106 



RESOURCES OF SOUTHERN ALABAMA. 



TABLE 23. 

 Population statistics of southern Alabama, 1850 and 1860. 



As already pointed out in the description of the south- 

 western pine hills, the percentage of white and colored in 

 Baldwin County in the early days is by no means representa- 

 tive of that region, for the population was then chiefly in 

 and near the alluvial bottoms of the Mobile delta. Bearing 

 this in mind, and also the concentration of population at 

 Mobile on account of the shipping interests, it will be seen 

 that the densest population and largest proportion of ne- 

 groes generally went with the most fertile soils, and vice 

 versa. 



The census of 1870 is not considered very reliable, for 

 obvious reasons, and we may pass next to that of 1880. By 

 that time Escambia County had been established, and that 

 is combined with Baldwin in the statistics. And separate 

 figures for the city of Mobile are available for that date, 

 so that statistics for Mobile County both with and without 

 the city are given in Table 24, which covers three census 

 periods, 1880 to 1900. For 1880 it is possible to give the 

 approximate average migration distance of the population 

 in each region, obtained by multiplying the number of na- 

 tives of each state by the distance between its center of 

 population and Alabama's, adding the products, and dividing 

 by the total population. Unfortunately no such data are 

 available at later censuses for areas smaller than states, ex- 

 cept a few of the larger cities. 



