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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31279-8.txt b/31279-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee33344 --- /dev/null +++ b/31279-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2040 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and +Tendencies of the American Negro, by Kelly Miller + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro + The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 1 + +Author: Kelly Miller + +Release Date: February 15, 2010 [EBook #31279] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + The American Negro Academy. + + Occasional Papers, No. 1. + + + A REVIEW + of + HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES + OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO, + + BY + KELLY MILLER. + + + Price, Twenty-five Cents. + + WASHINGTON, D. C. + PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY. + 1897. + + + + +OCCASIONAL PAPERS. + + +No. 1.--A REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE + AMERICAN NEGRO.--Kelly Miller 25 Cts. + +No. 2.--THE CONSERVATION OF RACES.--W. E. Burghard Du Bois 15 Cts. + + +Orders may be sent to John H. Wills, 506 Eleventh Street N. W., +Washington, D. C. + + + + +A REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. + + +In August, 1896, there was published, under the auspices of the American +Economic Association, a work entitled "Race Traits and Tendencies of the +American Negro," by Frederick L. Hoffman, F. S. S., statistician to the +Prudential Insurance Company of America. This work presents by far the +most thorough and comprehensive treatment of the Negro problem, from a +statistical standpoint, which has yet appeared. In fact, it may be +regarded as the most important utterance on the subject since the +publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin;" for the interest which the famous +novel aroused in the domain of sentiment and generous feelings, the +present work seems destined to awaken in the field of science and exact +inquiry. + +Mr. Hoffman has spent ten years in painful and laborious investigation +of the subject, during which time he has been in touch with the fullest +sources of information, and has had the advice and assistance of the +highest living authorities in statistics and social science. The temper +of mind which he brought to this study may be judged from his own words: +"Being of foreign birth, a German, I was fortunately free from a personal +bias which might have made an impartial treatment of the subject +difficult."[1] There are other assurances that the author possesses no +personal animosity or repugnance against the Negro as such. But, freedom +from conscious personal bias does not relieve the author from the +imputation of partiality to his own opinions beyond the warrant of the +facts which he has presented. Indeed, it would seem that his conclusion +was reached from _a priori_ considerations and that facts have been +collected in order to justify it. + +The main conclusion of the work is that the Negro race in America is +deteriorating physically and morally in such manner as to point to +ulterior extinction, and that this decline is due to "race traits" +rather than to conditions and circumstances of life. Not only do we find +this conclusion expressly set forth in connection with every chapter, +but it is also easily discernible in foot notes and quotations, in the +general drift of cited references, and between the lines. In order to +give the clearest possible statement of the author's position his own +words will be used. + +"The conditions of life therefore ... would seem to be of less +importance than race and heredity."[2] + +"It is not the _conditions of life_ but in _the race traits and +tendencies_ that we find the causes of the excessive mortality."[3] + +"For the root of the evil lies in the fact of an immense amount of +immorality, which is a race trait."[4] + +"A combination of these traits and tendencies must in the end cause the +extinction of the race."[5] + +"It is not in the conditions of life but in race and heredity that we +find the explanation."[6] + +"The mixture of the African with the white 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."[7] + +If the reader will keep constantly in mind the key suggested by these +quotations, he will peruse the book itself as well as this review with +greater ease and facility. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +_Subject._ Population. + +_Gist._ "For some generations the colored element may continue to make +decennial gains, but it is very probable that the next thirty years will +be the last to show total gains, and then the decrease will be slow but +sure until final disappearance."[8] + +I have taken this quotation from another work by the same author as it +represents more clearly than any other condensed statement the substance +of the present chapter. This proposition is a most important one, and +therefore its establishment needs to be inquired into with the greatest +particularity. If a race does not possess the requisite physical +stamina, it is impossible for it to maintain a high degree of moral and +intellectual culture or compete with its more vigorous rivals in the +race of civilization. + +"All the elements of society are conserved in its physical basis, the +social population."[9] + +Since the author relies mainly upon the eleventh census for facts to +establish his conclusion, and since the accuracy of this census is +widely controverted, we may fairly call upon him to prove his document +before it can be admitted in evidence. + +The following quotation from Senator Mills reflects the opinion of many +eminent students of public problems as to the accuracy of this +enumeration: "The announcement that our population is only 62,662,250 +was a genuine surprise, not only to those who looked for the dark side +of the picture, but also to those whose faith in the administration and +its census bureau had never for a moment wavered. The census of 1880 +gave 50,155,783. The present returns give an increase of 12,466,476, +which is at the rate of 24.86 per cent. That this number is not even +approximately correct may be seen by comparing the increase in this +decade with the gain in others which have preceded it. Any alleged fact +that is without the pale of probability stands impeached at the very +threshold of the inquiry, and must be verified by competent evidence." +Basing his estimates upon the school census, the Senator continues: "The +state of Texas is deprived, by the incorrect returns, of at least three +representatives in Congress. Alabama loses 240,000, Tennessee and North +Carolina 170,000 each, and Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana 100,000 +each."[10] Whatever force there may be in the protest of the eloquent +Texas Senator, applies with special emphasis to the colored element; for +it goes without saying that errors in enumeration in the South would be +confined mainly to the Negro race, and since the bulk of the race is +confined to this section such errors would have a most disastrous effect +upon its rate of increase as shown by the census reports. + +The following table exhibits the development of the colored population +for the last one hundred years, as well as its decennial rates of +increase and percentage of the total population. + + _Colored Population of the United States._ + + Year. Colored Decennial Increase Per cent + Population. Increase. per cent in of total + 10 years. population. + + 1790 757,208 ....... ..... 19.27 + 1800 1,002,037 244,829 32.33 18.88 + 1810 1,377,808 375,771 37.50 19.03 + 1820 1,771,656 393,848 28.50 18.39 + 1830 2,328,642 556,986 31.44 18.10 + 1840 2,873,648 545,006 23.44 16.84 + 1850 3,638,808 765,169 26.63 15.69 + 1860 4,441,830 803,022 22.07 14.13 + 1870[11] 5,391,000 949,170 21.37 13.84 + 1880 6,580,793 1,189,793 22.07 13.12 + 1890 7,470,040 889,247 13.51 11.93 + +If we begin with 1810, the first census year after the constitutional +suppression of the slave trade, we see from this table that the growth +of the Negro element followed the ordinary law of population, viz: a +gradual decline in the rate of increase. In 70 years the decennial rate +of increase declined from about 30 per cent to 22 per cent. But from +1880 to 1890 there was a _per saltum_ decrease from 22 to 13 per +cent--that is, the decline in ten years was equal to that of the +previous seventy. And all this has happened during an era of profound +peace and prosperity, when the Negro population was subject to no great +perturbing influences. When a number of observations follow with +reasonable uniformity a fixed law, but a single result deviates widely +from this law it is usual to suspect the accuracy of the discrepant +observation. The author nowhere assigns any adequate cause for this +sudden "slump" in the increase of the colored population. Instead of +attributing it, in part at least, to the probable imperfection of the +eleventh census, he relies wholly upon a blind force recently discovered +and named by him "race traits and tendencies." The capriciousness of +this new factor, in that it may suspend operation indefinitely or break +loose in a day, does not seem to have occurred to the author, at least +it does not seem to affect the confident assurance with which he relies +upon it. As has been shrewdly remarked by an able reviewer, "It would +seem incumbent on him (Mr. Hoffman) further to prove that these race +traits, after being held in abeyance for at least a century, first took +decisive action in the decade 1880 to 1890."[12] + +In 1810 there were 1,377,808 Negroes in the United States. In 80 years +this number had swollen to at least 7,470,040, and that, too, without +reinforcement from outside immigration. It more than quintupled itself +in eight decades. Does it not require much fuller demonstration than the +author anywhere presents to convince the ordinary mind that a people +that has shown such physical vitality for so long a period, has all at +once, in a single decade, become comparatively infecund and threatened +with extinction? + +It is passing strange that it escaped the attention of a statistician of +Mr. Hoffman's sagacity that, even granting the accuracy of the eleventh +census, the natural increase of the Negro race was greater than that of +the whites during the last decade. The number of immigrants who came to +this country between 1880 and 1890 was 5,246,613. I am informed by the +census bureau that this number does not include the immigrants who came +from British North America and from Mexico after 1885. This number was +estimated by the statistical bureau of the Treasury Department to be +540,000, making the total number of immigrants 5,787,613. If this number +be subtracted from the increase of the white population during the last +decade (11,589,920) their rate of increase will be reduced to 13.35 per +cent as compared with 13.51 per cent for the blacks. Nor is this all. +The immigrants were for the most part in the full maturity and vigor of +their productive powers, being the most fecund element of our white +population. If allowance be made for their natural increase from 1880 to +1890 the white race would show a decennial increase appreciably below +that of the blacks. If the Negro, then, is threatened with extinction, +the white race is in a still more pitiable plight. + +The table on page 6 does indeed show plainly that the Negro does not +hold his own as a numerical factor of our mixed population. Whereas he +represented 19 per cent of the entire population in 1810 he now +represents only 12 per cent. But the cause of this relative decline is +apparent enough. It is due to white immigration and not to "race traits" +as Mr. Hoffman would have us believe. It would be as legitimate to +attribute the decline of the Yankee element as a numerical factor in the +large New England centers to the race degeneracy of the Puritan, while +ignoring the proper cause--the influx of the Celt. + +Mr. Hoffman's conclusions as to the Negro population are not generally +accepted by students of social problems. Their position is more clearly +stated in a recent notice of the work now under review. "Concerning the +first of these chapters dealing with population he (Mr. Hoffman) reaches +conclusions very different from those generally held by those who have +discussed the subject on _a priori_ grounds. The general impression has +been that the colored population was increasing at a rate greater than +that of the whites, owing both to the greater number of children born +and also to the fact that all children of a mixed race were counted as +blacks. From such a condition of affairs it would naturally be assumed +that the race to which all half-breeds were credited would, especially +if prolific, rapidly gain upon the other race."[13] + +On the appearance of each census since emancipation, there has been some +hue and cry as to the destiny of the Negro population. Public opinion +has been rhythmical with reference to its rise and fall above and below +the mean line of truth. In 1870 it was extermination; in 1880 it was +dreaded that the whole country would be Africanized because of the +prolificness of a barbarous race; in 1890 the doctrine of extinction was +preached once more; what will be the outcry in 1900 can only be divined +at this stage, but we may rest assured that it will be something +startling. + + +NEGROES IN CITIES. + +The author's studies in the minor features of the Negro population form +the most interesting and valuable work which has yet been undertaken on +the subject. The urban drift, the tendency to concentration, and the +migratory movements of the black population are treated with fullness +and force. It is interesting to know that there are 13 cities in which +the colored population exceeds 20,000, and 23 in which it exceeds +10,000, and that the rate of increase of the colored element in these +centers is enormous--more than 30 per cent. The concentration of the +colored population in certain sections of cities is quite suggestive. +The following table will disclose some of the striking features which +Mr. Hoffman has exhibited at length.[14] + + City. Colored No. Colored population + population. Wards. in wards. + + Chicago 14,271 34 9,122 in 3 wards. + Philadelphia 39,371 34 8,891 " 1 " + Boston 8,125 25 2,547 " 1 " + New York 23,601 24 13,008 " 3 " + Brooklyn 10,287 26 3,100 " 2 " + +This tendency to concentration in undesirable places is found to be +greater in Northern than in Southern cities. Every large city has its +white wards and its black wards, which the politician knows as well as +the seaman knows the depths and shallows of the sea. + +The evil of this tendency cannot be denied or gainsaid; but its cause is +not far to seek nor hard to find. + + +BLACK BELTS. + +The author also notes with alarm that the Negro population is congesting +in the black belts of the South. There are 70 counties in this section +with an aggregate area of over 50,000 square miles in which the colored +population outnumbers the white nearly three to one. The general +conviction is that the Negroes will be gathered into black settlements +scattered throughout the Gulf states. The superintendent of the tenth +census writes on this subject: "I entertain a strong conviction that the +further course of our (Negro) population will exhibit that tendency in a +continually growing force; that this element will be more and more +drained off from the higher and colder lands into the low, hot regions +bordering on the Gulf of Mexico."[15] + +Commenting on this subject Mr. Hoffman says: "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 white race."[16] + +It is undoubtedly true that the Negro has not the initiative power of +civilization. What race has? Civilization is not an original process +with any race or nation known to history. The torch has been passed from +race to race and from age to age. Where else can the Negro go? The white +race at present has the light. This concession is no reproach to the +Negro race, nor is it due to any peculiar race trait or tendency. + +There is a stretch of country extending from southern Pennsylvania to +northern Alabama, containing sections of Maryland, West Virginia, +Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, +and Alabama, and embracing the Appalachian system of mountains. This +section contains a population of nearly 3,000,000 souls. They belong for +the most part to the most thrifty element of our complex population--an +element whose toughness of moral and mental fiber is proverbial. The +Scotch-Irish are famed the world over for their manly and moral vigor. +And yet this people have sunken to the lowest depth of poverty and +degradation--a depth from which, without the assistance of outside help, +they can be lifted nevermore.[17] Is this condition of depravity and +inability of self-initiative due to "race traits and tendencies?" + +Then, supposing the Negroes to be concentrated in the black belts, as +seems inevitable, will they necessarily be shut out from wholesome +contact with civilization? Not at all. Just how far personal and servile +contact can elevate the moral and manly tone of a people is not quite +evident. But the result of indirect missionary contact is, perhaps, the +surest way to lift a race into civilization. I point to Japan as a +recent, striking illustration of this argument. The black belts will +afford the richest field for missionary and philanthropic endeavor. No +section of this country can remain long in an uncivilized state or +relapse into barbarism that has in its midst a Hampton Institute or a +Booker T. Washington. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +_Subject._ Vital Statistics. + +_Gist._ "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 statistics are obtainable and which enter at all into the +consideration of economic problems as factors the Negro shows the least +power of resistance in the struggle for life."[18] + + + +DEATH RATE. + +Statistics are collected from ten of the largest cities with the result +that the death rate among the whites is 20.12 per 1000, and among the +blacks 32.61. It is acknowledged that the great bulk of this excess in +the colored death rate is due to infant mortality. This fact of itself +would suggest that the real cause is condition rather than race traits. +This truth shall be established out of the mouth of Mr. Hoffman's own +witness. "Fifty per cent of the (Negro) children who die never receive +medical attention."[19] + +"The indifference to medical attendance in cases of illness of their +children is due to ignorance."[20] To the ordinary mind this would imply +the most unfortunate condition. + + +BIRTH RATE. + +But the death rate is only one factor in the vital equation. The birth +rate is equally important. Mr. Hoffman concedes, with reluctant +reservation, that the colored birth rate may be greater than that of the +whites. "That the birth rate of the Negroes is in excess of that of the +white population is probably true even at the present time, at least as +compared with the native whites."[21] This is indeed a very feeble +admission of a very obvious fact. Mr. Hoffman contends that the death +rate of the Negro race is much greater than that of the whites. It has +already been shown that, leaving immigration out of account, the +increase in the Negro population is greater than that of the white race. +How can these two facts be accounted for except it be on the basis of a +higher birth rate for the blacks? Mr. Hoffman will have either to alter +his estimates or mend his logic. + +Direct testimony on this subject must have been known to Mr. Hoffman. Of +course no one is qualified to write on vital statistics in America who +is not familiar with the investigation of Dr. Billings. Let the reader +compare the following quotation as to the relative birth rate of the +races, and, noting date of data upon which the conclusion is based, +decide for himself as to the ingenuousness of Mr. Hoffman's reluctant +admission: "Dr. Billings, in his luminous report on the vital statistics +of the United States (1886) shows that 1000 colored women (age from 15 +to 49) give birth to 164 children, and 1000 white women to only 127, +yearly; that is to say, three colored women have as many children as +four white."[22] + + +IS THE NEGRO THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION. + +Before Mr. Hoffman's conclusion as to the threatening aspect of the high +death rate of the Negro race can be accepted, several questions must be +answered by him. + +1. Is the death rate of the colored race higher than that of a +corresponding class of whites subject to the same moral and social +environment? The general opinion is that it is not; nor does the author +attempt to prove the contrary. In discussing this question Dr. John S. +Billings states: "If we could separate the vital statistics of the poor +and ignorant whites, the tenement house population of our Northern +cities, from those of the mass of the white population we should +undoubtedly find a high rate of mortality in this class, and especially +in infancy and childhood."[23] + +2. Is the high death rate for the cities sustained throughout the +country at large? Luckily the census of 1880 gives a complete answer to +this question. The death rate of the United States in 1880 was 15.09 per +1000; South Carolina 15.80; Alabama 14.20; Mississippi 12.89; Georgia +13.97; Massachusetts 18.59; New York 17.38; Pennsylvania 14.92; New +Jersey 16.33. This shows plainly that the Southern states with the +largest Negro contingent do not show any higher death rate than the +Northern states where the Negro is not a considerable factor. There is +no evidence, certainly none brought forward by the author, to show that +the death rate of the Negro in the country at large is much in excess of +that of the whites. "In the rural districts the mortality of the Negro +is not excessive; it is in the cities and towns where he is brought into +close contact with the evils and vices of civilization that he dies so +rapidly."[24] + +3. Is the death rate, even in the cities, so great as to foreshadow +extinction? Nothing is great or small except by comparison. The death +rate among the Negroes in the large cities at present is not as great as +it was among the whites forty years ago; that is, if we may rely upon +the statistics which Mr. Hoffman himself has presented. + + _Mortality among Whites in Southern Cities._[25] + + City. Period. Death rate. + + Mobile, Ala. 1852-1855 54.39 + Charleston, S. C. 1851-1860 29.79 + Savannah, Ga. 1856-1860 37.19 + New Orleans, La. 1849-1860 59.60 + +Under improved sanitary regulations these rates have been lowered until +at present they are not at all alarming. May not the same improvement in +his environment effect similar changes in the death rate of the Negro? + +Let us compare the death rate of the Negro race with that of the Germans +as presented in the census of 1880. + + Colored + City. death rate. City. Death rate. + + Washington 32.60 Konigsberg 31.50 + Baltimore 32.81 Munich 33.40 + Richmond 28.48 Breslau 31.60 + Louisville 30.73 Cologne 27.00 + New Orleans 30.42 Strasburg 29.60 + +This high death rate of the American Negro does not exceed that of the +white race in other parts of the civilized globe. If race traits are +playing such havoc with the Negroes in America, what direful agent of +death, may we ask the author, is at work in the cities of his own +fatherland? + +4. Does the death rate among Negroes show a tendency to increase? In the +District of Columbia there has been a gradual decline in the death rate +of the Negro population from 40.78 in 1876 to 29.54 in 1896.[26] + +Again, Mr. Hoffman's statistics will show a steady improvement in +Southern cities for the last twenty years. + + _Death rate among Negroes in Southern Cities._[27] + + Death Death + City. Periods. rate. Periods. rate. + + Mobile, Ala. 1876-1880 39.74 1891-1893 30.91 + Charleston, S. C. 1876-1885 43.83 1886-1894 44.06 + Savannah, Ga. 1876-1880 51.66 1891-1894 32.26 + New Orleans, La. 1880-1884 52.35 1890-1894 39.42 + +A recent report of the Labor Bureau throws much light on the subject. + + _Annual Death Rate of the Colored Race for three quinquennial + periods._[28] + + City. 1880-1885. 1885-1890. 1890-1895. + + Atlanta 37.96 33.41 32.76 + Baltimore 36.15 30.52 32.47 + Charleston 44.08 46.74 41.43 + Memphis 43.01 29.35 21.11 + Richmond 40.34 38.83 34.91 + +This table shows an unmistakable decrease in the death rate for the +successive quinquennial periods. + +All of which tends to prove that this high death rate is due to +condition and is subject to sanitary check and control. + +In further confirmation of the fact that the death rate among Negroes is +on the decline, the Army records will afford valuable testimony. + + _Death rate of Colored Soldiers in the U. S. Army._[29] + + Average from 1883 to 1892 9.07 + Average in 1894 6.26 + Average in 1895 5.03 + +In 1895 it is lower than that of the white soldiers. The same general +law of a gradually decreasing death rate is here revealed. + +If the death rate of the Negro population in cities is not higher than +that of corresponding classes of whites; if the records of the census +for the country at large do not show it to be in excess of other +classes; if the highest rates are not above those of the whites a half +century ago, nor higher than those of other civilized communities of the +Caucasian race at the present time; and if this rate is constantly +decreasing under more favorable sanitary appliances--it is hard to +justify the author's position as to the low vital powers of the race, or +to reach the conclusion that extinction will be its ultimate fate. + + +THE NORTHERN NEGROES. + +In further proof of the low vitality of the Negro race the author shows +at great length that the race cannot thrive in the North. For every +Northern community for which statistics are available it appears that +the death rate is in excess of the birth rate. It does not seem to have +occurred to the author that economic and social environment may lead to +this deplorable result. Dr. Walker, in a publication which has already +been referred to, states: "The industrial _raison d'etre_ of the Negro +is here (in the South) found at its maximum. In the Northern states this +_raison d'etre_ wholly disappears. There is nothing, aside from a few +kinds of personal service, which the Negro can do which the white man +cannot do as well or perhaps better."[30] + +In the North the Negro race lives in industrial and social captivity; +not being in sufficient numbers to form an independent constituency, +they whine and pine over certain abstract principles of equality and +brotherhood, but which, alas, fade into impalpable air under the +application of a concrete test. They sit in the shadow of the tree of +liberty and boast of its protecting boughs, but must not aspire to +partake of the fruit thereof. The undershrubbery purchases shade and +protection at too dear a price when it sacrifices therefor the +opportunity of the glorious sunlight of heaven. No healthy, vigorous +breed can be produced in the shade. No wonder, then, that the productive +sensitiveness of the Northern Negro is affected by his industrial and +social isolation among an overshadowing people who regard him with a +feeling composed in equal parts of pity and contempt. + + +CONSUMPTION AMONG NEGROES. + +The author enters into the causes of mortality and points out that in +addition to infant mortality, which has already been noticed, +consumption, pneumonia, and vicious taints of blood are the most +alarming ones. With gloomy forebodings we are reminded that: "Its (the +Negro race) extreme liability to consumption alone would suffice to seal +its fate as a race."[31] + +The following citation will express the truth of the situation as +clearly as it is possible to do: "From close personal observation, +embracing a professional life of nearly forty years among the Negroes +and from data obtained from professional brethren in different sections +of the South, I have no hesitancy in declaring that insanity and +tuberculosis were rare diseases among the Negroes of the South prior to +emancipation. Indeed, many intelligent people of observation and full +acquaintance of the Negro have stated to me that they never saw a crazy +or consumptive Negro of unmixed blood until these latter years. The fact +of their comparative exemption from these ailments prior to emancipation +is so well established..."[32] + +"Man is an organized being, and is subject to certain laws which he +cannot violate with impunity. These laws affect him in the air he +breathes, the food he eats, the clothes he wears, and (in) every +circumstance surrounding his habilitation. In the wholesale violation of +these laws after the war, as previously stated, was laid the foundation +of the degeneration of the physical and mental condition of the Negro. +Licentiousness left its slimy trail of sometimes ineradicable disease +upon his physical being, and neglected bronchitis, pneumonia, and +pleurisy lent their helping hand toward lung degeneration."[33] + +It will be noticed that Dr. Miller accepts all the facts alleged by our +author, but places the causes squarely upon the ground of conditions, +habits and circumstances of life. He does not seem to be acquainted with +Mr. Hoffman's discovery of "race traits." The fact that under the +hygienic and dietary regime of slavery, consumption was comparatively +unknown among Negroes, but that under the altered conditions of +emancipation it has developed to a threatening degree, would persuade +any except the man with a theory, that the cause is due to the radical +changes in life which freedom imposed upon the blacks, rather than to +some malignant, capricious "race trait" which is not amenable to the law +of cause and effect, but which graciously suspended its operation for +two hundred years, and has now mysteriously selected the closing decades +of the nineteenth century in which to make a trial of its direful power. + +No people who work all day in the open air of a mild climate and who +sleep at night in huts and cabins where crack and crevice and skylight +admit abundant ventilation, will be subject to pulmonary weakness. Now +take the same people and transplant them to the large cities of a colder +climate, subject them to pursuits which do not call for a high degree of +bodily energy, crowd them into alley tenements where the windows are +used only for ornament and to keep out the "night air," and a single +door must serve for entrance, exit, and ventilation, and lung +degeneration is the inevitable result. The cause of the evil suggests +the remedy. The author in a previous chapter points out the threatening +evil of crowding into the cities; a counter movement which would cause a +return to the country, or would at least stay the mad urban movement, +would not only improve the economic status of the race but would also +benefit its physical and moral health. Here is an open field for +practical philanthropy and wise Negro leadership. + +The increase in consumption among Negroes is indeed a grave matter, but +it is possible to exaggerate its importance as sociological evidence. If +we listen to the alarmists and social agitators, we would find a hundred +causes, each of which would destroy the human race in a single +generation. The most encouraging evidence on this subject from the +Negro's point of view is afforded by the last report of the Surgeon +General of the United States Army. The statistics thus furnished are the +most valuable for comparative study, since they deal with the two races +on terms of equality, that is, the white and colored men are of about +the same ages and initial condition of health, they receive the same +treatment and are subject to the same diet, work, and social habits. "It +is to be noted, also," says the Surgeon General, "that during the past +two years the rates for consumption among the colored troops have fallen +so as to be much lower than those for the whites, whereas formerly they +were much higher."[34] + +The following table prepared by Mr. Hershaw, shows plainly the gradual +decrease of the death rate from consumption in Southern cities for the +past fifteen years. + + _Death rate per 1000 among Negroes from Consumption._[35] + + City. Period. Rate. Period. Rate. Period. Rate. + + Atlanta 1882-1885 50.20 1886-1890 45.88 1891-1895 43.48 + Baltimore 1886 58.65 1887 55.42 1892 49.41 + Charleston 1881-1884 72.20 1885-1889 68.08 1890-1894 57.66 + Memphis 1882-1885 65.35 1886-1890 50.30 1891-1895 37.78 + Richmond 1881-1885 54.93 1886-1890 41.63 1892-1895 34.74 + +It appears that the total death rate as well as that due to consumption +among Negroes reached the maximum about 1880 and has been on the gradual +decline ever since. + +Consumption is only one of the contributing causes of the total death +rate. It has been shown that the death rate from all causes does not +necessarily point to the extinction of the race. This being so, there is +no need of unnecessary alarm over a single factor; for in sociology, as +in mathematics, we cannot escape the fundamental truth that the whole is +greater than any of its parts. + + +VITAL CAPACITY AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY. + +The author's proposition as to the low vitality of the Negro and its +effect upon his economic efficiency is contrary alike to the traditional +and prevalent belief. The whole fabric of slavery rested upon the +assumption that the Negro was better able to resist the trying condition +of the southern climate than the white laborer. The industrial +reconstruction of the South is building upon the same foundation. No one +doubts that the Negro is able to resist certain miasmatic and febrific +diseases which are so destructive to the white race in the tropical +regions of the earth. Science and wise hygienic appliances have improved +the condition of the white race in this respect, it is true, but will +not the same appliances benefit the Negro in the same degree? + +Dr. Daniel H. Williams, surgeon-in-chief of the Freedmen's Hospital, at +Washington, D. C., informs me that during his professional experience he +has performed upward of 3000 surgical operations, one-fourth of which at +least were upon white patients, and that he has found unmistakable +evidence of higher vital power among the colored patients. I am also +informed that this is the general opinion of the medical profession. + +Although the author treats exhaustively the whole catalogue of diseases +and the numerous ills which flesh is heir to, it can be safely claimed +that he does not establish his main proposition set forth in the +beginning of the chapter, and that at least a Scotch verdict is +demanded: "not proven." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +_Subject._ Anthropometry. + +_Gist._ "In vital capacity, the most important of all physiological +characteristics, the tendency of the race has been downward."[36] + +Ample statistics are presented to show that in proportion to structure +the Negro is heavier than the white man. This fact, the author tells us, +is ordinarily considered favorable to a healthy development and freedom +from pulmonary weakness. "The elaborate investigations of the medical +department of the New York Mutual Life, in 1874, of the Washington Life, +in 1886, the Prudential Insurance 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 consumption."[37] + +In order to explain away this apparent advantage in favor of the Negro, +the author has invented a unique physiological principle, viz: "A +physiological law may hold good for one race and not for another."[38] +It is noticeable that the author applies this principle only when it +suits his convenience but withholds it whenever it runs across his +theory. + +By a series of measurements based, confessedly, upon insufficient data, +it is concluded that the Negro has a smaller lung capacity, smaller +chest expansion, and a higher rate of respiration than the white man, +and that the Mulatto is inferior to both the parent races in these vital +functions. These differences are considered a powerful factor in lung +degeneration, and proof positive of physical inferiority. In these +respects he tacitly repudiates his erstwhile principle that "a +physiological law may hold good for one race and not for another," and +assumes that the two races are subject to like conditions of disease and +death. + +On the whole it may be said that this is the least interesting chapter +in the whole book. The data are so slender and the arguments are so +evidently shaped to a theory, that we are neither enlightened by the one +nor convinced by the other. But the author's judgment must be justified. +The gloomy warning comes with Catonian regularity at the end of each +chapter. Listen to his last words: "A combination of these traits and +tendencies must in the end cause the extinction of the race."[39] + +If the Negro is inferior in vital function and power to the Caucasian, +he will be a public benefactor who scientifically demonstrates the fact. +But the colored race most stubbornly refuses to be argued out of +existence on an insufficient induction of data and unwarranted +conclusions deduced therefrom. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +_Subject._ Amalgamation. + +_Gist._ "The crossing of the Negro race with the white has been +detrimental to its true progress and has contributed more than anything +else to the excessive and increasing rate of mortality from the most +fatal disease, as well as to its consequent inferior social efficiency +and diminishing power as a force in American national life."[40] + +The importance of this proposition is apparent when we consider that the +Negroes in this country are a thoroughly mixed people. The pure African +type has been well nigh obliterated. It is pointed out also that the +mongrel progeny has been produced by illicit intercourse between the +white male and the black female. The moral and conservative qualities of +a race reside in its womanhood. The Negro people, then, have missed +these transmitted qualities. The author is either ignorant of or ignores +the large class of mixed Negroes who are the legitimate offspring of +colored parents, but would place the whole class under the ban of +bastardy. + +After judicially balancing the testimony furnished by world-renowned +authorities upon the effect of race crossing, the author espouses one +side of the contention with all the ardor of a retained advocate. + +Three points are sought to be established. + + +I. THE MULATTO IS PHYSICALLY INFERIOR TO BOTH PARENT RACES. + +The opinions of examining surgeons during the civil war are quoted which +quite unanimously show that the Mulatto is strongly inclined to +consumption, scrofula, and vicious taints of blood. + +The following table, made out on the basis of Gould's measurements, is +full of interest: + + White. Black. Mulatto. + + Weight 141.4 pounds. 144.6 pounds. 44.8 pounds. + Circumference chest 35.8 inches. 35.1 inches. 34.96 inches. + Capacity of lungs 184.7 cubic in. 163.5 cubic in. 158.9 cubic in. + Rate of respiration 16.4 per minute. 17.7 per minute. 19.0 per minute. + +It appears from this table that in the most important vital organs and +functions the Mulatto is inferior to both parent stocks. This opinion +is almost or quite universal among competent authorities upon this +subject. And yet the last word of science has not been uttered on this +question. There is no subject in all the domain of social science which +offers a more interesting or more fruitful field for investigation. The +Freedmen's Hospital at Washington, and similar institutions elsewhere, +by prosecuting accurate and scientific methods of inquiry can throw much +light upon this subject. + + +2. THE MULATTO IS MORALLY INFERIOR TO THE BLACKS. + +This alleged inferiority is attributable to the fact as well as to the +manner of generation. Strangely enough Mr. Hoffman does not employ the +statistics which would seem to bear out his suggestion. The eleventh +census shows that there were 10,377 pure and 3,218 mixed Negroes in +penitentiaries in 1890. Supposing that uniform methods of race-tests +were used throughout the census inquiry, this would show that while the +mixed Negroes constitute only 16 per cent of the total Negro population, +they furnished 30 percent of the penitentiary convicts. But these +figures cannot be relied upon since the census bureau acknowledges that +it has no definite method of determining the different shades of color +and grades of mixture among Negroes. + +It is also alleged in proof of this proposition that illicit intercourse +between the races is carried on mainly with the Mulatto women. Can this +not be explained on grounds other than native depravity? The light-colored +Negro woman is made the victim of the lustful onslaught of the male +element of both races. She is placed between the upper and nether stress +of the vicious propensities of white and black men. And if her sins are +greater, is it not because her temptations are greater also? The +following quotation from a distinguished Southerner is significant; +"There was little improper intercourse between white men and Negresses +of the original type in the period before emancipation (after the +creation of the Mulatto class)."[41] Every time a Negro woman is +indicted on this score some white man is inculpated. The reproach hurled +against colored women from such sources reminds us very much of the +lines in Butler's Hudibras: + + The selfsame thing they will abhor, + One way, and long another for. + + +3. THE MULATTO IS INTELLECTUALLY SUPERIOR TO THE BLACKS BUT INFERIOR TO +THE WHITES. + +In substantiation of this proposition it is claimed that the greater +number of Negroes who have attained distinction have been those of mixed +blood. The truth of this statement must be conceded, and yet the cause +should not be overlooked. Leaving aside the doctrine of inheritance as a +debatable question, the initial advantage of the mixed over the pure +Negroes was considerable. Feelings of blood ties prompted many a slave +holder to deal kindly by his slave descendants, and often to liberate +them and give them a start in the race of life. That an infusion of +white blood quickens the energy and enlivens the disposition of the +progeny is probably true; but that it adds to the intellectual capacity +is far from a self-evident proposition. The Negroes who have shown any +unusual intellectual activity, in America at least, have usually been of +the purer type. Phyllis Wheatly, Benjamin Banneker, Ira Aldridge, Blind +Tom, Edward W. Blyden, and Paul Dunbar are illustrations of this +argument. + +The investigation of Dr. Gould as to circumference of head and facial +angle are exhibited in the following table: + + White. Mulatto. Black. + + Circumference of head 22.1 inches. 22.0 inches. 21.9 inches. + Facial angle 72.0° 69.2° 68.8° + +A difference of one-tenth of an inch in head circumference and of +four-tenths of a degree in facial angle affords a very slender physical +basis on which to predicate intellectual superiority. + +The author lays great stress upon the following table made out by Dr. +Hunt. + + _Weight of the Brain of White and Colored Soldiers_.[42] + + No. of cases. Degree of color. Weight of brain. + + 24 White 1424 grammes. + 25 Three parts white 1390 " + 47 Half white 1334 " + 51 One-fourth white 1319 " + 95 One-eighth white 1308 " + 22 One-sixteenth white 1280 " + 141 Pure Negro 1341 " + +Twenty-four cases are taken to represent fifty million people, and the +law of averages thus obtained is confidently relied upon. Nor are we +informed as to what methods were employed to ascertain the exact +composition of blood of the 22 cases that are rated as one-sixteenth +white. But, supposing we accept this table, overlooking for the time +being the fact that the brain weight of one white person is taken as +typical of two million others, and also conceding the undisclosed method +of Dr. Hunt in detecting homeopathic dashes of white blood, does it +"clearly prove that there is an increase in the brain weight with an +increase in the proportion of white blood?" If this table shows anything +it is that the pure Negro and the Mulatto have about the same brain +weight and that they are both superior in this respect to all degrees of +mixture between them, but inferior to those of more than one-half white +blood. + +But it is rather unusual at this late day to base intellectual capacity +upon the shape and size of skull. Investigations have shown that facial +angle and capacity of cranium and cephalic index afford no certain +criterion of thought power or susceptibility to culture. The latest word +on this subject is given by Prof. Ripley, in a series of articles on +"Racial Geography of Europe," in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly for +1897. + +"An important point to be noted in this connection is that this shape of +the head seems to bear no direct relation to intellectual power or +intelligence. Posterior development of the cranium does not imply a +corresponding backwardness in culture.... Europe offers the best +refutation of the statement that the proportions of the head mean +anything intellectual.... In our study of the proportions of the head, +therefore, we are measuring merely race, and not intelligence in any +sense.... Equally unimportant to the anthropologist is the absolute size +of the head. It is grievous to contemplate the waste of energy when, +during our civil war, over one million of soldiers had their heads +measured in respect to this absolute size, in view of the fact that +today anthropologists deny any considerable significance attaching to +this characteristic. Popularly a large head with beetling eyebrows +suffices to establish a man's intellectual credit, but like all other +credit it is entirely dependent upon what lies on deposit +elsewhere."[43] + +A still more renowned authority tells us: "The development of the +intellectual faculties of man is to a great extent independent of the +capacity of the cranium and the volume of the brain."[44] + +The question of the relative intellectual capacity of the different +races is one of much speculative interest. I am giving the matter more +attention than it would seem to warrant, because the author makes the +supposed mental inferiority of the race the basis of the only practical +suggestion which he has to offer, viz: that all of our educational and +philanthropic endeavor so far has been based upon wrong principles, and +a radical change in this regard is demanded so as to bring the treatment +in harmony with the capabilities of the lower race. Several authorities +will be cited which, I think, will be more than sufficient to offset Mr. +Hoffman's insistent opinion. + +"There are hundreds if not thousands of black men in this country who in +capacity are to be ranked with the superior persons of the dominant +race; and it is hard to say that in any evident feature of mind they +characteristically differ from their white fellow citizens."[45] + +Prof. Shaler is himself a Southerner, a professor in Harvard University, +and a noted student of current problems. + +"Granting the present inferiority of the Negro, we affirm that it has +never been proved; nor is there any good reason to suppose that he is +doomed forever to maintain his present relative position, or that he is +inferior to the white man in any other sense than as some white races +are inferior to others."[46] + +"Yet the Negro children exhibit no intellectual inferiority; they make +just the same progress in the subjects taught as do the children of +white parents, and the deficiency they exhibit later in life is of quite +a different kind."[47] + +Mr. Hoffman compels us once more to combat the arguments of the slave +holding class: that is, that the Negro is intellectually and morally an +inferior creature (they did not, however, affirm physical inferiority) +and that it is only by servile contact with the white race that his +nature can be improved. The progress along these lines which the race +has made even under the severest disadvantages is sufficient answer to +this argument. + + If I'm designed yon lordling's slave, + By nature's law designed, + Why was an independent wish + E'er planted in my mind? + +The Negro's intellectual and social environments hang as a millstone +about his neck; and when he is cast upon the sea of opportunity he is +reproached with everlasting inferiority because he does not swim an +equal race with those who are not thus fettered. We are reminded of the +barbarous Teutons in Titus Andronicus who, after pulling out the tongue +and cutting off the hands of the lovely Lavinia, upbraid her for not +calling for sweet water with which to wash her delicate hands. + +No, no, Mr. Hoffman, the philanthropists have made no mistake. They have +proceeded on the supposition that the Negro has faculty for faculty and +power for power with the rest of his fellow men, and that his special +needs grow out of his peculiar condition. Any alteration in this policy +would violate the dictates both of science and humanity. + + +MIXED MARRIAGES. + +The remainder of this rather long chapter is devoted to the number and +character of mixed marriages, with the conclusion that the number is on +the decrease and the character of one or both of the contracting parties +is usually unsavory, and that such unions can form no determining factor +in the ultimate solution of the problem. + +A study of the fertility of such marriages and the physical, moral, and +intellectual stamina of the progeny would furnish valuable sociological +data. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +_Subject._ Social Conditions. + +_Gist._ "Immorality is a race trait."[48] + + +RELIGION AND EDUCATION. + +Under the sub-heads of religion and education statistics are presented +showing the progress of the race along these lines. A total church +membership of 2,673,977 shows that there is one communicant to every +2.79 of the Negro population, against one in every 3.04 for the whites. +There were 1,288,736 pupils in the common schools and 34,129 in the +higher schools, colleges, and universities. Ordinarily these facts are +regarded as the most wonderful evidences of progress which the world has +ever witnessed on the part of a backward people. But not so with Mr. +Hoffman; the necessities of his theories compel him to explain away +every apparent advantage in favor of the Negro. The author announces +with an implied negative response to the suppressed question: "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."[49] + +This statement needs no refutation, for it will fall beneath the +ponderous weight of its own absurdity. + + +CRIMINAL RECORD. + +The following table, if unexplained, tells a startling tale of the +Negro's criminal propensity: + + _Prisoners in the United States, 1890._[50] + + Total. Male. Female. + + White 58,052 53,519 4,433 + Colored 24,277 22,305 1,972 + + Male, Female, + per cent. per cent. + + Proportion of Negro criminals to total (over 15) 29.38 30.79 + Proportion of Negro population to total (over 15) 10.20 11.09 + +The Negro element, which constitutes only 12 per cent of the population, +commits 30 per cent of the crimes. Before concluding that this +preponderance of crime is due to "race traits," let us examine more +closely into the circumstances of the case. The discrepancy in the +administration of the law in the South has undoubtedly some effect upon +this relative showing. In order to escape the charge of slander, I will +use the words of a distinguished Virginian who boasts of "my southern +ancestry, birth, rearing, residence and interest." + +"And is not the law the same for all, and does it make any distinction +between rich and poor, white and black? Literally, the law is the same +for all. Then what more can be desired? The trouble is not that the laws +are partial, through some of its enactments, namely, the whipping-post, +chain-gang, and poll-tax laws, were aimed principally against the Negro; +but the trouble is with the interpretation of the laws by the juries, +who merely voice the public sentiment, which is superior to the law +itself. The average jury is a whimsical creature, subject to all kinds +of influences, though mostly of a sentimental character. In criminal +matters where whites are concerned, it seems ever to lean to the +defense; and the strongest arguments of the prosecution are easily +offset and upset by appeals on behalf of youth, family, station, +respectability, etc.; or, perhaps the whole family, weeping, is placed +in full view of the jury, and the susceptible jury, sure at least in +such cases to weep with them that weep, speedily brings in a verdict of +acquittal where guilt is clearly manifest; or it says jail where it +ought to say penitentiary; or one year where it ought to say ten; and +ten years where it ought to pronounce death. But the Negro has none of +these sentimental advantages. Too poor to employ competent counsel, his +liberty and life are necessarily committed to incompetent hands, when +the proverb of 'poor pay, poor preach' becomes reality ... But are +Negroes treated unfairly by juries and public opinion? Yes, and the +experience and observation of every fair-minded man will confirm the +assertion. One cardinal proof is that a white man seldom receives +punishment for assault, however brutal, however unprovoked, however +cowardly, be it maiming, homicide, or murder upon a Negro unless, +forsooth, the assailant be some degraded creature, disowned by his own +caste. Of the numberless instances--running into the thousands--during +the past twenty-three years, of homicide and murder of blacks by whites, +there is no single instance of capital punishment, and few, very few, +instances of imprisonment beyond a few months in jail, or a slight fine. +The fact is the juries, which are the sole judges of the evidence, will +accept testimony against a Negro that they would reject in the case of +whites; and on the other hand they will frequently reject, or at least +discredit, testimony of the Negro against the white man, however well +supported it may be. But to compound for sins we are inclined to by +damning those we have no mind to, in case of any difficulty between +white and black, and the former is injured or loses his life, lucky is +the latter if the homicide is not declared murder--when courts of +justice, though sure to inflict the highest penalty in his case, are +found to be too slow, and he is dragged forth and slain, unshrived and +unshriven, as if he were a monstrous wild beast of whose presence earth +could not be rid too quickly."[51] + +The social degradation of the Negro is the greatest factor contributive +to this high criminal record. We naturally associate poverty, +ignorance, and crime as being indissolubly connected. The Negroes +represent the stratum of society which commits the bulk of crime the +world over. If we exchange places the same story would be narrated of +the whites. The census records nowhere show that there is any connection +between crime and race, but between crime and condition. + +The Negro has a higher criminal record than the Caucasian, it is true, +but so has the foreigner a greater average than the native whites. The +strongest possible argument in this connection rests upon the fact that +the presence of a large number of Negroes in any community does not +increase its total criminal average. The North Atlantic division, +including the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, has a +criminal record of 833.1 to the million, while the South Atlantic +division, including the states of the Southern Atlantic coast shows a +record of 831.7. The Western division has an average of 1300. The +section that has the fewest Negroes has the highest average, and the +states that have the largest quota of blacks show the lowest criminal +rates. If we compare state with state the same interesting results are +revealed. The criminal record of New York (million basis) is 1369, of +South Carolina 702.6, of California 1703, of Alabama 720.1. + +But, says the objector, a difference in the rigidity of the enforcement +of the law may account in some measure for this disparity. Let us then +take the city of Washington, one-third of whose population are Negroes, +and compare its police reports with those of Boston, whose Negro element +is a negligible fraction. It will be conceded, I think, that the +enforcement of law in both cities is rigid. The major of police for the +District of Columbia, in his last report remarks: "Those familiar with +the conduct of police affairs in this country generally contend that +there is a constant increase of crime; that it keeps pace with the +growing population. While such may be true of the principal cities of +the United States, facts and figures support the claim of this +department that in this respect the District of Columbia occupies a +distinct standing of its own. Its comprehensive moral status is above +that of most communities. Were it not for the depredations chargeable to +theft, there would be comparatively little crime to chronicle. This +offense must always exist here, unless through some unexpected agency a +complete change should be effected in the social conditions which +prevail. The abiding place of a large class of idle, illiterate, and +consequently vicious persons, it is but reasonable that the respectable +element should be preyed upon to a considerable extent."[52] + +The percentage of arrests for Boston during 1896 was 9.37, whereas for +Washington it was only 8 and a fraction. These facts would seem to +furnish sufficient evidence that crime adheres to circumstances and +condition and not to race and color. + +But, says the author, in the North (where legal processes are +acknowledgly fair so far as the Negro is concerned) the race shows a +criminal record which is out of all proportion to its numerical +strength. In Pennsylvania 2.23 per cent of its population commit 16.16 +per cent of the crimes; in Chicago 1.30 of the population are +responsible for 9.84 of the offenses, and so for other Northern +communities. The Negro's criminal status is from six to eight times +greater than his numerical weight. It has been shown in another place +that from a social and economic standpoint the Northern Negro is +completely submerged. The criminal outbreak under the circumstances is +only natural. + +It is also true that where numbers are small proportions are high. The +startling criminal showing of the Northern Negro can be accounted for +largely on this principle. Suppose that there were but one Chinaman in a +community, and coming, as he naturally would, into hostile contact with +a wide area, he should be arrested and convicted. The criminal records +of that community would show that one hundred per cent of the Chinese +population belonged to the criminal class. + +I append the following table, extracted from the census of 1880, to +establish this principle. The Negro in the country at large shows a much +higher criminal rate than the foreign whites, but if we limit our +inquiry to those states where the foreign population is small, the +conditions will be reversed. + + _Number of prisoners in several southern states (to the million + of population.)_ + + State. Foreign white. Colored. + + Florida 2,624 1,797 + Georgia 2,272 2,181 + Louisiana 1,810 1,728 + Mississippi 2,498 1,783 + +If, on the other hand, we select those states in which the Negro element +is small and the foreign element large the result is very decidedly to +the disadvantage of the Negro. + +The Northern Negro has a criminal record which is not only out of all +proportion to his numerical strength, but is two or three times as great +as that of his black brothers in the South. It is hard to see how "race +traits" could account for this discrepancy. + + +RAPE AND LYNCHING. + +The attempts at rape and the consequent lynchings are also offered in +evidence of the evil propensity of the race. It is undoubtedly true that +the alleged assaults upon white women by colored men have done more than +all other causes combined to give the race an evil reputation and make +it loathsome in the eyes of mankind. "It throws over every colored man a +mantle of odium and sets upon him a mark for popular hate more +distressing than the mark set upon the first murderer ... It has cooled +our friends and heated our enemies."[53] + +The alleged culprit in such cases, especially if he be a colored man and +the victim a white woman, is almost certain to die without due process +of law. The native, savage furor of human nature asserts itself in the +presence of such dastardly outrages, and neither legal enactments nor +moral codes nor religious sanction can restrain it. The perpetrators +cannot be defended or pitied. It is a waste of sympathy to wail over the +deep damnation of their taking off. And yet we must remember that when +the two races are concerned rape has a larger definition than is set +down in the dictionaries. There can be no doubt that there have been +many lynchings chargeable to rape, when the true cause should be +designated by a different, though an ugly name. + +Let us not forget, also, that not more than one-third of the lynchings +are even chargeable to rape. The causes include the whole catalogue of +offenses, serious and trifling, from the committal of murder to jostling +against a white man on the street. The attempt to show that lynching and +rape are coextensive is misleading and unjust. + +So the effort to show that rapeful assaults are due to "race traits" +can, I think, be clearly disproved. In a pamphlet which is certainly +not flattering to the Negro, a learned medical authority tells us: "I +might remark in passing that, notwithstanding the horrible crimes +perpetrated under the influence of the _furor sexualis_ by the Negro, I +believe that he compares quite favorably as regards sexual +impulses--taking all abnormalities into consideration--with the white +race. The more I see of white men in so-called refined society, the more +contempt have I for quite a large proportion of male humanity."[54] + +To summarize the points of the argument, showing that rape is not +peculiarly characteristic of the Negro: + +1. Rape has been practiced among all races and nations. + +2. The committal of rape by white men is by no means an infrequent +occurrence. Two instances of white men committing heinous assaults upon +white children occurred in Washington during the preparation of this +article. + +3. In Africa rape is so severely punished that it is comparatively +unknown. + +4. In the British Islands and in South America where the Negroes live in +greatest relative abundance, the crime is unheard of. + +5. When the care and safety of the white women of the South were +entrusted to the keeping of the slaves, they returned inviolable all +that had been entrusted to their hands. + +6. Of the hundreds of lady missionaries of the North who have trusted +their lives and virtue to the emancipated race whom they came to uplift, +not a single case of violation has been reported to their friends at the +North. + + +SOCIAL MORALITY. + +The present state of social morality is mirrored in the number of +illegitimate offsprings. The figures which show that the rate of +illegitimacy among Negroes in Washington has increased from 17.60 per +cent of total births in 1879 to 26.46 per cent in 1894 have been widely +quoted and remarked upon. These are facts of record and cannot be +gainsaid or denied. According to the opinion of medical men and others +in positions to observe, these figures if anything fall short of the +truth. It is also probable that the other large cities of the country, +if as closely studied, would make as startling a showing. The only +alarming feature of the situation is the constant _increase_ in the +illegitimate rates. That twenty-five per cent of the births among +Negroes are illegitimate will not alarm anyone where it is considered +that even this low moral status represents a gain of seventy-five per +cent over the conditions prevailing under slavery. + +Mr. Hoffman having on hand a theory, was spared the pains of inquiring +further into the causes which led to this deplorable state of things. +The reviewer suggests that this increase in social immorality among the +Negroes of Washington is due to the great rush of ignorant, purposeless +colored people to the national capital, a condition of things which +always leads, in its first effect, to social looseness and impurity. The +very late marriages among the better element of the colored people also +help to account for this awful state of things. But perhaps a greater +than any cause yet assigned as leading to the social degradation of +Negroes in cities is the excess of the female over the male element of +the population. On account of the importance of this subject, I append a +table showing this excess for the cities whose colored population is +over 20,000. + + _Colored population._ + + Number of + Colored Colored Excess of females to + City. males. females. females. every 100 + males. + + Baltimore 29,165 38,131 8,966 131 + Richmond 14,216 18,138 3,922 128 + Atlanta 12,400 15,717 3,317 127 + Washington 33,831 41,866 8,035 123 + New Orleans 28,936 35,727 6,791 123 + Nashville 13,334 16,061 2,727 120 + Charleston 14,187 16,849 2,662 119 + Savannah 10,493 12,485 1,992 119 + Memphis 13,333 15,396 2,063 115 + Louisville 13,348 15,324 1,976 115 + Philadelphia 18,960 21,414 2,454 113 + St. Louis 13,247 13,819 572 104 + New York 12,649 13,025 376 103 + ------ ------ ------ --- + Total 228,099 273,952 45,875 120 + +Such a disproportion between the sexes can forbode no good to society. +In the West, where the male element predominates over the female among +the white population, the evil effect on society is painfully apparent. +If every colored man in Washington were married and every male minor had +a mate selected for him, there would still be left Negro females enough +to form a manless community larger than Annapolis, Md. Now, no one +should wonder at the moral corruption under these circumstances. These +8000 females, for whom marriage is impossible, be it remembered, are not +restrained by the inhibitory influence of pride, station, and +self-esteem. This is no doubt the greatest evil which threatens the +social integrity of Negro life, and forms the most serious and +perplexing of our city problems. + +As startling as the records of crime and immorality are, they are only +the outgrowth of circumstances and conditions. Human nature at best is +weak, and under fostering circumstances has always yielded to the power +of sin and uncleanliness. The author tells us that immorality is a race +trait. This is sadly too true, but it is a human race trait, and is +limited to no particular variety thereof. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +_Subject._ Economic Conditions. + +_Gist._ "As a general conclusion it may be said that the Negro has not +yet learned the first element of Anglo-Saxon thrift."[55] + + +THE NEGRO AS A FARM HAND. + +Attempt is made to show that the Negro has deteriorated as a farm +laborer, and that as an industrial factor he has not held his own in the +development of the resources of the South. With a process of reasoning +with which we are fully familiar by this time, these assertions are +sought to be upheld. The decline in agricultural interests throughout +the country has had its effect upon the apparent efficiency of the +farming class everywhere. The mad rush to the cities, with a vain hope +of improvement in condition, has well nigh demoralized agricultural +pursuits. + + +THE NEGRO AS AN INDUSTRIAL FACTOR. + +The investigations which have been undertaken to determine the industrial +efficiency of the Negro have shown results not unfavorable to him. The +recent discharge of white workmen in the cotton mills of Charleston, and +the substitution of colored workmen in their places, is quite significant. +The hindrances which the Negro has to meet in the industrial field are +fully suggested in the address to the public of the discharged white +employes of the Charleston establishment: "If the colored man's status +precludes him from competing with the office-holder, it should exclude +him from competing with our wives, sons, and daughters in the light +pursuits of the country. We affirm, by our physical powers and brave +hearts, not to sit supinely by and witness this Negro horde turned loose +upon the pursuits of our mothers, our wives, our widows, our daughters, +our sisters, and rob them of their living."[56] + +This is the solemn declaration of 800 workmen in the metropolis of South +Carolina, and represents fairly the white labor sentiment of the South. +The trades unions and labor organizations preach the same doctrine. If +the alleged low industrial efficiency of the Negro is to be chargeable +to race traits, it should be attributed to the domineering and +intolerant race traits of the white workmen who are not disposed to give +the colored man a fair chance. The fact that in almost every contention +between white and colored workmen the employers take the side of the +Negro, is an eloquent argument in behalf of the industrial merits of the +latter; for these employers are in the business for profit and not for +philanthropy. + + +ACCUMULATION OF PROPERTY. + +The accumulation of property on the part of the blacks shows that in +Georgia they own $12,941,230, in North Carolina $8,018,446, and in +Virginia $13,933,908. The land held by the colored people in Virginia +alone has an area nearly equal to that of the State of Rhode Island. +These facts make a decidedly favorable showing. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Conclusion. + +The need of this chapter is hardly apparent, for the author's conclusion +is as clearly set forth in the beginning as at the close of the +treatise. As to his leading conclusion, the author is not only out of +harmony with the general opinion prevalent among students of the Negro +problem, but is also strangely inconsistent with his former self. The +same author who in 1896, wrote: "It is not in the condition of life, but +in the race traits and tendencies, that we find the cause of excessive +mortality,"[57] in 1892 affirmed: "The colored population is placed at +many disadvantages which it cannot very well remove. The unsanitary +condition of their dwellings, their ignorance of the laws of health, and +general poverty are the principal causes of their high mortality."[58] +The Frederick L. Hoffman of 1892, according to the general judgment, is +much nearer the true analysis than the Frederick L. Hoffman of 1896. + +The author's conclusion will not stand the philosophical tests of a +sound theory. + +1. It is based upon disputed data. The accuracy of the eleventh census +is not acceptable either to the popular or the scientific mind. + +2. It is not based upon a sufficient induction of data. The arguments at +most apply to the Negroes in the large cities, who constitute less than +12 per cent of the total population. + +3. It does not account for the facts arranged under it as satisfactorily +as can be done under a different hypothesis. The author fails to +consider that the discouraging facts of observation may be due to the +violent upheaval of emancipation and reconstruction, and are, therefore, +only temporary in their duration. + +I do not know whether the author believes in Providence as a determining +factor in society or not. It may not be accounted scientific to take +cognizance of any element which cannot be quantified, counted, weighed, +or measured. But I do know that the wisest of our species have always +believed that God is the controlling factor in human affairs. The +Negro's hopes and aspirations are built upon the foundation of this +belief. We are told in His word that he visits the sins of the fathers +upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. If the Negro, +then, will conform his life to the moral and sanitary laws, may not the +evil tendencies now observable be eradicated or overcome? The first +effects of emancipation are always harmful to the moral and physical +well-being of the liberated class. The removal of physical restraints, +before moral restraints have grown strong enough to take their place, +must always result in misconduct. The Jews in Egypt labored under +circumstances remarkably similar to those of the American Negro. After +their emancipation, it required them forty years to make the progress +which the scientific process would have required them to make in forty +days. Such was their moral and physical degeneracy, that only two +persons of all the hosts who left the land of Egyptian bondage survived +to reach the Promised Land forty years afterward. Luckily for the +Hebrews, there were no statisticians in those days. Think of the future +which an Egyptian philosopher would have predicted for this people! And +yet out of the loins of this race have sprung the moral and spiritual +law-givers of mankind. We should not be discouraged because the Negro +does not make a bee-line from Egyptian bondage to the Promised Land +beyond the Jordan. He, too, must tarry awhile in the wilderness before +he enters upon the full enjoyment of the heritage of freedom. + +To the Negro I would say, let him not be discouraged at the ugly facts +which confront him. The sociologists are flashing the searchlight of +scientific inquiry upon him. His faults lie nearer the surface and are +more easily detected than those of the white race. Let him not be +overwhelmed when all his faults are observed, set in a note book, +learned and conned by rote, to be cast into his teeth. If all the ugly +facts about any people were brought to light they would furnish an +unpleasant record. When the Savior told the woman of Samaria all that +she ever did, a very unsavory career was disclosed. If all the misdeeds +of any people or individual were brought to light, the best of the race +would be injured and the rest would be ruined. The Negro should accept +the facts with becoming humility, and strive to live in closer +conformity with the requirements of human and divine law. He does not +labor under a destiny of death from which there is no escape. It is a +condition and not a theory that confronts him. + +KELLY MILLER. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Author's preface. + +[2] Page 51. + +[3] Page 95. + +[4] Page 95. + +[5] Page 176. + +[6] Page 312. + +[7] Page 311. + +[8] Frederick L. Hoffman, in the Arena, April, 1892. + +[9] Giddings' "Principles of Sociology," page 79. + +[10] Senator Roger Q. Mills, in the Forum, April, 1891. + +[11] Estimated by General Francis A. Walker, Forum, July, 1891. + +[12] W. E. B. Du Bois, Ph. D., in the American Academy of Political +Science, January, 1897. + +[13] Miles Menander Dawson, in the Quarterly Publications of the +American Statistical Association, September-December, 1896, page 142. + +[14] Page 14. + +[15] General Francis A. Walker, Forum, July, 1891. + +[16] Page 20. + +[17] See New York Evangelist, June, 1897. + +[18] Page 37. + +[19] The Health Officer of Savannah, quoted by Mr. Hoffman, page 62. + +[20] Page 63. + +[21] Page 33. + +[22] M. G. Mulhall, F. S. S., in North American Review, July, 1897. + +[23] Tenth Census, Vol. XI, p. xxxviii. + +[24] Dr. John S. Billings' comments upon Vital Statistics of the Tenth +Census, Vol. XI, p. xxxviii. + +[25] Pages 53 and 54. + +[26] Report of the Health Officer of the District of Columbia, 1896, +page 7. + +[27] Pages 53 and 55. + +[28] Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 10, May, 1897, page 286. + +[29] Surgeon General's Report, 1896, Table XII. + +[30] Dr. Francis A. Walker, in the Forum, July, 1891. + +[31] Page 148. + +[32] "The Effects of Emancipation upon the Mental and Physical Health of +the Negro," by Dr. J. F. Miller, Superintendent Eastern Hospital, +Goldsboro, N. C., page 2. + +[33] Ibid., page 6. + +[34] Report of Surgeon General of the Army, August, 1896, page 89. + +[35] L. M. Hershaw, Esq., in Atlanta University Bulletin, No. 2. page +16. + +[36] Page 176. + +[37] Page 149. + +[38] Page 158. + +[39] Page 176. + +[40] Page 188. + +[41] "Plantation Negro as a Freeman," by Phillip A. Bruce, pages 53 and +54. + +[42] Page 185. + +[43] Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, March, 1897. + +[44] A. De Quatrefages' "Human Species," chapter XXX. + +[45] Prof. N. S. Shaler, Arena, December, 1890. + +[46] Wm. Matthews, LL. D., on Negro Intellect, North American Review, +July, 1889. + +[47] Benjamin Kidd's "Social Evolution," page 295. + +[48] Page 95. + +[49] Page 216. + +[50] Page 218. + +[51] "The Prosperity of the South Dependent upon the Elevation of the +Negro," L. H. Blair, pages 55-58. + +[52] Report of Metropolitan Police Department for the year 1896, page +11. + +[53] Frederick Douglass' "Lessons of the Hour," page 8. + +[54] "Sexual Crimes among the Southern Negroes," by Drs. Hunter McGuire +and G. Frank Lydstron, page 8. + +[55] Page 307. + +[56] The Literary Digest, July 24, 1897, page 361. + +[57] "Race Traits and Tendencies," by Frederick L. Hoffman, page 95. + +[58] "Vital Statistics of the Negro," by Frederick L. Hoffman, Arena, +April, 1892. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "embraciug" corrected to "embracing" (page 10) + "communinities" corrected to "communities" (page 14) + "natarally" corrected to "naturally" (page 29) + "henious" corrected to "heinous" (page 31) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and +Tendencies of the American Negro, by Kelly Miller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS *** + +***** This file should be named 31279-8.txt or 31279-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/7/31279/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro + The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 1 + +Author: Kelly Miller + +Release Date: February 15, 2010 [EBook #31279] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h3>The American Negro Academy.</h3> +<h3>Occasional Papers, No. 1.</h3> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h1>A REVIEW</h1> +<h3>of</h3> +<h1>HOFFMAN’S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO,</h1> +<p> </p> +<h4>BY</h4> +<h1>KELLY MILLER.</h1> +<p> </p><p> </p> +<h4>Price, Twenty-five Cents.</h4> +<h4>WASHINGTON, D. C.<br />PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY.<br />1897.</h4> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>OCCASIONAL PAPERS.</h3> +<table width="80%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="papers"> +<tr><td class="hang">No. 1.—<span class="smcap">A Review of Hoffman’s Race Traits and +Tendencies of the American Negro.</span>—Kelly Miller</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="right">25 Cts.</td></tr> + +<tr><td class="hang">No. 2.—<span class="smcap">The Conservation of Races.</span>—W. E. +Burghardt DuBois</td><td> </td><td align="right">15 Cts.</td></tr></table> + +<p> </p> +<p>Orders may be sent to John H. Wills, 506 Eleventh Street N. W., Washington, D. C.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> +<h2>A REVIEW OF HOFFMAN’S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO.</h2> + +<p>In August, 1896, there was published, under the auspices of the American +Economic Association, a work entitled “Race Traits and Tendencies of the +American Negro,” by Frederick L. Hoffman, F. S. S., statistician to the +Prudential Insurance Company of America. This work presents by far the +most thorough and comprehensive treatment of the Negro problem, from a +statistical standpoint, which has yet appeared. In fact, it may be +regarded as the most important utterance on the subject since the +publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin;” for the interest which the famous +novel aroused in the domain of sentiment and generous feelings, the +present work seems destined to awaken in the field of science and exact +inquiry.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hoffman has spent ten years in painful and laborious investigation +of the subject, during which time he has been in touch with the fullest +sources of information, and has had the advice and assistance of the +highest living authorities in statistics and social science. The temper +of mind which he brought to this study may be judged from his own words: +“Being of foreign birth, a German, I was fortunately free from a +personal bias which might have made an impartial treatment of the +subject difficult.”<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> There are other assurances that the author +possesses no personal animosity or repugnance against the Negro as such. +But, freedom from conscious personal bias does not relieve the author +from the imputation of partiality to his own opinions beyond the warrant +of the facts which he has presented. Indeed, it would seem that his +conclusion was reached from <i>a priori</i> considerations and that facts +have been collected in order to justify it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>The main conclusion of the work is that the Negro race in America is +deteriorating physically and morally in such manner as to point to +ulterior extinction, and that this decline is due to “race traits” +rather than to conditions and circumstances of life. Not only do we find +this conclusion expressly set forth in connection with every chapter, +but it is also easily discernible in foot notes and quotations, in the +general drift of cited references, and between the lines. In order to +give the clearest possible statement of the author’s position his own +words will be used.</p> + +<p>“The conditions of life therefore ... would seem to be of less +importance than race and heredity.”<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small></p> + +<p>“It is not the <i>conditions of life</i> but in <i>the race traits and +tendencies</i> that we find the causes of the excessive mortality.”<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small></p> + +<p>“For the root of the evil lies in the fact of an immense amount of +immorality, which is a race trait.”<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small></p> + +<p>“A combination of these traits and tendencies must in the end cause the +extinction of the race.”<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small></p> + +<p>“It is not in the conditions of life but in race and heredity that we +find the explanation.”<small><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></small></p> + +<p>“The mixture of the African with the white 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.”<small><a name="f7.1" id="f7.1" href="#f7">[7]</a></small></p> + +<p>If the reader will keep constantly in mind the key suggested by these +quotations, he will peruse the book itself as well as this review with +greater ease and facility.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p><i>Subject.</i> Population.</p> + +<p><i>Gist.</i> “For some generations the colored element may continue to make +decennial gains, but it is very probable that the next thirty years will +be the last to show total gains, and then the decrease will be slow but +sure until final disappearance.”<small><a name="f8.1" id="f8.1" href="#f8">[8]</a></small></p> + +<p>I have taken this quotation from another work by the same author as it +represents more clearly than any other condensed statement the substance +of the present chapter. This proposition is a most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> important one, and +therefore its establishment needs to be inquired into with the greatest +particularity. If a race does not possess the requisite physical +stamina, it is impossible for it to maintain a high degree of moral and +intellectual culture or compete with its more vigorous rivals in the +race of civilization.</p> + +<p>“All the elements of society are conserved in its physical basis, the +social population.”<small><a name="f9.1" id="f9.1" href="#f9">[9]</a></small></p> + +<p>Since the author relies mainly upon the eleventh census for facts to +establish his conclusion, and since the accuracy of this census is +widely controverted, we may fairly call upon him to prove his document +before it can be admitted in evidence.</p> + +<p>The following quotation from Senator Mills reflects the opinion of many +eminent students of public problems as to the accuracy of this +enumeration: “The announcement that our population is only 62,662,250 +was a genuine surprise, not only to those who looked for the dark side +of the picture, but also to those whose faith in the administration and +its census bureau had never for a moment wavered. The census of 1880 +gave 50,155,783. The present returns give an increase of 12,466,476, +which is at the rate of 24.86 per cent. That this number is not even +approximately correct may be seen by comparing the increase in this +decade with the gain in others which have preceded it. Any alleged fact +that is without the pale of probability stands impeached at the very +threshold of the inquiry, and must be verified by competent evidence.” +Basing his estimates upon the school census, the Senator continues: “The +state of Texas is deprived, by the incorrect returns, of at least three +representatives in Congress. Alabama loses 240,000, Tennessee and North +Carolina 170,000 each, and Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana 100,000 +each.”<small><a name="f10.1" id="f10.1" href="#f10">[10]</a></small> Whatever force there may be in the protest of the eloquent +Texas Senator, applies with special emphasis to the colored element; for +it goes without saying that errors in enumeration in the South would be +confined mainly to the Negro race, and since the bulk of the race is +confined to this section such errors would have a most disastrous effect +upon its rate of increase as shown by the census reports.</p> + +<p>The following table exhibits the development of the colored population +for the last one hundred years, as well as its decennial rates of +increase and percentage of the total population.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<h4><i>Colored Population of the United States.</i></h4> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="Colored Population"> +<tr><td valign="bottom">Year.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Colored<br />Population.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Decennial<br />Increase.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Increase per cent<br />in 10 years.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Per cent<br />of total<br />population.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>1790</td><td> </td><td align="right">757,208</td><td> </td><td align="center">........</td><td> </td><td align="center">.....</td><td> </td><td align="center">19.27</td></tr> +<tr><td>1800</td><td> </td><td align="right">1,002,037</td><td> </td><td align="right">244,829</td><td> </td><td align="center">32.33</td><td> </td><td align="center">18.88</td></tr> +<tr><td>1810</td><td> </td><td align="right">1,377,808</td><td> </td><td align="right">375,771</td><td> </td><td align="center">37.50</td><td> </td><td align="center">19.03</td></tr> +<tr><td>1820</td><td> </td><td align="right">1,771,656</td><td> </td><td align="right">393,848</td><td> </td><td align="center">28.50</td><td> </td><td align="center">18.39</td></tr> +<tr><td>1830</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,328,642</td><td> </td><td align="right">556,986</td><td> </td><td align="center">31.44</td><td> </td><td align="center">18.10</td></tr> +<tr><td>1840</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,873,648</td><td> </td><td align="right">545,006</td><td> </td><td align="center">23.44</td><td> </td><td align="center">16.84</td></tr> +<tr><td>1850</td><td> </td><td align="right">3,638,808</td><td> </td><td align="right">765,169</td><td> </td><td align="center">26.63</td><td> </td><td align="center">15.69</td></tr> +<tr><td>1860</td><td> </td><td align="right">4,441,830</td><td> </td><td align="right">803,022</td><td> </td><td align="center">22.07</td><td> </td><td align="center">14.13</td></tr> +<tr><td>1870<small><a name="f11.1" id="f11.1" href="#f11">[11]</a></small></td><td> </td><td align="right">5,391,000</td><td> </td><td align="right">949,170</td><td> </td><td align="center">21.37</td><td> </td><td align="center">13.84</td></tr> +<tr><td>1880</td><td> </td><td align="right">6,580,793</td><td> </td><td align="right">1,189,793</td><td> </td><td align="center">22.07</td><td> </td><td align="center">13.12</td></tr> +<tr><td>1890</td><td> </td><td align="right">7,470,040</td><td> </td><td align="right">889,247</td><td> </td><td align="center">13.51</td><td> </td><td align="center">11.93</td></tr></table> + +<p>If we begin with 1810, the first census year after the constitutional +suppression of the slave trade, we see from this table that the growth +of the Negro element followed the ordinary law of population, viz: a +gradual decline in the rate of increase. In 70 years the decennial rate +of increase declined from about 30 per cent to 22 per cent. But from +1880 to 1890 there was a <i>per saltum</i> decrease from 22 to 13 per +cent—that is, the decline in ten years was equal to that of the +previous seventy. And all this has happened during an era of profound +peace and prosperity, when the Negro population was subject to no great +perturbing influences. When a number of observations follow with +reasonable uniformity a fixed law, but a single result deviates widely +from this law it is usual to suspect the accuracy of the discrepant +observation. The author nowhere assigns any adequate cause for this +sudden “slump” in the increase of the colored population. Instead of +attributing it, in part at least, to the probable imperfection of the +eleventh census, he relies wholly upon a blind force recently discovered +and named by him “race traits and tendencies.” The capriciousness of +this new factor, in that it may suspend operation indefinitely or break +loose in a day, does not seem to have occurred to the author, at least +it does not seem to affect the confident assurance with which he relies +upon it. As has been shrewdly remarked by an able reviewer, “It would +seem incumbent on him (Mr. Hoffman) further to prove that these race +traits, after being held in abeyance for at least a century, first took +decisive action in the decade 1880 to 1890.”<small><a name="f12.1" id="f12.1" href="#f12">[12]</a></small></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>In 1810 there were 1,377,808 Negroes in the United States. In 80 years +this number had swollen to at least 7,470,040, and that, too, without +reinforcement from outside immigration. It more than quintupled itself +in eight decades. Does it not require much fuller demonstration than the +author anywhere presents to convince the ordinary mind that a people +that has shown such physical vitality for so long a period, has all at +once, in a single decade, become comparatively infecund and threatened +with extinction?</p> + +<p>It is passing strange that it escaped the attention of a statistician of +Mr. Hoffman’s sagacity that, even granting the accuracy of the eleventh +census, the natural increase of the Negro race was greater than that of +the whites during the last decade. The number of immigrants who came to +this country between 1880 and 1890 was 5,246,613. I am informed by the +census bureau that this number does not include the immigrants who came +from British North America and from Mexico after 1885. This number was +estimated by the statistical bureau of the Treasury Department to be +540,000, making the total number of immigrants 5,787,613. If this number +be subtracted from the increase of the white population during the last +decade (11,589,920) their rate of increase will be reduced to 13.35 per +cent as compared with 13.51 per cent for the blacks. Nor is this all. +The immigrants were for the most part in the full maturity and vigor of +their productive powers, being the most fecund element of our white +population. If allowance be made for their natural increase from 1880 to +1890 the white race would show a decennial increase appreciably below +that of the blacks. If the Negro, then, is threatened with extinction, +the white race is in a still more pitiable plight.</p> + +<p>The table on page 6 does indeed show plainly that the Negro does not +hold his own as a numerical factor of our mixed population. Whereas he +represented 19 per cent of the entire population in 1810 he now +represents only 12 per cent. But the cause of this relative decline is +apparent enough. It is due to white immigration and not to “race traits” +as Mr. Hoffman would have us believe. It would be as legitimate to +attribute the decline of the Yankee element as a numerical factor in the +large New England centers to the race degeneracy of the Puritan, while +ignoring the proper cause—the influx of the Celt.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hoffman’s conclusions as to the Negro population are not generally +accepted by students of social problems. Their position<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> is more clearly +stated in a recent notice of the work now under review. “Concerning the +first of these chapters dealing with population he (Mr. Hoffman) reaches +conclusions very different from those generally held by those who have +discussed the subject on <i>a priori</i> grounds. The general impression has +been that the colored population was increasing at a rate greater than +that of the whites, owing both to the greater number of children born +and also to the fact that all children of a mixed race were counted as +blacks. From such a condition of affairs it would naturally be assumed +that the race to which all half-breeds were credited would, especially +if prolific, rapidly gain upon the other race.”<small><a name="f13.1" id="f13.1" href="#f13">[13]</a></small></p> + +<p>On the appearance of each census since emancipation, there has been some +hue and cry as to the destiny of the Negro population. Public opinion +has been rhythmical with reference to its rise and fall above and below +the mean line of truth. In 1870 it was extermination; in 1880 it was +dreaded that the whole country would be Africanized because of the +prolificness of a barbarous race; in 1890 the doctrine of extinction was +preached once more; what will be the outcry in 1900 can only be divined +at this stage, but we may rest assured that it will be something +startling.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Negroes in Cities.</span></h4> + +<p>The author’s studies in the minor features of the Negro population form +the most interesting and valuable work which has yet been undertaken on +the subject. The urban drift, the tendency to concentration, and the +migratory movements of the black population are treated with fullness +and force. It is interesting to know that there are 13 cities in which +the colored population exceeds 20,000, and 23 in which it exceeds +10,000, and that the rate of increase of the colored element in these +centers is enormous—more than 30 per cent. The concentration of the +colored population in certain sections of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>cities is quite suggestive. +The following table will disclose some of the striking features which +Mr. Hoffman has exhibited at length.<small><a name="f14.1" id="f14.1" href="#f14">[14]</a></small></p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="cities"> +<tr><td align="center" valign="bottom">City.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Colored<br /> population.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">No. Wards.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td colspan="2" align="center" valign="bottom">Colored<br />population<br />in wards.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Chicago</td><td> </td><td align="right">14,271</td><td> </td><td align="center">34</td><td> </td><td align="right">9,122</td><td> in 3 wards.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Philadelphia</td><td> </td><td align="right">39,371</td><td> </td><td align="center">34</td><td> </td><td align="right">8,891</td><td> “ 1 “</td></tr> +<tr><td>Boston</td><td> </td><td align="right">8,125</td><td> </td><td align="center">25</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,547</td><td> “ 1 “</td></tr> +<tr><td>New York</td><td> </td><td align="right">23,601</td><td> </td><td align="center">24</td><td> </td><td align="right">13,008</td><td> “ 3 “</td></tr> +<tr><td>Brooklyn</td><td> </td><td align="right">10,287</td><td> </td><td align="center">26</td><td> </td><td align="right">3,100</td><td> “ 2 “</td></tr></table> + +<p>This tendency to concentration in undesirable places is found to be +greater in Northern than in Southern cities. Every large city has its +white wards and its black wards, which the politician knows as well as +the seaman knows the depths and shallows of the sea.</p> + +<p>The evil of this tendency cannot be denied or gainsaid; but its cause is +not far to seek nor hard to find.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Black Belts.</span></h4> + +<p>The author also notes with alarm that the Negro population is congesting +in the black belts of the South. There are 70 counties in this section +with an aggregate area of over 50,000 square miles in which the colored +population outnumbers the white nearly three to one. The general +conviction is that the Negroes will be gathered into black settlements +scattered throughout the Gulf states. The superintendent of the tenth +census writes on this subject: “I entertain a strong conviction that the +further course of our (Negro) population will exhibit that tendency in a +continually growing force; that this element will be more and more +drained off from the higher and colder lands into the low, hot regions +bordering on the Gulf of Mexico.”<small><a name="f15.1" id="f15.1" href="#f15">[15]</a></small></p> + +<p>Commenting on this subject Mr. Hoffman says: “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 white race.”<small><a name="f16.1" id="f16.1" href="#f16">[16]</a></small></p> + +<p>It is undoubtedly true that the Negro has not the initiative power of +civilization. What race has? Civilization is not an original<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> process +with any race or nation known to history. The torch has been passed from +race to race and from age to age. Where else can the Negro go? The white +race at present has the light. This concession is no reproach to the +Negro race, nor is it due to any peculiar race trait or tendency.</p> + +<p>There is a stretch of country extending from southern Pennsylvania to +northern Alabama, containing sections of Maryland, West Virginia, +Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, +and Alabama, and <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'embraciug'">embracing</ins> the Appalachian system of mountains. This +section contains a population of nearly 3,000,000 souls. They belong for +the most part to the most thrifty element of our complex population—an +element whose toughness of moral and mental fiber is proverbial. The +Scotch-Irish are famed the world over for their manly and moral vigor. +And yet this people have sunken to the lowest depth of poverty and +degradation—a depth from which, without the assistance of outside help, +they can be lifted nevermore.<small><a name="f17.1" id="f17.1" href="#f17">[17]</a></small> Is this condition of depravity and +inability of self-initiative due to “race traits and tendencies?”</p> + +<p>Then, supposing the Negroes to be concentrated in the black belts, as +seems inevitable, will they necessarily be shut out from wholesome +contact with civilization? Not at all. Just how far personal and servile +contact can elevate the moral and manly tone of a people is not quite +evident. But the result of indirect missionary contact is, perhaps, the +surest way to lift a race into civilization. I point to Japan as a +recent, striking illustration of this argument. The black belts will +afford the richest field for missionary and philanthropic endeavor. No +section of this country can remain long in an uncivilized state or +relapse into barbarism that has in its midst a Hampton Institute or a +Booker T. Washington.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p><i>Subject.</i> Vital Statistics.</p> + +<p><i>Gist.</i> “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 statistics are obtainable and which enter at all into the +consideration of economic problems as factors the Negro shows the least +power of resistance in the struggle for life.”<small><a name="f18.1" id="f18.1" href="#f18">[18]</a></small></p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Death Rate.</span></h4> + +<p>Statistics are collected from ten of the largest cities with the result +that the death rate among the whites is 20.12 per 1000, and among the +blacks 32.61. It is acknowledged that the great bulk of this excess in +the colored death rate is due to infant mortality. This fact of itself +would suggest that the real cause is condition rather than race traits. +This truth shall be established out of the mouth of Mr. Hoffman’s own +witness. “Fifty per cent of the (Negro) children who die never receive +medical attention.”<small><a name="f19.1" id="f19.1" href="#f19">[19]</a></small></p> + +<p>“The indifference to medical attendance in cases of illness of their +children is due to ignorance.”<small><a name="f20.1" id="f20.1" href="#f20">[20]</a></small> To the ordinary mind this would imply +the most unfortunate condition.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Birth Rate.</span></h4> + +<p>But the death rate is only one factor in the vital equation. The birth +rate is equally important. Mr. Hoffman concedes, with reluctant +reservation, that the colored birth rate may be greater than that of the +whites. “That the birth rate of the Negroes is in excess of that of the +white population is probably true even at the present time, at least as +compared with the native whites.”<small><a name="f21.1" id="f21.1" href="#f21">[21]</a></small> This is indeed a very feeble +admission of a very obvious fact. Mr. Hoffman contends that the death +rate of the Negro race is much greater than that of the whites. It has +already been shown that, leaving immigration out of account, the +increase in the Negro population is greater than that of the white race. +How can these two facts be accounted for except it be on the basis of a +higher birth rate for the blacks? Mr. Hoffman will have either to alter +his estimates or mend his logic.</p> + +<p>Direct testimony on this subject must have been known to Mr. Hoffman. Of +course no one is qualified to write on vital statistics in America who +is not familiar with the investigation of Dr. Billings. Let the reader +compare the following quotation as to the relative birth rate of the +races, and, noting date of data upon which the conclusion is based, +decide for himself as to the ingenuousness of Mr. Hoffman’s reluctant +admission: “Dr. Billings, in his luminous report on the vital statistics +of the United States (1886) shows that 1000 colored women (age from 15 +to 49) give birth to 164 children,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> and 1000 white women to only 127, +yearly; that is to say, three colored women have as many children as +four white.”<small><a name="f22.1" id="f22.1" href="#f22">[22]</a></small></p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Is the Negro Threatened with Extinction.</span></h4> + +<p>Before Mr. Hoffman’s conclusion as to the threatening aspect of the high +death rate of the Negro race can be accepted, several questions must be +answered by him.</p> + +<p>1. Is the death rate of the colored race higher than that of a +corresponding class of whites subject to the same moral and social +environment? The general opinion is that it is not; nor does the author +attempt to prove the contrary. In discussing this question Dr. John S. +Billings states: “If we could separate the vital statistics of the poor +and ignorant whites, the tenement house population of our Northern +cities, from those of the mass of the white population we should +undoubtedly find a high rate of mortality in this class, and especially +in infancy and childhood.”<small><a name="f23.1" id="f23.1" href="#f23">[23]</a></small></p> + +<p>2. Is the high death rate for the cities sustained throughout the +country at large? Luckily the census of 1880 gives a complete answer to +this question. The death rate of the United States in 1880 was 15.09 per +1000; South Carolina 15.80; Alabama 14.20; Mississippi 12.89; Georgia +13.97; Massachusetts 18.59; New York 17.38; Pennsylvania 14.92; New +Jersey 16.33. This shows plainly that the Southern states with the +largest Negro contingent do not show any higher death rate than the +Northern states where the Negro is not a considerable factor. There is +no evidence, certainly none brought forward by the author, to show that +the death rate of the Negro in the country at large is much in excess of +that of the whites. “In the rural districts the mortality of the Negro +is not excessive; it is in the cities and towns where he is brought into +close contact with the evils and vices of civilization that he dies so +rapidly.”<small><a name="f24.1" id="f24.1" href="#f24">[24]</a></small></p> + +<p>3. Is the death rate, even in the cities, so great as to foreshadow +extinction? Nothing is great or small except by comparison. The death +rate among the Negroes in the large cities at present is not as great as +it was among the whites forty years ago; that is, if we may rely upon +the statistics which Mr. Hoffman himself has presented.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<h4><i>Mortality among Whites in Southern Cities.</i><small><a name="f25.1" id="f25.1" href="#f25">[25]</a></small></h4> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="white mortality"> +<tr><td align="center">City.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Period.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Death rate.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Mobile, Ala.</td><td> </td><td align="center">1852-1855</td><td> </td><td align="center">54.39</td></tr> +<tr><td>Charleston, S. C.</td><td> </td><td align="center">1851-1860</td><td> </td><td align="center">29.79</td></tr> +<tr><td>Savannah, Ga.</td><td> </td><td align="center">1856-1860</td><td> </td><td align="center">37.19</td></tr> +<tr><td>New Orleans, La.</td><td> </td><td align="center">1849-1860</td><td> </td><td align="center">59.60</td></tr></table> + +<p>Under improved sanitary regulations these rates have been lowered until +at present they are not at all alarming. May not the same improvement in +his environment effect similar changes in the death rate of the Negro?</p> + +<p>Let us compare the death rate of the Negro race with that of the Germans +as presented in the census of 1880.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="death rate"> +<tr><td align="center" valign="bottom">City.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Colored<br />death rate.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">City.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Death rate.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Washington</td><td> </td><td align="center">32.60</td><td> </td><td>Konigsberg</td><td> </td><td align="center">31.50</td></tr> +<tr><td>Baltimore</td><td> </td><td align="center">32.81</td><td> </td><td>Munich</td><td> </td><td align="center">33.40</td></tr> +<tr><td>Richmond</td><td> </td><td align="center">28.48</td><td> </td><td>Breslau</td><td> </td><td align="center">31.60</td></tr> +<tr><td>Louisville</td><td> </td><td align="center">30.73</td><td> </td><td>Cologne</td><td> </td><td align="center">27.00</td></tr> +<tr><td>New Orleans</td><td> </td><td align="center">30.42</td><td> </td><td>Strasburg</td><td> </td><td align="center">29.60</td></tr></table> + +<p>This high death rate of the American Negro does not exceed that of the +white race in other parts of the civilized globe. If race traits are +playing such havoc with the Negroes in America, what direful agent of +death, may we ask the author, is at work in the cities of his own +fatherland?</p> + +<p>4. Does the death rate among Negroes show a tendency to increase? In the +District of Columbia there has been a gradual decline in the death rate +of the Negro population from 40.78 in 1876 to 29.54 in 1896.<small><a name="f26.1" id="f26.1" href="#f26">[26]</a></small></p> + +<p>Again, Mr. Hoffman’s statistics will show a steady improvement in +Southern cities for the last twenty years.</p> + +<h4><i>Death rate among Negroes in Southern Cities.</i><small><a name="f27.1" id="f27.1" href="#f27">[27]</a></small></h4> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="statistics"> +<tr><td valign="bottom" align="center">City.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td valign="bottom" align="center">Periods.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td valign="bottom" align="center">Death<br />rate.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td valign="bottom" align="center">Periods.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Death<br />rate.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Mobile, Ala.</td><td> </td><td align="center">1876-1880</td><td> </td><td align="center">39.74</td><td> </td><td align="center">1891-1893</td><td> </td><td align="center">30.91</td></tr> +<tr><td>Charleston, S. C.</td><td> </td><td align="center">1876-1885</td><td> </td><td align="center">43.83</td><td> </td><td align="center">1886-1894</td><td> </td><td align="center">44.06</td></tr> +<tr><td>Savannah, Ga.</td><td> </td><td align="center">1876-1880</td><td> </td><td align="center">51.66</td><td> </td><td align="center">1891-1894</td><td> </td><td align="center">32.26</td></tr> +<tr><td>New Orleans, La.</td><td> </td><td align="center">1880-1884</td><td> </td><td align="center">52.35</td><td> </td><td align="center">1890-1894</td><td> </td><td align="center">39.42</td></tr></table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>A recent report of the Labor Bureau throws much light on the subject.</p> + +<h4><i>Annual Death Rate of the Colored Race for three quinquennial periods.</i><small><a name="f28.1" id="f28.1" href="#f28">[28]</a></small></h4> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="death rate"> +<tr><td align="center">City.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">1880-1885.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">1885-1890.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">1890-1895.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Atlanta</td><td> </td><td align="center">37.96</td><td> </td><td align="center">33.41</td><td> </td><td align="center">32.76</td></tr> +<tr><td>Baltimore</td><td> </td><td align="center">36.15</td><td> </td><td align="center">30.52</td><td> </td><td align="center">32.47</td></tr> +<tr><td>Charleston</td><td> </td><td align="center">44.08</td><td> </td><td align="center">46.74</td><td> </td><td align="center">41.43</td></tr> +<tr><td>Memphis</td><td> </td><td align="center">43.01</td><td> </td><td align="center">29.35</td><td> </td><td align="center">21.11</td></tr> +<tr><td>Richmond</td><td> </td><td align="center">40.34</td><td> </td><td align="center">38.83</td><td> </td><td align="center">34.91</td></tr></table> + +<p>This table shows an unmistakable decrease in the death rate for the +successive quinquennial periods.</p> + +<p>All of which tends to prove that this high death rate is due to +condition and is subject to sanitary check and control.</p> + +<p>In further confirmation of the fact that the death rate among Negroes is +on the decline, the Army records will afford valuable testimony.</p> + +<h4><i>Death rate of Colored Soldiers in the U. S. Army.</i><small><a name="f29.1" id="f29.1" href="#f29">[29]</a></small></h4> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="soldiers"> +<tr><td>Average from 1883 to 1892</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td>9.07</td></tr> +<tr><td>Average in 1894</td><td> </td><td>6.26</td></tr> +<tr><td>Average in 1895</td><td> </td><td>5.03</td></tr></table> + +<p>In 1895 it is lower than that of the white soldiers. The same general +law of a gradually decreasing death rate is here revealed.</p> + +<p>If the death rate of the Negro population in cities is not higher than +that of corresponding classes of whites; if the records of the census +for the country at large do not show it to be in excess of other +classes; if the highest rates are not above those of the whites a half +century ago, nor higher than those of other civilized <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'communinities'">communities</ins> of the +Caucasian race at the present time; and if this rate is constantly +decreasing under more favorable sanitary appliances—it is hard to +justify the author’s position as to the low vital powers of the race, or +to reach the conclusion that extinction will be its ultimate fate.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Northern Negroes.</span></h4> + +<p>In further proof of the low vitality of the Negro race the author shows +at great length that the race cannot thrive in the North. For <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>every +Northern community for which statistics are available it appears that +the death rate is in excess of the birth rate. It does not seem to have +occurred to the author that economic and social environment may lead to +this deplorable result. Dr. Walker, in a publication which has already +been referred to, states: “The industrial <i>raison d’etre</i> of the Negro +is here (in the South) found at its maximum. In the Northern states this +<i>raison d’etre</i> wholly disappears. There is nothing, aside from a few +kinds of personal service, which the Negro can do which the white man +cannot do as well or perhaps better.”<small><a name="f30.1" id="f30.1" href="#f30">[30]</a></small></p> + +<p>In the North the Negro race lives in industrial and social captivity; +not being in sufficient numbers to form an independent constituency, +they whine and pine over certain abstract principles of equality and +brotherhood, but which, alas, fade into impalpable air under the +application of a concrete test. They sit in the shadow of the tree of +liberty and boast of its protecting boughs, but must not aspire to +partake of the fruit thereof. The undershrubbery purchases shade and +protection at too dear a price when it sacrifices therefor the +opportunity of the glorious sunlight of heaven. No healthy, vigorous +breed can be produced in the shade. No wonder, then, that the productive +sensitiveness of the Northern Negro is affected by his industrial and +social isolation among an overshadowing people who regard him with a +feeling composed in equal parts of pity and contempt.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Consumption among Negroes.</span></h4> + +<p>The author enters into the causes of mortality and points out that in +addition to infant mortality, which has already been noticed, +consumption, pneumonia, and vicious taints of blood are the most +alarming ones. With gloomy forebodings we are reminded that: “Its (the +Negro race) extreme liability to consumption alone would suffice to seal +its fate as a race.”<small><a name="f31.1" id="f31.1" href="#f31">[31]</a></small></p> + +<p>The following citation will express the truth of the situation as +clearly as it is possible to do: “From close personal observation, +embracing a professional life of nearly forty years among the Negroes +and from data obtained from professional brethren in different sections +of the South, I have no hesitancy in declaring that insanity and +tuberculosis were rare diseases among the Negroes of the South <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>prior to +emancipation. Indeed, many intelligent people of observation and full +acquaintance of the Negro have stated to me that they never saw a crazy +or consumptive Negro of unmixed blood until these latter years. The fact +of their comparative exemption from these ailments prior to emancipation +is so well established...”<small><a name="f32.1" id="f32.1" href="#f32">[32]</a></small></p> + +<p>“Man is an organized being, and is subject to certain laws which he +cannot violate with impunity. These laws affect him in the air he +breathes, the food he eats, the clothes he wears, and (in) every +circumstance surrounding his habilitation. In the wholesale violation of +these laws after the war, as previously stated, was laid the foundation +of the degeneration of the physical and mental condition of the Negro. +Licentiousness left its slimy trail of sometimes ineradicable disease +upon his physical being, and neglected bronchitis, pneumonia, and +pleurisy lent their helping hand toward lung degeneration.”<small><a name="f33.1" id="f33.1" href="#f33">[33]</a></small></p> + +<p>It will be noticed that Dr. Miller accepts all the facts alleged by our +author, but places the causes squarely upon the ground of conditions, +habits and circumstances of life. He does not seem to be acquainted with +Mr. Hoffman’s discovery of “race traits.” The fact that under the +hygienic and dietary regime of slavery, consumption was comparatively +unknown among Negroes, but that under the altered conditions of +emancipation it has developed to a threatening degree, would persuade +any except the man with a theory, that the cause is due to the radical +changes in life which freedom imposed upon the blacks, rather than to +some malignant, capricious “race trait” which is not amenable to the law +of cause and effect, but which graciously suspended its operation for +two hundred years, and has now mysteriously selected the closing decades +of the nineteenth century in which to make a trial of its direful power.</p> + +<p>No people who work all day in the open air of a mild climate and who +sleep at night in huts and cabins where crack and crevice and skylight +admit abundant ventilation, will be subject to pulmonary weakness. Now +take the same people and transplant them to the large cities of a colder +climate, subject them to pursuits which do not call for a high degree of +bodily energy, crowd them into alley tenements where the windows are +used only for ornament and to keep <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>out the “night air,” and a single +door must serve for entrance, exit, and ventilation, and lung +degeneration is the inevitable result. The cause of the evil suggests +the remedy. The author in a previous chapter points out the threatening +evil of crowding into the cities; a counter movement which would cause a +return to the country, or would at least stay the mad urban movement, +would not only improve the economic status of the race but would also +benefit its physical and moral health. Here is an open field for +practical philanthropy and wise Negro leadership.</p> + +<p>The increase in consumption among Negroes is indeed a grave matter, but +it is possible to exaggerate its importance as sociological evidence. If +we listen to the alarmists and social agitators, we would find a hundred +causes, each of which would destroy the human race in a single +generation. The most encouraging evidence on this subject from the +Negro’s point of view is afforded by the last report of the Surgeon +General of the United States Army. The statistics thus furnished are the +most valuable for comparative study, since they deal with the two races +on terms of equality, that is, the white and colored men are of about +the same ages and initial condition of health, they receive the same +treatment and are subject to the same diet, work, and social habits. “It +is to be noted, also,” says the Surgeon General, “that during the past +two years the rates for consumption among the colored troops have fallen +so as to be much lower than those for the whites, whereas formerly they +were much higher.”<small><a name="f34.1" id="f34.1" href="#f34">[34]</a></small></p> + +<p>The following table prepared by Mr. Hershaw, shows plainly the gradual +decrease of the death rate from consumption in Southern cities for the +past fifteen years.</p> + +<h4><i>Death rate per 1000 among Negroes from Consumption.</i><small><a name="f35.1" id="f35.1" href="#f35">[35]</a></small><br /></h4> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="consumption"> +<tr><td align="center">City.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Period.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Rate.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Period.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Rate.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Period.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Rate.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Atlanta</td><td> </td><td align="center">1882-1885</td><td> </td><td align="center">50.20</td><td> </td><td align="center">1886-1890</td><td> </td><td align="center">45.88</td><td> </td><td align="center">1891-1895</td><td> </td><td align="center">43.48</td></tr> +<tr><td>Baltimore</td><td> </td><td align="center">1886</td><td> </td><td align="center">58.65</td><td> </td><td align="center">1887</td><td> </td><td align="center">55.42</td><td> </td><td align="center">1892</td><td> </td><td align="center">49.41</td></tr> +<tr><td>Charleston</td><td> </td><td align="center">1881-1884</td><td> </td><td align="center">72.20</td><td> </td><td align="center">1885-1889</td><td> </td><td align="center">68.08</td><td> </td><td align="center">1890-1894</td><td> </td><td align="center">57.66</td></tr> +<tr><td>Memphis</td><td> </td><td align="center">1882-1885</td><td> </td><td align="center">65.35</td><td> </td><td align="center">1886-1890</td><td> </td><td align="center">50.30</td><td> </td><td align="center">1891-1895</td><td> </td><td align="center">37.78</td></tr> +<tr><td>Richmond</td><td> </td><td align="center">1881-1885</td><td> </td><td align="center">54.93</td><td> </td><td align="center">1886-1890</td><td> </td><td align="center">41.63</td><td> </td><td align="center">1892-1895</td><td> </td><td align="center">34.74</td></tr></table> + +<p>It appears that the total death rate as well as that due to consumption +among Negroes reached the maximum about 1880 and has been on the gradual +decline ever since.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>Consumption is only one of the contributing causes of the total death +rate. It has been shown that the death rate from all causes does not +necessarily point to the extinction of the race. This being so, there is +no need of unnecessary alarm over a single factor; for in sociology, as +in mathematics, we cannot escape the fundamental truth that the whole is +greater than any of its parts.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Vital Capacity and Economic Efficiency.</span></h4> + +<p>The author’s proposition as to the low vitality of the Negro and its +effect upon his economic efficiency is contrary alike to the traditional +and prevalent belief. The whole fabric of slavery rested upon the +assumption that the Negro was better able to resist the trying condition +of the southern climate than the white laborer. The industrial +reconstruction of the South is building upon the same foundation. No one +doubts that the Negro is able to resist certain miasmatic and febrific +diseases which are so destructive to the white race in the tropical +regions of the earth. Science and wise hygienic appliances have improved +the condition of the white race in this respect, it is true, but will +not the same appliances benefit the Negro in the same degree?</p> + +<p>Dr. Daniel H. Williams, surgeon-in-chief of the Freedmen’s Hospital, at +Washington, D. C., informs me that during his professional experience he +has performed upward of 3000 surgical operations, one-fourth of which at +least were upon white patients, and that he has found unmistakable +evidence of higher vital power among the colored patients. I am also +informed that this is the general opinion of the medical profession.</p> + +<p>Although the author treats exhaustively the whole catalogue of diseases +and the numerous ills which flesh is heir to, it can be safely claimed +that he does not establish his main proposition set forth in the +beginning of the chapter, and that at least a Scotch verdict is +demanded: “not proven.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p><i>Subject.</i> Anthropometry.</p> + +<p><i>Gist.</i> “In vital capacity, the most important of all physiological +characteristics, the tendency of the race has been downward.”<small><a name="f36.1" id="f36.1" href="#f36">[36]</a></small></p> + +<p>Ample statistics are presented to show that in proportion to structure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> +the Negro is heavier than the white man. This fact, the author tells us, +is ordinarily considered favorable to a healthy development and freedom +from pulmonary weakness. “The elaborate investigations of the medical +department of the New York Mutual Life, in 1874, of the Washington Life, +in 1886, the Prudential Insurance 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 consumption.”<small><a name="f37.1" id="f37.1" href="#f37">[37]</a></small></p> + +<p>In order to explain away this apparent advantage in favor of the Negro, +the author has invented a unique physiological principle, viz: “A +physiological law may hold good for one race and not for another.”<small><a name="f38.1" id="f38.1" href="#f38">[38]</a></small> +It is noticeable that the author applies this principle only when it +suits his convenience but withholds it whenever it runs across his +theory.</p> + +<p>By a series of measurements based, confessedly, upon insufficient data, +it is concluded that the Negro has a smaller lung capacity, smaller +chest expansion, and a higher rate of respiration than the white man, +and that the Mulatto is inferior to both the parent races in these vital +functions. These differences are considered a powerful factor in lung +degeneration, and proof positive of physical inferiority. In these +respects he tacitly repudiates his erstwhile principle that “a +physiological law may hold good for one race and not for another,” and +assumes that the two races are subject to like conditions of disease and +death.</p> + +<p>On the whole it may be said that this is the least interesting chapter +in the whole book. The data are so slender and the arguments are so +evidently shaped to a theory, that we are neither enlightened by the one +nor convinced by the other. But the author’s judgment must be justified. +The gloomy warning comes with Catonian regularity at the end of each +chapter. Listen to his last words: “A combination of these traits and +tendencies must in the end cause the extinction of the race.”<small><a name="f39.1" id="f39.1" href="#f39">[39]</a></small></p> + +<p>If the Negro is inferior in vital function and power to the Caucasian, +he will be a public benefactor who scientifically demonstrates the fact. +But the colored race most stubbornly refuses to be argued out of +existence on an insufficient induction of data and unwarranted +conclusions deduced therefrom.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p><i>Subject.</i> Amalgamation.</p> + +<p><i>Gist.</i> “The crossing of the Negro race with the white has been +detrimental to its true progress and has contributed more than anything +else to the excessive and increasing rate of mortality from the most +fatal disease, as well as to its consequent inferior social efficiency +and diminishing power as a force in American national life.”<small><a name="f40.1" id="f40.1" href="#f40">[40]</a></small></p> + +<p>The importance of this proposition is apparent when we consider that the +Negroes in this country are a thoroughly mixed people. The pure African +type has been well nigh obliterated. It is pointed out also that the +mongrel progeny has been produced by illicit intercourse between the +white male and the black female. The moral and conservative qualities of +a race reside in its womanhood. The Negro people, then, have missed +these transmitted qualities. The author is either ignorant of or ignores +the large class of mixed Negroes who are the legitimate offspring of +colored parents, but would place the whole class under the ban of +bastardy.</p> + +<p>After judicially balancing the testimony furnished by world-renowned +authorities upon the effect of race crossing, the author espouses one +side of the contention with all the ardor of a retained advocate.</p> + +<p>Three points are sought to be established.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>I. <span class="smcap">The Mulatto is Physically Inferior to both Parent Races.</span></h4> + +<p>The opinions of examining surgeons during the civil war are quoted which +quite unanimously show that the Mulatto is strongly inclined to +consumption, scrofula, and vicious taints of blood.</p> + +<p>The following table, made out on the basis of Gould’s measurements, is full of interest:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="measurements"> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">White.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Black.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Mulatto.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Weight</td><td> </td><td>141.4 pounds.</td><td> </td><td>144.6 pounds.</td><td> </td><td>144.8 pounds.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Circumference chest</td><td> </td><td>35.8 inches.</td><td> </td><td>35.1 inches.</td><td> </td><td>34.96 inches.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Capacity of lungs</td><td> </td><td>184.7 cubic inches.</td><td> </td><td>163.5 cubic inches.</td><td> </td><td>158.9 cubic inches.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Rate of respiration</td><td> </td><td>16.4 per minute.</td><td> </td><td>17.7 per minute.</td><td> </td><td>19.0 per minute.</td></tr></table> + +<p>It appears from this table that in the most important vital organs and +functions the Mulatto is inferior to both parent stocks. This <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>opinion +is almost or quite universal among competent authorities upon this +subject. And yet the last word of science has not been uttered on this +question. There is no subject in all the domain of social science which +offers a more interesting or more fruitful field for investigation. The +Freedmen’s Hospital at Washington, and similar institutions elsewhere, +by prosecuting accurate and scientific methods of inquiry can throw much +light upon this subject.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4>2. <span class="smcap">The Mulatto is Morally Inferior to the Blacks.</span></h4> + +<p>This alleged inferiority is attributable to the fact as well as to the +manner of generation. Strangely enough Mr. Hoffman does not employ the +statistics which would seem to bear out his suggestion. The eleventh +census shows that there were 10,377 pure and 3,218 mixed Negroes in +penitentiaries in 1890. Supposing that uniform methods of race-tests +were used throughout the census inquiry, this would show that while the +mixed Negroes constitute only 16 per cent of the total Negro population, +they furnished 30 percent of the penitentiary convicts. But these +figures cannot be relied upon since the census bureau acknowledges that +it has no definite method of determining the different shades of color +and grades of mixture among Negroes.</p> + +<p>It is also alleged in proof of this proposition that illicit intercourse +between the races is carried on mainly with the Mulatto women. Can this +not be explained on grounds other than native depravity? The +light-colored Negro woman is made the victim of the lustful onslaught of +the male element of both races. She is placed between the upper and +nether stress of the vicious propensities of white and black men. And if +her sins are greater, is it not because her temptations are greater +also? The following quotation from a distinguished Southerner is +significant; “There was little improper intercourse between white men +and Negresses of the original type in the period before emancipation +(after the creation of the Mulatto class).”<small><a name="f41.1" id="f41.1" href="#f41">[41]</a></small> Every time a Negro woman +is indicted on this score some white man is inculpated. The reproach +hurled against colored women from such sources reminds us very much of +the lines in Butler’s Hudibras:</p> + +<p class="poem">The selfsame thing they will abhor,<br /> +One way, and long another for.</p> + +<p> <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> +<h4>3. <span class="smcap">The Mulatto is Intellectually Superior to the Blacks but Inferior to the Whites.</span></h4> + +<p>In substantiation of this proposition it is claimed that the greater +number of Negroes who have attained distinction have been those of mixed +blood. The truth of this statement must be conceded, and yet the cause +should not be overlooked. Leaving aside the doctrine of inheritance as a +debatable question, the initial advantage of the mixed over the pure +Negroes was considerable. Feelings of blood ties prompted many a slave +holder to deal kindly by his slave descendants, and often to liberate +them and give them a start in the race of life. That an infusion of +white blood quickens the energy and enlivens the disposition of the +progeny is probably true; but that it adds to the intellectual capacity +is far from a self-evident proposition. The Negroes who have shown any +unusual intellectual activity, in America at least, have usually been of +the purer type. Phyllis Wheatly, Benjamin Banneker, Ira Aldridge, Blind +Tom, Edward W. Blyden, and Paul Dunbar are illustrations of this +argument.</p> + +<p>The investigation of Dr. Gould as to circumference of head and facial +angle are exhibited in the following table:</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="head and face"> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">White.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Mulatto.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Black.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Circumference of head</td><td> </td><td>22.1 inches.</td><td> </td><td>22.0 inches.</td><td> </td><td>21.9 inches.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Facial angle</td><td> </td><td>72.0°</td><td> </td><td>69.2°</td><td> </td><td>68.8°</td></tr></table> + +<p>A difference of one-tenth of an inch in head circumference and of +four-tenths of a degree in facial angle affords a very slender physical +basis on which to predicate intellectual superiority.</p> + +<p>The author lays great stress upon the following table made out by Dr. +Hunt.</p> + +<h4><i>Weight of the Brain of White and Colored Soldiers</i>.<small><a name="f42.1" id="f42.1" href="#f42">[42]</a></small></h4> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="brain"> +<tr><td align="center">No. of cases.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Degree of color.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td colspan="2" align="center">Weight of brain.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">24</td><td> </td><td>White</td><td> </td><td>1424</td><td align="center">grammes.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">25</td><td> </td><td>Three parts white</td><td> </td><td>1390</td><td align="center">“</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">47</td><td> </td><td>Half white</td><td> </td><td>1334</td><td align="center">“</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">51</td><td> </td><td>One-fourth white</td><td> </td><td>1319</td><td align="center">“</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">95</td><td> </td><td>One-eighth white</td><td> </td><td>1308</td><td align="center">“</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">22</td><td> </td><td>One-sixteenth white</td><td> </td><td>1280</td><td align="center">“</td></tr> +<tr><td align="center">141</td><td> </td><td>Pure Negro</td><td> </td><td>1341</td><td align="center">“</td></tr></table> + + +<p>Twenty-four cases are taken to represent fifty million people, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>the +law of averages thus obtained is confidently relied upon. Nor are we +informed as to what methods were employed to ascertain the exact +composition of blood of the 22 cases that are rated as one-sixteenth +white. But, supposing we accept this table, overlooking for the time +being the fact that the brain weight of one white person is taken as +typical of two million others, and also conceding the undisclosed method +of Dr. Hunt in detecting homeopathic dashes of white blood, does it +“clearly prove that there is an increase in the brain weight with an +increase in the proportion of white blood?” If this table shows anything +it is that the pure Negro and the Mulatto have about the same brain +weight and that they are both superior in this respect to all degrees of +mixture between them, but inferior to those of more than one-half white +blood.</p> + +<p>But it is rather unusual at this late day to base intellectual capacity +upon the shape and size of skull. Investigations have shown that facial +angle and capacity of cranium and cephalic index afford no certain +criterion of thought power or susceptibility to culture. The latest word +on this subject is given by Prof. Ripley, in a series of articles on +“Racial Geography of Europe,” in Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly for +1897.</p> + +<p>“An important point to be noted in this connection is that this shape of +the head seems to bear no direct relation to intellectual power or +intelligence. Posterior development of the cranium does not imply a +corresponding backwardness in culture.... Europe offers the best +refutation of the statement that the proportions of the head mean +anything intellectual.... In our study of the proportions of the head, +therefore, we are measuring merely race, and not intelligence in any +sense.... Equally unimportant to the anthropologist is the absolute size +of the head. It is grievous to contemplate the waste of energy when, +during our civil war, over one million of soldiers had their heads +measured in respect to this absolute size, in view of the fact that +today anthropologists deny any considerable significance attaching to +this characteristic. Popularly a large head with beetling eyebrows +suffices to establish a man’s intellectual credit, but like all other +credit it is entirely dependent upon what lies on deposit +elsewhere.”<small><a name="f43.1" id="f43.1" href="#f43">[43]</a></small></p> + +<p>A still more renowned authority tells us: “The development of the +intellectual faculties of man is to a great extent independent of the +capacity of the cranium and the volume of the brain.”<small><a name="f44.1" id="f44.1" href="#f44">[44]</a></small></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>The question of the relative intellectual capacity of the different +races is one of much speculative interest. I am giving the matter more +attention than it would seem to warrant, because the author makes the +supposed mental inferiority of the race the basis of the only practical +suggestion which he has to offer, viz: that all of our educational and +philanthropic endeavor so far has been based upon wrong principles, and +a radical change in this regard is demanded so as to bring the treatment +in harmony with the capabilities of the lower race. Several authorities +will be cited which, I think, will be more than sufficient to offset Mr. +Hoffman’s insistent opinion.</p> + +<p>“There are hundreds if not thousands of black men in this country who in +capacity are to be ranked with the superior persons of the dominant +race; and it is hard to say that in any evident feature of mind they +characteristically differ from their white fellow citizens.”<small><a name="f45.1" id="f45.1" href="#f45">[45]</a></small></p> + +<p>Prof. Shaler is himself a Southerner, a professor in Harvard University, +and a noted student of current problems.</p> + +<p>“Granting the present inferiority of the Negro, we affirm that it has +never been proved; nor is there any good reason to suppose that he is +doomed forever to maintain his present relative position, or that he is +inferior to the white man in any other sense than as some white races +are inferior to others.”<small><a name="f46.1" id="f46.1" href="#f46">[46]</a></small></p> + +<p>“Yet the Negro children exhibit no intellectual inferiority; they make +just the same progress in the subjects taught as do the children of +white parents, and the deficiency they exhibit later in life is of quite +a different kind.”<small><a name="f47.1" id="f47.1" href="#f47">[47]</a></small></p> + +<p>Mr. Hoffman compels us once more to combat the arguments of the slave +holding class: that is, that the Negro is intellectually and morally an +inferior creature (they did not, however, affirm physical inferiority) +and that it is only by servile contact with the white race that his +nature can be improved. The progress along these lines which the race +has made even under the severest disadvantages is sufficient answer to +this argument.</p> + +<p class="poem">If I’m designed yon lordling’s slave,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By nature’s law designed,</span><br /> +Why was an independent wish<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">E’er planted in my mind?</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>The Negro’s intellectual and social environments hang as a millstone +about his neck; and when he is cast upon the sea of opportunity he is +reproached with everlasting inferiority because he does not swim an +equal race with those who are not thus fettered. We are reminded of the +barbarous Teutons in Titus Andronicus who, after pulling out the tongue +and cutting off the hands of the lovely Lavinia, upbraid her for not +calling for sweet water with which to wash her delicate hands.</p> + +<p>No, no, Mr. Hoffman, the philanthropists have made no mistake. They have +proceeded on the supposition that the Negro has faculty for faculty and +power for power with the rest of his fellow men, and that his special +needs grow out of his peculiar condition. Any alteration in this policy +would violate the dictates both of science and humanity.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Mixed Marriages.</span></h4> + +<p>The remainder of this rather long chapter is devoted to the number and +character of mixed marriages, with the conclusion that the number is on +the decrease and the character of one or both of the contracting parties +is usually unsavory, and that such unions can form no determining factor +in the ultimate solution of the problem.</p> + +<p>A study of the fertility of such marriages and the physical, moral, and +intellectual stamina of the progeny would furnish valuable sociological +data.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p><i>Subject:</i> Social Conditions.</p> + +<p><i>Gist:</i> “Immorality is a race trait.”<small><a name="f48.1" id="f48.1" href="#f48">[48]</a></small></p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Religion and Education.</span></h4> + +<p>Under the sub-heads of religion and education statistics are presented +showing the progress of the race along these lines. A total church +membership of 2,673,977 shows that there is one communicant to every +2.79 of the Negro population, against one in every 3.04 for the whites. +There were 1,288,736 pupils in the common schools and 34,129 in the +higher schools, colleges, and universities. Ordinarily these facts are +regarded as the most wonderful evidences of progress which the world has +ever witnessed on the part of a backward people. But not so with Mr. +Hoffman; the necessities of his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>theories compel him to explain away +every apparent advantage in favor of the Negro. The author announces +with an implied negative response to the suppressed question: “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.”<small><a name="f49.1" id="f49.1" href="#f49">[49]</a></small></p> + +<p>This statement needs no refutation, for it will fall beneath the +ponderous weight of its own absurdity.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Criminal Record.</span></h4> + +<p>The following table, if unexplained, tells a startling tale of the +Negro’s criminal propensity:</p> + +<h4><i>Prisoners in the United States, 1890.</i><small><a name="f50.1" id="f50.1" href="#f50">[50]</a></small></h4> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="prisoners"> +<tr><td> </td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Total.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Male.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Female.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>White</td><td> </td><td>58,052</td><td> </td><td>53,519</td><td> </td><td>4,433</td></tr> +<tr><td>Colored</td><td> </td><td>24,277</td><td> </td><td>22,305</td><td> </td><td>1,972</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td align="center">Male,<br />per cent.</td><td> </td><td align="center">Female,<br />per cent.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Proportion of Negro criminals to total (over 15)</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>29.38</td><td> </td><td>30.79</td></tr> +<tr><td>Proportion of Negro population to total (over 15)</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>10.20</td><td> </td><td>11.09</td></tr></table> + +<p>The Negro element, which constitutes only 12 per cent of the population, +commits 30 per cent of the crimes. Before concluding that this +preponderance of crime is due to “race traits,” let us examine more +closely into the circumstances of the case. The discrepancy in the +administration of the law in the South has undoubtedly some effect upon +this relative showing. In order to escape the charge of slander, I will +use the words of a distinguished Virginian who boasts of “my southern +ancestry, birth, rearing, residence and interest.”</p> + +<p>“And is not the law the same for all, and does it make any distinction +between rich and poor, white and black? Literally, the law is the same +for all. Then what more can be desired? The trouble is not that the laws +are partial, through some of its enactments, namely, the whipping-post, +chain-gang, and poll-tax laws, were aimed principally against the Negro; +but the trouble is with the interpretation of the laws by the juries, +who merely voice the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>public sentiment, which is superior to the law +itself. The average jury is a whimsical creature, subject to all kinds +of influences, though mostly of a sentimental character. In criminal +matters where whites are concerned, it seems ever to lean to the +defense; and the strongest arguments of the prosecution are easily +offset and upset by appeals on behalf of youth, family, station, +respectability, etc.; or, perhaps the whole family, weeping, is placed +in full view of the jury, and the susceptible jury, sure at least in +such cases to weep with them that weep, speedily brings in a verdict of +acquittal where guilt is clearly manifest; or it says jail where it +ought to say penitentiary; or one year where it ought to say ten; and +ten years where it ought to pronounce death. But the Negro has none of +these sentimental advantages. Too poor to employ competent counsel, his +liberty and life are necessarily committed to incompetent hands, when +the proverb of ‘poor pay, poor preach’ becomes reality ... But are +Negroes treated unfairly by juries and public opinion? Yes, and the +experience and observation of every fair-minded man will confirm the +assertion. One cardinal proof is that a white man seldom receives +punishment for assault, however brutal, however unprovoked, however +cowardly, be it maiming, homicide, or murder upon a Negro unless, +forsooth, the assailant be some degraded creature, disowned by his own +caste. Of the numberless instances—running into the thousands—during +the past twenty-three years, of homicide and murder of blacks by whites, +there is no single instance of capital punishment, and few, very few, +instances of imprisonment beyond a few months in jail, or a slight fine. +The fact is the juries, which are the sole judges of the evidence, will +accept testimony against a Negro that they would reject in the case of +whites; and on the other hand they will frequently reject, or at least +discredit, testimony of the Negro against the white man, however well +supported it may be. But to compound for sins we are inclined to by +damning those we have no mind to, in case of any difficulty between +white and black, and the former is injured or loses his life, lucky is +the latter if the homicide is not declared murder—when courts of +justice, though sure to inflict the highest penalty in his case, are +found to be too slow, and he is dragged forth and slain, unshrived and +unshriven, as if he were a monstrous wild beast of whose presence earth +could not be rid too quickly.”<small><a name="f51.1" id="f51.1" href="#f51">[51]</a></small></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>The social degradation of the Negro is the greatest factor contributive +to this high criminal record. We naturally associate poverty, +ignorance, and crime as being indissolubly connected. The Negroes +represent the stratum of society which commits the bulk of crime the +world over. If we exchange places the same story would be narrated of +the whites. The census records nowhere show that there is any connection +between crime and race, but between crime and condition.</p> + +<p>The Negro has a higher criminal record than the Caucasian, it is true, +but so has the foreigner a greater average than the native whites. The +strongest possible argument in this connection rests upon the fact that +the presence of a large number of Negroes in any community does not +increase its total criminal average. The North Atlantic division, +including the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, has a +criminal record of 833.1 to the million, while the South Atlantic +division, including the states of the Southern Atlantic coast shows a +record of 831.7. The Western division has an average of 1300. The +section that has the fewest Negroes has the highest average, and the +states that have the largest quota of blacks show the lowest criminal +rates. If we compare state with state the same interesting results are +revealed. The criminal record of New York (million basis) is 1369, of +South Carolina 702.6, of California 1703, of Alabama 720.1.</p> + +<p>But, says the objector, a difference in the rigidity of the enforcement +of the law may account in some measure for this disparity. Let us then +take the city of Washington, one-third of whose population are Negroes, +and compare its police reports with those of Boston, whose Negro element +is a negligible fraction. It will be conceded, I think, that the +enforcement of law in both cities is rigid. The major of police for the +District of Columbia, in his last report remarks: “Those familiar with +the conduct of police affairs in this country generally contend that +there is a constant increase of crime; that it keeps pace with the +growing population. While such may be true of the principal cities of +the United States, facts and figures support the claim of this +department that in this respect the District of Columbia occupies a +distinct standing of its own. Its comprehensive moral status is above +that of most communities. Were it not for the depredations chargeable to +theft, there would be comparatively little crime to chronicle. This +offense must always exist<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> here, unless through some unexpected agency a +complete change should be effected in the social conditions which +prevail. The abiding place of a large class of idle, illiterate, and +consequently vicious persons, it is but reasonable that the respectable +element should be preyed upon to a considerable extent.”<small><a name="f52.1" id="f52.1" href="#f52">[52]</a></small></p> + +<p>The percentage of arrests for Boston during 1896 was 9.37, whereas for +Washington it was only 8 and a fraction. These facts would seem to +furnish sufficient evidence that crime adheres to circumstances and +condition and not to race and color.</p> + +<p>But, says the author, in the North (where legal processes are +acknowledgly fair so far as the Negro is concerned) the race shows a +criminal record which is out of all proportion to its numerical +strength. In Pennsylvania 2.23 per cent of its population commit 16.16 +per cent of the crimes; in Chicago 1.30 of the population are +responsible for 9.84 of the offenses, and so for other Northern +communities. The Negro’s criminal status is from six to eight times +greater than his numerical weight. It has been shown in another place +that from a social and economic standpoint the Northern Negro is +completely submerged. The criminal outbreak under the circumstances is +only natural.</p> + +<p>It is also true that where numbers are small proportions are high. The +startling criminal showing of the Northern Negro can be accounted for +largely on this principle. Suppose that there were but one Chinaman in a +community, and coming, as he <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'natarally'">naturally</ins> would, into hostile contact with +a wide area, he should be arrested and convicted. The criminal records +of that community would show that one hundred per cent of the Chinese +population belonged to the criminal class.</p> + +<p>I append the following table, extracted from the census of 1880, to +establish this principle. The Negro in the country at large shows a much +higher criminal rate than the foreign whites, but if we limit our +inquiry to those states where the foreign population is small, the +conditions will be reversed.</p> + +<h4><i>Number of prisoners in several southern states (to the million of population.)</i></h4> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="prisoners"> +<tr><td align="center">State.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Foreign white.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center">Colored.</td></tr> +<tr><td>Florida</td><td> </td><td align="center">2,624</td><td> </td><td align="center">1,797</td></tr> +<tr><td>Georgia</td><td> </td><td align="center">2,272</td><td> </td><td align="center">2,181</td></tr> +<tr><td>Louisiana</td><td> </td><td align="center">1,810</td><td> </td><td align="center">1,728</td></tr> +<tr><td>Mississippi</td><td> </td><td align="center">2,498</td><td> </td><td align="center">1,783</td></tr></table> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>If, on the other hand, we select those states in which the Negro element +is small and the foreign element large the result is very decidedly to +the disadvantage of the Negro.</p> + +<p>The Northern Negro has a criminal record which is not only out of all +proportion to his numerical strength, but is two or three times as great +as that of his black brothers in the South. It is hard to see how “race +traits” could account for this discrepancy.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Rape and Lynching.</span></h4> + +<p>The attempts at rape and the consequent lynchings are also offered in +evidence of the evil propensity of the race. It is undoubtedly true that +the alleged assaults upon white women by colored men have done more than +all other causes combined to give the race an evil reputation and make +it loathsome in the eyes of mankind. “It throws over every colored man a +mantle of odium and sets upon him a mark for popular hate more +distressing than the mark set upon the first murderer ... It has cooled +our friends and heated our enemies.”<small><a name="f53.1" id="f53.1" href="#f53">[53]</a></small></p> + +<p>The alleged culprit in such cases, especially if he be a colored man and +the victim a white woman, is almost certain to die without due process +of law. The native, savage furor of human nature asserts itself in the +presence of such dastardly outrages, and neither legal enactments nor +moral codes nor religious sanction can restrain it. The perpetrators +cannot be defended or pitied. It is a waste of sympathy to wail over the +deep damnation of their taking off. And yet we must remember that when +the two races are concerned rape has a larger definition than is set +down in the dictionaries. There can be no doubt that there have been +many lynchings chargeable to rape, when the true cause should be +designated by a different, though an ugly name.</p> + +<p>Let us not forget, also, that not more than one-third of the lynchings +are even chargeable to rape. The causes include the whole catalogue of +offenses, serious and trifling, from the committal of murder to jostling +against a white man on the street. The attempt to show that lynching and +rape are coextensive is misleading and unjust.</p> + +<p>So the effort to show that rapeful assaults are due to “race traits” +can, I think, be clearly disproved. In a pamphlet which is certainly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>not flattering to the Negro, a learned medical authority tells us: “I +might remark in passing that, notwithstanding the horrible crimes +perpetrated under the influence of the <i>furor sexualis</i> by the Negro, I +believe that he compares quite favorably as regards sexual +impulses—taking all abnormalities into consideration—with the white +race. The more I see of white men in so-called refined society, the more +contempt have I for quite a large proportion of male humanity.”<small><a name="f54.1" id="f54.1" href="#f54">[54]</a></small></p> + +<p>To summarize the points of the argument, showing that rape is not +peculiarly characteristic of the Negro:</p> + +<p>1. Rape has been practiced among all races and nations.</p> + +<p>2. The committal of rape by white men is by no means an infrequent +occurrence. Two instances of white men committing <ins class="correction" title="original reads 'henious'">heinous</ins> assaults upon +white children occurred in Washington during the preparation of this article.</p> + +<p>3. In Africa rape is so severely punished that it is comparatively unknown.</p> + +<p>4. In the British Islands and in South America where the Negroes live in +greatest relative abundance, the crime is unheard of.</p> + +<p>5. When the care and safety of the white women of the South were +entrusted to the keeping of the slaves, they returned inviolable all +that had been entrusted to their hands.</p> + +<p>6. Of the hundreds of lady missionaries of the North who have trusted +their lives and virtue to the emancipated race whom they came to uplift, +not a single case of violation has been reported to their friends at the +North.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Social Morality.</span></h4> + +<p>The present state of social morality is mirrored in the number of +illegitimate offsprings. The figures which show that the rate of +illegitimacy among Negroes in Washington has increased from 17.60 per +cent of total births in 1879 to 26.46 per cent in 1894 have been widely +quoted and remarked upon. These are facts of record and cannot be +gainsaid or denied. According to the opinion of medical men and others +in positions to observe, these figures if anything fall short of the +truth. It is also probable that the other large cities of the country, +if as closely studied, would make as startling a showing. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>The only +alarming feature of the situation is the constant <i>increase</i> in the +illegitimate rates. That twenty-five per cent of the births among +Negroes are illegitimate will not alarm anyone where it is considered +that even this low moral status represents a gain of seventy-five per +cent over the conditions prevailing under slavery.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hoffman having on hand a theory, was spared the pains of inquiring +further into the causes which led to this deplorable state of things. +The reviewer suggests that this increase in social immorality among the +Negroes of Washington is due to the great rush of ignorant, purposeless +colored people to the national capital, a condition of things which +always leads, in its first effect, to social looseness and impurity. The +very late marriages among the better element of the colored people also +help to account for this awful state of things. But perhaps a greater +than any cause yet assigned as leading to the social degradation of +Negroes in cities is the excess of the female over the male element of +the population. On account of the importance of this subject, I append a +table showing this excess for the cities whose colored population is +over 20,000.</p> + +<h4><i>Colored population.</i></h4> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="population"> +<tr><td align="center" valign="bottom">City.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Colored<br />males.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Colored<br />females.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Excess of<br />females.</td><td><span class="spacer"> </span></td><td align="center" valign="bottom">Number of<br />females to<br />every 100<br />males.</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>Baltimore</td><td> </td><td align="right">29,165</td><td> </td><td align="right">38,131</td><td> </td><td align="right">8,966</td><td> </td><td align="center">131</td></tr> +<tr><td>Richmond</td><td> </td><td align="right">14,216</td><td> </td><td align="right">18,138</td><td> </td><td align="right">3,922</td><td> </td><td align="center">128</td></tr> +<tr><td>Atlanta</td><td> </td><td align="right">12,400</td><td> </td><td align="right">15,717</td><td> </td><td align="right">3,317</td><td> </td><td align="center">127</td></tr> +<tr><td>Washington</td><td> </td><td align="right">33,831</td><td> </td><td align="right">41,866</td><td> </td><td align="right">8,035</td><td> </td><td align="center">123</td></tr> +<tr><td>New Orleans</td><td> </td><td align="right">28,936</td><td> </td><td align="right">35,727</td><td> </td><td align="right">6,791</td><td> </td><td align="center">123</td></tr> +<tr><td>Nashville</td><td> </td><td align="right">13,334</td><td> </td><td align="right">16,061</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,727</td><td> </td><td align="center">120</td></tr> +<tr><td>Charleston</td><td> </td><td align="right">14,187</td><td> </td><td align="right">16,849</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,662</td><td> </td><td align="center">119</td></tr> +<tr><td>Savannah</td><td> </td><td align="right">10,493</td><td> </td><td align="right">12,485</td><td> </td><td align="right">1,992</td><td> </td><td align="center">119</td></tr> +<tr><td>Memphis</td><td> </td><td align="right">13,333</td><td> </td><td align="right">15,396</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,063</td><td> </td><td align="center">115</td></tr> +<tr><td>Louisville</td><td> </td><td align="right">13,348</td><td> </td><td align="right">15,324</td><td> </td><td align="right">1,976</td><td> </td><td align="center">115</td></tr> +<tr><td>Philadelphia</td><td> </td><td align="right">18,960</td><td> </td><td align="right">21,414</td><td> </td><td align="right">2,454</td><td> </td><td align="center">113</td></tr> +<tr><td>St. Louis</td><td> </td><td align="right">13,247</td><td> </td><td align="right">13,819</td><td> </td><td align="right">572</td><td> </td><td align="center">104</td></tr> +<tr><td>New York</td><td> </td><td align="right">12,649</td><td> </td><td align="right">13,025</td><td> </td><td align="right">376</td><td> </td><td align="center">103</td></tr> +<tr><td> </td><td> </td><td align="right">——— </td><td> </td><td align="right">———</td><td> </td><td align="right">———</td><td> </td><td align="center">——</td></tr> +<tr><td>Total</td><td> </td><td align="right">228,099</td><td> </td><td align="right">273,952</td><td> </td><td align="right">45,875</td><td> </td><td align="center">120</td></tr></table> + +<p>Such a disproportion between the sexes can forbode no good to society. +In the West, where the male element predominates over the female among +the white population, the evil effect on society is painfully apparent. +If every colored man in Washington were married and every male minor had +a mate selected for him, there would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> still be left Negro females enough +to form a manless community larger than Annapolis, Md. Now, no one +should wonder at the moral corruption under these circumstances. These +8000 females, for whom marriage is impossible, be it remembered, are not +restrained by the inhibitory influence of pride, station, and +self-esteem. This is no doubt the greatest evil which threatens the +social integrity of Negro life, and forms the most serious and +perplexing of our city problems.</p> + +<p>As startling as the records of crime and immorality are, they are only +the outgrowth of circumstances and conditions. Human nature at best is +weak, and under fostering circumstances has always yielded to the power +of sin and uncleanliness. The author tells us that immorality is a race +trait. This is sadly too true, but it is a human race trait, and is +limited to no particular variety thereof.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p><i>Subject:</i> Economic Conditions.</p> + +<p><i>Gist:</i> “As a general conclusion it may be said that the Negro has not +yet learned the first element of Anglo-Saxon thrift.”<small><a name="f55.1" id="f55.1" href="#f55">[55]</a></small></p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Negro as a Farm Hand.</span></h4> + +<p>Attempt is made to show that the Negro has deteriorated as a farm +laborer, and that as an industrial factor he has not held his own in the +development of the resources of the South. With a process of reasoning +with which we are fully familiar by this time, these assertions are +sought to be upheld. The decline in agricultural interests throughout +the country has had its effect upon the apparent efficiency of the +farming class everywhere. The mad rush to the cities, with a vain hope +of improvement in condition, has well nigh demoralized agricultural +pursuits.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">The Negro as an Industrial Factor.</span></h4> + +<p>The investigations which have been undertaken to determine the +industrial efficiency of the Negro have shown results not unfavorable to +him. The recent discharge of white workmen in the cotton mills of +Charleston, and the substitution of colored workmen in their places, is +quite significant. The hindrances which the Negro has to meet in the +industrial field are fully suggested in the address to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>the public of +the discharged white employes of the Charleston establishment: “If the +colored man’s status precludes him from competing with the +office-holder, it should exclude him from competing with our wives, +sons, and daughters in the light pursuits of the country. We affirm, by +our physical powers and brave hearts, not to sit supinely by and witness +this Negro horde turned loose upon the pursuits of our mothers, our +wives, our widows, our daughters, our sisters, and rob them of their +living.”<small><a name="f56.1" id="f56.1" href="#f56">[56]</a></small></p> + +<p>This is the solemn declaration of 800 workmen in the metropolis of South +Carolina, and represents fairly the white labor sentiment of the South. +The trades unions and labor organizations preach the same doctrine. If +the alleged low industrial efficiency of the Negro is to be chargeable +to race traits, it should be attributed to the domineering and +intolerant race traits of the white workmen who are not disposed to give +the colored man a fair chance. The fact that in almost every contention +between white and colored workmen the employers take the side of the +Negro, is an eloquent argument in behalf of the industrial merits of the +latter; for these employers are in the business for profit and not for +philanthropy.</p> + +<p> </p> +<h4><span class="smcap">Accumulation of Property.</span></h4> + +<p>The accumulation of property on the part of the blacks shows that in +Georgia they own $12,941,230, in North Carolina $8,018,446, and in +Virginia $13,933,908. The land held by the colored people in Virginia +alone has an area nearly equal to that of the State of Rhode Island. +These facts make a decidedly favorable showing.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p>Conclusion.</p> + +<p>The need of this chapter is hardly apparent, for the author’s conclusion +is as clearly set forth in the beginning as at the close of the +treatise. As to his leading conclusion, the author is not only out of +harmony with the general opinion prevalent among students of the Negro +problem, but is also strangely inconsistent with his former self. The +same author who in 1896, wrote: “It is not in the condition of life, but +in the race traits and tendencies, that we find the cause of excessive +mortality,”<small><a name="f57.1" id="f57.1" href="#f57">[57]</a></small> in 1892 +affirmed: “The colored <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>population is placed at +many disadvantages which it cannot very well remove. The unsanitary +condition of their dwellings, their ignorance of the laws of health, and +general poverty are the principal causes of their high mortality.”<small><a name="f58.1" id="f58.1" href="#f58">[58]</a></small> +The Frederick L. Hoffman of 1892, according to the general judgment, is +much nearer the true analysis than the Frederick L. Hoffman of 1896.</p> + +<p>The author’s conclusion will not stand the philosophical tests of a +sound theory.</p> + +<p>1. It is based upon disputed data. The accuracy of the eleventh census +is not acceptable either to the popular or the scientific mind.</p> + +<p>2. It is not based upon a sufficient induction of data. The arguments at +most apply to the Negroes in the large cities, who constitute less than +12 per cent of the total population.</p> + +<p>3. It does not account for the facts arranged under it as satisfactorily +as can be done under a different hypothesis. The author fails to +consider that the discouraging facts of observation may be due to the +violent upheaval of emancipation and reconstruction, and are, therefore, +only temporary in their duration.</p> + +<p>I do not know whether the author believes in Providence as a determining +factor in society or not. It may not be accounted scientific to take +cognizance of any element which cannot be quantified, counted, weighed, +or measured. But I do know that the wisest of our species have always +believed that God is the controlling factor in human affairs. The +Negro’s hopes and aspirations are built upon the foundation of this +belief. We are told in His word that he visits the sins of the fathers +upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. If the Negro, +then, will conform his life to the moral and sanitary laws, may not the +evil tendencies now observable be eradicated or overcome? The first +effects of emancipation are always harmful to the moral and physical +well-being of the liberated class. The removal of physical restraints, +before moral restraints have grown strong enough to take their place, +must always result in misconduct. The Jews in Egypt labored under +circumstances remarkably similar to those of the American Negro. After +their emancipation, it required them forty years to make the progress +which the scientific process would have required them to make in forty +days. Such was their moral and physical degeneracy, that only <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>two +persons of all the hosts who left the land of Egyptian bondage survived +to reach the Promised Land forty years afterward. Luckily for the +Hebrews, there were no statisticians in those days. Think of the future +which an Egyptian philosopher would have predicted for this people! And +yet out of the loins of this race have sprung the moral and spiritual +law-givers of mankind. We should not be discouraged because the Negro +does not make a bee-line from Egyptian bondage to the Promised Land +beyond the Jordan. He, too, must tarry awhile in the wilderness before +he enters upon the full enjoyment of the heritage of freedom.</p> + +<p>To the Negro I would say, let him not be discouraged at the ugly facts +which confront him. The sociologists are flashing the searchlight of +scientific inquiry upon him. His faults lie nearer the surface and are +more easily detected than those of the white race. Let him not be +overwhelmed when all his faults are observed, set in a note book, +learned and conned by rote, to be cast into his teeth. If all the ugly +facts about any people were brought to light they would furnish an +unpleasant record. When the Savior told the woman of Samaria all that +she ever did, a very unsavory career was disclosed. If all the misdeeds +of any people or individual were brought to light, the best of the race +would be injured and the rest would be ruined. The Negro should accept +the facts with becoming humility, and strive to live in closer +conformity with the requirements of human and divine law. He does not +labor under a destiny of death from which there is no escape. It is a +condition and not a theory that confronts him.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Kelly Miller.</span></p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> Author’s preface.</p> + +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> Page 51.</p> + +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> Page 95.</p> + +<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> Page 95.</p> + +<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> Page 176.</p> + +<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> Page 312.</p> + +<p><a name="f7" id="f7" href="#f7.1">[7]</a> Page 311.</p> + +<p><a name="f8" id="f8" href="#f8.1">[8]</a> Frederick L. Hoffman, in the Arena, April, 1892.</p> + +<p><a name="f9" id="f9" href="#f9.1">[9]</a> Giddings’ “Principles of Sociology,” page 79.</p> + +<p><a name="f10" id="f10" href="#f10.1">[10]</a> Senator Roger Q. Mills, in the Forum, April, 1891.</p> + +<p><a name="f11" id="f11" href="#f11.1">[11]</a> Estimated by General Francis A. Walker, Forum, July, 1891.</p> + +<p><a name="f12" id="f12" href="#f12.1">[12]</a> W. E. B. Du Bois, Ph. D., in the American Academy of Political Science, January, 1897.</p> + +<p><a name="f13" id="f13" href="#f13.1">[13]</a> Miles Menander Dawson, in the Quarterly Publications of the +American Statistical Association, September-December, 1896, page 142.</p> + +<p><a name="f14" id="f14" href="#f14.1">[14]</a> Page 14.</p> + +<p><a name="f15" id="f15" href="#f15.1">[15]</a> General Francis A. Walker, Forum, July, 1891.</p> + +<p><a name="f16" id="f16" href="#f16.1">[16]</a> Page 20.</p> + +<p><a name="f17" id="f17" href="#f17.1">[17]</a> See New York Evangelist, June, 1897.</p> + +<p><a name="f18" id="f18" href="#f18.1">[18]</a> Page 37.</p> + +<p><a name="f19" id="f19" href="#f19.1">[19]</a> The Health Officer of Savannah, quoted by Mr. Hoffman, page 62.</p> + +<p><a name="f20" id="f20" href="#f20.1">[20]</a> Page 63.</p> + +<p><a name="f21" id="f21" href="#f21.1">[21]</a> Page 33.</p> + +<p><a name="f22" id="f22" href="#f22.1">[22]</a> M. G. Mulhall, F. S. S., in North American Review, July, 1897.</p> + +<p><a name="f23" id="f23" href="#f23.1">[23]</a> Tenth Census, Vol. XI, p. xxxviii.</p> + +<p><a name="f24" id="f24" href="#f24.1">[24]</a> Dr. John S. Billings’ comments upon Vital Statistics of the Tenth Census, Vol. XI, p. xxxviii.</p> + +<p><a name="f25" id="f25" href="#f25.1">[25]</a> Pages 53 and 54.</p> + +<p><a name="f26" id="f26" href="#f26.1">[26]</a> Report of the Health Officer of the District of Columbia, 1896, page 7.</p> + +<p><a name="f27" id="f27" href="#f27.1">[27]</a> Pages 53 and 55.</p> + +<p><a name="f28" id="f28" href="#f28.1">[28]</a> Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 10, May, 1897, page 286.</p> + +<p><a name="f29" id="f29" href="#f29.1">[29]</a> Surgeon General’s Report, 1896, Table XII.</p> + +<p><a name="f30" id="f30" href="#f30.1">[30]</a> Dr. Francis A. Walker, in the Forum, July, 1891.</p> + +<p><a name="f31" id="f31" href="#f31.1">[31]</a> Page 148.</p> + +<p><a name="f32" id="f32" href="#f32.1">[32]</a> “The Effects of Emancipation upon the Mental and Physical Health of +the Negro,” by Dr. J. F. Miller, Superintendent Eastern Hospital, Goldsboro, N. C., page 2.</p> + +<p><a name="f33" id="f33" href="#f33.1">[33]</a> Ibid., page 6.</p> + +<p><a name="f34" id="f34" href="#f34.1">[34]</a> Report of Surgeon General of the Army, August, 1896, page 89.</p> + +<p><a name="f35" id="f35" href="#f35.1">[35]</a> L. M. Hershaw, Esq., in Atlanta University Bulletin, No. 2. page 16.</p> + +<p><a name="f36" id="f36" href="#f36.1">[36]</a> Page 176.</p> + +<p><a name="f37" id="f37" href="#f37.1">[37]</a> Page 149.</p> + +<p><a name="f38" id="f38" href="#f38.1">[38]</a> Page 158.</p> + +<p><a name="f39" id="f39" href="#f39.1">[39]</a> Page 176.</p> + +<p><a name="f40" id="f40" href="#f40.1">[40]</a> Page 188.</p> + +<p><a name="f41" id="f41" href="#f41.1">[41]</a> “Plantation Negro as a Freeman,” by Phillip A. Bruce, pages 53 and 54.</p> + +<p><a name="f42" id="f42" href="#f42.1">[42]</a> Page 185.</p> + +<p><a name="f43" id="f43" href="#f43.1">[43]</a> Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly, March, 1897.</p> + +<p><a name="f44" id="f44" href="#f44.1">[44]</a> A. De Quatrefages’ “Human Species,” chapter XXX.</p> + +<p><a name="f45" id="f45" href="#f45.1">[45]</a> Prof. N. S. Shaler, Arena, December, 1890.</p> + +<p><a name="f46" id="f46" href="#f46.1">[46]</a> Wm. Matthews, LL. D., on Negro Intellect, North American Review, July, 1889.</p> + +<p><a name="f47" id="f47" href="#f47.1">[47]</a> Benjamin Kidd’s “Social Evolution,” page 295.</p> + +<p><a name="f48" id="f48" href="#f48.1">[48]</a> Page 95.</p> + +<p><a name="f49" id="f49" href="#f49.1">[49]</a> Page 216.</p> + +<p><a name="f50" id="f50" href="#f50.1">[50]</a> Page 218.</p> + +<p><a name="f51" id="f51" href="#f51.1">[51]</a> “The Prosperity of the South Dependent upon the Elevation of the Negro,” L. H. Blair, pages 55-58.</p> + +<p><a name="f52" id="f52" href="#f52.1">[52]</a> Report of Metropolitan Police Department for the year 1896, page 11.</p> + +<p><a name="f53" id="f53" href="#f53.1">[53]</a> Frederick Douglass’ “Lessons of the Hour,” page 8.</p> + +<p><a name="f54" id="f54" href="#f54.1">[54]</a> “Sexual Crimes among the Southern Negroes,” by Drs. Hunter McGuire and G. Frank Lydstron, page 8.</p> + +<p><a name="f55" id="f55" href="#f55.1">[55]</a> Page 307.</p> + +<p><a name="f56" id="f56" href="#f56.1">[56]</a> The Literary Digest, July 24, 1897, page 361.</p> + +<p><a name="f57" id="f57" href="#f57.1">[57]</a> “Race Traits and Tendencies,” by Frederick L. Hoffman, page 95.</p> + +<p><a name="f58" id="f58" href="#f58.1">[58]</a> “Vital Statistics of the Negro,” by Frederick L. Hoffman, Arena, April, 1892.</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and +Tendencies of the American Negro, by Kelly Miller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS *** + +***** This file should be named 31279-h.htm or 31279-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/7/31279/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro + The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 1 + +Author: Kelly Miller + +Release Date: February 15, 2010 [EBook #31279] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + + + + + The American Negro Academy. + + Occasional Papers, No. 1. + + + A REVIEW + of + HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES + OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO, + + BY + KELLY MILLER. + + + Price, Twenty-five Cents. + + WASHINGTON, D. C. + PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY. + 1897. + + + + +OCCASIONAL PAPERS. + + +No. 1.--A REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE + AMERICAN NEGRO.--Kelly Miller 25 Cts. + +No. 2.--THE CONSERVATION OF RACES.--W. E. Burghard Du Bois 15 Cts. + + +Orders may be sent to John H. Wills, 506 Eleventh Street N. W., +Washington, D. C. + + + + +A REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. + + +In August, 1896, there was published, under the auspices of the American +Economic Association, a work entitled "Race Traits and Tendencies of the +American Negro," by Frederick L. Hoffman, F. S. S., statistician to the +Prudential Insurance Company of America. This work presents by far the +most thorough and comprehensive treatment of the Negro problem, from a +statistical standpoint, which has yet appeared. In fact, it may be +regarded as the most important utterance on the subject since the +publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin;" for the interest which the famous +novel aroused in the domain of sentiment and generous feelings, the +present work seems destined to awaken in the field of science and exact +inquiry. + +Mr. Hoffman has spent ten years in painful and laborious investigation +of the subject, during which time he has been in touch with the fullest +sources of information, and has had the advice and assistance of the +highest living authorities in statistics and social science. The temper +of mind which he brought to this study may be judged from his own words: +"Being of foreign birth, a German, I was fortunately free from a personal +bias which might have made an impartial treatment of the subject +difficult."[1] There are other assurances that the author possesses no +personal animosity or repugnance against the Negro as such. But, freedom +from conscious personal bias does not relieve the author from the +imputation of partiality to his own opinions beyond the warrant of the +facts which he has presented. Indeed, it would seem that his conclusion +was reached from _a priori_ considerations and that facts have been +collected in order to justify it. + +The main conclusion of the work is that the Negro race in America is +deteriorating physically and morally in such manner as to point to +ulterior extinction, and that this decline is due to "race traits" +rather than to conditions and circumstances of life. Not only do we find +this conclusion expressly set forth in connection with every chapter, +but it is also easily discernible in foot notes and quotations, in the +general drift of cited references, and between the lines. In order to +give the clearest possible statement of the author's position his own +words will be used. + +"The conditions of life therefore ... would seem to be of less +importance than race and heredity."[2] + +"It is not the _conditions of life_ but in _the race traits and +tendencies_ that we find the causes of the excessive mortality."[3] + +"For the root of the evil lies in the fact of an immense amount of +immorality, which is a race trait."[4] + +"A combination of these traits and tendencies must in the end cause the +extinction of the race."[5] + +"It is not in the conditions of life but in race and heredity that we +find the explanation."[6] + +"The mixture of the African with the white 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."[7] + +If the reader will keep constantly in mind the key suggested by these +quotations, he will peruse the book itself as well as this review with +greater ease and facility. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +_Subject._ Population. + +_Gist._ "For some generations the colored element may continue to make +decennial gains, but it is very probable that the next thirty years will +be the last to show total gains, and then the decrease will be slow but +sure until final disappearance."[8] + +I have taken this quotation from another work by the same author as it +represents more clearly than any other condensed statement the substance +of the present chapter. This proposition is a most important one, and +therefore its establishment needs to be inquired into with the greatest +particularity. If a race does not possess the requisite physical +stamina, it is impossible for it to maintain a high degree of moral and +intellectual culture or compete with its more vigorous rivals in the +race of civilization. + +"All the elements of society are conserved in its physical basis, the +social population."[9] + +Since the author relies mainly upon the eleventh census for facts to +establish his conclusion, and since the accuracy of this census is +widely controverted, we may fairly call upon him to prove his document +before it can be admitted in evidence. + +The following quotation from Senator Mills reflects the opinion of many +eminent students of public problems as to the accuracy of this +enumeration: "The announcement that our population is only 62,662,250 +was a genuine surprise, not only to those who looked for the dark side +of the picture, but also to those whose faith in the administration and +its census bureau had never for a moment wavered. The census of 1880 +gave 50,155,783. The present returns give an increase of 12,466,476, +which is at the rate of 24.86 per cent. That this number is not even +approximately correct may be seen by comparing the increase in this +decade with the gain in others which have preceded it. Any alleged fact +that is without the pale of probability stands impeached at the very +threshold of the inquiry, and must be verified by competent evidence." +Basing his estimates upon the school census, the Senator continues: "The +state of Texas is deprived, by the incorrect returns, of at least three +representatives in Congress. Alabama loses 240,000, Tennessee and North +Carolina 170,000 each, and Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana 100,000 +each."[10] Whatever force there may be in the protest of the eloquent +Texas Senator, applies with special emphasis to the colored element; for +it goes without saying that errors in enumeration in the South would be +confined mainly to the Negro race, and since the bulk of the race is +confined to this section such errors would have a most disastrous effect +upon its rate of increase as shown by the census reports. + +The following table exhibits the development of the colored population +for the last one hundred years, as well as its decennial rates of +increase and percentage of the total population. + + _Colored Population of the United States._ + + Year. Colored Decennial Increase Per cent + Population. Increase. per cent in of total + 10 years. population. + + 1790 757,208 ....... ..... 19.27 + 1800 1,002,037 244,829 32.33 18.88 + 1810 1,377,808 375,771 37.50 19.03 + 1820 1,771,656 393,848 28.50 18.39 + 1830 2,328,642 556,986 31.44 18.10 + 1840 2,873,648 545,006 23.44 16.84 + 1850 3,638,808 765,169 26.63 15.69 + 1860 4,441,830 803,022 22.07 14.13 + 1870[11] 5,391,000 949,170 21.37 13.84 + 1880 6,580,793 1,189,793 22.07 13.12 + 1890 7,470,040 889,247 13.51 11.93 + +If we begin with 1810, the first census year after the constitutional +suppression of the slave trade, we see from this table that the growth +of the Negro element followed the ordinary law of population, viz: a +gradual decline in the rate of increase. In 70 years the decennial rate +of increase declined from about 30 per cent to 22 per cent. But from +1880 to 1890 there was a _per saltum_ decrease from 22 to 13 per +cent--that is, the decline in ten years was equal to that of the +previous seventy. And all this has happened during an era of profound +peace and prosperity, when the Negro population was subject to no great +perturbing influences. When a number of observations follow with +reasonable uniformity a fixed law, but a single result deviates widely +from this law it is usual to suspect the accuracy of the discrepant +observation. The author nowhere assigns any adequate cause for this +sudden "slump" in the increase of the colored population. Instead of +attributing it, in part at least, to the probable imperfection of the +eleventh census, he relies wholly upon a blind force recently discovered +and named by him "race traits and tendencies." The capriciousness of +this new factor, in that it may suspend operation indefinitely or break +loose in a day, does not seem to have occurred to the author, at least +it does not seem to affect the confident assurance with which he relies +upon it. As has been shrewdly remarked by an able reviewer, "It would +seem incumbent on him (Mr. Hoffman) further to prove that these race +traits, after being held in abeyance for at least a century, first took +decisive action in the decade 1880 to 1890."[12] + +In 1810 there were 1,377,808 Negroes in the United States. In 80 years +this number had swollen to at least 7,470,040, and that, too, without +reinforcement from outside immigration. It more than quintupled itself +in eight decades. Does it not require much fuller demonstration than the +author anywhere presents to convince the ordinary mind that a people +that has shown such physical vitality for so long a period, has all at +once, in a single decade, become comparatively infecund and threatened +with extinction? + +It is passing strange that it escaped the attention of a statistician of +Mr. Hoffman's sagacity that, even granting the accuracy of the eleventh +census, the natural increase of the Negro race was greater than that of +the whites during the last decade. The number of immigrants who came to +this country between 1880 and 1890 was 5,246,613. I am informed by the +census bureau that this number does not include the immigrants who came +from British North America and from Mexico after 1885. This number was +estimated by the statistical bureau of the Treasury Department to be +540,000, making the total number of immigrants 5,787,613. If this number +be subtracted from the increase of the white population during the last +decade (11,589,920) their rate of increase will be reduced to 13.35 per +cent as compared with 13.51 per cent for the blacks. Nor is this all. +The immigrants were for the most part in the full maturity and vigor of +their productive powers, being the most fecund element of our white +population. If allowance be made for their natural increase from 1880 to +1890 the white race would show a decennial increase appreciably below +that of the blacks. If the Negro, then, is threatened with extinction, +the white race is in a still more pitiable plight. + +The table on page 6 does indeed show plainly that the Negro does not +hold his own as a numerical factor of our mixed population. Whereas he +represented 19 per cent of the entire population in 1810 he now +represents only 12 per cent. But the cause of this relative decline is +apparent enough. It is due to white immigration and not to "race traits" +as Mr. Hoffman would have us believe. It would be as legitimate to +attribute the decline of the Yankee element as a numerical factor in the +large New England centers to the race degeneracy of the Puritan, while +ignoring the proper cause--the influx of the Celt. + +Mr. Hoffman's conclusions as to the Negro population are not generally +accepted by students of social problems. Their position is more clearly +stated in a recent notice of the work now under review. "Concerning the +first of these chapters dealing with population he (Mr. Hoffman) reaches +conclusions very different from those generally held by those who have +discussed the subject on _a priori_ grounds. The general impression has +been that the colored population was increasing at a rate greater than +that of the whites, owing both to the greater number of children born +and also to the fact that all children of a mixed race were counted as +blacks. From such a condition of affairs it would naturally be assumed +that the race to which all half-breeds were credited would, especially +if prolific, rapidly gain upon the other race."[13] + +On the appearance of each census since emancipation, there has been some +hue and cry as to the destiny of the Negro population. Public opinion +has been rhythmical with reference to its rise and fall above and below +the mean line of truth. In 1870 it was extermination; in 1880 it was +dreaded that the whole country would be Africanized because of the +prolificness of a barbarous race; in 1890 the doctrine of extinction was +preached once more; what will be the outcry in 1900 can only be divined +at this stage, but we may rest assured that it will be something +startling. + + +NEGROES IN CITIES. + +The author's studies in the minor features of the Negro population form +the most interesting and valuable work which has yet been undertaken on +the subject. The urban drift, the tendency to concentration, and the +migratory movements of the black population are treated with fullness +and force. It is interesting to know that there are 13 cities in which +the colored population exceeds 20,000, and 23 in which it exceeds +10,000, and that the rate of increase of the colored element in these +centers is enormous--more than 30 per cent. The concentration of the +colored population in certain sections of cities is quite suggestive. +The following table will disclose some of the striking features which +Mr. Hoffman has exhibited at length.[14] + + City. Colored No. Colored population + population. Wards. in wards. + + Chicago 14,271 34 9,122 in 3 wards. + Philadelphia 39,371 34 8,891 " 1 " + Boston 8,125 25 2,547 " 1 " + New York 23,601 24 13,008 " 3 " + Brooklyn 10,287 26 3,100 " 2 " + +This tendency to concentration in undesirable places is found to be +greater in Northern than in Southern cities. Every large city has its +white wards and its black wards, which the politician knows as well as +the seaman knows the depths and shallows of the sea. + +The evil of this tendency cannot be denied or gainsaid; but its cause is +not far to seek nor hard to find. + + +BLACK BELTS. + +The author also notes with alarm that the Negro population is congesting +in the black belts of the South. There are 70 counties in this section +with an aggregate area of over 50,000 square miles in which the colored +population outnumbers the white nearly three to one. The general +conviction is that the Negroes will be gathered into black settlements +scattered throughout the Gulf states. The superintendent of the tenth +census writes on this subject: "I entertain a strong conviction that the +further course of our (Negro) population will exhibit that tendency in a +continually growing force; that this element will be more and more +drained off from the higher and colder lands into the low, hot regions +bordering on the Gulf of Mexico."[15] + +Commenting on this subject Mr. Hoffman says: "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 white race."[16] + +It is undoubtedly true that the Negro has not the initiative power of +civilization. What race has? Civilization is not an original process +with any race or nation known to history. The torch has been passed from +race to race and from age to age. Where else can the Negro go? The white +race at present has the light. This concession is no reproach to the +Negro race, nor is it due to any peculiar race trait or tendency. + +There is a stretch of country extending from southern Pennsylvania to +northern Alabama, containing sections of Maryland, West Virginia, +Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, +and Alabama, and embracing the Appalachian system of mountains. This +section contains a population of nearly 3,000,000 souls. They belong for +the most part to the most thrifty element of our complex population--an +element whose toughness of moral and mental fiber is proverbial. The +Scotch-Irish are famed the world over for their manly and moral vigor. +And yet this people have sunken to the lowest depth of poverty and +degradation--a depth from which, without the assistance of outside help, +they can be lifted nevermore.[17] Is this condition of depravity and +inability of self-initiative due to "race traits and tendencies?" + +Then, supposing the Negroes to be concentrated in the black belts, as +seems inevitable, will they necessarily be shut out from wholesome +contact with civilization? Not at all. Just how far personal and servile +contact can elevate the moral and manly tone of a people is not quite +evident. But the result of indirect missionary contact is, perhaps, the +surest way to lift a race into civilization. I point to Japan as a +recent, striking illustration of this argument. The black belts will +afford the richest field for missionary and philanthropic endeavor. No +section of this country can remain long in an uncivilized state or +relapse into barbarism that has in its midst a Hampton Institute or a +Booker T. Washington. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +_Subject._ Vital Statistics. + +_Gist._ "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 statistics are obtainable and which enter at all into the +consideration of economic problems as factors the Negro shows the least +power of resistance in the struggle for life."[18] + + + +DEATH RATE. + +Statistics are collected from ten of the largest cities with the result +that the death rate among the whites is 20.12 per 1000, and among the +blacks 32.61. It is acknowledged that the great bulk of this excess in +the colored death rate is due to infant mortality. This fact of itself +would suggest that the real cause is condition rather than race traits. +This truth shall be established out of the mouth of Mr. Hoffman's own +witness. "Fifty per cent of the (Negro) children who die never receive +medical attention."[19] + +"The indifference to medical attendance in cases of illness of their +children is due to ignorance."[20] To the ordinary mind this would imply +the most unfortunate condition. + + +BIRTH RATE. + +But the death rate is only one factor in the vital equation. The birth +rate is equally important. Mr. Hoffman concedes, with reluctant +reservation, that the colored birth rate may be greater than that of the +whites. "That the birth rate of the Negroes is in excess of that of the +white population is probably true even at the present time, at least as +compared with the native whites."[21] This is indeed a very feeble +admission of a very obvious fact. Mr. Hoffman contends that the death +rate of the Negro race is much greater than that of the whites. It has +already been shown that, leaving immigration out of account, the +increase in the Negro population is greater than that of the white race. +How can these two facts be accounted for except it be on the basis of a +higher birth rate for the blacks? Mr. Hoffman will have either to alter +his estimates or mend his logic. + +Direct testimony on this subject must have been known to Mr. Hoffman. Of +course no one is qualified to write on vital statistics in America who +is not familiar with the investigation of Dr. Billings. Let the reader +compare the following quotation as to the relative birth rate of the +races, and, noting date of data upon which the conclusion is based, +decide for himself as to the ingenuousness of Mr. Hoffman's reluctant +admission: "Dr. Billings, in his luminous report on the vital statistics +of the United States (1886) shows that 1000 colored women (age from 15 +to 49) give birth to 164 children, and 1000 white women to only 127, +yearly; that is to say, three colored women have as many children as +four white."[22] + + +IS THE NEGRO THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION. + +Before Mr. Hoffman's conclusion as to the threatening aspect of the high +death rate of the Negro race can be accepted, several questions must be +answered by him. + +1. Is the death rate of the colored race higher than that of a +corresponding class of whites subject to the same moral and social +environment? The general opinion is that it is not; nor does the author +attempt to prove the contrary. In discussing this question Dr. John S. +Billings states: "If we could separate the vital statistics of the poor +and ignorant whites, the tenement house population of our Northern +cities, from those of the mass of the white population we should +undoubtedly find a high rate of mortality in this class, and especially +in infancy and childhood."[23] + +2. Is the high death rate for the cities sustained throughout the +country at large? Luckily the census of 1880 gives a complete answer to +this question. The death rate of the United States in 1880 was 15.09 per +1000; South Carolina 15.80; Alabama 14.20; Mississippi 12.89; Georgia +13.97; Massachusetts 18.59; New York 17.38; Pennsylvania 14.92; New +Jersey 16.33. This shows plainly that the Southern states with the +largest Negro contingent do not show any higher death rate than the +Northern states where the Negro is not a considerable factor. There is +no evidence, certainly none brought forward by the author, to show that +the death rate of the Negro in the country at large is much in excess of +that of the whites. "In the rural districts the mortality of the Negro +is not excessive; it is in the cities and towns where he is brought into +close contact with the evils and vices of civilization that he dies so +rapidly."[24] + +3. Is the death rate, even in the cities, so great as to foreshadow +extinction? Nothing is great or small except by comparison. The death +rate among the Negroes in the large cities at present is not as great as +it was among the whites forty years ago; that is, if we may rely upon +the statistics which Mr. Hoffman himself has presented. + + _Mortality among Whites in Southern Cities._[25] + + City. Period. Death rate. + + Mobile, Ala. 1852-1855 54.39 + Charleston, S. C. 1851-1860 29.79 + Savannah, Ga. 1856-1860 37.19 + New Orleans, La. 1849-1860 59.60 + +Under improved sanitary regulations these rates have been lowered until +at present they are not at all alarming. May not the same improvement in +his environment effect similar changes in the death rate of the Negro? + +Let us compare the death rate of the Negro race with that of the Germans +as presented in the census of 1880. + + Colored + City. death rate. City. Death rate. + + Washington 32.60 Konigsberg 31.50 + Baltimore 32.81 Munich 33.40 + Richmond 28.48 Breslau 31.60 + Louisville 30.73 Cologne 27.00 + New Orleans 30.42 Strasburg 29.60 + +This high death rate of the American Negro does not exceed that of the +white race in other parts of the civilized globe. If race traits are +playing such havoc with the Negroes in America, what direful agent of +death, may we ask the author, is at work in the cities of his own +fatherland? + +4. Does the death rate among Negroes show a tendency to increase? In the +District of Columbia there has been a gradual decline in the death rate +of the Negro population from 40.78 in 1876 to 29.54 in 1896.[26] + +Again, Mr. Hoffman's statistics will show a steady improvement in +Southern cities for the last twenty years. + + _Death rate among Negroes in Southern Cities._[27] + + Death Death + City. Periods. rate. Periods. rate. + + Mobile, Ala. 1876-1880 39.74 1891-1893 30.91 + Charleston, S. C. 1876-1885 43.83 1886-1894 44.06 + Savannah, Ga. 1876-1880 51.66 1891-1894 32.26 + New Orleans, La. 1880-1884 52.35 1890-1894 39.42 + +A recent report of the Labor Bureau throws much light on the subject. + + _Annual Death Rate of the Colored Race for three quinquennial + periods._[28] + + City. 1880-1885. 1885-1890. 1890-1895. + + Atlanta 37.96 33.41 32.76 + Baltimore 36.15 30.52 32.47 + Charleston 44.08 46.74 41.43 + Memphis 43.01 29.35 21.11 + Richmond 40.34 38.83 34.91 + +This table shows an unmistakable decrease in the death rate for the +successive quinquennial periods. + +All of which tends to prove that this high death rate is due to +condition and is subject to sanitary check and control. + +In further confirmation of the fact that the death rate among Negroes is +on the decline, the Army records will afford valuable testimony. + + _Death rate of Colored Soldiers in the U. S. Army._[29] + + Average from 1883 to 1892 9.07 + Average in 1894 6.26 + Average in 1895 5.03 + +In 1895 it is lower than that of the white soldiers. The same general +law of a gradually decreasing death rate is here revealed. + +If the death rate of the Negro population in cities is not higher than +that of corresponding classes of whites; if the records of the census +for the country at large do not show it to be in excess of other +classes; if the highest rates are not above those of the whites a half +century ago, nor higher than those of other civilized communities of the +Caucasian race at the present time; and if this rate is constantly +decreasing under more favorable sanitary appliances--it is hard to +justify the author's position as to the low vital powers of the race, or +to reach the conclusion that extinction will be its ultimate fate. + + +THE NORTHERN NEGROES. + +In further proof of the low vitality of the Negro race the author shows +at great length that the race cannot thrive in the North. For every +Northern community for which statistics are available it appears that +the death rate is in excess of the birth rate. It does not seem to have +occurred to the author that economic and social environment may lead to +this deplorable result. Dr. Walker, in a publication which has already +been referred to, states: "The industrial _raison d'etre_ of the Negro +is here (in the South) found at its maximum. In the Northern states this +_raison d'etre_ wholly disappears. There is nothing, aside from a few +kinds of personal service, which the Negro can do which the white man +cannot do as well or perhaps better."[30] + +In the North the Negro race lives in industrial and social captivity; +not being in sufficient numbers to form an independent constituency, +they whine and pine over certain abstract principles of equality and +brotherhood, but which, alas, fade into impalpable air under the +application of a concrete test. They sit in the shadow of the tree of +liberty and boast of its protecting boughs, but must not aspire to +partake of the fruit thereof. The undershrubbery purchases shade and +protection at too dear a price when it sacrifices therefor the +opportunity of the glorious sunlight of heaven. No healthy, vigorous +breed can be produced in the shade. No wonder, then, that the productive +sensitiveness of the Northern Negro is affected by his industrial and +social isolation among an overshadowing people who regard him with a +feeling composed in equal parts of pity and contempt. + + +CONSUMPTION AMONG NEGROES. + +The author enters into the causes of mortality and points out that in +addition to infant mortality, which has already been noticed, +consumption, pneumonia, and vicious taints of blood are the most +alarming ones. With gloomy forebodings we are reminded that: "Its (the +Negro race) extreme liability to consumption alone would suffice to seal +its fate as a race."[31] + +The following citation will express the truth of the situation as +clearly as it is possible to do: "From close personal observation, +embracing a professional life of nearly forty years among the Negroes +and from data obtained from professional brethren in different sections +of the South, I have no hesitancy in declaring that insanity and +tuberculosis were rare diseases among the Negroes of the South prior to +emancipation. Indeed, many intelligent people of observation and full +acquaintance of the Negro have stated to me that they never saw a crazy +or consumptive Negro of unmixed blood until these latter years. The fact +of their comparative exemption from these ailments prior to emancipation +is so well established..."[32] + +"Man is an organized being, and is subject to certain laws which he +cannot violate with impunity. These laws affect him in the air he +breathes, the food he eats, the clothes he wears, and (in) every +circumstance surrounding his habilitation. In the wholesale violation of +these laws after the war, as previously stated, was laid the foundation +of the degeneration of the physical and mental condition of the Negro. +Licentiousness left its slimy trail of sometimes ineradicable disease +upon his physical being, and neglected bronchitis, pneumonia, and +pleurisy lent their helping hand toward lung degeneration."[33] + +It will be noticed that Dr. Miller accepts all the facts alleged by our +author, but places the causes squarely upon the ground of conditions, +habits and circumstances of life. He does not seem to be acquainted with +Mr. Hoffman's discovery of "race traits." The fact that under the +hygienic and dietary regime of slavery, consumption was comparatively +unknown among Negroes, but that under the altered conditions of +emancipation it has developed to a threatening degree, would persuade +any except the man with a theory, that the cause is due to the radical +changes in life which freedom imposed upon the blacks, rather than to +some malignant, capricious "race trait" which is not amenable to the law +of cause and effect, but which graciously suspended its operation for +two hundred years, and has now mysteriously selected the closing decades +of the nineteenth century in which to make a trial of its direful power. + +No people who work all day in the open air of a mild climate and who +sleep at night in huts and cabins where crack and crevice and skylight +admit abundant ventilation, will be subject to pulmonary weakness. Now +take the same people and transplant them to the large cities of a colder +climate, subject them to pursuits which do not call for a high degree of +bodily energy, crowd them into alley tenements where the windows are +used only for ornament and to keep out the "night air," and a single +door must serve for entrance, exit, and ventilation, and lung +degeneration is the inevitable result. The cause of the evil suggests +the remedy. The author in a previous chapter points out the threatening +evil of crowding into the cities; a counter movement which would cause a +return to the country, or would at least stay the mad urban movement, +would not only improve the economic status of the race but would also +benefit its physical and moral health. Here is an open field for +practical philanthropy and wise Negro leadership. + +The increase in consumption among Negroes is indeed a grave matter, but +it is possible to exaggerate its importance as sociological evidence. If +we listen to the alarmists and social agitators, we would find a hundred +causes, each of which would destroy the human race in a single +generation. The most encouraging evidence on this subject from the +Negro's point of view is afforded by the last report of the Surgeon +General of the United States Army. The statistics thus furnished are the +most valuable for comparative study, since they deal with the two races +on terms of equality, that is, the white and colored men are of about +the same ages and initial condition of health, they receive the same +treatment and are subject to the same diet, work, and social habits. "It +is to be noted, also," says the Surgeon General, "that during the past +two years the rates for consumption among the colored troops have fallen +so as to be much lower than those for the whites, whereas formerly they +were much higher."[34] + +The following table prepared by Mr. Hershaw, shows plainly the gradual +decrease of the death rate from consumption in Southern cities for the +past fifteen years. + + _Death rate per 1000 among Negroes from Consumption._[35] + + City. Period. Rate. Period. Rate. Period. Rate. + + Atlanta 1882-1885 50.20 1886-1890 45.88 1891-1895 43.48 + Baltimore 1886 58.65 1887 55.42 1892 49.41 + Charleston 1881-1884 72.20 1885-1889 68.08 1890-1894 57.66 + Memphis 1882-1885 65.35 1886-1890 50.30 1891-1895 37.78 + Richmond 1881-1885 54.93 1886-1890 41.63 1892-1895 34.74 + +It appears that the total death rate as well as that due to consumption +among Negroes reached the maximum about 1880 and has been on the gradual +decline ever since. + +Consumption is only one of the contributing causes of the total death +rate. It has been shown that the death rate from all causes does not +necessarily point to the extinction of the race. This being so, there is +no need of unnecessary alarm over a single factor; for in sociology, as +in mathematics, we cannot escape the fundamental truth that the whole is +greater than any of its parts. + + +VITAL CAPACITY AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY. + +The author's proposition as to the low vitality of the Negro and its +effect upon his economic efficiency is contrary alike to the traditional +and prevalent belief. The whole fabric of slavery rested upon the +assumption that the Negro was better able to resist the trying condition +of the southern climate than the white laborer. The industrial +reconstruction of the South is building upon the same foundation. No one +doubts that the Negro is able to resist certain miasmatic and febrific +diseases which are so destructive to the white race in the tropical +regions of the earth. Science and wise hygienic appliances have improved +the condition of the white race in this respect, it is true, but will +not the same appliances benefit the Negro in the same degree? + +Dr. Daniel H. Williams, surgeon-in-chief of the Freedmen's Hospital, at +Washington, D. C., informs me that during his professional experience he +has performed upward of 3000 surgical operations, one-fourth of which at +least were upon white patients, and that he has found unmistakable +evidence of higher vital power among the colored patients. I am also +informed that this is the general opinion of the medical profession. + +Although the author treats exhaustively the whole catalogue of diseases +and the numerous ills which flesh is heir to, it can be safely claimed +that he does not establish his main proposition set forth in the +beginning of the chapter, and that at least a Scotch verdict is +demanded: "not proven." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +_Subject._ Anthropometry. + +_Gist._ "In vital capacity, the most important of all physiological +characteristics, the tendency of the race has been downward."[36] + +Ample statistics are presented to show that in proportion to structure +the Negro is heavier than the white man. This fact, the author tells us, +is ordinarily considered favorable to a healthy development and freedom +from pulmonary weakness. "The elaborate investigations of the medical +department of the New York Mutual Life, in 1874, of the Washington Life, +in 1886, the Prudential Insurance 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 consumption."[37] + +In order to explain away this apparent advantage in favor of the Negro, +the author has invented a unique physiological principle, viz: "A +physiological law may hold good for one race and not for another."[38] +It is noticeable that the author applies this principle only when it +suits his convenience but withholds it whenever it runs across his +theory. + +By a series of measurements based, confessedly, upon insufficient data, +it is concluded that the Negro has a smaller lung capacity, smaller +chest expansion, and a higher rate of respiration than the white man, +and that the Mulatto is inferior to both the parent races in these vital +functions. These differences are considered a powerful factor in lung +degeneration, and proof positive of physical inferiority. In these +respects he tacitly repudiates his erstwhile principle that "a +physiological law may hold good for one race and not for another," and +assumes that the two races are subject to like conditions of disease and +death. + +On the whole it may be said that this is the least interesting chapter +in the whole book. The data are so slender and the arguments are so +evidently shaped to a theory, that we are neither enlightened by the one +nor convinced by the other. But the author's judgment must be justified. +The gloomy warning comes with Catonian regularity at the end of each +chapter. Listen to his last words: "A combination of these traits and +tendencies must in the end cause the extinction of the race."[39] + +If the Negro is inferior in vital function and power to the Caucasian, +he will be a public benefactor who scientifically demonstrates the fact. +But the colored race most stubbornly refuses to be argued out of +existence on an insufficient induction of data and unwarranted +conclusions deduced therefrom. + + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +_Subject._ Amalgamation. + +_Gist._ "The crossing of the Negro race with the white has been +detrimental to its true progress and has contributed more than anything +else to the excessive and increasing rate of mortality from the most +fatal disease, as well as to its consequent inferior social efficiency +and diminishing power as a force in American national life."[40] + +The importance of this proposition is apparent when we consider that the +Negroes in this country are a thoroughly mixed people. The pure African +type has been well nigh obliterated. It is pointed out also that the +mongrel progeny has been produced by illicit intercourse between the +white male and the black female. The moral and conservative qualities of +a race reside in its womanhood. The Negro people, then, have missed +these transmitted qualities. The author is either ignorant of or ignores +the large class of mixed Negroes who are the legitimate offspring of +colored parents, but would place the whole class under the ban of +bastardy. + +After judicially balancing the testimony furnished by world-renowned +authorities upon the effect of race crossing, the author espouses one +side of the contention with all the ardor of a retained advocate. + +Three points are sought to be established. + + +I. THE MULATTO IS PHYSICALLY INFERIOR TO BOTH PARENT RACES. + +The opinions of examining surgeons during the civil war are quoted which +quite unanimously show that the Mulatto is strongly inclined to +consumption, scrofula, and vicious taints of blood. + +The following table, made out on the basis of Gould's measurements, is +full of interest: + + White. Black. Mulatto. + + Weight 141.4 pounds. 144.6 pounds. 44.8 pounds. + Circumference chest 35.8 inches. 35.1 inches. 34.96 inches. + Capacity of lungs 184.7 cubic in. 163.5 cubic in. 158.9 cubic in. + Rate of respiration 16.4 per minute. 17.7 per minute. 19.0 per minute. + +It appears from this table that in the most important vital organs and +functions the Mulatto is inferior to both parent stocks. This opinion +is almost or quite universal among competent authorities upon this +subject. And yet the last word of science has not been uttered on this +question. There is no subject in all the domain of social science which +offers a more interesting or more fruitful field for investigation. The +Freedmen's Hospital at Washington, and similar institutions elsewhere, +by prosecuting accurate and scientific methods of inquiry can throw much +light upon this subject. + + +2. THE MULATTO IS MORALLY INFERIOR TO THE BLACKS. + +This alleged inferiority is attributable to the fact as well as to the +manner of generation. Strangely enough Mr. Hoffman does not employ the +statistics which would seem to bear out his suggestion. The eleventh +census shows that there were 10,377 pure and 3,218 mixed Negroes in +penitentiaries in 1890. Supposing that uniform methods of race-tests +were used throughout the census inquiry, this would show that while the +mixed Negroes constitute only 16 per cent of the total Negro population, +they furnished 30 percent of the penitentiary convicts. But these +figures cannot be relied upon since the census bureau acknowledges that +it has no definite method of determining the different shades of color +and grades of mixture among Negroes. + +It is also alleged in proof of this proposition that illicit intercourse +between the races is carried on mainly with the Mulatto women. Can this +not be explained on grounds other than native depravity? The light-colored +Negro woman is made the victim of the lustful onslaught of the male +element of both races. She is placed between the upper and nether stress +of the vicious propensities of white and black men. And if her sins are +greater, is it not because her temptations are greater also? The +following quotation from a distinguished Southerner is significant; +"There was little improper intercourse between white men and Negresses +of the original type in the period before emancipation (after the +creation of the Mulatto class)."[41] Every time a Negro woman is +indicted on this score some white man is inculpated. The reproach hurled +against colored women from such sources reminds us very much of the +lines in Butler's Hudibras: + + The selfsame thing they will abhor, + One way, and long another for. + + +3. THE MULATTO IS INTELLECTUALLY SUPERIOR TO THE BLACKS BUT INFERIOR TO +THE WHITES. + +In substantiation of this proposition it is claimed that the greater +number of Negroes who have attained distinction have been those of mixed +blood. The truth of this statement must be conceded, and yet the cause +should not be overlooked. Leaving aside the doctrine of inheritance as a +debatable question, the initial advantage of the mixed over the pure +Negroes was considerable. Feelings of blood ties prompted many a slave +holder to deal kindly by his slave descendants, and often to liberate +them and give them a start in the race of life. That an infusion of +white blood quickens the energy and enlivens the disposition of the +progeny is probably true; but that it adds to the intellectual capacity +is far from a self-evident proposition. The Negroes who have shown any +unusual intellectual activity, in America at least, have usually been of +the purer type. Phyllis Wheatly, Benjamin Banneker, Ira Aldridge, Blind +Tom, Edward W. Blyden, and Paul Dunbar are illustrations of this +argument. + +The investigation of Dr. Gould as to circumference of head and facial +angle are exhibited in the following table: + + White. Mulatto. Black. + + Circumference of head 22.1 inches. 22.0 inches. 21.9 inches. + Facial angle 72.0 deg. 69.2 deg. 68.8 deg. + +A difference of one-tenth of an inch in head circumference and of +four-tenths of a degree in facial angle affords a very slender physical +basis on which to predicate intellectual superiority. + +The author lays great stress upon the following table made out by Dr. +Hunt. + + _Weight of the Brain of White and Colored Soldiers_.[42] + + No. of cases. Degree of color. Weight of brain. + + 24 White 1424 grammes. + 25 Three parts white 1390 " + 47 Half white 1334 " + 51 One-fourth white 1319 " + 95 One-eighth white 1308 " + 22 One-sixteenth white 1280 " + 141 Pure Negro 1341 " + +Twenty-four cases are taken to represent fifty million people, and the +law of averages thus obtained is confidently relied upon. Nor are we +informed as to what methods were employed to ascertain the exact +composition of blood of the 22 cases that are rated as one-sixteenth +white. But, supposing we accept this table, overlooking for the time +being the fact that the brain weight of one white person is taken as +typical of two million others, and also conceding the undisclosed method +of Dr. Hunt in detecting homeopathic dashes of white blood, does it +"clearly prove that there is an increase in the brain weight with an +increase in the proportion of white blood?" If this table shows anything +it is that the pure Negro and the Mulatto have about the same brain +weight and that they are both superior in this respect to all degrees of +mixture between them, but inferior to those of more than one-half white +blood. + +But it is rather unusual at this late day to base intellectual capacity +upon the shape and size of skull. Investigations have shown that facial +angle and capacity of cranium and cephalic index afford no certain +criterion of thought power or susceptibility to culture. The latest word +on this subject is given by Prof. Ripley, in a series of articles on +"Racial Geography of Europe," in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly for +1897. + +"An important point to be noted in this connection is that this shape of +the head seems to bear no direct relation to intellectual power or +intelligence. Posterior development of the cranium does not imply a +corresponding backwardness in culture.... Europe offers the best +refutation of the statement that the proportions of the head mean +anything intellectual.... In our study of the proportions of the head, +therefore, we are measuring merely race, and not intelligence in any +sense.... Equally unimportant to the anthropologist is the absolute size +of the head. It is grievous to contemplate the waste of energy when, +during our civil war, over one million of soldiers had their heads +measured in respect to this absolute size, in view of the fact that +today anthropologists deny any considerable significance attaching to +this characteristic. Popularly a large head with beetling eyebrows +suffices to establish a man's intellectual credit, but like all other +credit it is entirely dependent upon what lies on deposit +elsewhere."[43] + +A still more renowned authority tells us: "The development of the +intellectual faculties of man is to a great extent independent of the +capacity of the cranium and the volume of the brain."[44] + +The question of the relative intellectual capacity of the different +races is one of much speculative interest. I am giving the matter more +attention than it would seem to warrant, because the author makes the +supposed mental inferiority of the race the basis of the only practical +suggestion which he has to offer, viz: that all of our educational and +philanthropic endeavor so far has been based upon wrong principles, and +a radical change in this regard is demanded so as to bring the treatment +in harmony with the capabilities of the lower race. Several authorities +will be cited which, I think, will be more than sufficient to offset Mr. +Hoffman's insistent opinion. + +"There are hundreds if not thousands of black men in this country who in +capacity are to be ranked with the superior persons of the dominant +race; and it is hard to say that in any evident feature of mind they +characteristically differ from their white fellow citizens."[45] + +Prof. Shaler is himself a Southerner, a professor in Harvard University, +and a noted student of current problems. + +"Granting the present inferiority of the Negro, we affirm that it has +never been proved; nor is there any good reason to suppose that he is +doomed forever to maintain his present relative position, or that he is +inferior to the white man in any other sense than as some white races +are inferior to others."[46] + +"Yet the Negro children exhibit no intellectual inferiority; they make +just the same progress in the subjects taught as do the children of +white parents, and the deficiency they exhibit later in life is of quite +a different kind."[47] + +Mr. Hoffman compels us once more to combat the arguments of the slave +holding class: that is, that the Negro is intellectually and morally an +inferior creature (they did not, however, affirm physical inferiority) +and that it is only by servile contact with the white race that his +nature can be improved. The progress along these lines which the race +has made even under the severest disadvantages is sufficient answer to +this argument. + + If I'm designed yon lordling's slave, + By nature's law designed, + Why was an independent wish + E'er planted in my mind? + +The Negro's intellectual and social environments hang as a millstone +about his neck; and when he is cast upon the sea of opportunity he is +reproached with everlasting inferiority because he does not swim an +equal race with those who are not thus fettered. We are reminded of the +barbarous Teutons in Titus Andronicus who, after pulling out the tongue +and cutting off the hands of the lovely Lavinia, upbraid her for not +calling for sweet water with which to wash her delicate hands. + +No, no, Mr. Hoffman, the philanthropists have made no mistake. They have +proceeded on the supposition that the Negro has faculty for faculty and +power for power with the rest of his fellow men, and that his special +needs grow out of his peculiar condition. Any alteration in this policy +would violate the dictates both of science and humanity. + + +MIXED MARRIAGES. + +The remainder of this rather long chapter is devoted to the number and +character of mixed marriages, with the conclusion that the number is on +the decrease and the character of one or both of the contracting parties +is usually unsavory, and that such unions can form no determining factor +in the ultimate solution of the problem. + +A study of the fertility of such marriages and the physical, moral, and +intellectual stamina of the progeny would furnish valuable sociological +data. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +_Subject._ Social Conditions. + +_Gist._ "Immorality is a race trait."[48] + + +RELIGION AND EDUCATION. + +Under the sub-heads of religion and education statistics are presented +showing the progress of the race along these lines. A total church +membership of 2,673,977 shows that there is one communicant to every +2.79 of the Negro population, against one in every 3.04 for the whites. +There were 1,288,736 pupils in the common schools and 34,129 in the +higher schools, colleges, and universities. Ordinarily these facts are +regarded as the most wonderful evidences of progress which the world has +ever witnessed on the part of a backward people. But not so with Mr. +Hoffman; the necessities of his theories compel him to explain away +every apparent advantage in favor of the Negro. The author announces +with an implied negative response to the suppressed question: "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."[49] + +This statement needs no refutation, for it will fall beneath the +ponderous weight of its own absurdity. + + +CRIMINAL RECORD. + +The following table, if unexplained, tells a startling tale of the +Negro's criminal propensity: + + _Prisoners in the United States, 1890._[50] + + Total. Male. Female. + + White 58,052 53,519 4,433 + Colored 24,277 22,305 1,972 + + Male, Female, + per cent. per cent. + + Proportion of Negro criminals to total (over 15) 29.38 30.79 + Proportion of Negro population to total (over 15) 10.20 11.09 + +The Negro element, which constitutes only 12 per cent of the population, +commits 30 per cent of the crimes. Before concluding that this +preponderance of crime is due to "race traits," let us examine more +closely into the circumstances of the case. The discrepancy in the +administration of the law in the South has undoubtedly some effect upon +this relative showing. In order to escape the charge of slander, I will +use the words of a distinguished Virginian who boasts of "my southern +ancestry, birth, rearing, residence and interest." + +"And is not the law the same for all, and does it make any distinction +between rich and poor, white and black? Literally, the law is the same +for all. Then what more can be desired? The trouble is not that the laws +are partial, through some of its enactments, namely, the whipping-post, +chain-gang, and poll-tax laws, were aimed principally against the Negro; +but the trouble is with the interpretation of the laws by the juries, +who merely voice the public sentiment, which is superior to the law +itself. The average jury is a whimsical creature, subject to all kinds +of influences, though mostly of a sentimental character. In criminal +matters where whites are concerned, it seems ever to lean to the +defense; and the strongest arguments of the prosecution are easily +offset and upset by appeals on behalf of youth, family, station, +respectability, etc.; or, perhaps the whole family, weeping, is placed +in full view of the jury, and the susceptible jury, sure at least in +such cases to weep with them that weep, speedily brings in a verdict of +acquittal where guilt is clearly manifest; or it says jail where it +ought to say penitentiary; or one year where it ought to say ten; and +ten years where it ought to pronounce death. But the Negro has none of +these sentimental advantages. Too poor to employ competent counsel, his +liberty and life are necessarily committed to incompetent hands, when +the proverb of 'poor pay, poor preach' becomes reality ... But are +Negroes treated unfairly by juries and public opinion? Yes, and the +experience and observation of every fair-minded man will confirm the +assertion. One cardinal proof is that a white man seldom receives +punishment for assault, however brutal, however unprovoked, however +cowardly, be it maiming, homicide, or murder upon a Negro unless, +forsooth, the assailant be some degraded creature, disowned by his own +caste. Of the numberless instances--running into the thousands--during +the past twenty-three years, of homicide and murder of blacks by whites, +there is no single instance of capital punishment, and few, very few, +instances of imprisonment beyond a few months in jail, or a slight fine. +The fact is the juries, which are the sole judges of the evidence, will +accept testimony against a Negro that they would reject in the case of +whites; and on the other hand they will frequently reject, or at least +discredit, testimony of the Negro against the white man, however well +supported it may be. But to compound for sins we are inclined to by +damning those we have no mind to, in case of any difficulty between +white and black, and the former is injured or loses his life, lucky is +the latter if the homicide is not declared murder--when courts of +justice, though sure to inflict the highest penalty in his case, are +found to be too slow, and he is dragged forth and slain, unshrived and +unshriven, as if he were a monstrous wild beast of whose presence earth +could not be rid too quickly."[51] + +The social degradation of the Negro is the greatest factor contributive +to this high criminal record. We naturally associate poverty, +ignorance, and crime as being indissolubly connected. The Negroes +represent the stratum of society which commits the bulk of crime the +world over. If we exchange places the same story would be narrated of +the whites. The census records nowhere show that there is any connection +between crime and race, but between crime and condition. + +The Negro has a higher criminal record than the Caucasian, it is true, +but so has the foreigner a greater average than the native whites. The +strongest possible argument in this connection rests upon the fact that +the presence of a large number of Negroes in any community does not +increase its total criminal average. The North Atlantic division, +including the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, has a +criminal record of 833.1 to the million, while the South Atlantic +division, including the states of the Southern Atlantic coast shows a +record of 831.7. The Western division has an average of 1300. The +section that has the fewest Negroes has the highest average, and the +states that have the largest quota of blacks show the lowest criminal +rates. If we compare state with state the same interesting results are +revealed. The criminal record of New York (million basis) is 1369, of +South Carolina 702.6, of California 1703, of Alabama 720.1. + +But, says the objector, a difference in the rigidity of the enforcement +of the law may account in some measure for this disparity. Let us then +take the city of Washington, one-third of whose population are Negroes, +and compare its police reports with those of Boston, whose Negro element +is a negligible fraction. It will be conceded, I think, that the +enforcement of law in both cities is rigid. The major of police for the +District of Columbia, in his last report remarks: "Those familiar with +the conduct of police affairs in this country generally contend that +there is a constant increase of crime; that it keeps pace with the +growing population. While such may be true of the principal cities of +the United States, facts and figures support the claim of this +department that in this respect the District of Columbia occupies a +distinct standing of its own. Its comprehensive moral status is above +that of most communities. Were it not for the depredations chargeable to +theft, there would be comparatively little crime to chronicle. This +offense must always exist here, unless through some unexpected agency a +complete change should be effected in the social conditions which +prevail. The abiding place of a large class of idle, illiterate, and +consequently vicious persons, it is but reasonable that the respectable +element should be preyed upon to a considerable extent."[52] + +The percentage of arrests for Boston during 1896 was 9.37, whereas for +Washington it was only 8 and a fraction. These facts would seem to +furnish sufficient evidence that crime adheres to circumstances and +condition and not to race and color. + +But, says the author, in the North (where legal processes are +acknowledgly fair so far as the Negro is concerned) the race shows a +criminal record which is out of all proportion to its numerical +strength. In Pennsylvania 2.23 per cent of its population commit 16.16 +per cent of the crimes; in Chicago 1.30 of the population are +responsible for 9.84 of the offenses, and so for other Northern +communities. The Negro's criminal status is from six to eight times +greater than his numerical weight. It has been shown in another place +that from a social and economic standpoint the Northern Negro is +completely submerged. The criminal outbreak under the circumstances is +only natural. + +It is also true that where numbers are small proportions are high. The +startling criminal showing of the Northern Negro can be accounted for +largely on this principle. Suppose that there were but one Chinaman in a +community, and coming, as he naturally would, into hostile contact with +a wide area, he should be arrested and convicted. The criminal records +of that community would show that one hundred per cent of the Chinese +population belonged to the criminal class. + +I append the following table, extracted from the census of 1880, to +establish this principle. The Negro in the country at large shows a much +higher criminal rate than the foreign whites, but if we limit our +inquiry to those states where the foreign population is small, the +conditions will be reversed. + + _Number of prisoners in several southern states (to the million + of population.)_ + + State. Foreign white. Colored. + + Florida 2,624 1,797 + Georgia 2,272 2,181 + Louisiana 1,810 1,728 + Mississippi 2,498 1,783 + +If, on the other hand, we select those states in which the Negro element +is small and the foreign element large the result is very decidedly to +the disadvantage of the Negro. + +The Northern Negro has a criminal record which is not only out of all +proportion to his numerical strength, but is two or three times as great +as that of his black brothers in the South. It is hard to see how "race +traits" could account for this discrepancy. + + +RAPE AND LYNCHING. + +The attempts at rape and the consequent lynchings are also offered in +evidence of the evil propensity of the race. It is undoubtedly true that +the alleged assaults upon white women by colored men have done more than +all other causes combined to give the race an evil reputation and make +it loathsome in the eyes of mankind. "It throws over every colored man a +mantle of odium and sets upon him a mark for popular hate more +distressing than the mark set upon the first murderer ... It has cooled +our friends and heated our enemies."[53] + +The alleged culprit in such cases, especially if he be a colored man and +the victim a white woman, is almost certain to die without due process +of law. The native, savage furor of human nature asserts itself in the +presence of such dastardly outrages, and neither legal enactments nor +moral codes nor religious sanction can restrain it. The perpetrators +cannot be defended or pitied. It is a waste of sympathy to wail over the +deep damnation of their taking off. And yet we must remember that when +the two races are concerned rape has a larger definition than is set +down in the dictionaries. There can be no doubt that there have been +many lynchings chargeable to rape, when the true cause should be +designated by a different, though an ugly name. + +Let us not forget, also, that not more than one-third of the lynchings +are even chargeable to rape. The causes include the whole catalogue of +offenses, serious and trifling, from the committal of murder to jostling +against a white man on the street. The attempt to show that lynching and +rape are coextensive is misleading and unjust. + +So the effort to show that rapeful assaults are due to "race traits" +can, I think, be clearly disproved. In a pamphlet which is certainly +not flattering to the Negro, a learned medical authority tells us: "I +might remark in passing that, notwithstanding the horrible crimes +perpetrated under the influence of the _furor sexualis_ by the Negro, I +believe that he compares quite favorably as regards sexual +impulses--taking all abnormalities into consideration--with the white +race. The more I see of white men in so-called refined society, the more +contempt have I for quite a large proportion of male humanity."[54] + +To summarize the points of the argument, showing that rape is not +peculiarly characteristic of the Negro: + +1. Rape has been practiced among all races and nations. + +2. The committal of rape by white men is by no means an infrequent +occurrence. Two instances of white men committing heinous assaults upon +white children occurred in Washington during the preparation of this +article. + +3. In Africa rape is so severely punished that it is comparatively +unknown. + +4. In the British Islands and in South America where the Negroes live in +greatest relative abundance, the crime is unheard of. + +5. When the care and safety of the white women of the South were +entrusted to the keeping of the slaves, they returned inviolable all +that had been entrusted to their hands. + +6. Of the hundreds of lady missionaries of the North who have trusted +their lives and virtue to the emancipated race whom they came to uplift, +not a single case of violation has been reported to their friends at the +North. + + +SOCIAL MORALITY. + +The present state of social morality is mirrored in the number of +illegitimate offsprings. The figures which show that the rate of +illegitimacy among Negroes in Washington has increased from 17.60 per +cent of total births in 1879 to 26.46 per cent in 1894 have been widely +quoted and remarked upon. These are facts of record and cannot be +gainsaid or denied. According to the opinion of medical men and others +in positions to observe, these figures if anything fall short of the +truth. It is also probable that the other large cities of the country, +if as closely studied, would make as startling a showing. The only +alarming feature of the situation is the constant _increase_ in the +illegitimate rates. That twenty-five per cent of the births among +Negroes are illegitimate will not alarm anyone where it is considered +that even this low moral status represents a gain of seventy-five per +cent over the conditions prevailing under slavery. + +Mr. Hoffman having on hand a theory, was spared the pains of inquiring +further into the causes which led to this deplorable state of things. +The reviewer suggests that this increase in social immorality among the +Negroes of Washington is due to the great rush of ignorant, purposeless +colored people to the national capital, a condition of things which +always leads, in its first effect, to social looseness and impurity. The +very late marriages among the better element of the colored people also +help to account for this awful state of things. But perhaps a greater +than any cause yet assigned as leading to the social degradation of +Negroes in cities is the excess of the female over the male element of +the population. On account of the importance of this subject, I append a +table showing this excess for the cities whose colored population is +over 20,000. + + _Colored population._ + + Number of + Colored Colored Excess of females to + City. males. females. females. every 100 + males. + + Baltimore 29,165 38,131 8,966 131 + Richmond 14,216 18,138 3,922 128 + Atlanta 12,400 15,717 3,317 127 + Washington 33,831 41,866 8,035 123 + New Orleans 28,936 35,727 6,791 123 + Nashville 13,334 16,061 2,727 120 + Charleston 14,187 16,849 2,662 119 + Savannah 10,493 12,485 1,992 119 + Memphis 13,333 15,396 2,063 115 + Louisville 13,348 15,324 1,976 115 + Philadelphia 18,960 21,414 2,454 113 + St. Louis 13,247 13,819 572 104 + New York 12,649 13,025 376 103 + ------ ------ ------ --- + Total 228,099 273,952 45,875 120 + +Such a disproportion between the sexes can forbode no good to society. +In the West, where the male element predominates over the female among +the white population, the evil effect on society is painfully apparent. +If every colored man in Washington were married and every male minor had +a mate selected for him, there would still be left Negro females enough +to form a manless community larger than Annapolis, Md. Now, no one +should wonder at the moral corruption under these circumstances. These +8000 females, for whom marriage is impossible, be it remembered, are not +restrained by the inhibitory influence of pride, station, and +self-esteem. This is no doubt the greatest evil which threatens the +social integrity of Negro life, and forms the most serious and +perplexing of our city problems. + +As startling as the records of crime and immorality are, they are only +the outgrowth of circumstances and conditions. Human nature at best is +weak, and under fostering circumstances has always yielded to the power +of sin and uncleanliness. The author tells us that immorality is a race +trait. This is sadly too true, but it is a human race trait, and is +limited to no particular variety thereof. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +_Subject._ Economic Conditions. + +_Gist._ "As a general conclusion it may be said that the Negro has not +yet learned the first element of Anglo-Saxon thrift."[55] + + +THE NEGRO AS A FARM HAND. + +Attempt is made to show that the Negro has deteriorated as a farm +laborer, and that as an industrial factor he has not held his own in the +development of the resources of the South. With a process of reasoning +with which we are fully familiar by this time, these assertions are +sought to be upheld. The decline in agricultural interests throughout +the country has had its effect upon the apparent efficiency of the +farming class everywhere. The mad rush to the cities, with a vain hope +of improvement in condition, has well nigh demoralized agricultural +pursuits. + + +THE NEGRO AS AN INDUSTRIAL FACTOR. + +The investigations which have been undertaken to determine the industrial +efficiency of the Negro have shown results not unfavorable to him. The +recent discharge of white workmen in the cotton mills of Charleston, and +the substitution of colored workmen in their places, is quite significant. +The hindrances which the Negro has to meet in the industrial field are +fully suggested in the address to the public of the discharged white +employes of the Charleston establishment: "If the colored man's status +precludes him from competing with the office-holder, it should exclude +him from competing with our wives, sons, and daughters in the light +pursuits of the country. We affirm, by our physical powers and brave +hearts, not to sit supinely by and witness this Negro horde turned loose +upon the pursuits of our mothers, our wives, our widows, our daughters, +our sisters, and rob them of their living."[56] + +This is the solemn declaration of 800 workmen in the metropolis of South +Carolina, and represents fairly the white labor sentiment of the South. +The trades unions and labor organizations preach the same doctrine. If +the alleged low industrial efficiency of the Negro is to be chargeable +to race traits, it should be attributed to the domineering and +intolerant race traits of the white workmen who are not disposed to give +the colored man a fair chance. The fact that in almost every contention +between white and colored workmen the employers take the side of the +Negro, is an eloquent argument in behalf of the industrial merits of the +latter; for these employers are in the business for profit and not for +philanthropy. + + +ACCUMULATION OF PROPERTY. + +The accumulation of property on the part of the blacks shows that in +Georgia they own $12,941,230, in North Carolina $8,018,446, and in +Virginia $13,933,908. The land held by the colored people in Virginia +alone has an area nearly equal to that of the State of Rhode Island. +These facts make a decidedly favorable showing. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Conclusion. + +The need of this chapter is hardly apparent, for the author's conclusion +is as clearly set forth in the beginning as at the close of the +treatise. As to his leading conclusion, the author is not only out of +harmony with the general opinion prevalent among students of the Negro +problem, but is also strangely inconsistent with his former self. The +same author who in 1896, wrote: "It is not in the condition of life, but +in the race traits and tendencies, that we find the cause of excessive +mortality,"[57] in 1892 affirmed: "The colored population is placed at +many disadvantages which it cannot very well remove. The unsanitary +condition of their dwellings, their ignorance of the laws of health, and +general poverty are the principal causes of their high mortality."[58] +The Frederick L. Hoffman of 1892, according to the general judgment, is +much nearer the true analysis than the Frederick L. Hoffman of 1896. + +The author's conclusion will not stand the philosophical tests of a +sound theory. + +1. It is based upon disputed data. The accuracy of the eleventh census +is not acceptable either to the popular or the scientific mind. + +2. It is not based upon a sufficient induction of data. The arguments at +most apply to the Negroes in the large cities, who constitute less than +12 per cent of the total population. + +3. It does not account for the facts arranged under it as satisfactorily +as can be done under a different hypothesis. The author fails to +consider that the discouraging facts of observation may be due to the +violent upheaval of emancipation and reconstruction, and are, therefore, +only temporary in their duration. + +I do not know whether the author believes in Providence as a determining +factor in society or not. It may not be accounted scientific to take +cognizance of any element which cannot be quantified, counted, weighed, +or measured. But I do know that the wisest of our species have always +believed that God is the controlling factor in human affairs. The +Negro's hopes and aspirations are built upon the foundation of this +belief. We are told in His word that he visits the sins of the fathers +upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. If the Negro, +then, will conform his life to the moral and sanitary laws, may not the +evil tendencies now observable be eradicated or overcome? The first +effects of emancipation are always harmful to the moral and physical +well-being of the liberated class. The removal of physical restraints, +before moral restraints have grown strong enough to take their place, +must always result in misconduct. The Jews in Egypt labored under +circumstances remarkably similar to those of the American Negro. After +their emancipation, it required them forty years to make the progress +which the scientific process would have required them to make in forty +days. Such was their moral and physical degeneracy, that only two +persons of all the hosts who left the land of Egyptian bondage survived +to reach the Promised Land forty years afterward. Luckily for the +Hebrews, there were no statisticians in those days. Think of the future +which an Egyptian philosopher would have predicted for this people! And +yet out of the loins of this race have sprung the moral and spiritual +law-givers of mankind. We should not be discouraged because the Negro +does not make a bee-line from Egyptian bondage to the Promised Land +beyond the Jordan. He, too, must tarry awhile in the wilderness before +he enters upon the full enjoyment of the heritage of freedom. + +To the Negro I would say, let him not be discouraged at the ugly facts +which confront him. The sociologists are flashing the searchlight of +scientific inquiry upon him. His faults lie nearer the surface and are +more easily detected than those of the white race. Let him not be +overwhelmed when all his faults are observed, set in a note book, +learned and conned by rote, to be cast into his teeth. If all the ugly +facts about any people were brought to light they would furnish an +unpleasant record. When the Savior told the woman of Samaria all that +she ever did, a very unsavory career was disclosed. If all the misdeeds +of any people or individual were brought to light, the best of the race +would be injured and the rest would be ruined. The Negro should accept +the facts with becoming humility, and strive to live in closer +conformity with the requirements of human and divine law. He does not +labor under a destiny of death from which there is no escape. It is a +condition and not a theory that confronts him. + +KELLY MILLER. + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Author's preface. + +[2] Page 51. + +[3] Page 95. + +[4] Page 95. + +[5] Page 176. + +[6] Page 312. + +[7] Page 311. + +[8] Frederick L. Hoffman, in the Arena, April, 1892. + +[9] Giddings' "Principles of Sociology," page 79. + +[10] Senator Roger Q. Mills, in the Forum, April, 1891. + +[11] Estimated by General Francis A. Walker, Forum, July, 1891. + +[12] W. E. B. Du Bois, Ph. D., in the American Academy of Political +Science, January, 1897. + +[13] Miles Menander Dawson, in the Quarterly Publications of the +American Statistical Association, September-December, 1896, page 142. + +[14] Page 14. + +[15] General Francis A. Walker, Forum, July, 1891. + +[16] Page 20. + +[17] See New York Evangelist, June, 1897. + +[18] Page 37. + +[19] The Health Officer of Savannah, quoted by Mr. Hoffman, page 62. + +[20] Page 63. + +[21] Page 33. + +[22] M. G. Mulhall, F. S. S., in North American Review, July, 1897. + +[23] Tenth Census, Vol. XI, p. xxxviii. + +[24] Dr. John S. Billings' comments upon Vital Statistics of the Tenth +Census, Vol. XI, p. xxxviii. + +[25] Pages 53 and 54. + +[26] Report of the Health Officer of the District of Columbia, 1896, +page 7. + +[27] Pages 53 and 55. + +[28] Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 10, May, 1897, page 286. + +[29] Surgeon General's Report, 1896, Table XII. + +[30] Dr. Francis A. Walker, in the Forum, July, 1891. + +[31] Page 148. + +[32] "The Effects of Emancipation upon the Mental and Physical Health of +the Negro," by Dr. J. F. Miller, Superintendent Eastern Hospital, +Goldsboro, N. C., page 2. + +[33] Ibid., page 6. + +[34] Report of Surgeon General of the Army, August, 1896, page 89. + +[35] L. M. Hershaw, Esq., in Atlanta University Bulletin, No. 2. page +16. + +[36] Page 176. + +[37] Page 149. + +[38] Page 158. + +[39] Page 176. + +[40] Page 188. + +[41] "Plantation Negro as a Freeman," by Phillip A. Bruce, pages 53 and +54. + +[42] Page 185. + +[43] Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, March, 1897. + +[44] A. De Quatrefages' "Human Species," chapter XXX. + +[45] Prof. N. S. Shaler, Arena, December, 1890. + +[46] Wm. Matthews, LL. D., on Negro Intellect, North American Review, +July, 1889. + +[47] Benjamin Kidd's "Social Evolution," page 295. + +[48] Page 95. + +[49] Page 216. + +[50] Page 218. + +[51] "The Prosperity of the South Dependent upon the Elevation of the +Negro," L. H. Blair, pages 55-58. + +[52] Report of Metropolitan Police Department for the year 1896, page +11. + +[53] Frederick Douglass' "Lessons of the Hour," page 8. + +[54] "Sexual Crimes among the Southern Negroes," by Drs. Hunter McGuire +and G. Frank Lydstron, page 8. + +[55] Page 307. + +[56] The Literary Digest, July 24, 1897, page 361. + +[57] "Race Traits and Tendencies," by Frederick L. Hoffman, page 95. + +[58] "Vital Statistics of the Negro," by Frederick L. Hoffman, Arena, +April, 1892. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "embraciug" corrected to "embracing" (page 10) + "communinities" corrected to "communities" (page 14) + "natarally" corrected to "naturally" (page 29) + "henious" corrected to "heinous" (page 31) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and +Tendencies of the American Negro, by Kelly Miller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REVIEW OF HOFFMAN'S RACE TRAITS *** + +***** This file should be named 31279.txt or 31279.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/2/7/31279/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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