WESTERN RED HILLS. 



35 



POPULATION. 



In pre-historic times this region must have been the 

 happy hunting-ground of the Choctaw Indians, as shown 

 by the many geographical names of Choctaw origin (such 

 as Bogue Loosa, Fluctabunna, Hatchetigbee, Kintabish, 

 Naheola, Nanafalia, Pushmataha, Satilpa, Souwilpa, Tal- 

 lahatta, Tickabum, Tombigbee, Tuscahoma, and Yantayab- 

 ba) . The fertile soils, mild climate, and easy access by navi- 

 gable rivers attracted white settlers early in the history of 

 the United States. In 1820, when Alabama first appeared 

 in the census returns, there were nearly five inhabitants per 

 square mile in this -division. The salient features of the 

 population are shown in Table 1. 



TABLE 1. 

 Population statistics of western red hills. 



Only 2.4 per cent of the population is classed in the 1910 

 census as urban, i. e., living in cities with over 2,500 inhab- 

 itants. It will be noticed that in 1820, when the land was 

 mostly covered with primeval forest and agriculture was 

 comparatively undeveloped, there were nearly twice as many 

 whites as negroes ; but as the cotton planters gradually su- 

 perseded the pioneer woodsmen the proportion of negroes 

 steadily increased, up to 1880, since which time it has re- 

 mained almost stationary. The number of foreign whites 

 and of Indians is almost too small to count, only a fraction 

 of one per cent. 



In 1880 the average resident of this region, counting all 

 races and all ages, lived about 38 miles from his birthplace, 

 and about nine-tenths of them were born in Alabama. Im- 

 migration from outside the State had been principally from 

 South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Missis- 

 sippi, Florida, Tennessee and Maryland, in the order named. 

 (No information of this sort is available from later cen- 

 suses, the returns not having been published in sufficient 

 detail.) 



