditure 608,383

These figures show that so far from contributing their own support
the colored people cost the state in criminal expenses ^100,453 more

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 305

than the entire snm they pay into the treasury. These figures also show
that not only do the colored people fail to pay one cent towards the reg-
ular expenses of the state government (other than that of criminal
trials) such as salaries of the governor, judges of the court of appeals, of
circuit, corporation and county courts and of other state officers, cost
of the general assembly, public printing, interest on the public debt,
etc., but they cost the state for criminal expenses, education and care
of their lunatics, 1504,817 more than they pay into her treasury.

It is difficult to arrive at definite conclusions on the
basis of the foregoing information. In one sense the
statistics show a certain degree of economic progress :
some lands have been acquired, some personal property
has been accumulated, and some taxes are paid ; but after
all the general condition of the race from an economic
standpoint is far from what it ought to be to make the
negro a positive and determining factor in the economic
life of the nation.

That he should try to evade the payment of his taxes
is what might be expected. In this respect the white
race has always set an example of which there is nothing
to be proud. It was the conclusion of Professor
Ely, that " a study of taxation is calculated to
give one a rather pessimistic view of American
laws, American institutions, and American character."
And the fact that the negro should prove himself an un-
scrupulous tax-dodger is only another proof of his
tendency to acquire the vices rather than the virtues of
the white man's civilization.

The tendency would seem to be in the direction
of the purchase of land and property in the agricultural
sections ; although a considerable portion of the assessed
wealth owned by negroes is in city property. Whether
their ownership of land will prove a benefit to the state is
very doubtful. From such data as have been at my
command, it would appear that the negro on the land is

3o6 American Economic Association.

contented with making a living and no more. This con-
clusion is supported by personal observations in various
portions of the South. Hence it follows that, while the
settlement of the negro on land which is his own may
insure a happier and less burdensome existence, it is
very doubtful whether such a condition would not, in
the end, prove more of a hindrance than a help to the
economic progress of the South.

In the large cities the vast majority of negroes lead a
precarious existence, accumulating little property and
making but scant provision for old age, disease, and death.
The evil influence of the failure of the Freedmen's Bank
will be felt for generations to come in an indirect way.
Some attempts have been made to induce the negro
to save, but in most cases they reach only a small
class of individuals. Northern societies for the ameliora-
tion of the condition of the colored population have made
some efforts to induce the negroes of the large cities to
save small amounts by means of cards and stamps, but
such instances as have come to my notice seem to
prove that very little has been accomplished. I have no
data, however, in regard to the amounts saved, and the
sums thus laid aside may be larger than would appear.

And in the accumulation of the property which the
negroes actually own, there is one fact which must not
be ignored, that is, the effect of the ' unearned increment',
which, proportionately speaking, has probably benefitted
the race more that the whites. The enormous develop-
ment of the southern states during the past ten years,
the growth of new cities and the extension of old, the
development of suburban tracts and the growth of the
railway systems have, in very many instances
made rich people out of colored persons who acci-
dentally owned a piece of land which under new condi-

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 2f>l

tions became desirable because of its location. In many
instances to my own knowledge, especially in the vicinity
of Chattanooga, large sums were paid to negroes for land
on account of its proximity to valuable land in a par-
ticular section in which negroes were not wanted. Of
course the same shifting of fortunes occurs everywhere,
but it particularly modifies the amount that the negro can
show in the way of taxable property as the result of his
own labor.

As a general conclusion it may be said that the negro
has yet to learn the first elements of Anglo-Saxon thrift.
He has yet to be taught, or left alone to learn the les-
son of the consequences of the old English poor law.
What Mr. Mackay says of the workings of the factory
laws and other philanthropic efforts in behalf of the
English poor, holds equally for the negro of the South :

As they have not been obliged to learn the first steps, so thev have
difficulty in proceeding further and are constantly looking to the state
to aid them under conditions in which the state is powerless. The
working class gained, no doubt, some of the advantages which the
factory acts were intended to give, but these acts have made a break
in the coutinuit}' of individual efforts. They have deprived men of a
most invaluable educational process, and this loss perhaps more than
balances the gain. Workmen have gained their present position by
the short cut of state interference, and they hardly know how to
utilize the advantages which they have acquired. The natural course
of economic evolution is slower but surer in the eud.^

But the consequences of this disregard of a funda-
mental law of economic and social life, namely, that the
individual shall develop his faculties and abilities,
not in accordance with the preconceived ideas and
notions of others, but as a result of his own individual
struggle for success in life, have even more seriously
affected the progress and development of the white race,
if for no other reason, because there was more to be lost.

'Mackay, "The English Poor," p. 263.

3o8 American Economic Association.

The method employed by ]\Ir. ]Marye in showing that
the negro is a heavy burden to the state of Virginia, may
understate, but it does not exaggerate the burden of a
large negro population. If it were possible to obtain
correct information in regard to the annual cost of the
negro population and its annual contribution to the
public fund, I feel sure that the indirect gain to the
public through the productive ability of the negro would
be shown to be far less than is supposed. Shirking its
duty tow^ards the state to such an extent that even those
most able to pay evade the payment of a paltry income
tax, much missionary work will still have to be done
before the negro race will understand the rudimentary
ethics of social life.

With an inordinate rate of mortality, with an exces-
sive degree of immorality, with a greater tendency to
crime and pauperism than the whites, the negro race has
also, as shown by the facts just given, a far lower degree
of economic activity and inclination towards accumula-
tion of capital and other material wealth. It seems from
all the facts relating to their economic condition, that the
great majority leave the earth as poor as they entered it,
and are fully satisfied with a degree of comfort too low to
prove of economic advantage to the state. It is not too
much to say that if the present tendency towards a lower
degree of economic efSciency is persisted in, the day is not
far distant when the negro laborer of the South will be
gradually supplanted by the immigrant laborer from
Europe, just as the coolie in the West Indies has sup-
planted the native laborer.

Land at the present rates is very easily obtained by
negroes in the Southern states, and once obtained it is
very easily held. The genial climate and the pro-
ductiveness of the soil will supply wnth little labor the

Race Traits and Tendencies of the A^nerican Negro. 309

wants Oi a negro and his family, leaving bnt a small
amount of work to be done to supply those necessaries of
life which have to be bought for cash. This is practi-
cally the condition of the negro in the West Indies ;^ and
this is the tendency disclosed by the available facts in
the southern states. The drifting towards a proprietor-
ship of small holdings may insure to the negro the
comforts of life, but such a proprietorship will add little
to the progress and prosperity of the state. And as a
result of this probable condition, the state will in return
be slow to provide for its citizens those advantages of
modern civilized life, without which the majority of
the people are no longer willing to get along. Such
public improvements as good roads, canals, hospitals,
asylums, institutions for higher and technical educa-
tion, adequate provision for paupers and other depend-
ents, will be largely impossible in states where the whole
burden of public support is carried by a comparatively
small proportion of the population.

' The remarks of Mr. Froude in regard to the negro in the West
Indies are equally applicable to the nejjro throughout the larger part
of the South. "If happiness is to be all and end all of life, and those
who have most of it have most completely attained the object of their
being, the ' nigger ' who now basks among the ruins of the West
Indian plantations is the supremest specimen of present humanity."
("The English in the West Indies," p. 50. )

Chapter VII.
conclusion.

Of all the vulgar modes of escaping from the consideralion of the
effect of social and moral influences on the human mind, the most
vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character
to inherent natural differences.' — Mill.

In treatises on pathology we find much as to the influence of age,
sex and temperament ou disease, and concise descriptions of affections
peculiar to certain countries, but almost nothing as to the influence
of race.' — Topinard.

The central fact deducible from the re.siilts of this in-
vestigation into the traits and tendencies of the colored
population of this conntry, is plainly and emphatically
the powerfnl inflnence of race in the struggle for life.
In marked contrast with the frequent assertions, such as
that of ]\Iill, that race is not important and that environ-
ment or the conditions of life are the most important
factors in the final result of the struggle for life, indi-
vidual as well as social, we have here abundant evidence
that we find in race and heredity the determining factors
in the upward or downward course of mankind.

In the field of statistical research, sentiment, preju-
dice, or the influence of pre-conceived ideas have no
place. The data which have been here brought together
in a convenient form speak for themselves. From
the standpoint of the impartial investigator, no difference
of interpretation of their meaning seems possible. The
decrease in the rate of increase in the colored popula-
tion has been traced first to the excessive mortality,
w^hich in turn has been traced to an inferior vital
capacity. The mixture of the African with the white

1 "Principles of Political Economy."
' " Anthropology," p. 413.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 311

race has been shown to have seriously affected the
longevity of the former and left as a heritage to future
generations the poison of scrofula, tuberculosis and
most of all of, syphilis. This racial inferiority, has in
turn brought about a moral deterioration such as is rarely
met with in civilized countries at the present time. Al-
ready subject to an inordinate rate of mortality, especially
from all of the most destructive diseases, the sexual im-
morality prevailing between colored females and white
males of a lower type, as well as between colored males
and colored females, has also brought about a diminished
power of vital resistance among the young, as is to be
expected from the recognized fact that the death rate
for illegitimate children is about twice that of children
born in wedlock. As a general result there is diminished
social and economic efficiency, which in the course of
years must prove not only a most destructive factor
in the progress of the colored race, but also in the
progress, social as well as economic, of the white race
brought under its influence.

Racial inferiority was the keynote of the pro-slavery
argument. On the other hand, racial differences were
explained away by those who saw in freedom the sure
prospect of speedy amelioration of the lot of the south-
ern slave ; yet thirty years of freedom in this country and
nearly sixty in the West Indies have failed to accomplish
the original purpose of the abolition of slavery, that is,
the elevation of the colored race to the moral, mental
and economic level of the white race.

Nothing is more clearly shown from this investiga-
tion than that the southern black man at the time
of emancipation was healthy in body and cheerful in
mind. He neither suffered inordinately from disease
nor from impaired bodily vigor. His industrial capaci-

312 Afnerica?i Economic Association.

ties as a laborer were not of a low order, nor was the
condition of servitude such as to produce in him mor-
bid conditions favorable to mental disease, suicide, or
intemperance. What are the conditions thirty years
after ? The pages of this work give but one answer,
an answer which is a most severe condemnation of mod-
ern attempts of superior races to lift inferior races to
their own elevated position, an answer so full of mean-
ing that it would seem criminal indifference on the part
of a civilized people to ignore it. In the plain language
of the facts brought together the colored race is shown
to be on the downward grade, tending toward a condi-
tion in which matters will be worse than they are novr,
when diseases will be more destructive, vital resistance
still lower, when the number of births will fall below
the deaths, and gradual extinction of the race take place.
Neither religion nor education nor a higher degree of
economic well-being have been able to raise the race
from a low and anti-social condition, a condition really
fostered by the very influences which it was asserted
would soon raise the race to a place even more elevated
than that of the whites.

It is not in the conditions of life, but in race and
heredity that we find the explanation of the fact to be
observed in all parts of the globe, in all times and
among all peoples, namely, the superiority of one race
over another, and of the Aryan race over all. To what
must we attribute this superiority? To what inherent
traits must we attribute the marvelous conquest of na-
ture by the Aryan race ? I cannot do better than quote
from the work of IMr. Morris, who defines in an admira-
ble manner the essential differences between the four
most important races :

Race Traits ajid Tendencies of the American Negro. 313

If the negro is indolent both physically and mentally, the Mongol-
ian energetic physically Ijut undeveloped mentally, and the Melano-
chroi active physically and to some extent mentally, in the
Aryan we find a highly vigorous and developed mental activity-.
Though by no means lacking in physical energy the mind is the rul-
ing agent in this race, muscular work is reduced to the lowest level
consistent with the demands of the body and the intellect, and every
effort is made to limit the quantity of work represented in a fixed
quantity of product. Waste labor is a crime to the Aryan mind.
Use is the guiding principle in all efforts. It is to this ruling agency
of the intellect over the energies of a muscular and active organism
that we owe the superior quality, the restricted dimensions, and the
vast quantity of Aryan labor products. In his work pure thought
is far more represented than pure labor.^

If we consider the negro race .... it is to find a lack of energy
both physical and mental. Nowhere in the region inhabited by this
race do we perceive indications of high powers of either work or
thought. No monuments of architecture appear, no philosophies, or
literatures have arisen. And in their present condition they stand
mentally at a very low level, while physically they confine themselves
to the labor absolutely necessary for existence. They neither work
nor think above the lowest level of life needs ; and even in America
under all the instigations of Aryan activity, the Negro race scarcely
displays an)' voluntary energy either of thought or work.' It goes
only as far as the sharp whip of necessity drives, and looks upon in-
dolence and sunshine as the terrestial paradise.

The white race has great physical vigor, capacity and endurance.
It has an intensity of will and desire which is controlled by intellect-
uality. Great things are undertaken, readily but not blindly. It
manifests a strong utilitarianism, united with a powerful imagination
which elevates, enobles and idealizes its practical ideas. The negro
can onl\- imitate, the Chinese only utilize, the work of the white ; but
the latter is abundantly able to produce new works. He has a keen
sense of order as the yellow man, not from love of repose, however,
but from the desire to protect and preserve his acquisitions. He has
a love of liberty far more intense than exists in the black or yellow
races, and clings to life more earnestly. His high sense of honor is a
faculty unknown to other races, and springs from an exalted senti-

^ Morris, " The Aryan Race : its Origin and Achievements," p. 277-S.

- " Even so highly developed a type of mind as that of the negro —
submitted, too, as it has been in millions of individual cases to a close
contact with minds of the most progressive type, and enjoying as it
has in many thousands of individual cases all the advantages of a
liberal education — has never so far as I can ascertain executed one
single stroke of original work in any single department of intellectual
activity." — Romanes "Mental Evolution of Man," (New York, 18S9,)
P- 13-

314

American Economic Association.

ment of which they show no indications. His sensations are less in-
tense than in either black or yellow, but his mentality is far more
developed and energetic.

Thus the Aryan stands as the type of intellectual man, the central
outcome of the races in which th^ special conditions of dark and light,
North and South, emotional and practical have mingled and combined
into the highest and noblest states of mind and body.'

In other words, the Aryan race is possessed of all the
e.ssential characteristics that make for success in the
.struggle for the higher life, in contrast with other races
which lack in either one or the other of the determining
qualities. A statement so far-reaching must needs have a
considerable body of facts in its support, and the whole
history of human effort is witness to the fact that no other
race since the Aryan appeared on the scene, has, in the
end, been able to resist the onward march of its progress-
ive civilization. Here, in the contrast between the white
and colored races we have the most complete historical
proof of race superiority, a superiority extending into all
the intricate and complex phenomena of life. Wherever
the white man has gone, he has become master of the
conditions of life. The whole history of Anglo-Saxon
conquest and colonization is one endless proof of race
superiority and race supremacy. In countries where the
very forces of nature were at first against him, he has,
after years of struggle, gained his end and mastered the
conditions of life surrounding him.

It has been sliowm in this work how the mortality of
the white troops in the West Indies has gradually de-
creased during the past seventy years. It may not be
out of place to give a few additional facts.

In the abbreviated table below I give some of the
most important statistics bearing on the question of the
ability of the white race to live in the tropics. Here
we have for four large sections and for a very long

'Morris, " The Aryan Race : its Origin and Achievements," p. 28.

Race Traits arid Tendencies of the American Negro. 315

period the experience of the British and Dutch armies
in the East and West Indies. Without exception the
fall in the death rate has been very great. It is im-
material for our present purpose to know to what causes
this diminishing mortality may be due ; we here have
merely to consider the fact that those countries are no
longer " the white man's grave."

MORTAUTY OF THE BRITISH TROOPS IN BENGAL.

1825-29 77.7 per 1,000

1881-90 14.5

MORTALITY OF THE BRITISH TROOPS IN MADRAS.

1801-1809 68.0 per 1,000

I88I-I890 13.0

MORTALITY OF THE BRITISH TROOPS IN THE WEST INDIES.

1819-1836 78.5 per 1,000

I886-I892 9.7

IMORTALITY OF THE DUTCH TROOPS IN THE EAST INDIES.

1819-1828 170.0 per 1,000

1879-1888 30.6

-1892 16.0

Were not the conditions of life extremely unfavora-
ble to the white race in those countries in the early part
of the century ? Is not the climate the same, the heat
still as oppressive, the jungle still as malarious, the life
in itself still as totally different from the life at home ?
Are not these statistics proof that the white race must
have been able to master the unfavorable conditions of
life in order to have made possible such enormous re-
ductions in the death rates ? Even if it is admitted that
in certain sections it is not as yet possible for the white
race to increase and multiply, is it not proof of a supe-
rior vitality to have been able to make at least a station-
ary condition possible at the present time ? And will it
be doubted that where so much has been accomplished

3i6 American Economic Association.

the race will be able to improve its condition still fnrtlicr,
to adapt itself still more completely to the prevailing
conditions, and thanks to snperior race traits and con-
seqnent moral, intellectual and economic superiority, in
the end to become absolute master of the conditions of
life, even in what were formerly considered the most
fatal regions of the earth ?

Let us consider one experiment of this kind. The
colonization of Algeria by France was most bitterly
opposed fifty years ago. In numberless instances the
claim was made that never under any circumstances
could the French population become so acclimated that
it would increase and multiply. Major Tulloch (who
wrote extensively on the mortality of the white race in
the tropics during the first fifty years of the present
century,) in a paper on " The ]\Iortality among Her
Majesty's Troops in the Colonies ", speaks of the colon-
ization of Algiers as follows :

To ascertain the races of men best fitted to inhabit and develop
the resonrces of different colonies is a most important iuqniry, anil
one which has hitherto attracted too little attention, both in this and
other conntries. Had the government of France, for instance, ad-
verted to the absolute impossibility ol anj' population increasing or
keeping up its numbers under an annual mortalitj' of seven per cent.,
(being that to which the settlers are exposed at Algiers), it would
never have entered on the wild speculation of cultivating the soil of
Africa by Europeans, nor have wasted a hundred million sterling with
no other result than the loss of 100,0 o men, who have fallen victims
to the climate of that country. In such questions military returns,
properly organized and properly digested, afford one of the most use-
ful guides to direct the policy of the colonial legislator ; they point out
the limits intended by nature for particular races and within which
alone they can thrive and increase.'

What are the facts of subsequent experience ? Was
ultimate failure the result of this struggle of the white
race against such unfavorable ' conditions of life ? '

^Journal of the Royal Staiisiical Society, Vol. X, (1847), page 259.

Race Traits and Tendeyicics of the Atnerica?! Negro. 317

Algeria became a colony of France in 1837, when the
last provinces were conquered. Nearly seven years had
passed since the first attempt was made to conquer the
territory, and during this time 6,592 persons of French
descent had settled in the new colony. The total Eu-
ropean population in this year was 16,770, exclusive of
the military force. Nearly twenty years later, or nine
years after Mr. Tulloch wrote his essay against coloniza-
tion, the population of French descent had increased,
largely of course by immigration, to 92,750. Twenty
years later, that is, by the year 1876, the French popu-
lation numbered 156,365 ; while at the last census, 1891,
the number had increased to 271,101.

During the same period other races, most of all the
Spanish, had settled in Algeria and were increasing at a
rapid rate. From 5,189 Spanish settlers in 1837, the
population of Spanish descent increased to 151,859 by
the year 1891. The Jews, who numbered 6,065 i^
1837, increased to 21,048 by the year 1856, and to 47,-
564 by 1891. Only the Germans, who numbered 782 in
1837, and 5,440 in 1856, have shown a tendency to de-
crease in population, numbering only 3,189 at the
census of 1891.^

Thus, it is clearly shown that those races which
Mr. Tulloch concluded could not possibly survive the
early unfavorable conditions of life, half a century later
had increased, partly by immigration but in no small
part by natural increase, to a total European population
of nearly half a million. And only forty years later
Mr. Playfair, the British consul, could say : " Who shall
estimate the gain to humanity by the transformation of
a nest of pirates and robbers into the beautiful colony
which Algeria now is ?" The enormous mortality of

' "Statistique G^n^rale de I'Algerie," Alger, 1894.

3i8 America7i Econoynic Association.

the early years has long since decreased, and to-day the
births exceed the deaths, year after year, with a favor-
able tendency upwards.

I have calculated the ratios of births to deaths, for
the period 1881-93, which shows that for all Euro-
peans in Algeria the ratio is one death to ever)' 1.15
births, those of French descent have a ratio of one
to 1. 1 7, while the Jews have a ratio of one to every
1.65 births, the most favorable of all. The native
population of Algeria has frequently shown an ex-
cess of deaths over births, but the statistics for this part
of the population must of necessity be wanting in com-
pleteness. Surgeon F. L. Du Bois, writing in 1880 to
the Navy Department,^ expressed it as his opinion that
the native Mussulman population would rapidly disap-
pear, but so far this has not taken place. For while at
times the births have fallen below the deaths, at other
times the reverse has occurred. If the race is destined
to disappear it will be a very gradual process of extinc-
tion, increasing perhaps in rapidity in course of time.

Such extinction has been almost invariably the rule
where white races have permanently settled among
what the Germans call the " Naturvoelker." It would
carry me beyond my purpose were I to deal to any ex-
tent with this point ; but on account of the close rela-
tion between the extinction of native races in various
parts of the world and the settlement of those sections
by the white races, it may not be out of place if I give
here the following table showing the decrease in the
native Indian population of this country, and of the
natives of the Sandwich Islands and New Zealand.

^ Annual report, Secretary of the Navy, 1880, p. 439-

Race Traits atid Tendencies of the American Negro. 319

ACTUAL AND RELATIVE DECREASE IN THE NATIVE INDIAN POPULA-
TION OF THE UNITED STATES, THE HAWAIIANS
AND THE MAORIES.

North American Indians.
68 Years.

Year.
1822
1850
1870
i8qo

Population,

471,417
388,229
313,712
248,253

Total decrease, 223,164
% of decrease, 47.4

Av. anuual %, 0.69

Hawaiians.i
67 Years.

823
853
872

Population.

142,000

71,019

49,044

34,436

107.564
75-8

Maories.
48 Years.

1843
1858
1881
189I

Population.

114,890

56,049

44,099

41,993

72,897

63-4

1.32

'Annual Death Rate in Honolulu (Sandwich Islands), 1893-94.
Per 1,000 of Population.

Native .
Asiatic

33-6
24-3

1893.
29-5
20.8

European 16.8 17.7

I have confined myself in this table to periods of ob-
servation for which the statistical data are fairly reliable
and which would tend rather to understate than over-
state the native population at the earlier periods. It
will be observed that the annual rate of decrease has
been highest for the Maories, slightly lower for the
Hawaiians, and about half the rate of the former for the
native Indian population. These figures are interesting
from a number of standpoints, but we must confine our-
selves to one or two. It goes without saying that the
conditions of life have been the most unfavorable for
the Indians in comparison with the Maories and Hawai-
ians. Of the Maories it need only be said that they lived
in a land where the dominant white today enjoys the most
favorable rate of mortality of any race on earth excepting
the Norwegians. Of the Hawaiians it need only be said
that the very name of the group of islands, the " Para-
dise of the Pacific," indicates that the conditions of life
must have been fairly favorable for success in the
mere struggle for physical existence. Of the three races

320

American Economic Association.

the American Indians have without question been ex-
posed to the greatest hardships and the most unfavorable
conditions of life, if only on account of the enormous in-
crease in the white population. Yet the rate of decrease
has been only one-half that of the others, and the reason
for this becomes plain if we go a little deeper into the
life history of the three races.

Of the Maories, Mr. Archibald Hamilton wrote in
1869 as follows :

It is frequently asserted that, under any circumstances the natives
must disappear before the advance of European civilization ; that
they are a doomed race. For the sake of humanity, I trust tha. some
means may be found of terminating the present state of chronic hos-
tilities, so that there may still be a fair opportunity for preserving by
far the finest and most intellectual race with whom Anglo-Saxon
colonists have yet come in contact. There is ample room for both :
no wide extent of country is required for hunting ground : and a
glance at the map will show how small a portion of the island has
been yet appropriated. '

Another writer observes :

The Maories, such as they were found by Tasman and Cook, no
longer exist ; they were a people of great force of character and
superior intellectual powers, and it is proper that their memory should
be perpetuated ; for their descendants are no longer the typical repre-
sentatives of the ancestral stock ; they are the degenerate offspring of
a superior people, who within a longer or shorter period will become
entirely extinct.^

In regard to the conditions of life, ]Mr. F. D. Fenton
in his able report on the Maories, printed in 1859, wrote
as follows :

A similar abundance of fertile soil, extreme facility in obtaining the
necessities of existence, and a climate of even greater salubrity (than
the United States) place the aboriginal inhabitants of this island in
circumstances of similar advantage for developing to the utmost the
powers for rapid increase possessed by the human race generally.^

Thus, with conditions of life exceptionally favorable,
conditions which enabled the white population to reduce

^Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, September, 1869, p. 303.

^Featherman, " Oceano-Melamesians," p. 166.

^Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, December, i860, p. 514.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 321

its annual mortality to less than 10 per 1,000, and as a
result increase its average longevity far in excess of that
enjoyed by the whites of this country, the native race,
though exceptional in character, failed to meet the final
test of the survival of the fittest ; and before another
half century the most of its members will have passed
away. It was racial inferiority, therefore, and not the
conditions of life that brought about gradual extinction
of this race.

Of the Hawaiians we have so many accounts that it is
extremely difficult to select descriptive statements that
would not contradict others of equal value from the
standpoint of personal observation. Mr. Featherman
speaks of them at the time the missionaries came to
the islands, as "the uncorrupted children of nature."
Mr. Bishop in a paper read before the Social Science
Association of Honolulu, spoke of the women of the race
as natural prostitutes, incapable of conceptions of sexual
morality.^ Mr. Charles Gulick in " A Footnote to Ha-
waiian History " speaks of the race at the time of the
missionary settlements as "of incomparable physique,
open-hearted, generous, and hospitable to a fault.^
While Mr. Bishop speaks of the Hawaiian female as
" aggressive in solicitation," Mr. Gulick asserts, on the
strength of forty years residence in the islands, that he
has "discovered no such custom or weakness." That
the women were weak and willing to submit to irregular
sexual relations with the whites is not to be doubted.
It would be contrary to all other experience with native

'" Why are the Hawaiians dying out?" By S. E. Bishop, Hono-
lulu, Nov., 1888. (Reprinted in Appendix 2, "Foreign Relations of
the United States," 1894, p. 769, et seq. )

^" A Footnote to Hawaiian History," by Chas, T. Gulick, (Re-
printed in Appendix 2, "Foreign Relations of the United States,"
1894, p. 745, eiseq.)

322 American Economic Association.

races if it were otherwise. This, however, would prove
nothing further than that the whites who came to the
island were not slow to take advantage of the child-like
ignorance of the women or the foolish vanity of the men
who in the words of Mr. Featherman, " were proud of
the attentions shown and the intimate relations culti-
vated by their better halves when visitors or distin-
guished strangers claimed their hospitality." '

Yet in the " Paradise of the Pacific," under the influ-
ence of missionary efforts for more than seventy years,
subjected to all the religious and educational influences
prevailing among the white race, and practically under
complete influence of preachers and teachers, the race is
dying out at a rate which will make its complete extinc-
tion only a question of a few years. And why is it thus
becoming extinct ? Mr. Bishop attempts to answer this
question :

As the leading and most efficient element of weakness in the Ha-
waiian race, tending to physical decay, we predicate : Unchastity. A
general impairment of constitutional vigor in the people by venereal
disease caused them to fall early victims toother maladies, both native
and foreign. All diseases ran riot in their shattered constitutions.
They became especially incapacitated to resist pulmonary maladies.
The greatly increased prevalence of colds and consumption is doubt-
less due to this syphilitic diathesis rather than to change of habit as to
clothing, although the latter may have had some unfavorable effect. -'

It is not, therefore, to any unfavorable conditions of
life but to a race trait, an inordinate amount of sexual
immorality, that Mr. Bishop attributes the downward
tendency of the race, " a race," he adds, " well worth sav-
ing. With all their sad frailities, tliey are a noble race
of men physically and morally. They are manly,
courageous, enterprising, cordial, generous, unselfish.

^ "Oceano-Melamesians," p. 241.

^"Foreign Relations of the United States," Appendix 2, 1S94, p.
771.

Race Traits and Tc7idencies of the A)ncrica?i Negro. 323

They are highly receptive of good. ... In an unusual
degree they possess the capacity for fine ardent enthusi-
asm and noble ends. Should the Hawaiian people leave
no posterity, a very sweet, generous, interesting race
will have been lost to the world." Lost to the world,
Mr. Bishop could have added, in spite of more than
seventy years of missionary and educational efforts, and
in spite of the possession of all the virtues, it would seem,
except one, — the absence of which in civilized life is as
fatal as in the life of the native who inhabits the "Para-
dise of the Pacific." With every possible chance that
improved conditions of life could offer, with all the
churches and schools that were needed, with willing
hands ready to help, to support, to save, — this race,
"sweet, generous and interesting," has in the short
space of three score and ten years been reduced to less
than one-fourth its original numbers.

The North American Indian, has been at times a very
troublesome factor in the growth of the American
nation. Years of strife has reduced his original habita-
tion to a few limited reservations, most of which are
constantly being encroached upon by the aggressive
white population. Few races have made such a brave
struggle for their own preservation ; few races can
boast of so high a degree of aboriginal civilization. If
the race had produced nothing better than the " League
of the Iroquois," it would have left its mark in indeli-
ble imprints on the history of the human race. The
race made a brave and persistent struggle, but all to no
avail.

Those who have had opportunity to study the original
paintings in the Catlin gallery of Indian portraits,^
must have been struck by one predominating trait in the

'Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C.

324 Avierican Eco7i07?iic Association.

Indian countenance, a trait met with in nearly every in-
stance, from chiefs ever so humble, to the mightiest whose
fame still lingers. An iron will can be traced upon the
countenance of nearly everj- Indian of note. That trait,
a race trait, is still met with, and the faces of Sitting Bull,
the Sioux chief ; Piah, the Ute chief ; Tomasket, the Xez
Perce chief ; Keokuk, the Sac and Fox chief ; White
Bird, the Crow Indian,^ still show the inflexible, unbend-
ing nature of the Indian of long ago. This race could
never be permanently enslaved, it could never be brought
to accept the customs and ways of the white race. More
subtle methods and power were necessary to civilize it
away. Neither the poison of adulterated whisky, nor
the frightful consequences of sexual immorality, spread
around the forts and settlements of the whites, were
sufficient. The most subtle agency of all, governmen-
tal pauperism, the highest development of the theory of
easy conditions of life, did what neither drink nor the
poisons of venereal disease could do, and today the large
majority of the tribes are following the ^Maories and Ha-
waiians towards the goal of final extinction. There are
exceptions and it is in the exceptions that we find the
most emphatic lessons — lessons which if heeded by those
remaining will alone effectually check the downward
course of the race.

The facts on which the following table is based have
been in part obtained from two valuable papers on
gynecic notes among the Indians, contributed by Dr. A.
B. Holden, former agency physician, to the Joitrnal of
Obstetrics!^- and in part from the reports of the Commis-
sioner of Indian affairs. I have selected the two years
1882 and 1895 for comparative purposes, since the

'Census report on Indians, Washington, 1890.

^ American Journal of Obstetrics, June and Julj-, 1892.

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 325

former year covers about the period at which the notes
were compiled in regard to the prevailing state of
morality and association with the whites. The table
shows the population of each tribe in 1882 and 1895,
and contains a statement of the prevailing degree of
chastity and prevalence of venereal diseases.

TRIBES H.WING LITTLE OR NO INTERCOURSE WITH THE WHITES.

Population.

Name of Tribe. 1SS2. 1S95. Remarks.

Flatheads, Montana . . 1,381 1,695 Adultery rare; uo venereal dis-
eases.

Cheyenne Riv., Mont. 3,iSS 2,539 Chaste; venereal diseases rare.

Sioux of Devil's Lake, Chaste, and venereal diseases

Montana 933 1,021 rare.

Klamath, Oregon . . . 707 982 Chaste; venereal diseases rare.

Total 6,209 6,237 Increase in population, 28.

TRIBES HAVING COMMON INTERCOURSE WITH THE WHITES.

Population.
Name of Tribe. 1SS2. 1895. Remarks.

Gross Ventre, Mont. 950 624 Unchaste ; venereal diseases ex-
cessively prevalent.

Assiniboine Sioux, " 850 763 Unchaste ; venereal diseases ex-
cessively prevalent.

Crows, Mont 3, 500 2,133 Without chastity ; venereal dis-
eases excessively prevalent.

Assiniboine of Fort Morals ; low venereal diseases

Peck, Mont .... 1,300 716 prevalent.

Yauktotnains, Mont. . 3,800 1,276 Morals low; V. diseases prevalent.

Neah Bay, Wash. . . 1,019 754 Unchaste ; all are tainted with

syphilis.

Round Valley, Cal . . 645 623 Chastity unknown ; 75 per cent.

affected with syphilis.

Total 12,064 6,889 Decrease in population, 5,175.

In the words of Dr. Holden, " Venereal diseases pre-
vail in any tribe in exactly that degree in which men
and women of that tribe have ceased to be chaste and
faithful in wedlock. " And further : " Tribes who have
been isolated, or who have held aloof from the whites,

326 Ajncrican Economic Association.

retained their tribal relations, and declared for non-inter-
course, are chaste and free from taint. The tribes who
have opened their arms to receive the white man, or who
have been seduced by him, have been debauched and
inoculated." This plain and emphatic condemnation of
intercourse between unlike races, or attempts at their
amalgamation in violation of the " law of similarity, "
is supported by the table before us, which shows that
while the tribes that have little or no illicit intercourse
with the white race are holding their own or making
slight gains in population, those that have " opened their
arms to receive the white man " have decreased to
nearly one-half their number during the short period of
13 years. Hence the decrease in the Indian population
is due largely to the rapid decrease among certain tribes
while others are holding their own or gaining slowly
year by year.

These instances of the results of intimate contact of
the lower races with those of a much higher degree of
culture and morality, will suffice to show the preponder-
ing influence of race in the struggle for life. Given
the same conditions of Jife for two races, the one of
Aryan descent will prove the superior, solely on account
of its ancient inheritance of virtue and transmitted
qualities which are determining factors in the struggle
for race supremacy. The lower races, even under the
same conditions of life must necessarily fail because the
vast number of incapables which a hard struggle for life
has eliminated from the ranks of the wdiite races, are
still forming the large body of the lower races. Easy
conditions of life and a liberal charity are among the
most destructive influences affecting the lower races ;
since by such methods the weak and incapable are per-

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 327

mitted to increase and multiply, while the struggle of
the more able is increased in severity.

The two essential virtues of modern progress, self re-
liance and chastity, have not been the result of easy con-
ditions of life. Self reliance in the Anglo-Saxon race is
the result of the struggle of ages rather than of
book education or missionary efforts. No missionary or
educator or philanthropist extended aid or comfort to
the English peasant class during its darkest days, to the
earliest settlers on the coast of New England, or the
pioneer in the forests of the far West. History is
replete with instances of men of mark emerging
from the most unfortunate conditions of life ; but it is
extremely rare to find a case where easy conditions of
life or liberal charity have assisted man in his upward
struggle. Self reliance in man and chastity in woman are
qualities that must be developed, and thus far they have
not been developed by the aid of charity or liberal
philanthropy.

A study of the race traits and tendencies of the negro
in America makes plain the failure of modern education
and other means in encouraging or permitting the de-
velopment of these most important factors, without
which no race has ever yet been able to gain a perma-
nent civilization. Easy conditions of life, a liberal con-
struction of the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins and
an unwarranted extension of the principle of state or
private interference in the conduct of individual life,
have never yet raised a race or individual from a lower
to a higher plane. On the contrary, the world's
failures are largely those of races and individuals
in whose existence the struggle for a higher life
had practically come to an end. " For carrying on the
chief objects of our life on earth, very little of what is

328 Amcricaji Economic Association.

now called civilization is really wanted ; " ' and, unfor-
tunately, it is just the useless adjuncts to civilization that
the lower races in their contact with the higher races
first acquire.

The downward tendencies of the colored race, there-
fore, can only be arrested by radical and far-reaching
changes in their moral nature. Instead of clamoring
for aid and assistance from the white race the negro
himself should sternly refuse every offer of direct inter-
ference in his own evolution. The more difficult his
upward struggle, the more enduring will be the quali-
ties developed. Most of all there must be a more
general recognition of the institution of monogamic
marriage and unqualified reprobation of those who
violate the law of sexual morality. Intercourse with
the white race must absolutely cease and race purity
must be insisted upon in marriage as well as outside of
it. Together with a higher morality will come a greater
degree of economic efficiency, and the predominating
trait of the white race, the virtue of thrift, will follow
as a natural consequence of the mastery by the colored
race of its own conditions of life. The compensation
of such an independent struggle will be a race of people
who will gain a place among civilized mankind and
will increase and multiply instead of dying out with
loathsome diseases.

The day is not far distant when, in the words of Mr.
Kidd, " The last thing our civilization is likely to per-
manently tolerate is the wasting of the resources of the
richest regions of the earth through the lack of the
elementary qualities of social efficiency in the races
possessing them." When the ever increasing white
population has reached a stage where new conquests are

' Max Mueller, " The Savage."

Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro. 329

necessary, it will not hesitate to make war npon those
races who prove themselves useless factors in the progress
of mankind. A race may be interesting, gentle and hos-
pitable ; but if it is not a useful race in the common ac-
ceptation of that term, it is only a question of time when
a downward course must take place. All the facts l^rought
together in this work prove that the colored population
is gradually parting with the virtues and the moderate de-
gree of economic cuiciency developed under the regime
of slavery. All the facts prove that a low standard of
sexual morality is the main and underlying cause of the
low and anti-social condition of the race at the present
time. All the facts prove that education, philanthropy
and religion have failed to develop a higher appreciation
of the stern and uncompromising virtues of the x^ryan
\, race. The conclusion is warranted that it is merely
\ a question of time when the actual downward course,
\ that is, a decrease in the population, will take place.
1 In the meantime, however, the presence of the colored
population is a serious hindrance to the economic pro-
gress of the white race.

Instead of making the race more independent, modern
educational and philanthropic efforts have succeeded in
making it even more dependent on the wdiite race at the
present time than it was jDrevious to emancipation. It
remains to be seen how far a knowledge of the facts
about its own diminishing vitality, lov/ state of morality
and economic efficiency will stimulate the race in adopt-
ing a higher standard. Unless a change takes place, a .
change that will strike at the fundamental errors that
underlie the conduct of the higher races towards the
lower, gradual extinction is only a question of time.

K-

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Full text of "Race traits and tendencies of the American Negro"

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