POPULATION. 373 



whites. Majorities may not always govern, even under universal suf- 

 frage, but they have their importance, and it is interesting to note that 

 the competitors in point of increase with the negroes are the Southern 

 whites, wliose rate of increase is 30.4 per decade, and immigrants from 

 Europe, whose rate of increase here is as great, or greater. 



No effort adequate to even an approximate determination statis- 

 tically of the intermixture of the negro and white race, has, as yet, 

 been undertaken. The enumeration of mulattos, attempted by the 

 census of 18(30 and of 1870, was entirely unsatisfactory, and. in the 

 census of 1880, none was attempted. Mr. Patterson, who has given 

 attention to the subject, says: "Even now they are no longer negroes. 

 One-third has a large infusion of white blood, another third has less, 

 but still some, and of the other third it would be diffi-cult to find an 

 assured specimen of pure African blood." This is a startling statement, 

 but in the absence of statistics, Avho puts it to the test among his negro 

 acquaintance, will be surprised at the degree in which it conforms to the 

 facts. If the lineage of those negroes whose color and features seem most 

 unmistakably to mark them as of purely African descent, be traced, indu- 

 bitable evidence may often be obtained of white parentage, more or less 

 remote. In such cases it will be noticed that external characteristics are 

 by no means invariably associated with internal ones, and that such 

 blacks are often more intelligent, and bear morally a closer resemblance 

 to the white race than do many bright-colored mulattos. Here, as else- 

 where, " in the crossings between unequal human races, the father almost 

 invariably belongs to the superior race. In ever}" case, and especially in 

 transient amours, woman refuses to lower herself ; man is less delicate." 

 {Quatrcfages). 



Thus, whatever advance a race makes, it is the female who preserves and 

 perpetuates it. The intermixture of the races being dependent on negro 

 mothers will be most rapid and complete where the negro females are in 

 excess to the males, and vice versa. In this connection it may be re- 

 marked that the number of negro females, in proportion to males, seems 

 to have been steadily on the decline in South Carolina since 1850. The 

 number of negro females to 100,000 males of that race, as given at the 

 following dates, being : 



1850 1860 1S70 1880 



105,290 10-1,192 104,232 102,938 



The last figure is less than tlie ratio of white females to males, which, 

 in 1880, is 103,125 to 100,000 males. The proportion of females to males, 

 among the negro population, is much greater in some of the Northern 



