National Life and Character/Appendix B

by Charles Henry Pearson

APPENDIX B

COMPARATIVE GROWTHS OF WHITE AND BLACK POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES
 

	White Population.
	1890.	1880.	1870.	1860.
Alabama	830,796	662,185	521,384	526,271
North Carolina	1,049,191	867,242	678,470	629,942
South Carolina	458,454	391,105	289,667	291,300
Florida	224,461	142,605	96,057	77,746
Georgia	973,462	816,906	638,926	591,550
Louisiana	554,712	454,954	362,065	357,456
Mississippi	539,703	479,398	382,896	353,899
	4,630,779	3,814,395	2,969,465	2,828,164
	Black Population.
	1890.	1880.	1870.	1860.
Alabama	681,431	600,103	475,510	437,770
North Carolina	567,170	531,277	391,650	361,522
South Carolina	692,503	604,332	415,814	412,320
Florida	166,678	126,690	91,689	62,677
Georgia	863,716	725,133	545,142	465,698
Louisiana	562,893	483,655	364,210	350,373
Mississippi	747,720	650,291	444,201	437,404
	4,282,111	3,721,481	2,728,216	2,527,764

Of these statistics it may be remarked—

1. That the census of 1870 is regarded as inaccurate, and as erring on the side of imperfect enumeration.

2. The census authorities of the United States say that the increase of the white race in the South since 1830 has not been effected by the aid of immigration, except in Kansas and Missouri. As, however, the whites in the South have increased at the rate of 17 per cent, while the average rate, independent of immigration, has been 14 per cent, it seems as if immigration cannot be disregarded.

3. The great increase of railways in the Southern States since the war of 1862-66 has been accompanied by an increase of towns as distributing centres, and has therefore been favourable to the growth of the white population.

4. Taking the Union all round, the increase for the last ten years—exclusive of immigration—has been 13·90 for the blacks against 14 for the whites. It is claimed that the blacks increased faster only when they were recruited by the slave-trade; and that white immigration has completely turned the balance since then. On the other hand, the diminution of increase among the blacks from 34·82 in 1870-80 to 13·90 in 1880-90 is so vast, even if we allow the preceding census to have been incomplete, as to suggest a doubt whether the negro population has been completely numbered at the last census.

5. Assuming the facts of the last census to be unimpeachable, it seems to result that whites and blacks increase in nearly the same ratio, but that there is in the United States "a perceptible tendency southward of the coloured people." In this case the result will still be to make a belt of States predominantly negro.

6. If we reduce the increase of the whites in the Black Belt by 3 per cent so as to bring it to the normal American rate, their gain upon the negroes during the last ten years will appear to be very trifling.