668 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



records of sextons in the larger towns of the South confirmed this 

 showing of the census. But, for all this, all through the South, there 

 were such swarms of little colored people about the huts, that the 

 writer was constrained to withhold his assent to the notion that the 

 race was dying out, stating at the time that, " notwithstanding the 

 showing of these statistics, we suspect that the greater number of 

 births compensate for the greater number of deaths, and that the next 

 census returns will show little if any diminution of the relative pro- 

 portion of the negro to the native white population." 



It must be mentioned, however, that the showing of the last two 

 censuses is not altogether free from suspicion. It has been thought 

 that either the census of last June made too many colored people, or 

 that of 1870 made too few. Where most in doubt, the last census has 

 been retaken with care, in parts of South Carolina three times in all, 

 and the work first done thus verified as correct. The probability is, that 

 the census of 1880 is as accurate as such work can well be done. The 

 census of 1870 is not so well authenticated, but it was thought at the 

 time to be correct. Whether it failed to enumerate all the colored is 

 a matter of speculation only, which can never be satisfactorily deter- 

 mined. It is now believed in the Census-Office at Washington that all 

 the colored were not enumerated in 1870. Possibly this is the case to 

 a certain extent, but it is just possible that it may not be necessary to 

 suppose error in either of the censuses to account for the great increase 

 during the last decade. The census of 1870 shows that reproduction 

 had been greatly checked in this as in other classes ; and it shows this 

 even if we allow a large margin for error. But this state of things 

 rapidly changed, and the colored people of the South began life anew 

 about the year 1870. They were no longer disturbed by the war, nor 

 seriously molested by the lawless elements of the South. They had 

 become comparatively well settled in their new status of freedom. 

 They found something to do, and something that paid, as the succes- 

 sive great cotton-crops of the South show ; and that hopefulness in life 

 which followed the period of anxiety contributed an unusual stimulus 

 to reproduction. With more settled habits came marriage and rap- 

 idly increasing families. The census of 1870 shows that the propor- 

 tion of children under ten years of age was nearly one per cent, less 

 among the colored than among the native whites. This is due, no 

 doubt, to the American-born children of immigrants being counted as 

 natives ; but it is probable that the census report of 1880 will reverse 

 this showing. Comparison can not be made in earlier reports because 

 the native and foreign whites were not kept distinct. 



The following is from an intelligent correspondent of Floyd County, 

 Georgia, to the "Country Gentleman" of July 15, 1880 Mr. J. H. 

 Dent : " So far as I have heard from the census enumerators, they 

 report that the increase of negroes by birth is remarkable. The enu- 

 merator of this district told me that in three families he found thirty 



