City and Inter-State Migration 123 



If these towns were increasing by excess of births over 

 deaths at the rate of 15 per cent, this leaves them a gain 

 by migration of some 18,000 colored people. Inasm uch 

 as Georgia as a whole lost 18,500 2 Negroes to other States, . 

 of whom fully 7,00 were migrants from Georgia to wns 4^ 

 t he total number of Georgia country Negroes who moved 

 intn f>nrfnfl frowns during the decade must ha ve been about 

 3^ } (Dp f whom 7.000 took the places of the emigrants and 

 18.000 accounted for the increase over a bove tha t which 

 would have been expected on the basis of a 15 per ce nt ex- 

 cess of births over deat hs. 



INCREASES IN SMALL TOWNS 



Villages. — The first move of a Negro from the open 

 country is usua lly to a village Of small T6WTT ~ Extended ob- 

 se rvation ot the movement indicates th at very few move 

 direct ly from the open country to a larg e city. The process 

 is thus a series of steps whereby the effi cient members of 

 the rural population are taken by the small tow n, and the 

 ejS jcient members of the small t own population are in turn 

 ta ken by the cit y. This greatly emphasizes t ne strategic 

 importa nce of the small town. 



The rural organizatiOn^oT the ante-bellum Black Belt 

 did not embrace a unit comparable to the New England or 

 Middle Western village which is merely an accumulation, 

 in a convenient place, of the local administrative, mercan- 

 tile, and professional servants of the surrounding rural area. 

 In the ante-bellum South, even in the Upper Piedmont 

 section, where a sprinkling of small farmers were located, 

 plantations checked the growth of numerous small centers 

 of non-farming rural population. The baronial estate ab- 

 sorbed the functions of the village to such an extent that 

 frequently only one such settlement was developed in each 

 county. This was the county seat, with its local adminis- 

 trative and judicial officers, a few merchants and profes- 



*U. S. Census, 1910, Negro Population, 1790-1915, p. 71. 



