The Results of Migration 149 



conditions in the social environment such as migration, and 

 that the same peculiarities also exist to some degree among 

 other racial groups in the same circumstances, then the im- 

 portance of determining whether or not the Negro has 

 hereditary tendencies in these directions is greatly lessened. 

 Much more practical value attaches to the study of how far 

 these abnormalities are modified by the environment, and 

 how the environment may be changed to minimize them. 



POPULATION 



Sex and Age. — The outstanding peculiarity of the Negro 

 migration before 1910 was that young women and young 

 men furnished the predominant majority of the migrants 

 from the Black Belt. Since the young men were moving 

 mainly from one agricultural section to another, 1 and since 

 the young women were moving both from one agricultural 

 section to another and to the towns in response to domestic 

 service opportunity, the women were leaving the rural dis- 

 tricts faster. But even in increasing rural counties the in- 

 crease in females is greater than the increase in males, 

 mainly because of villages included in these counties. 



The following table gives the movement by sexes in the 

 rural counties of Georgia grouped according to whether 

 they are losing, gaining slowly or gaining rapidly in popu- 

 lation. (See shading of Map II). 



Increase of Negroes by Sex 

 Rural Districts of Georgia, 1900-1910 



County Group Increase Increase 



Males Females 



Counties Losing 115 — 550 



Counties Gaining Slowly 12,660 14,045 



Counties Gaining Rapidly 29,338 32,088 



It has previously been noted that this different move- 

 ment of the two sexes has created a great excess of females 

 in the cities. Where there are only from 800 to 900 males 

 per 1,000 females the resultant disturbance in family life 



1 This statement applies to the pre-war migration. During 

 the war males were moving to industrial cities of the North. 



