NUMBERS OF EACH 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 1847. 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 1840 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

PLATE I.-Total population and white and negro elements.

PLATE II.-Proportion of the negro element to the total population.

nearly the line of the thirty-ninth parallel of north latitude. In 1880 the center of the total population was found on the south bank of the Ohio River, nearly opposite Cincinnati, and in 1890 it was found in southern Indiana, 20 miles east of Columbus, in latitude 39° 12' and in longitude 85° 33'.

The center of the negro population has been computed in 1880 and in 1890. At the first of these dates it was found in latitude 34° 42′ and in longitude 84° 58'. This position is in the northwestern corner of Georgia, not far from Dalton. In 1890 it was found to have moved southwestward into latitude 34° 26' and longitude 85° 18', being not far from the boundary between Alabama and Georgia and a few miles west of Rome, Ga. The longitude of the center of the negro population was very nearly the same as that of the total population, but in latitude it was nearly 5 degrees, or more than 300 miles, south of it. The positions of the center of total population and of the negro population in 1880 and in 1890 are shown upon the map which constitutes Plate VI.

The movements of the center of population are the net resultant of all the movements of population. During the past decade the negroes have moved in all directions, north, south, east, and west; but, as indicated by the movement of the center, the net resultant of their movements has been toward the southwest. As a whole this element moved in a southwesterly direction a distance of about 25 miles.

FREE NEGROES AND SLAVES.

Prior to 1870 the negro element, as returned by the successive censuses, was made up of two parts, free negroes and slaves. The proportions of these elements differed at different times, as is shown by the following table:

From this it appears that the free negroes constituted in 1790 only 8 per cent of all negroes, that the proportion increased rapidly to 1830, when they constituted not less than 14 per cent, and from that time the proportion diminished, until in 1860 they constituted 11 per cent of all negroes.

Moreover, the proportions of the free negroes found within the slave States and the free States differed at different times. More than half of the free negroes were found within the former slave States and less than one-half within the free States, and the proportion of free negroes found in the former slave States ranged from 54 per cent in 1860 to 58 per cent in 1810.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE NEGRO ELEMENT.

The negroes are distributed very unequally over the country. While they are found in every State and Territory and in almost every county of the land, the vast body of them are found in the Southern States, in those States lying south of Mason and Dixon's line, the Ohio River, the northern boundary of Missouri, and westward as far as Texas and Arkansas. The two maps on Plate III illustrate their distribution, State by State, over the country. One of these maps shows their density-that is, the average number in each square mile. It is an absolute measure of their numbers in different parts of the country. It is seen that they are the most plentiful in Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Mississippi, and secondarily in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. On the other hand, in nearly all the Northern and Western States they are very sparsely distributed, there being in these States, with scarcely an exception. less than four of them to a square mile, while in many of them there is less than one to a square mile.

The other map shows the proportion which the negro element bears to the total population, State by State. This is a measure of its importance relative to the whites. From this map it is seen that in three States, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, more than half the people are negroes. Indeed, in South Carolina three out of every five of the inhabitants are of this race. It is seen further that in all the States along the Atlantic and Gulf, from Virginia to Louisiana, together with Arkansas, more than one-fourth of the people are negroes, while, on the other hand, throughout the entire North and West the proportion of negroes is less than 5 per cent, and in many of the States it is less than 1 per cent of the total population.

PROPORTION OF THE NEGROES IN THE SLAVE STATES.

The distribution of the negro race may be still more closely characterized by the statement that in 1890 there were found in the former slave States not less than 92 per cent of all negroes. This proportion has differed at different times during the last century, as is shown in the following table:

Proportion of total negro clement comprised in former slave States.

From this table it will be seen that at the commencement of this history the former slave States contained 91 per cent of the negroes of the country. As time wore on this proportion increased, until in 1850 and 1860 they comprised 95 per cent, or nineteen-twentieths of all, while since that date, i. e., during the period of freedom of the race, it has shown a slight tendency northward, the proportion in the former slave States having become reduced, as above stated, to 92 per cent.

THE NEGROES OF THE SLAVE STATES.

In the above pages the history of the negroes has been traced in a broad, general way, and compared with that of the entire population and the white element of the country. The history is more or less complicated with the results of immigration, and with other disturbing factors, which have affected mainly the North and West. We may now, without serious error, confine our study of the race to the Southern States, the former slaveholding States, in which are found more than nine-tenths of the whole number of the negroes. The movement of these people from the South into the North has been inconsiderable, and there has been but little movement of the whites in either direction across the boundary line between the sections. The South has received little immigration either from the North or from Europe, and the emigration from it has been unimportant. So far as emigration and immigration are concerned, it has been throughout our history almost isolated from the rest of the world. So we may, without serious error, study the relations of the whites and blacks of this region by itself, without reference to other parts of the country.

PROPORTIONS OF THE RACES.

The following table and accompanying diagram (Pl. IV) show the proportions in which the population of this part of the United States was composed at each census for the past hundred years.

Proportions in which the population of former slave States was made up.

It appears from the above table that a century ago the population of the South was made up of whites and negroes in the proportions of 65 and 35 per cent, and that in 1890 the proportions were 69 and 31 per cent. The proportion of negroes increased from 1790 to 1810, when it reached 37 per cent, leaving only 63 per cent as the proportion of the whites, and remained practically stationary for three decades. Sinco 1810 the proportion of negroes has diminished."

RATES OF INCREASE.

The following table, showing the rates of increase of the two races for each tenyear period during the past century, leads to a similar conclusion-that is, that for a half century the negroes increased more rapidly than the whites, while during the last half century they have increased less rapidly.