DIAGRAM NO. 9.-Proportions of male negro wage-earners engaged in agriculture, personal service, and other occupations.

DIAGRAM NO. 10.-Proportions of female negro wage-earners engaged in personal service, agriculture, and other occupations.

Corresponding proportions for whites were 39.4 per cent and 60.6 per cent. Of the houses owned by negro occupants 126,264, or 87.7 per cent, were free, and 12.3 incumbered. Corresponding figures for whites were 71.3 and 28.7 per cent, showing, as before, a much greater proportion of free holdings among negroes than among whites.

Diagrams Nos. 11 and 12 summarize the above facts in graphic form. The total areas of the squares represent the number of farms and homes, respectively, those occupied by whites and negroes, respectively, being represented by the rectangles into which the squares are divided by horizontal lines. The vertical lines subdivide these rectangles into others proportional to the numbers occupied by owners without and with incumbrance, and by renters.

The male negroes occupied in agriculture numbered, in 1890, 1,329,584. Of these 510,619 occupied farms, the remainder, 818,965, being presumably farm laborers. The negro farmers-i. e., occupants of farms-constituted 38.3 per cent of the male negroes engaged in agriculture, leaving 61.7 per cent of the number as laborers. The corresponding figures for whites were 60.4 per cent and 39.6 per cent. The proportion of negroes engaged in agriculture who were farmers-i. e., occupied farms-was, therefore, much smaller than that of the whites. In spite of this low comparative showing, however, it must be agreed that, considering all the attendant circumstances, the proportion of negro farm occupants-more than one-third of all negroes engaged in agriculture-is unexpectedly large.

Summing up the salient points in this paper, it is seen that in the matter of occupations the negro is mainly engaged either in agriculture or personal service. lie has, in a generation, made little progress in manufactures, transportation, or trade. In these two groups of occupations males are in greater proportion engaged in agriculture and females in domestic service. They have, however, during this generation, made good progress toward acquiring property, especially in the form of homes and farms, and, in just so far as they have acquired possession of real estate, it is safe to say that they have become more valuable as citizens. The outlook for them is very favorable as agriculturists, but there is little prospect that the race will become an important factor in manufactures, transportation, or commerce.

IV.

A STATISTICAL SKETCH OF THE NEGROES IN THE UNITED STATES.

[By Henry Gannett, of the United States Geological Survey.]

These

From the time of the earliest settlement upon these shores the United States has contained two elements of population, the white race and the negro race. two races have together peopled this country, increasing partly by accessions to their numbers from abroad and partly by natural increase, until to-day (1894) the white race numbers probably 61,000,000 and the negroes 8,000,000. The history of the latter race, thus brought into close association with a more civilized and stronger people for two and three-fourths centuries, is one of surpassing interest. Unfortunately, however, this history, for the earlier part of the period, is, with the exception of a few fragments, utterly lost. For the last century, however, since the year 1790, the date of the first United States census, we have, at ten-year intervals, pictures of the distribution of the race and considerable information regarding its social condition.

SLAVE TRADE.

The slave trade flourished actively up to the close of the last century, and indeed it did not entirely cease until the year 1808. It was mainly in the hands of the English, including their North American colonies. It was a large and flourishing business for the shipowners of New England.

Of the number of slaves brought from Africa to this country, either directly or by way of the West India Islands, we have very little information. Prior to 1788 there are no records, and since that time the records of the slave trade do not distinguish between the slaves brought to the United States and those to other parts of America. Of the number of slaves in this country in colonial times the information is almost equally scanty, consisting of little more than estimates by different historical writers. Of these, Bancroft's are perhaps as reliable as any. His estimates of the number of negroes at different times are as follows:

NUMBERS OF EACHI RACE.

In 1790 we have the first reliable data regarding the number and distribution of the negroes. The total number of each race at this and each succeeding decennial enumeration is shown in the following table:

From this it appears that the whites have increased in a century from a little over 3,000,000 to nearly 55,000,000, and the negroes from three-fourths of a million to about 7,500,000. The whites were in 1890 nearly eighteen times as numerous as in 1790, the negroes nearly ten times as numerous.

The diagram constituting Plate I presents the same facts in graphic form. In each case the total length of the bar is proportional to the total population in the year indicated. The white portion of each bar represents the white population of the country, while the shaded portion represents the negro population.

The tables and diagram illustrate the rapid growth of the country in population, both of its white and its negro element.

PROPORTIONS OF EACH RACE.

The following table shows the proportions in which the total population was made up of these two elements at each census, expressed in percentages of the total population:

This table and Plate II show that on the whole the negroes have diminished decidedly in proportion to the whites. In 1790 they formed 19.27 per cent, or very nearly one-fifth of the whole population. At the end of this century they constituted only 11.93 per cent, or less than one-eighth of the population. At the end of the century their proportion was less than two-thirds as large as at the beginning. Moreover, this diminution in the proportion has been almost unbroken from the beginning to the end of the century. The proportion of the negroes has apparently increased in only two out of eleven censuses, namely, in 1810, immediately after the cessation of the slave trade, and in 1880. I say apparently, because in the latter case the increase is only apparent, due to a deficient enumeration of this race in the census preceding, namely, that of 1870.

RATES OF INCREASE.

The following table and the diagram accompanying it show the rates of increase of the negroes during each of the ten-year periods for the last century, and placed in juxtaposition therewith for comparison are the rates of increase of the whites of the entire country:

This table and diagram show that, with the exception of two ten-year periods, namely, those from 1800 to 1810 and 1870 to 1880, the negro element has in every case increased at a less rapid rate than the white element, and in many cases its rate of increase has been very much smaller.

Thus a comparison of the numerical progress of the negroes with that of the whites in the country, as a whole, shows that the former have not held their own, but have constantly fallen behind. They have not increased as rapidly as the whites.

It may be said that this is due to the enormous immigration which certain parts of the country have received, an immigration composed entirely of whites. This suggestion can easily be tested. White immigration on a considerable scale began about 1817. Prior to that time it was not of importance. We may then divide the century into two equal parts and contrast the relative rates of increase of the races during those half centuries. Between 1790 and 1810 the whites increased 4.5 times, the negroes 3.8 times. The latter element had diminished in relative importance in this half century from about one-fifth of the population to one-sixth.

In the succeeding fifty years the whites had increased 3.9 times, and the colored 2.6 times only. In other words, the greater increase of the whites has not been dependent upon immigration, since their rate of increase was greater than that of the negroes before immigration set in.

These figures, and the conclusions necessarily derived from them, should set at rest forever all fears regarding any possible conflict between the two races. We have before us the testimony of a century to show us that the negroes, while in no danger of extinction, while increasing at a rate probably more rapid than in any other part of the earth, are yet increasing less rapidly than the white people of the country, and to demonstrate that the latter will become more and more numerically the dominant race in America. Whether the negro will, through an improvement in his social condition, become of greater importance relatively to his numbers is a matter to be discussed later.

CENTER OF POPULATION,

The center of population, as it is called, may be described as the center of gravity of the inhabitants as they are distributed at the time under consideration, each inhabitant being supposed to have the same weight and to press downward with a force proportional to his distance from this center. The center of population of all the inhabitants of the United States has been computed for each census. At the time of the first census, in 1790, the center of population was found to be in Maryland, on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay, nearly opposite Baltimore. The general westward movement of population has caused a corresponding westward movement of this center, such movement following very