The Negro in America. 



22- 



There is no reason for this flocking to the cities on the part of 

 the negroes. In two of the richest agricultural States of the Union, 

 Ohio and Missouri, the negroes are leaving the land for the cities, in 

 spite of the demand for their labour as farm hands. Once in the 

 city, the negro seldom goes back to the country. 



The negroes in the country generally congregate in certain 

 counties, known as the Black Belt, principally in the neighbourhood 

 of the Mississippi River. In these districts the negroes greatly out- 

 number the whites. Here are some of the most striking instances 

 of the disproportion of the two races in a few counties of the black 

 belt. In East Carroll parish, Louisiana, there are 11,394 negroes 

 to 1000 whites; in Madison parish 14,183 negroes to 1000 whites. 

 In the county of Beaufort, South Carolina, there are 11,659 blacks 

 to 1000 whites. 



Let us now consider the vital statistics. Of all races for which 

 statistics are obtainable, and which enter at all into the consideration 

 of economic problems as factors, the negro shows poorly in his power 

 of resistance in the struggle for life. In the South the negro birth- 

 rate is in excess of that of the native whites. In the Northern States 

 the negro mortality is in excess of the natality. The death-rate of 

 the negroes is far and away higher than that of the whites all over 

 the States. In the cold climate the negro race would die out in a 

 few generations were it not for the continual influx from the Southern 

 States. 



Here are the relative death-rates of the two races in six Southern 

 cities, taken from the 12th Census of the L'nited States. The death- 

 rate is per 1000 population : — 



New Orleans, Louisiana 

 Louisville, Kentucky 

 Richmond, Virginia 

 Nashville, Tennessee 

 Charleston, S. Carolina 



It is sometimes stated that environment explains the very high 

 negro death-rate. While environment plays an important part, 

 there is no doubt that the factors of race and heredity are the chief 

 causes for this high death-rate. Given the same conditions, whether 

 the most favourable or unfavourable, you always find the higher 

 death-rate amongst the negroes. Even in the swamp lands, where 

 malarial and typhoid fevers are prevalent, the white men stand the 

 unhealthy conditions far better than the black men. The African 

 race in America seems to have deteriorated during the past hundred 

 years, especially in the last thirty years, for there is a much higher 

 death-rate now than formerly. 



