y ^ LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEGRO MIGRATION Changes in Rural Organization and Population of the Cotton Belt BY THOMAS JACKSON [WOOFTER, JR., Field Agent, Phelps-Stokes Fund. Sometime Phelps-Stokes Fellow in the University of Georgia, and Fellow of the American University in Columbia University. SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE Faculty of Political Science Columbia University NEW YORK W. D. Gray, 106 Seventh Ave. 1920 Copyright, 1920 By T. J. Woofter, Jr. We To My Father An Inspiring Teacher and True Companion M542420 W PREFACE Investigation of the conditions from which Negro migra- tions rise throws new light on the vexing questions of land tenure and rural organization in the South. Descriptions of the movements reveal interesting and important social processes. A full treatment of the effect of the migration necessitates a review of all of the important problems of Negro life, for migration places them against a new and changing background. The greater part of this work is devoted to the first two topics, namely: (1) The description of land tenure and the organization of farm life in the Cotton Belt. (2) How this organization results in the movements of population. One chapter is devoted to city movements and one to the effects of migration. While the writer is aware that the space of one chapter is entirely inadequate for a full treatment of the latter topic, it is not considered that the data are yet available for an exhaustive treatment. The principal effects are merely outlined so that students of special Negro problems may be warned that they will do well, after gathering their facts, to make allowance for population movement before drawing conclusions. Negro migration, like the movement of any people, may be associated with definite social and economic forces. It is desirable that the student retain, in proper perspective, this general significance of a population movement even while examining its interesting details. With this in view, the effort throughout the study has been to describe, in terms of current usage in social science, the movements of colored people in the United States, the conditions from which they arise, and the consequences which attend them. CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 13 PART I. THE NEW RURAL ORGANIZATION Chapter I. Agriculture and Prejudice 22 Importance of Agriculture to the Negro 22 The Extent of Prejudice 26 Chapter II. The Ruin of the Old Regime 29 Causes of the Breakdown 29 Rapidity of the Breakdown 42 Chaptfr III. The Negro's Agricultural Opportunity 52 The White Man's Aid and Competition 52 Growth of Landownership 57 Growth of Tenancy 63 Chapter IV. . . The Life of the Tenant Classes 69 Income 73 Efficiency in Production — Yields per Acre, Size of Farm, Value of Land, Implements and Machinery, Work Animals, Depreciation and Waste, Summary. 76 Abuses 85 Standard of Living — Family Life, Food, Clothing, Housing 86 Social Differences 88 PART II. THE POPULATION MOVEMENTS Chapter I. The Diversity of Migrations 92 Country and City 93 Rural Districts 95 Direction of Rural Migration 98 Chapter II. The Movements of Countrymen 105 Movement Before 1910 106 Movement Since 1910 117 Contents i i Page Chapter III. City and Inter-State Migration 122 Small Towns and Villages 123 Large Southern Cities 131 Inter-State Movements 132 Classes Moving 135 Causes — Housing Difficulties, Protection and Justice in the Courts, Churches, Schools 138 Chapter IV. Results of Migration 148 Population — Sex, Fecundity, Vitality, Defective Classes, Economic and Social Classes 149 Organizations — Schools, Churches, Industry 156 Race Relations — In Areas Gaining, and in Areas Losing. 166 Conclusion 169 Summary 169 Constructive Measures 172 Bibliography 181 Appendix 187 TABLES 1. Cotton States: Increase in Negro Population and Negro Farms, 1900-1910 18 2. Georgia: Farms by Size in Acres, 1860-1910 43 3. Georgia: Land Proprietorships, by Size in Acres, 1873-1902 46 4. Georgia : Farms According to Tenure, 1880-1910 49 5. Georgia : Negro and White Proprietorships by Size in Acres, 1873-1902 58 6. Selected Counties, Number and Size of Holdings, 1903 61 7. Georgia: Farms by Tenure and Color of Farmer, 1900- 1910 65 8. Georgia: Percentage of all Farms Operated by Owners, Cash Tenants and Share Tenants 66 9. Black Belt, Wiregrass and Upper Piedmont: White and Colored Farmers by Tenure 67 10. Details of Tenant Contracts 72 11. Georgia, and Selected Counties: Factors of Production and Yield, Negro Farmers by Tenure, 1909 78 12. Georgia, Farmers by Term of Occupancy and Color, 1910. 89 13. Georgia: Rural and Urban Population, 1890-1910 93 14. Georgia : Village Population, 1910 96 15. Georgia : Occupations of Negroes, 1910 97 16. Georgia: Migration of Negroes by County Groups, 1900- 1910 101 12 Negro Migration 17. Georgia: Relation of Migration of Negroes in Rural Counties to Increase in Farmers 109 18. United States: Residence of Negroes Born in the South.. 133 19. United States : Residence of Negroes Born in Georgia. . . 134 For Unnumbered Text Statements of Figures on Sex Ratio, Conjugal Condition, Birth and Death Rates, Crime and Insanity Rates, see Part II, Chapter IV. MAPS 1. United States : Increases in Negro Urban and Rural Pop- ulation, 1900-1910 16 2. Georgia : Increases in Negro Rural Population by Counties 99 3. Georgia: Increases in Negro Urban Population by Cities. 126 DIAGRAMS 1. Relation Increase in Negro Rural Population to Increase in Negro Farms 103 2. Relation of Increase in Negro Rural Population to In- crease in the Tenure Classes (Correlation Coefficients). 114 3. Correlation of Increase in Rural Population and Farms, 100 Counties, Plotted by Counties 195 INTRODUCTION The recent spectacular movement of Negroes northward awoke the people of the United States for the first time to the realization that the colored population is steadily shift- ing. In 1910 there were more than a million Negroes living "In the North and West, but it was not until the exodus of 1916 and 1917 assumed such startling proportions that —Negro migration became a nation-wide topic of interest. < Southern planters now realize that they are confronted with a serious labor shortage, and that the future of their section is inextricably involved in the condition of the Negro population. The concentration of large numbers of Negroes in northern industries, the cessation of European immigration, and the increased apprehension concerning the reliability of many of the foreign groups now in industry, have made the Negro a very important factor in the national labor situation. Men in industry are looking to the black population as a reservoir of good and thoroughly "Amer- ican" labor to be drawn upon in the future. ^-The social consequences of this shift in population are of no less significance than the economic. While Southern planters feel the pinch of the loss of labor, thoughtful peo- ple of the South are wondering just what changes they should make in race relations in order to make their section a better place for Negroes to live. While men in big busi- ness in the North welcome this increase in their labor force, social workers realize that this flow of large numbers of raw, village and small-town laborers into our most highly organized industrial communities, increases their problems \jit a rate all out of proportion to the increase in population. What has not been realized is that for the past fifty Qrears the forces underlying this movement have been oper- 14 Negro Migration ating steadily, but in a less spectacular way.\ There has been a northward movement, and there have been other movements of more fundamental importance from one sec- tion of the South to another ever since the emancipation of slaves. ' A study of these movements of Negroes from southern plantations is important because it throws light on some of the causes of the loss of population suffered by many other rural districts of the United States. Diminishing returns in agriculture, the effect of the opening of new lands in the neighborhood, and discontent with rural insti- tutions are underlying causes of movements of farmers not only in the United States but also the world over. Ex- c ept for race prejudice, which enters into most of the Negro problem s, the economic and social forces which d rive the Ne gro from one rural distr ict to another and from country to t own are the same as those operating in the wh ite popu- lation^ There are very few counties in the South where the colored and white people do not move in the same direction in response to the same situation. When the migration became rapid in 1916 and 1917, there was extended public discussion as to its causes. Numerous explanations were published, and there is some evidence that the very discussion stimulated many to go North who otherwise would not have reached the decision to move. There is also ample evidence that the movement itself, once begun, created a pressure towards further movement. This pressure arose because Negroes not only wrote back, but in many cases sent money back for their friends and rela- tives to make the trip. Recently, therefore, the situation has been complicated not only by abnormal war conditions but also by the very magnitude of the movement. Fortunately this study was inaugurated before the inten- sification of the migration made these abnormal factors prominent. In its first stages the study was an effort to deter- mine the significance of certain peculiarities of population Introduction 15 increase and decrease within the South, which seemed to in- dicate well denned drifts in the colored population. A consid- erable amount of work had been done on the problem before the movement of 1916-17 was influenced by abnormal war conditions, the boll weevil, and the Northern labor agent, and before it extended discussion and complicated the normal currents. This first study of a fairly simple set of causes revealed the underlying factors of rural organization from which the Negroes were moving. The only element changing the fundamental conditions from which they were shifting in Georgia during the years 1916-17 was the boll weevil, and this pest was not new in the more western portions of the Cotton Belt. The principal difference in the volume of the war migration and that of the earlier steady shift was an alteration in the proportions going North in response to the better wage conditions which were widely advertised by labor agents, discussion and correspondence. The causes of migration were worked out first. It was determined that the shift of predominating importan ce from l 1 865 to 1916 was from one rural district to ano ther, that th e chief cause of this shift was discontent wi th land tenure, and that after 1916 this discontent was only aggravated by the war conditions and the boll weevil. From this it was evident that a thorough understanding of the movement is dependent upon a clear idea of the importance of the com- plex social and economic conditions which are associated with the different systems of farming or land tenure. A real understanding of this institution necessitates a broader viewpoint than can be obtained from the study of the economic principles of farming alone. The system is basic in rural life. Upon the quality of the land, the number and quality of the people, and land tenure — the institutional tie between the land and the people — depends the whole organization of men who produce from the soil. The presentation of this material therefore embraces first i6 Negro Migration a systematic treatment of land tenure and its importance in Negro life; second, a treatment of the relationship be- tween the changes in land tenure and farm population, with a brief statement concerning the migration from country to city and from South to North, and third, a summary of the effects of migration on colored population, institutions, and race relations, with recommendations for attacking those problems which are emphasized by the movement. GEORGIA: A TYPICAL COTTON STATE. In general it may be said that the conditions of agricul- ture, industry and population movement are distinctly dif- ferent in the Northern States, the Border States and the Cotton States. In the North the Negro rural population is almost negligible. The colored man is attracted almost wholly by city opportunities, and with one or two excep- tions, the great excess of females in Northern Cities in 1910 indicated a predominance of domestic service oppor- tunity. The movement during the European war was, how- ever, industrial. The Border States — Maryland, Virginia, Map I. ) tflCflaiSJS OF K2GR0ES gy SJ4TJS. 190D-191* Shading lnfiloates lnorease In rural districts. Symbols Indicate increase In ofUes. Per oent lnorease. rural districts . rer cent Increase, cltlts . J"] Under 6 §11 S to 12 1/2 12 1/2 to 20 20 and OTer. 'O Under 20 20 to 40 40 to 60 • 60 and over. Introduction 17 Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri show a decreasing Negro farm population, and the increase in cities is small. The rural popualtion of West Virginia was increasing through mining rather than agricultural opportunities, and Texas and Oklahoma, though Southern States, do not belong to the old Cotton Belt. In the Cotton States, on the other hand, the rural districts seem to be holding their own, and /the increase in towns is rapid. 1 typical of the group of States which lie along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts from North Carolina to Louisiana. This map is shaded to show the rate of increase in Negro rural population of each of the States having a considerable num- ber of Negroes between 1900 and 1910, and a symbol is inserted in each State to show the rate of Negro increase in cities during the same period. 2 In every Cotton State except Alabama, Louisiana and Texas the rural districts show increases ranging from 5 to 9 per cent. In Florida the rural increase is 21 per cent. In the urban districts, or places whose population is over 2,500, the per cent of increase in the colored population ranged from 20.6 in South Carolina to 80.3 in Florida. Georgia, therefore, with an increase of 9.0 per cent in rural Negroes and 39.6 per cent in urban Negroes may be con- J It appears from Map 1 (previous page) that Georgia is 1 Jones, Thomas Jesse, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, September, 1913. "The study of the county population of the more southern South from South Carolina to Louisiana, presents a very different situation as re- gards the movement of the white and Negro population from that of the Border States. *** Each of the Cotton States with their large Negro population shows a stability of population and a prevalence of gains that contrasts quite strikingly with the losses and differences of the Border States. The population movements (of white and colored people) of these States seem to be governed by the same forces. At any rate the two classes of the population apparently move and increase together" 2 Map 1 is based upon census figures quoted in Table 1. 1 8 Negro Migration sidered as a fair sample of the Cotton States. The increase in total Negro population in Georgia, was 13.7 per cent, a rate only exceeded by Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and some of the Northern States with relatively small Negro populations. The rate of increase in Georgia was slightly higher than the rate of increase of Negroes in the country as a whole. As far as the rural population is concerned, one power- ful cause of increase is evident in the substantial growth in the number of farms operated by Negroes. The census classification of farm operators includes all persons cul- tivating the soil except laborers, consequently an increase in farms operated by Negroes indicates a passage from the status of laborer, occupied all Negro agricultural work- ers under the system of slavery, to the status of a farmer cultivating the land in a more or less independent manner. The increase in Negro farms and its relation to the increase in rural population is shown in the following table : TABLE 1. Increases in Negro Rural Population and Negro Farms, Cotton States, 1900-1910 a Numerical Increase Percentage Increase Rural Rural State Population Farms Population Farms Florida 38,489 1,177 21.1 8.7 Arkansas 54,059 16,600 16.3 35.3 Georgia 78,409 39,732 9.0 48.0 Mississippi 63,325 36,137 7 A 28.2 N. Carolina 33,568 10,460 6.1 19.4 S. Carolina 36,178 11,391 5.2 13.3 Louisiana 19,179 —3,277 3.6 —5.6 Alabama 22,526 16,318 3.1 17.3 Texas 9,792 4,344 2.0 6.6 3 Computed from U. S. Census of 1910, "Negro Population in the United States, 1790-1915," pp. 92 and 588. The words "com- puted from" as used here and in succeeding footnotes indicate that the figures given are not directly copied from the census, but are arrived at by subtractions or combinations of figures from the tables cited. Introduction 19 The increase in farms operated by Negroes is greater in Georgia than in any other State. The rural districts of Florida and Arkansas show a faster rate of population in- crease, notwithstanding a slower rate of farm increase than Georgia, because large numbers of rural Negroes in Florida and Arkansas are farm laborers and laborers in turpentining and sawmilling. Oklahoma, on the edge of the Cotton Belt, increased 1 14.2 per cent in Negro rural population and 107.9 in Negro farms. This was due to the opening of new government lands, and is the most striking instance of the effect of agricultural opportunity on Negro movements. The distribution of Negroes in Georgia also makes it an interesting State to study. In general the distribution of Negro population varies with definite geographical belts, and all of the geographical belts of importance in the South, except the delta lands are found in the State. The Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains extend into the northern section of the State, the Upper Piedmont Plateau lies just south of the mountains, the Black Belt includes the Lower Piedmont Plateau, extending somewhat past the fall line of the rivers, and south and east of the Black Belt is the Coastal Plain commonly known as the "Flatwoods" or "Wiregrass" region. 4 Within the State counties with all proportions of Negroes to white people are found. The percentage Negro in the total population ranges from less than 5 in some of the mountain counties in the North to over 85 in Lee County. Map II (page 98) shows these sections separated by heavy boundary lines. The white counties, with less than 10 per cent of their total popula- tion Negro, lie in the unproductive mountainous section of the North. The next belt of counties, ranging from 10 to 25 per cent in Negro population, represents the Upper Pied- *See Atlas of American Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1919, Part V, Page 8. 20 Negro Migration mont section, a rugged region, with excellent climate and land adapted to the raising of a great variety of farm crops, fruits, and cattle. Contrary to the usual impression that the whole South was divided into large plantations before 1860, this section is, and always has been, the home of small farmers. Its soil did not make the large scale production of cotton as profitable as did the lands of the Black Belt. Con- sequently, slavery was not highly developed in the Upper Piedmont. The slaves owned were in small groups, rang- ing from 1 to 10 per owner, and in many cases the owner and slave worked side by side in tilling the land, whereas in the Black Belt the owner of the baronial estate was sep- arated from slaves by managers and overseers. The next area extending along the coast and arching across the State in the shape of a broad horse-shoe, con- stitutes what is commonly known as the Black Belt, in which the population is over 50 per cent Negro. This includes the Lower Piedmont region and extends south of the fall line of rivers into the Upper Coast Plain, stretching down the Savannah River to the East and the Chattahoochee to the South. In this section Negroes are found in overwhelming numbers in the open country. The county towns contain the white county officers, lawyers, doctors, merchants, and many of the landlords. Even in many of the towns of the Black Belt, however, the Negroes outnumber the white peo- ple. The coastal Black Belt is slightly different from the central Black Belt in that, originally this area was the rice and sea-island cotton area, and was divided into even larger plantations than the upland cotton area. Inclosed in the curve of the Black Belt is the region known as "Wiregrass." The counties of this region contain a Negro population which ranges from 25 to 50 per cent of the total. This is the level Coastal Plain with but slight elevation above the sea. The open country is occupied by both white and Negro farmers. The "Wiregrass," sparsely populated at the close Introduction 21 of the Civil War, has since become a good farming and lumbering section, and the use of commercial fertilizers has attracted buyers of land which was formerly considered almost worthless. These differing proportions of white and colored people, and the differing farm opportunities in the geographical belts are marked in Georgia, and their details provide ex- cellent insight into the relation of the Negro agricultural worker to the land. The breakdown of plantations, described in Part I, with the attendant rise of a white and colored tenantry, applies to all the area of the old Cotton Belt or Black Belt. For the sake of defmiteness and because the State has previously received the attention of R. P. Brooks and E. M. Banks, 5 the facts presented are confined to Georgia. They are al- most exactly paralleled in Alabama and South Carolina. In North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas the plantation system had a less firm hold than in Georgia, and suffered a faster decline. In Louisiana and Mississippi it was more firmly intrenched and has declined more slowly. Shifts in population from the old plantation areas and move- ment to towns, described in Part II, have likewise been in progress all over the Cotton Belt. 6 In describing these, however, attention is again centered largely on Georgia for the sake of definiteness. The effects of population move- ment described in Part II, Chapter IV, are, of course, more or less uniform throughout the South, varying only with the extent to which a locality is affected by migration. 6 Brooks, R. P., "The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, 1865- 1912." University of Wisconsin, 1914, History Series, Vol. 3, No. 3. Banks, E. M., "Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia." Col- umbia University, Studies in History Economics and Public Law, 1905. 6 See U. S. Census, Negro Population in U. S., 1790-1915, Chap. VIII. PART I. THE NEW RURAL ORGANIZATION. CHAPTER I AGRICULTURE AND PREJUDICE Since the agricultural interests of the South are so pre- dominant, by far the most pressing problems of the section relate to rural life. Recent efforts for the improvement of colored people have been centered on rural problems with a two- fold purpose. Merely from the standpoint of self- interest, improvement of rural conditions affecting Negroes means improvement in the general welfare of the South and the Nation. From an altruistic standpoint it seems that the greatest benefit to the Negro himself is to be derived from such efforts. THE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE TO THE NEGRO The 3,000,000 Negroes engaged in agricultural pursuits constituted (in 1909) 30 per cent of the rural population of the South and 40 per cent of all southern agricultural work- ers. Their skill and industry govern, to a large degree, the prosperity of the southern farmer. The influence of Negro farmers on the general prosperity of the nation is indicated by the fact that they cultivate 41,500,000 acres of land, an area over twice the size of all the land in farms in the New England States. 1 From the standpoint of the Negro him- self the importance of agriculture is emphasized by the fact that 70 per cent of the Negro population lives in rural districts, and the largest numbers of Negroes who are mak- ing money and acquiring property are to be found among the farmers. The stable element of the congregations of rural 1 U. S. Bureau of Education, "Negro Education in the United States," Bulletin 38, 1917, Page 103. Agriculture and Prejudice 23 churches and the patronage of rural schools is composed of those Negroes who have been able to attach themselves to the land. s The masses of Negroes did not attain their stragetic posi- tion in agriculture through deliberate planning. They are farmers merely because they happen to have been born in the country and because the white land-owners can utilize their labor most profitably on the farm. In the past, agri- culture has been the method of obtaining a livelihood with which colored men were most familiar. Slavery was their school, rather a hard school at times, nevertheless a school where they learned the white man's lessons of thrift, religion and agriculture. The hoe, the plow and the cotton basket became friends and served them well after emancipation. The lesson that America, unlike Africa, demands continued labor if a man is to survive, was also a part of the program of slavery. These lessons were more or less imperfectly learned, yet, without some knowledge of them it is incon- ceivable that an African population could have survived in America under a system of free competition. But the passing of the plantation system has caused almost revolutionary changes in the South since the Civil war. The change in land tenure is to be noted chiefly in the develop- ment of radically new relations of the Negro to the land. From a condition of an absolutely dependent laborer, the Negro has advanced to the strategic position in agriculture outlined above. Still more radical has been the shift of a considerable number to northern industries. These changes have been accompanied by a remarkable set of social phe- nomena. The presence of varying degrees of agricultural opportunity in different sections has produced a start- ling amount of migration, a redistributiion of the popula- tion and changes in its density. Furthermore, the different degrees of opportunity have acted as a selective force on the Negro population. They are responsible for important 24 Negro Migration reorganizations in family life, religious, educational and other rural institiutions. Consequently, in describing the changes in the agricultural system of the South, we are not only outlining the principal conditions from which popu- lation movements arise, but also presenting a systematic treatment of the much debated and fundamentally import- ant principles of land tenure. Such a presentation is particularly important at present since farm organizations and especially the National Board of Farm Organizations are characterizing tenancy as a great evil and an increasing menace. They have induced practically all the candidates in the race for the presidency of the United States for the 1920 term to endorse this state- ment. Such a broad generalization of the evils of tenancy is undoubtedly a perpetuated form of Henry George's error referred to in Chapter IV of this study, which arises from the a priori assumption that tenant conditions are the same in this country as they are in Europe. The_eyjdence pre- sented in Part I, aside from its particular bearing on popu- lation movement, would seem to indicate that increase in actual number of tenants in the United States is, in itself, neither an evil nor a menace, but an indication that larger and larger numbers of labor ers are mountin g to a very necessar y rung in the ladder whereby th e farmer boy climbs from th e landless laboring class into the Tarm proprietor class. It also indicates that inasmuch as the number of owners is constantly increasing, the increase in tenants is not recruited from ruined landowners, but rather from farm laborers. In other words, while tenancy, as it exists on many of the farms of the South and Middle West, has little to be said in its favor, still, as compared to the status of the farm laborer, it represents an advance. These observa- tions as to the general significance of the rise of land-tenure are fully developed in the last chapter of Part I. It appears that Booker T. Washington was right in urging Agriculture and Prejudice 25 the soil of the South as the basis of racial improvement. That While the Negro should exert every effort to abate unjust discrimination, he should expend the greater portion of his energy in becoming a more efficient farmer. In a comparative study of the Negro in America with the Native of South Africa, Mr. Maurice S. Evans has said : 2 "In travelling over the South land the impression the visitor gets is one of ample space for development. Even in the older States not one-third of the total area could be called improved and more than one-half is uncleared and uncultivated. A much greater proportion of the land than in South Africa can be put under the plough and the rain- fall is abundant and well distributed. It is true that much of the land has been distressingly abused and gone out of cultivation, but by modern methods of manuring, rotation of crops, and green-soiling it can be gradually built up again, possibly even beyond its original fertility. The cli- mate and soil are suitable for a great variety of crops, both those of the temperate and those of the sub-tropical zones. Timber for fuel and ordinary building is everywhere plenti- ful, and the country is well watered by many streams. When I compared it with the sun-stricken karoo of the Cape Colony, without fuel, water, or shelter, and the arid wastes of large extent in the interior of Australia, lacking in any of these, it seemed to me a land to which nature has given, as compared with many others, all that man requires to build up prosperous and happy homes. Judging by the standards of the producing British Colonies land is cheap; judged by its possibilities if is very cheap. This means that if he (the Negro) liked to take to agriculture he could at once purchase and stock a small improved farm or a larger unimproved one, and raise enough in a very few years to return the purchase price. Such a man need never be in debt. He could buy his requirements and sell his produce on the very best terms, as well as any white man, and yearly improve his holding and add to his possessions." It is this agricultural opportunity which is emphasized 2 Evans, M. S., "Black and White in the Southern States." London: Longmans Green and Company, 1915, p. 248-249. 26 Negro Migration throughout the remainder of this study. No matter what other forms of race discrim ination exist in tSe Sou th, there is no bar t o the i\ egro m tfie directionof buying land, as is the case with th e Japane se in California, and in so far as he makes effort to improve himself as a tenant, his interests and those of the white landlord are practically the same. THE EXTENT OF PREJUDICE To the mind unaccustomed to the intricacies of the race questions, the foregoing picture of Negro agricultural op- portunity may seem too bright. Accounts of discrimination and race prejudice probably play a larger part in the for- mation of the popular belief concerning the colored people than do statistics of improvement. To a large number of people the Negro appears a very much down-trodden in- dividual, the opportunity in the South wholly a white man's opportunity, and the life in the South an inter- racial strug- gle. Though this pessimistic view overemphasizes discrim- ination, it is to be remembered that along side of the stream of opportunity for the Negroes there is the parallel stream of phenomena which are loosely grouped under the terms race discrimination and race prejudice. These two, flowing side by side, sometimes act on one another, and create queer cross currents and eddies of policy which are ex- tremely difficult to understand. To describe one without describing the other is to give but one set of the complex factors of race problems. Therefore, as this study is to mainly be concerned with the agricultural opportunities of Negroes it may be well to emphasize in the beginning some of the other factors which are most widely known. For the past twenty years thinking Negroes and friends of the Negro have been di- vided into two schools, which agree fundamentally on the question of what is needed for the betterment of the race, and yet clash in their contentions as to the best methods to Agriculture and Prejudice 27 pursue in obtaining these things. The school of militant protestors constantly holds before the public the sins committed against the Negro. They direct caustic criticism against lynching, injustice in the courts, the "Juri Crow" car, and other forms or discrim- tion," and their chief activity is litigation. On the other hand, the cooperative school headed by the late Booker T. Washington, and his successor R. R. Moton, emphasizes opportunity, training for citizenship, winning recognition through efficiency in agriculture and industry, and co- operation with the white race. Georgia is often cited as the foremost example of dis- crimination by the former school. Their chief organ, "The Crisis/' refers frequently to injustice in the courts. It has conducted investigations of the "Jim Crow" cars in the State. Not only The Crisis, but also the press of the coun- try as a whole, has awarded Georgia first place in number of lynchings during the past few years. Of the 228 lynch- ings during the years 1913, 1914 and 1915, immediately before migration started, The Crisis reports 42, or more than one-sixth, in Georgia. Of the 164 as reported to the Director of the Department of Records at Tuskegee, 30 were in Georgia. Of the 3,389 lynchings in the United States between 1885 and 1919, 398 were in Georgia. 8 It must be admitted that in the instances cited above race prejudice gives the appearance of an inter-racial struggle. The interests of the masses of Negroes, however, are the 8 No official record of lynchings is kept. The three sources of unofficial information are, the Crisis; the Department of Records, Tuskegee Institute, Monroe N. Work, Director, and the Chicago Tribune. The difference in number noted above is due to the fact that the Crisis classes as lynching some cases of inter-racial violence resulting in death, though committed by individuals rather than by mobs. The most complete presenta- tion of the facts appears annually in 'The Negro Yearbook," Monroe N. Work, Editor. 28 Negro Migration same as those of the white people. They work together amicably, a bad crop affects both races, and mutual aid is carried on to a remarkable extent in view of the funda- mental difference in their culture. It is interesting and per- haps confusing to note that between 1900 and 1910, despite discrimination, the Negro population of Georgia increased 13.7 per cent, while the Negroes in the country as a whole increased by only 11.2 per cent; Negro illiteracy decreased in Georgia from 52.4 per cent to 36.5 per cent ; the number of city homes owned increased 51.3 per cent, and the num- ber of farms operated by Negro owners increased 48 per cent, a rate not exceeded by any State in the South. 4 These steps toward improvement are hopeful but cannot in any sense be taken as an extenuation of the gruesome facts as to lynching. The contrast does, however, bring out the fact that there are two parallel and often conflict- ing sets of forces in the problem, and that there is a brighter side to the picture than that which appears in the public press, — the side in which constructive workers with Negro problems are primarily interested. * United States Census of 1910. Negro Population in the U. S., 1790-1915; pp. 37, 419, 465, 609. CHAPTER II THE RUIN OF THE OLD REGIME The immediate effect of the Civil War was a revolution in Southern agriculture. This revolution brought with it varied opportunities for the white and colored populations. For the ex-planters three options were open : The first was to abandon planting — few, however, could afford to do this. Their second option was to remain on the plantation and continue agricultural operations by following as nearly as possible the ante-bellum system of gang labor, merely sub- stituting freedmen for slaves. Their third choice was to move into town and adopt a share tenant system, relaxing somewhat their personal supervision of operations, or even renting their land outright. For the ex-slaves three options were also open^ First to remain and cultivate the land as laborers. Second to quit the plantations which clung to the gang labor system and seek more advantageous terms of cultivating the soil, as tenants or owners. Third to quit agriculture and move into town. > Like the planters few freedmen had the desire or initiative to move at first. Agri- cultural opportunity was opened to still a third group which had, up to the Civil War, been confined mostly to the Upper Piedmont. The small white farmer and the white tenant had the opportunity, for the first time, to gain a place. The slave system which enabled great plantations to absorb all the small holdings was no longer legal, and consequently the situation was most advantageous to the small farmer and the white tenant. CAUSES OF THE BREAKDOWN Prior to the Civil War the plantations were localized in what has been described as the Black Belt (see Introduc- tion). This section was divided into large tracts of land 30 Negro Migration and almost all of the available area was or had been used for agriculture. The land in the Wiregrass region was also held in large tracts, but only a small portion of it was cultivated. In 1860, 83.6 per cent of the cotton of the State was grown in the Black Belt; 13.7 per cent in the Upper Piedmont; 3 per cent in the Wiregrass, and a bare 0.7 per cent in the mountains. 1 *The initial causes of the change from the regime of gang labor are therefore to be observed best in the situation of the Black Belt plant- ers after the war. Large landed estates and large scale production of cotton had become almost their religion. Nat- urally a strong effort was made to continue the cultivation of cotton by using the freedmen under the gang system, and in some parts of the State this system is still found. The supervision implied was, however, such a constant reminder of the physical restraint of slavery and offered such limited opportunity for making profits that the Negro was dis- contented with it. For several reasons many were in a position to make their own terms with the landlords and escape from this irksome supervision. The competition for labor was for a time in- tense. Many of the farms were ruined and idle, and, not- withstanding the high price of cotton, it was easy to acquire land. The system of allowing the merchant to hold a lien upon the growing crop in security for supplies advanced, gave laborers without capital further opportunity to acquire land on credit, or for a rental, and to stock it by securing advances from supply merchants, giving as security a mort- gage upon the crop which he promised to plant. | Thus the tenant could make the initial payment on a piece of cheap land, secure easy credit for tools, stock, and supplies, and depend upon future crops to pay him out of debt. / A de- tailed picture of the influence of these factors upon the plantation system can be presented in connection with the 1 Brooks, R. P., opp. cite p. 124. The Ruin of the Old Regime 31 following topics/: (1) The irksome supervision, (2) Com- petition and Wages, (3) Hard times and Cheap Lands, (4) The crop lien system. These were the general causes of the breakdown of large plantations. ) Irksome Supervision. When slavery, as a means of con- trolling labor was abolished, radical changes began to work in the Negro mind. The immediate result was the com- plete demoralizaation of the agricultural system. In describ- ing what took place in 1865-66, Brooks gives the following picture : 2 "On many plantations operations went ahead with scarcely any interruption. Planters called informal meet- ings of the freedmen, explained in simple terms their new condition and offered employment at the current rate of wages to all who desired to remain. After wandering off a short distance simply to assert their freedom many Negroes returned to the plantations and took up their former labor. Those planters who had been most considerate of their slaves experienced the least trouble in employing them as freedmen. * * * "On the other hand, there was a large element of the freedmen who did not follow the course just outlined. The widespread belief that the plantations of their former own- ers would be divided among the ex-slaves at Christmas, 1865, acted as a deterrent to steady industry. The Com- missioner of the Freedmen's Bureau found it necessary to send out special instruction to all officers and agents, direct- ing them to do what they could to dispel this delusion." In many sections of the State, the gang system of culti- vation was doomed. The close oversight reminded the Ne- groes too strongly of slavery days, and the sharp competi- tion for labor gave them the power to demand better terms or to move off. While the cultivation of cotton is not strenuous labor, it demands imperatively, at certain seasons, that a constant labor supply be available. Consequently, the landlords were 2 Brooks, R. P., Agrarian Revolution, opp. cite p. 12-13. 32 Negro Migration in dire straits when confronted by such uncertainties in labor supply. Some arrangement had to be made whereby the landlord could be assured that his crop would have constant attention. The metayer, or share tenant system, resulted. Under this system the landlords could move into the towns and have their places farmed by tenants on shares. The tenant, usually without capital, was advanced a year's supplies, given the use of a house, implements and a work animal. In return he was to plant and work the crop in accordance with the instructions of the landlord. The landlord received as rent a share of the crop. This share- tenancy in its turn was irksome to some of the Negroes who did not like the supervision which it implied. They desired a still more permanent and independent form of land tenure. It was then that cash tenancy arose. In the case of a cash tenant or renter, if the Negro were without capital his ad- vances for tools and supplies were made as a direct loan from the landlord or from a merchant, and a mortgage on his growing crop was taken to secure payment. In this way the tenant was responsible for part of the capital. Instead of having to pay the landlord half of the crop, he had to pay a stipulated "standing" rent, and all that remained after paying his rent and returning the money advanced, belonged to him. The cash tenant was on his own initiative. The more or less successful farmers managed to accumu- late a little money and buy land. The unsuccessful were involved in debt, lost their land and stock, and returned to the status of laborer or share tenant. That the successes have been, in the long run, slightly more numerous than the failures is illustrated by the slow increase in the number of Negroes found in these higher forms of tenancy. It is natural that the owners should be averse to a pass- age from laborer to share tenant and share tenant to cash tenant, because each step means a decreasing amount of supervision over the crop and care of the land. Many of these landlords who were experienced farmers and who The Ruin of the Old Regime 33 could have enhanced the welfare of their tenants by lending their supervision to the operations were compelled to aban- don the supervision of tenants and adopt the rent system. In the case of shiftless tenants the resultants were, the use of less fertilizers and poorer methods, less care of the work animal and tools, and a consequent deterioration in the value of the land and implements. An interesting account of how the change came about step by step on a single large plantation in Georgia, is given by Chancellor D. C. arrow in Scribner's Magazine. 3 "For several years following emancipation, the force of laborers was divided into two squads, the arrangement and method of cultivation was very much as in the ante-bellum period. Each squad was under an overseer, or foreman. The hands were given a share of the crop. As the time went on, the control of the foreman became irksome to the Negroes. As a consequence the squads were split up into smaller and smaller groups, still working for a part of the crop, and still using the owner's teams. The process of dis- integration continued until each laborer worked separately, without any oversight. The change involved great loss and trouble. Mules were ill-treated, the crop was badly worked, and often the tenant stole the landlord's share. It became necessary to abandon the sharing feature. The owner sold his mules to the tenants, thereby putting on them the burden of the loss incidental to the careless handling of stock. It became impracticable to keep the cabins grouped when each man worked on a separate farm, since some of the farms were at a distance from the "quarters." New cottages were therefore built scatteringly in convenient places near springs. The Negroes now planted what they pleased and worked when they liked, the landlord interfering only to require that enough cotton be planted to pay the rent." The author concluded, "The slight supervision which is exercised may surprise those ignorant of how completely the relations be- tween the races at the South have changed." Thus the plantation system in parts of the Black Belt was doomed. It will be noted from Barrow's description, how- » Barrow, D. C, Scribner's Magazine, April, 1881. 34 Negro Migration ever, that the change did not take place in a day. In many instances the owners of land, in the endeavor to save its fertility and to increase their crops are still endeavoring to maintain the old gang system. In fact, most large farm units which remain today are "mixed," — the owner hires as many laborers as he can and farms the remaining land with tenants. The result is that only the lower types can be hired for wages. The higher types who are successful farmers, move up into share tenancy or renting. They do not like the labor system which makes them rise at the tap of the farm bell in the early dawn and work under close oversight until the evening. Only the marginal laborers, those least able to bargain for a farm, are left to work as laborers on the large plantations. Wages and Competition. One of the chief reasons why the Negro was able to assert his desire to escape from the supervision of the landlord is revealed by wage conditions and the sharp competition between landlords for competent laborers. During the period from 1865 to 1880 the action of supply and demand enforced more freedom for the Negro than any of the post-bellum amendments to the Constitu- tion of the United States. The main factors in supply and demand which enabled Negroes to pass from the status of laborer to tenant may be summed up as follows : First, the supply of laborers in the plantation area was reduced: (a) by the withdrawal of numbers of women from field work, and (b) by the movement of other laborers to cities and rural districts in which higher wages could be offered. Second, the demand was increased by (a) the high price which cotton brought immediately after the war, and (b) by the necessity of using the land, the only form of wealth that remained in the South. This decrease in supply and increase in demand led to competition for labor to which the Negro responded in various ways. For some the re- sponse was to seek the higher types of tenancy rather than to remain as laborers. For a large majority, however, the The Ruin of the Old Regime 35 first response was merely an assertion of freedom from re- sponsibility which led them to work when they pleased and shift from plantation to plantation with such disregard for contracts that they earned the distrust of their former masters and disrupted many of the old plantations. Of the first factor in the decrease in supply of labor it is hardly necessary to speak at length. Under the slave system many of the women worked in the field and a very natural result of their release was to retire from agriculture, either in order to become home-keepers, subsisting upon "hand laundry" work, with occasional excursions to the fields, at cotton picking or chopping times; or to become domestics in the towns and larger cities. Inasmuch as this movement was one towards greater care of the children and the home, it was, of course, greatly to the advantage of the race. The movement of Negroes from the Black Belt in re- sponse to the higher wages offered in Western States and Southern Georgia, was of more grave consequence. The following table quoted by Brooks from the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture, 1876, gives the compara- tive money wages in Southern States. 4 Comparative Wages Per Year for Farm Hands in Southern States State 1867 1868 North Carolina $104 $89 South Carolina 100 93 Georgia 125 83 Florida 139 97 Alabama 117 87 Mississippi 149 90 Louisiana 150 104 Texas 139 130 Arkansas 158 115 Tennessee 136 109 * These averages quoted from the Department of Agriculture are based upon the reports of special agents, and while not exact are the best available indices of the conditions. In addition to these money wages food was furnished. 36 Negro Migration It is evident from these figures that all the Cotton States except North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama were offering higher wages in both 1867 and 1868 than Qeorgia. In 1868 all the Cotton States were offering higher wages. Several reasons may be assigned for this difference in wage scale. In the first place, while land was plentiful in Geor- gia, it was still more plentiful in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. The supply of free public land had not been exhausted in these States. Again, the States lying west of Sherman's line of march did not suffer any- thing like the loss of wealth which those in his line of march suffered. A still further factor is to be found in the fact that land, in the Western States, having been more recently put under cultivation, had not suffered as much deterioration from the wasteful cultivation of slave labor. It was more productive. In the long run, almost every other State could afford to pay more for Negro labor imme- diately after emancipation than Georgia. In addition South Georgia was competing against the old plantation area for labor. Brooks states that the agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in Southwest Georgia wrote to Gen- eral Tillson in January, 1866, that there was a demand for labor in Baker County, and asked that four or five hundred hands be sent. Three to five hundred, he said, were needed in Dougherty County. Not only were the planters confronted by this shrinkage in the labor supply, but they were also confronted by the imperative demand for labor. Without money or credit they returned to their homes in 1865 in dire need of the means of making their living from the soil. It has been said that few members of the army which surrendered at Appamatox did not toil with the plow during the next few years. The land was the only form of capital, and the Negro was the only supply of labor. These were the tools at hand for the rebuilding of the South. The high price of cotton was a spur to their efforts. The The Ruin of the Old Regime 37 following prices were quoted for the years 1865-1870, by M. B. Hammond, in Cotton Industry: 5 1865, 83.38c; 1866, 43.20c; 1867, 31.59c; 1868, 24.85c; 1869, 12.01c; 1870, 23.98c. All during the five-year period the price of the crop was considerably higher than any level which it reached before the European War. For such reward, strong competition was set up among the planters. Thousands of Negroes were moved from the Black Belt in response to the demand, and every expedient was resorted to in order to obtain an adequate supply of labor. The following letter from General Howell Cobb indicates the difficulties of the situation : 6 December , 1866. "I find a worse state of things with the Negroes than I expected, and am unable even to say what we shall be able to do. From Nathan Barwick's place every Negro has left. There is no one to feed the stock, and on the other places none have contracted as yet. I shall stay here until I see what can be done. By Tuesday we shall probably know what they will do. At all events I shall be on the lookout for other Negroes. I intend to send Nathan Barwick to Baldwin on Wednesday to see what hands can be got there, with the assistance of Wilkerson. I am offering them even better terms than I gave them last year, to- wit: one-third of the cotton and corn crop, and they feed and clothe them- selves, but nothing satisfies them. Grant them one thing and they demand something more, and there is no telling where they would stop. The truth is, I am thoroughly disgusted with the free Negro labor, and determined that the next year shall close my planting operations with them. There is no feeling of gratitude in their nature. Let any man offer them some little thing of no real value, but which looks a little more like freedom, and they catch at it with avidity, and would sacrifice their best friends without hesitation and without regret. That miserable creature Wilkes Flag sent old Ellick down to get the Negroes from Nathan Barwick's 5 American Economic Association Publications, new Series, 1897. The prices quoted represent the annual averages. 8 Brooks, Agrarian Revolution, opp. cite p. 21. 38 Negro Migration place. Old Ellick stayed out in the woods and sent for the Negroes and they were bargaining with him in the night and telling Barwick in the day that they were going to stay with him. The moment they got their money, they started for the railroad. This is but one instance, but it is the his- tory of all of them. Among the number was Anderson, son of Sye and Sentry, whom I am supporting at the Hur- This letter was from one of the highest types of planters in the State, who was operating several plantations. It indi- cates the great delimma in which planters found themselves immediately after the war. It also illustrates the immediate effect of emancipation upon the Negroes. Such keen com- petition for labor is not likely to increase the reliability of any body of laboring men, and there is small wonder that the Negro, having just emerged from slavery, without pre- vious experience in free contracting, was completely de- moralized for the time. Hard Times and Cheap Land. The circumstances were not only highly favorable to Neproqs, who desired to leave th e status of laborer and be come tena nts, but they were also favorable to those desiring to acquire land and become independent farmers. Although there were no free public lands in Georgia, private sales of land were numerous at the close of the war. Ruined farmers and large landholders desiring to reduce the size of their holdings in order that they might be cultivated more efficiently under the new sys- tem, were everywhere. Much of the old field land which had been abandoned during the plantation era was available for purchase, and the new "Wiregrass" section which had been considered unproductive during the plantation era was entered by farmers in their desire to obtain more land for cotton. Added to these causes was the crop failure of 1865, 1866. Brooks writes that the "results of the operations in 1865 and 1866 were a bitter disappointment. ,, In spite of the abnormal price of the staple heavy losses were sus- The Ruin of the Old Regime 39 tained. Landlords became heavily involved in debt, and foreclosures were numerous. "One of the newspapers of the Black Belt in the years 1865 to 1872 was full of adver- tisements of land for sale. One issue in 1866 contained sixty-eight separate advertisements of land for sale aggre- gating 23,000 acres." Brooks cites two sales at public out- cry, one of 40Q acres in Appling County, which sold at 10 cents per acre, and two entire tracts, one of 400 acres in Montgomery and one of 200 acres in Decatur County, which together, sold for the lump sum of $2.50. 7 Of course the Negro emerged from slavery with no cap- ital, but with land selling for these low prices, only a little saving and foresight were necessary for making the initial payment on a small farm, and beginning the work of home building. Only a small number of Negroes, how- ever, availed themselves of this early opportunity to buy land. This group will be more fully discussed in the latter part of the next chapter which deals more specifically with Negro landowners. The majority of Negroes were too ig- norant, and too easily tempted to waste their wages, to make even these small payments. No previous training in thrift had prepared them for the exigency of the situation. But a small number of landholders did appear very soon after emancipation. This beginning was made possible by the cheapness of the land and the crop lien system. The Crop Lien System. Of importance both to the small owner and to the tenant was the system of credit which arose out of the conditions of agriculture. Since land values were so low and fluctuating, the few people with money in the South were unwilling to advance capital to the farmer with land as the security. The homestead exemption amendment to the Constitution added to the unwillingness to accept land as a security. This amendment was passed in order to prevent absolute ruin of farmers by the numer- 7 Brooks, Agrarian Revolution, p. 38. 40 Negro Migration ous foreclosures of mortgages. It was introduced in the State legislature of Georgia in 1866 and provided that in the case of mortgage foreclosure, "an exemption of realty to the value of $4,000 in specie, and of personal property to the value of $1,000 in specie, be set apart for each head of a family, or guardian or trustee of a family of minor chil- dren." Since the agriculturalists of the State were unable to build a substantial system of credits on land at the time, an expe- dient had to be worked out. This expedient introduced a new factor into the agricultural situation, namely the supply merchant. Under the slavery regime, the planter was, to an extent, also a retail merchant, buying his supplies wholesale from the wholesale merchants in Savannah, Macon or Augusta. Under the post-bellum system the small land owner, and even the tenant, preferred to deal directly with the merchant. During the early years of the crop lien sys- tem (1866-1875) there was a struggle between the landlord and the merchant for the right to hold the lien upon the crop of the tenant. The landlords preferred to hold the lien be- cause they could regulate the expenditure of tenants and would be justified in exercising supervision over the culti- vation in order to protect themselves from loss. The mer- chants wanted to hold the lien because they were advancing the capital for tools, stock-feed and groceries. The final outcome was expressed in the Act of 1875, and was in the nature of a compromise. The landlord was given the right to a first lien upon the crop of a tenant for his rent, and the merchant was given a second lien for supplies advanced. The lien of the merchant was legalized by a transfer of the supply lien from the planter, in cases where the planter desired to shift the responsibility from his shoulders to those of the merchant. The advantages and disadvantages of this makeshift sys- tem of credit have received detailed study in several treat- ments of rural economics. 8 The Ruin of the Old Regime 41 The un certainty of the risk has, at times, led to exorbi- tant interest charges ^ and the ign orance of the tenants has given undu e advantage to the mer chant in the supply ac- c ounts. T he significant feature of the crop lien system is, however, th at it enabled the South to b ridge over the diffi- culty o f agricultural credits, and as far as the Negro was co ncerned, it provided the opportunity for those without capital to senm* credit for the stock, tools and year's pro- vi sions for farming operations. It was one m ore method by whic h the landless laborer could get a farm, m ortgaging his future crop in security for advances of food and imple- ments. W. E. B. DuBois sums its significance up in "The Negro Landholder in Georgia," as follows : 9 A thrifty Negro in the hands of well disposed landlords and honest merchants early became an independent land- owner. A shiftless, ignorant Negro, in the hands of un- scrupulous landlords or shylocks, became something worse than a slave. The masses of Negroes between the two ex- tremes fared as chance and the weather let them." The crop lien system was of greatest aid to Negroes in passing from share to cash tenancy. As has been stated, the need of some cash to make a payment on land, deterred the vast majority from entering ownership. To those desiring to become independent renters, however, rather than share tenants, the crop lien system was a great help. For many Negroes the capital needed to make this step was, of course, not available. If, however, they could find a landlord who would rent them land and a house, they could apply to the merchant for the capital, become an independent renter and mortgage their future crops to repay the debt. Under fa- 8 Banks, Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia, opp. cite; Brooks, The Agrarian Revolution, opp cite; DuBois, W. E. B., "The Negro Landholder in Georgia," U. S. Department of Labor, Bulletin No. 35, 1901. e DuBois, The Negro Landholder, opp. cite p. 668. 42 Negro Migration vorable circumstances, and with thrift and foresight a ten- ant could free himself of debt in a year or two. It is apparent from the foregoing outline of unsettled agricultural conditions that many of the institutions which arose were makeshifts. Both the planters and the ex-slaves were confronted with an unprecedented situation, and the predominant interest of both was in working out some system of cultivation of the land. It early became evident that the old plantation system of labor was not practicable under free competition and contract. Smaller landowners began to increase in number, and the tenant system gained headway. The rapidity with which this change took place is indicated in the following section. RAPIDITY OF THE BREAKDOWN The foregoing account of the struggle between planters in the endeavor to preserve their holdings, indicates that it was the landlord class which instituted the system of ten- ancy as a means of furthering their interests. There is little indication that, at first, the mass of Negroes felt the desire to become independent renters, except in as far as the irk- someness of supervision led them to wish to escape from share tenancy. As the tenant system became established, however, and the advantages of a more permanent tenure could be seen, more and more of the Negroes began to seek to become renters. The breakdown of the plantation system caused by the economic pressure of competition among landowners, and the desire of the laborers to gain a new status resulted in three radical changes indicated by (1) The reduction in number of large farms operated by laborers and consequent growth in number of small farms. (2) The resultant reduc- tion in number of owners of large tracts of land and the growth in number of owners of small tracts. (3) The in- The Ruin of the Old Regime 43 crease in number of farms operated by tenants. The an- alyses of each of these three changes indicate that the plan- tation system is passing, but that it is still in vogue to some extent. The Passing of Large Farms. The first indication of the disappearance of the plantation system is in the reduction in the size of farms cultivated as a unit. A reduction in aver- age size may indicate that the large farms are disappearing or that numerous new small farms are appearing, or that both of these things are happening. The census enumerates as one farm, any tract of land cultivated by one farmer, re- gardless of who owns it. In this way, a single plantation of 2,000 acres, if cultivated as a unit by the owner with laborers is enumerated as one farm, but if 1,000 acres are cultivated with laborers under the direction of the owner, or overseer, and the remaining 1,000 divided into twenty 50-acre tenant farms, it would be enumerated as 21 farms, 1 operated by an owner, and 20 operated by tenants. The passing of large farms as enumerated by the census, and increase of small farms is, therefore, the general index of the decay of the gang labor plantation system and the rise of a system of tenants or small land owners. The f ol^ TABLE 2. Georgia Farms Classified by Size in Acres, 1860-1910. Size in Acres 1860 1880 1890 1900 1910 Under 10 906 3,211 4,438 6,055 8,700 10 to 20 2,803 8,694 10,868 13,301 20,929 20 to 50 13,644 36,524 55,287 73,408 117,432 50 to 100 14,129 26,054 32,316 52,251 68,510 100 to 500 19,843 53,635 59,343 73,100 69,985 500 to 1,000 7,076 7,017 6,061 4,718 3,950 1,000 and over.... 3,608 3,491 2,758 1,858 1,521 Total Farms 62,009 138,626 171,071 224,691 291,027 Total Acres in thousands . 26,650 26,043 25,200 26,392 26,953 Average size 430 188 147 118 97 Median size 98 92 73 69 51 44 Negro Migration lowi ng distribution of farms by size__ groups from 1860 to 1910 gives a clear picture of the extent to which the pre- dominating type of farm has shifted from the large planta- tion to the smaller owner or_ tenant farm. 10 Unfortunately the census does not subdivide the farms over 1,000 acres in size. The rapid decline of the average size of farms indicates the effect of these very large plan- tations in the grouping. This rapid decline in the average has been taken to mean the disappearance of large farms between 1860 and 1880. But the number of farms of over 500 acres decreased by only 176 during the 20-year period It is therefore evident that the average is not an exact index of the subdivision. A better idea is gained from the differ- ence of this arithmetic average, which is affected by very large farms, and the median, which is the size of the farm above which half of the number of farms are found and below which half are found. Every large farm is evi- dently balanced against one small farm in determining the median. It will be noted that while the average declined from 430 to 188 acres during the period from 1860 to 1880, the median declined only from 98 to 92 acres. During the period, 1860 to 1880, plantations of over 1,000 acres held their own in number but were being reduced nearer the 1,000 acre type by subdivision into tenant farms, 10 United States Census of 1910, Agriculture, Vol. VI, p. 320, 1890; Agriculture, p. 116. The figures for 1860 are estimates based on the census. As the census of 1860 enumerated only Improved Acreage in farms, the size published is too small to be comparable with the later years which included all acreage. This reduced the number of large farms tremendously. The estimate of Banks, Economics of Land Tenure, p. 20-21, was therefore accepted and applied to the 1860 figures. The estimate is close enough for purposes of comparison. The figures for 1870 are omitted because they were enumerated on the same basis of improved acreage only, and because the notorious in- accuracies of this census made an estimate based upon them of little value. The Ruin of the Old Regime 45 and as a consequence there was a rapid increase in farms of under 500 acres. The number of plantations of 500-1,000 acres was about constant. Since 1880 the tracts over 500 acres in size have decreased in number. While the 100 to 500 acre farms have increased in number, their rate of in- crease has not equalled the rate of increase in the smaller groups. By 1880, 20 to 50 acre tenant farms had become widespread and since that date they have been steadily in- creasing in number and relative importance. This is to such an extent true that in 1910 this type was distinctly predom- inant in the State. There has also been a rapid increase in 10 to 20 acre farms. It has truly been a wonderful oppor- tunity for the man who desired to obtain a tenure of land. These figures as to size of farm represent the total oppor- tunity to acquire land both as a tenant and as an owner, due to the disintegration of large operations. The opportunity in each has been ample. The remainder of this chapter is therefore devoted to a separate discussion of opportunities as owners and opportunities as tenants. Size of Land Holdings. The bad crop conditions imme- diately after the Civil War, and the difficulty of obtaining credit have been mentioned as having a tremendous effect on the price of land. There were many tracts available for purchasers. Much of this land was already "in farms" according to the use of that term made by the census. Much of it, however, consisted of woodland on the plantations and was useless to owners who could not even get a force of laborers adequate to cultivate their cleared land. Other tracts of this "land in farms" consisted of old fields which had been more or less worn out by the exhaustive cultiva- tion of slave labor. The planters were anxious to dispose of this surplus. In addition, the "wild" lands of the State provided another source of supply. The census of 1860 in- dicates 26,650,000 acres of land in farms, and a total land area of about 37,500,000 acres. The difference of approxi- 46 Negro Migration mately 11,000,000 acres of land in the State was "wild" land which had never been brought within the scope of agricultu- ral operations. It is true that most of the 11,000,000 acres is in the mountainous sections of North Georgia or the pine barrens of the South, but it had value. It was not free land. In many cases it was held speculatively: As Banks states . X1 "There is really very little or no land outside of the mar- gin of utilization in Georgia, although there is much land lying under such disadvantages, either of fertility or of sit- uation, that it is not actually cultivated, nor will it be culti- vated for many years to come." Table 2 indicates that by 1910, the census classified 26, 950,000 acres as land in farms. This is an increase of 300,000 acres over the 1860 figure. It is therefore evident that during the fifty year period, large tracts of this wild land were taken up for agricultural purposes. In the effort to trace the effect of the breakdown of plan tations on the size of tracts held by individual proprietors- Banks examined the original tax returns of 31 rural coun- TABLE 3. Total Land Proprietorships in Georgia According to Size in Acres in 31 Typical Counties. (Compiled from Original Tax Returns.) Size of Proprietorship in acres 1873 1880 1890 1902 Under 10 193 521 1,490 2,232 10 to 20 116 341 748 1,288 20 to 50 905 1,765 2,540 3,712 50 to 100 2,113 3,535 4,816 6,134 100 to 500 10,796 12,782 14,526 15,671 500 to 1,000 2,309 2,344 2,270 2,094 1,000 and over 1,337 1,302 1,178 1,047 Total Proprietorships.. 17,769 22,590 27,568 32,178 Total Acreage 6,792,954 7,211,476 7,315,975 7,474,802 Average Acreage 382 319 265 232 Median Acreage 308 261 218 170 11 Banks, Economics of Land Tenure, pp. 31-32. The Ruin of the Old Regime 47 ties in Georgia. These counties were selected from all sec- tions of the State and may therefore be considered fairly representative of the State as a whole. The above table (3) is a rearrangement of the results of Banks' study and indi- cates the distribution of land proprietorships according to size in acres^ 2 This table indicates that the predominant type of holding, all during the period was 100 to 500 acres in size. In fact, this group contained more than fifty per cent of the holdings in 1873 and but slightly less than fifty per cent of the hold- ings in 1902, and all during the period both the average and median size of holding fell within the 100 to 500 acre group. The holdings of more than 500 acres have decreased slightly in number, while the holdings of less than 500 acres have increased rapidly. This policy of retaining their large tracts as long as possible was adhered to largely because, among the Black Belt planters, large landed estates have been and, to an extent, still are the basis of aristocracy. The proprietorship was held intact as long as possible. Some- times it was cultivated by laborers and sometimes rented out in small tracts to tenant farmers. Furthermore, 700,000 acres of "new" land was included in proprietorships in these counties. (This is evident in the table from the increase in total acreage from 6,790,000 in 1873 to 7,470,000 in 1902.) Much of this new land was taken up in large tracts in the southern part of the State and held speculatively. The greater part of it was not used for agriculture immedi- ately, and much of it has not up to the present been in- cluded (under the census definition) in farms. This is indicated by the fact that the census shows an increase of only 300,000 acres in "land in farms" in the whole State from 1860 to 1910. It thus appears that while some of the large proprietorships have been divided into a number of small farms, their disappearance has been almost balanced 12 Banks, opp. cite, Appendix Table D. Distribution corrected. 48 Negro Migration by the appearance of new large proprietorships with a resultant steady growth in the total number of farms. This is statistically indicated in the table by the fact that the aver- age and median size in acres declined so nearly propor- tionately. The arithmetic average was 382 in 1873 and 232 in 1902. The median, or that middle sized farm which is larger than half the farms and smaller than half, was 308 in 1873 and 170 in 1902. The Growth of Tenancy. Although the f oregoing section indicates tha t the increase of small proprietorships has not b een very rapid, the increase in small t enant tanris has been exceptional. While only a small part of the farm la nd of the State has been sold off from the original tracts, a lar^ e part of. these original tract s , though still owned as units r are no lo nger cultivated as units, but are subdivided in to small tenant tracts, and e numerated by thej c ensus , as separate f arms. ... Recognizing the fact that these plantations, com- prising many tenant farms, are different from the propri- etorships in other parts of the country, the Census of 1910 conducted a special inquiry as to the extent of the planta- tion system of the South. In this investigation the term plantation was not used, as in ante-bellum days, to mean a tract owned and cultivated altogether by laborers, but merely a tract owned by one man, and cultivated by tenants or laborers. The inquiry covered 70 counties of Georgia, located in typical sections. It excluded tracts with less than five tenants as being too small to really be classed as plan- tations. 13 j The results of this inquiry indicate that in the 70 counties there are 6,627 plantations with five or more tenant farms. They include 6,627 landlord farms and 57,003 tenant farms. In other words each plantation is cultivated in part by the owner and in part by tenants. In the general statistics of 18 United States Census of 1910, Agriculture, Vol. V. "Plan- tations in the South," pp. 877, 885 and 887. The Ruin of the Old Regime 49 agriculture of the census they are, therefore, not enumerated as 6,627 farms, but as 63,030 farms. This picture shows that the plantations in 1910 were by no means" TiK*e"tHe ante-bellum plantations which consisted sol ely of: large tr acts culti vated by ffangs of laborers who rn seat the tap of the farm bell and _worked under the direc- tio n of the overseer. The extent of acreage still remaining in owner farms indicates that a considerable amount of land is still cultivated in this manner. In the plantations of Georgia the average size of owner farm, the part of the plantation still cultivated by hired laborers, is 316.9 acres. On the large plantations, those containing over fifty tenants, this average rises to 1,265.3 acres. On the other hand, the appearance of 57,007 tenant farms within the bounds of the plantation indicate a wholesale subdivision of the original farm into units varying in size from 35 to 65 acres. The inquiry indicates that of the 5,200,000 acres in all Georgia plantations, 3,100,000, or almost two-thirds of the acreage, is in tenant farms. TABLE 4. Classification of Georgia Farms by Tenure. ■Number operated by • — Per cent op. by — » u a CO H 6 fa 3 fa < CO u a O co a a 5 co H A CO S3 U CO a a CO CO to CO ■+-» a ■+-> a fi d rt co a d CO q u it a H a s H D t-t co 1 CO u V C H U u V B u c3 CO u a a V H d CU H V u i H a .d u Ph a Xi H to a XI u to O 8 u CO % o CO it U in 3 i O CO U XI m § 1880 46.1 21.6 | 32.3 100 57.7| 5.6 36.7 100 80.7 5.8 13.5 100 1890 36.7 26.3 | 37.0 100 47.3| 7.5 45.2 100 73.3 11.3 15.4 100 1900 32.1 39.5 | 28.4 100 ! 38.0 j 13.7 48.3 100 61.4 17.1 21.5 100 1910 27.2 40.7(32.1 100 1 34.1 1 17.2 48.7 100 45.9 20.9 33.2 100 (a) Includes Coast Counties, tabulated separately by Brooks. 7 Brooks, R. P., Agrarian Revolution. Opp. cite., p. 98. The Negro's Agricultural Opportunity 67 122) indicate the character of tenancy in the Black Belt, Upper Piedmont and Wiregrass. The mountain counties are omitted because of their unimportant Negro population. The Black Belt naturally suffered a quicker decline in ownership and growth of tenancy because it was in this area that the old plantation system was prevalent, The percen- tage of tenants in the Black Belt is uniformly higher than in the other two sections from 1880 to 1910. It is also noticeable that between 1890 and 1900 there was tremen- dous increase in the proportion of cash tenants all over the State, but specially in the Black Belt. During this prolonged period of agricultural depression numbers of planters gave up the struggle to maintain supervision over their tenants and laborers and there was a great opportunity for laborers and share tenants to become independent renters. TABLE 9. Farms Operated by Owners, Cash and Share Tenants. (Computed from U. S. Census, 1900 and 1910. Agricultural Tables Showing Tenure of Farmers by Color and Counties.) White ■■-Negro - ■-, C/3 w w w w u OT In c V ■4-» ti C a c H a 4> H 6 u a to u II a a a H a c 4? s u £ xn (4 a 43 44 £ (O 3 O u in H U Ui H Black Belt— 1900.... I 27,476 I 15,029 1910.... I 28,697 I 16,513 Upper Piedmont — 1900.... I 20,593 I 5,466 1910 I 23,021 1 8,005 Wiregrass — 1900 I 17,335 I 3,204| 1910.... I 20,802 I 6,379 I 8,663 I 51,168 I 7,516 10,087 I 55,297 | 9,809 19,001 1 45,060 1 1,371 24,219 I 55,245 | 2,053 4,296 I 24,835 | 2,390 9,314 I 36,495 | 3,578 29,910 I 24,204 I 61,630 41,044 I 35,524 1 86,377 2,475| 8,935112,781 4,607 I 11,635 1 18,295 2,323 1 2,609 1 7,322 4,757 J 8,308|16,643 Between 1900 and 1910 white cash tenants increased about 15 per cent and white share tenants about 16 per cent. Up to 1900, it will be observed from table 9 that there 68 Negro Migration were very few white tenants in this area. The filling up of farms with cash tenants, and the increase in white competi- tion, therefore, has recently limited the opportunity for the Negro to enter cash tenancy in the Black Belt. When the population movement in this section is examined it will appear that this condition is very significant. On the other hand, the Upper Piedmont and Wiregrass regions show remarkably active increases in Negro tenantry. Between 1890 and 1910 these areas show a marked increase in farms. New small farms were being taken up in the Upper Piedmont, and some of the large tracts in the Wire- grass, which had been cleared of timber, were opened for farming and subdivided into tenant farms. In these two areas all classes of farms have been rapidly increasing. New white and colored farmers are entering these regions, and the colored man moving in finds oppor- tunity as share tenant, cash tenant, or, if he has capital, as owner. A summary of the farm opportunity for the Negro indi- cates that he has had the personal friendship of many white people, but the influence of this relation is lessening as slavery recedes into the past; that, in Georgia, some 15,000 Neg roes have taken advant a ge of the opportunity to become land-own ing farmers , aasGffloc in7nf)Q_gfjg"> opportunity t o become tenants. That is to sa y, that one in each twenty- five Neg ro males in the country was a l andholder and one i n each four was a ten ant. Furthermore, that since the plantations of the Black Belt have broken down in large numbers, the opportunity in that section is no longer as ample in proportion to the number of Negroes living there as it is in the newer Wiregrass section, or in the Upper Piedmont. CHAPTER IV THE LIFE OF THE TENANT CLASSES. The foregoing description of the extent and rapidity of the breakdown of the gang labor plantation gives an in- sight into the rise of share tenancy, renting, and ownership among the Negroes. It does not, however, indicate the full extent of the revolution in southern rural life which this movement implies. This can be realized best by contrasting the condition of the freedmen in 1860 with that of the Negro to-day. In Georgia, the half million Negroes who emerged from slavery were a homogeneous group. There were comparatively few who held personal property and none who owned land. To-day, on the other hand, the 800,- 000 rural Negroes are stratified. Laborers differ from ten- ants and tenants from owners. Tenant classes also differ from one another in such respects as method of renting the land, utilizing the land, value of land cultivated, work-stock and implements used, yield obtained, housing and income. In addition to these economic differences the social relation- ships such as home life, standard of living, general standing in the community, and contacts with the white people vary greatly. These fundamental differences cause the rural or- ganization of communities to vary with the relative numbers of the different kinds of tenants which compose it. These detailed effects of land tenure on rural organization may be realized best from a full description of the differences be- tween the tenant classes. Hitherto, only the general characteristics of the different tenant classes have been mentioned. In order to give these terms definiteness and precision the following definitions are quoted : * *"A Study of The Tenant Systems in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta," Goldenweiser and Boeger, Bulletin 337, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 70 Negro Migration Half and Half System, {Share Croppers). — Under this system which is true share tenancy or metayage, the tenant supplies the labor and one-half the fertilizers, when any are used, while the landlord furnishes the land, a cabin, a garden plot, all the tools, the work animals and their feed, the seed, one-half of the fertilizers used, and the tenant's fuel wood, which the tenant cuts from the nearest available woodland, using the landlord's mules for hauling. Each party, under this system receives half the crop, and each pays for half the ginning, bagging, and ties. If, as happens occassionally, another crop besides corn and cotton is grown, it is also divided equally between landlord and tenant. Cow- peas are frequently planted in the corn at the last cultiva- tion with the seed usually furnished by the landlord. The tenant is often allowed to pasture it if he has a cow or other stock. T he landlor ds exercise car^fuL_sup.ervision over the share x r n pp pr s w hr> are locally not considered as tenants at all, but as labojersjiired to do the work in return f or halt the crop an d the j ise_of_a^ cabin. Sometimes, under this system, the tenant pays cash for the use of the land not planted in cotton and for the use of the planter's equipment in working it. In such cases the tenant receives all the crops raised in this manner. 2 Share Renting System (Third and fourth share tenants). — Under this system the tenant furnishes his own work stock and feeds it, and also supplies tools, seeds, and all labor, while the owner provides the land, the buildings and the fuel. If fertilizers are used under this system, they are paid for in the ratio of each party's share of the crop. The tenant pays as rent a share of the crop, one-fourth in some sections and one-third in others. The use of the land 2 This latter arrangement is extremely rare in Georgia, as is evidenced by the fact that the census of 1910 reported only 1,795 Negroes in the "Share-Cash" tenant class, i. e., just a trifle over one per cent of all Negro farmers. The Life of the Tenant Classes 71 in corn is sometimes paid for in cash and the tenant then retains all the crop. Each party to this agreeemnt pays for ginning and bagging his part of the cotton. The landlord is interested in the crop and oversees the tenant's opera- tions, but is not so much concerned about the economical use of mules and machinery, since they belong to the tenant. Cash Renting System. — This system is similar to the share renting system r except that v in lieu of a sh are of the crop the, t enant p ays a fixe d rent per acre in cash or li nt cotton. Since the cotton is sold through the planter, he is sure of hi s rent, provided a crop is raised, but sinc e he cannot col- l ect the , rent if there is no crop, and since^also ti heTenant is jjsually indebted to him for supplies advance d, the land- lo rd exercises supervision over the cash renters, ex cept in t he case of renters whom he knows to be dep endable. 3 •This statement of supervision applies only to cash renters on plantations of resident landlords-. In the case of absentee landlords, so prevalent, there is no supervision oTer the renters. The following table summarizes in convenient form the principal terms of the three systems of tenure : 72 Negro Migration TABLE 10. Method of Renting Share Cropping Share Renting Landlord Furnishes Cash Renting Land Land Land House House House Fuel Fuel Fuel Tools One-fourth or one- Work stock third of fertilizers Feed for stock Seed One-half of fertilizers Tenant Furnishes Labor Labor Labor One-half of Work stock Work stock fertilizers Feed for stock Feed for stock Tools Tools Seeds Seeds Three-fourths or Fertilizers two-thirds of fertilizers Landlord Receives One-half of One-fourth or one- Fixed amount in crop third of crop Tenant Receives cash or cotton One-half of Three-fourths or Entire crop less crop two-thirds of crop fixed amount Planters and tenants express a wide divergence of opinion as to which of these systems is "best for" them and the community. The writers on the economics of land tenure also differ as to which is most desirable from an economic standpoint. Henry George 4 tells us that "tenant farming is the intermediary stage through which the independent tillers of the soil have in other countries passed and in this country are beginning to pass to the condition of agricultural laborers and chronic paupers." E. R. A. Seligman 5 holds on the other hand, that "the increase in tenants has come not from previous farm owners, but from previous farm * North American Review, Vol. 142, p. 393. 8 Seligman, E. R. A., Principles of Economics (1914, Ed.), p. 388. The Life of the Tenant Classes 73 hands or hired men. The growth of farm tenancy is, there- fore, a step forward, not a step backward in the condition of American agriculture." Taylor, Carver and other writers on rural economics hold substantially with the latter view. Certainly in the case of Negro tenancy, it is apparent that in 1860 there were no Negro owners to pass through tenancy to labor. On the other hand there were many ex-slaves, who in the past fifty years have passed through the status of tenant to that of owner, and many Negroes, now in the cash and third and fourth tenant classes represent laborers who have accumulated some capital, and who with slightly more effort can become owners. There ar e still other writers and a considerable body of public opinion in the South w ith the v iew that, while tenancy is normally to be considered as a rung in the agri- cultural ladder wnereby young, inexperienced men climb from labor to own ership, still, m the ca se of the Negro, race characteristics nullify this principle. Brooks 6 states "Ca sh tenancy usually represents an economic advan ce over share tenancy. * * * The above considerations do not ap- ply in c ase of the Negro elements of t en ants in Geo rgia." Banks 7 on the basis of the examination of only two farm- er's budgets, concludes that share tenants would probably be better off as laborers, and that the plantation wages system offers such inducements as will "counteract the tendency of Negroes to leave the farms." In the midst of this tangle of general statements the first question we naturally ask is: "How much does each class earn?" INCOMES, 1913. The United States Bureau of Farm Management is con- ducting a series of detailed local studies of farming, all of which embrace this topic. The most illuminating, which 6 Brooks, Agrarian Revolution, p. 59. 7 Banks, Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia, pp. 112-115. 74 Negro Migration has been published to date, is the Study of Farming in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta, previously referred to. In this study it appeared: (a) That the income of the half share tenant is lower but steadier and less liable to ruinous fluc tuations than that of any of the other 'classes of farming population except t hat'nf iahnre rs^ In t his resj >e ct they are muc h like laborers. The number of failures among share tenants is very low. The average~Tncome is $633 (^1913). Only 2.9 per cent earned less than $100 and only 5.1 per cent earned over $600. (b) That the income of the third and fourth renters averaged $398, but 8 per cent of this class failed to make as much as $100, and 19.2 per cent made over $600. (c) T hat the income of cash renters is still higher and still more liable to fluctuation s. This class averaged $478 in income, but 9.8 per cent failed to make $100, while 28.2 per cent made more than $600. As the authors point out, "This difference is probably influenced but not entirely accounted for by the size of holdings." From the point of view of the landlord the factor of in- come* is reversed. Hi s iricome from share tenant farms yield ed, "on an average, 13.6 per cent on his inv estment. Where the share tenant's income is less than $100, however, the landlord's return was only about 3 per cent on his invest- ment, but from share tenants with an income of over $1,000, the landlord's yield was over 25 per cent. In the case of third and fourth men the landlord's average return was 11.8 per cent, but in no case did it fall below 7.1 per cent or rise above 18.8 per cent. In the case of cash renters, the landlord's return is prac- tically fi xed af6""br V per cent. The average is 6.6 per cent, the low range 5.7 per cent, and the upper range 8 per cent. The Life of the Tenant Classes 75 Balanced against these differences in income are the facts that in the case of third and fourth tenants and renters the landlord not only furnishes less capital, but assumes a smaller risk than in the case of the share tenant. Nevertheless, it is comparatively easy to understand, from this point of view, why, in practical ly all cases where land- lords can give personal supervision to their planting opera- tions,^th~ey de sire to~ luiiliiiue li re share cropping system as lon g as pos sible. On the other hand it is equally as^easy to "understand the natu ral desire of the ambitious tenants who have s aved a little money, to "get up in the world" hy chancing the greater gains of third and touruT cropping a nd renting, even at the risk of a great er loss. 3 It is evident that several factors other than the propor- tion in which the shares are divided, determine this fluctu- ation of income. Figures indicating the relative efficiency in production and extent of the usage of land, animals and implements by the various Negro tenant classes were pub- lished for the first time from the census of 1910 8 by counties. Unfortunately the half share and the third and fourth share tenants are all classed as "Share" tenants by the census, and as the following discussion of the factors of production is based on the census, the term "share tenant," as used, in the remainder of the chapter includes both these classes. Brooks found, from examination of the plantation schedules of the Census of 1911, that this third and fourth share system is largely confined to the Upper Piedmont section. A considerable number of these tenants were scat- tered throughout the State, however, in 1910. Hill®fo_und / th roughout the - State, how ege f, in 1910. — ffiHl^Jrouid^^- that 37.8 per cent of the Negroes of Clarke County, which « Negro Population, 1790-1915, U. S. Census, 1918, Table 73. 9 Hill, W. B., The Negroes of Clarke County, Georgia, Bulle- tin University of Georgia, 1914. Vol. 15, No. 3, p. 19. 76 Negro Migration is on the border of the Black Belt, were share tenants farm- ing on "other than half share" basis. 10 EFFICIENCY IN YIELD OBTAINED. As an index of efficiency the yield per acre is very re- liable. The share tenant obtains a slightly higher yield, both in cotton and in corn, than does the owner. The cash tenant is inferior to both. The following table (11) indi- cates that in 1909, for the State as a whole, the yield of cotton in bales per acre was, for share tenants, .39, for owners, .38, and for cash tenants, .36. The yield of corn in bushels per acre was, for share tenants, 10.8, for owners, 10.5, and for cash tenants, 9.4. The difference between share tenants and owners in yield obtained is certainly not sufficient to warrant any sweeping statement as to difference in their efficiency. When the individual counties are examined it will be noted that in many sections the yield obtained by Negro owners was larger than that obtained by share tenants. In fact, the yield of cotton per acre for share tenants exceeded that for owners only in the older farming counties where the plantation system is still strongest. For example, there is a notable difference in the group of counties embracing the old Black Belt areas of Sumpter, Baldwin and Crawford and the edges of the Black Belt, Paulding and Dodge, on the one hand, and the group formed by the Piedmont, Wiregrass and newer Black Belt counties on the other hand. The yield obtained by cash tenants is, however, uniformly lower than that obtained by the other classes. 10 The inclusion of third and fourth as well as half share ten- ants in the same class would tend to minimize such differences as tend to exist between cash and share tenants so grouped. Notwithstanding this fact, the tables which follow indicate some differences which are sufficiently marked to serve as a basis of definite contrast between these classes. The Life of the Tenant Classes 77 SIZE OF FARMS. There is little indication that the size of farm has much influence, except in special cases, in securing the larger income of the owners and renters. The large majority of Negro owners and renters, as well as of share tenants still cultivate the farm of "one man," one or two horse size. This is indicated by the average acreage tilled by each class. For the State as a whole share tenant's farms average 34.6 improved acres, cash tenants, 43.4 acres, and owners, 41.3 acres. Owing to the plantation organization, the share ten- ant is assigned land which is practically all in crops, the pasture and woodland being in common. Improved acreage of cash tenants and owners includes therefore much more land not actually in crops. Nevertheless, some of the larger income of cash tenants and owners is due to the fact that they can cultivate more ground. The share tenant is vir- tually bound to the one man farm. But the owner or renter who has a large family and can save enough for additional animal power and implements, can extend his operations by merely renting or buying a slightly larger piece of ground. In some cases Negro owners and renters cultivate so extensively as to require several laborers working for them. Inasm uch as nei ther the ef ficiency in pr oduction per acre, nor difference in size of jarm cultivate d indi cates very sig- ni ficant differences between the tena nEclasses we may turn to the other side of the picture , namely the itfrng_nf cos t. The questions of profit and efficiency involve not only the yield obtained, but the costs incurred in obtaining it. VALUE OF LAND. It is surprising to note that the most valuable land in the Cotton Belt is in the hands of share tenants. The plantation inquiry of the Census of 1910 n finds that the cheapest land 11 Plantation Farming in the United States, U. S. Bureau of the Census Bulletin, 1916. 78 Negro Migration §g S rt . O «8 C* 4* o * £ OT II ri 1* <-» ■ § Ss s N rt It 8* 6 1 1 & ft. E I « o h 1 o £ "3 II i o o 1 s * 4» 4» sis i 1 -"I 4 i • A a ♦» • a 2 M is • So MB 3 S A3 3£S Is as is i«il 353 6 © £S 9iS at © o O 6* co A3 4 A3 MBNWO HOOOOl ■» r» cn cm to o o in 10 6\ 9 A co o ao co cn oo OlHHlO HNOI0 UCDbOO) «-« CM 0> r-l r-t r-i 3 38S853 § • • • ♦ • • • 3838 3333 S3 #-. W en o wn««H CM CM CM CM ft "O H « rt o r- co cm pass* «-t CM »-4 r-l «■« W co en t* cm W *• t» rH cm to o cn •-» t-t r* N «# cn U5 co cn W t- r* CM - CM © <=4 t- IS Pi CM v* r-t W CM CM «# r-i O CM 10 3S2 cn o cn ri tO «0 CM CM • • • • co cn c** cn ttOiRH 8 cm 8 2 CM CM CM |4 SSScm- BBSS *r « cc ♦» a|H v •* niiilijjs** E 25*25^lBJ9^ Sri The Life of the Tenant Classes 79 is in the hands of Negro owners and that again the cash tenants occupy an intermediate position. Table 11 (opposite page) indicates that for the State as a whole the per acre values of land occupied by Negro farmers are: share tenant farms, $17.77; cash tenant farms, $14.04; owner farms, $11.29. One may see by the uni- formity with which this relationship holds in the individual counties that this difference is not due to any concentration on particularly valuable lands in any one section of the State. The interesting exception to note is Liberty County. This county was mentioned in the previous chapter as the county containing the largest number of Negro land owners. It was pointed out that just after the Civil War, in the rice plantation counties immediately east of Liberty, there was complete disorganization. In Liberty and its adjoining coun- ties there were immense tracts of wild land. As a result the large slave population had the opportunity to buy very cheaply, and in some instances secured what is now the most valuable land. This is just the reverse of what has been true in the rest of the State, especially in the old Black Belt. In the counties where Negroes bought land already in farms rather than wild land, they could buy the cheaper land only. The same principle held good to a lesser degree with renting. The more productive lands have been held by landlords for cultivation with labor or share tenants. The cultivation of these more valuable lands is, in itself a great advantage to the share tenant in getting results, and, to some extent accounts for the fact that he obtains a larger yield per acre. IMPLEMENTS AND MACHINERY. The foregoing Table (11) indicates that the reverse is true of the value of implements and machinery used per farm. The census figures show a larger per farm value of implements for owners than for cash tenants and for cash 80 Negro Migration tenants than for share tenants. The average values for the State as a whole are, owner farms, $66. Cash tenant farms, $44. Share tenant farms, $23. These figures are, to some extent, deceptive, in that the implements enumerated as "on the share tenant's farm" do not include all the implements which he may use during the year. In other words, the plantation, on which the share tenant farm is located, is a unit. These units differ in degree of organization, but the most efficient plantations are highly organized. On these plantations the expensive implements such as two horse cul- tivators and disc harrows are not furnished for each tenant, but are held by the landlord and apportioned out to the tenants as needed. Cash tenants on large plantations some- times have the same advantage of borrowing or renting the landlord's specialized equipment for short periods, but cash tenants on absentee landlord's places, or colored own- ers on their own farms must, of necessity, purchase prac- tically all the implements and machinery they use. This renders a group of share tenant farms on an organized plantation distinctly more efficient in the use of implements and machinery. WORK ANIMALS. Figures showing the number of work animals per farm indicate that the same factors determine the possession and use of work animals that determine the possession and use of implements. The average for work horses and mules per Negro farm for the State as a whole was : for share tenant farms, .8, for cash tenant farms, 1.3, and for owner farms, 1.4. 12 Owners and cash tenants have more animals per farm because their independent position renders the possession of at least one animal almost necessary. On plantations, how- ever, the landlord can control the use of animals from a central barn, apportioning them out to the labor and share tenant crops as they are needed. 12 Negro Population in the U. S. Opp. cite., Table 73. The Life of the Tenant Classes 8i The share tenant, however, in using the white man's mule or horse, secures the labor of a more valuable animal. The Yazoo-Mississippi study indicated that the average value of mules used was: on share tenant farms, $187; on share renters (third and fourth) farms, $147; on cash renters farms, $150. Owners were not studied in this area. In Georgia, the census 13 figures show that the average value of the horse or mule used by owners was $128, by cash tenants, $137, and by share tenants was $157. Because he uses fewer animals per farm and more valu- able animals the share tenant cultivates more per mule. Re- duced to a ratio the census figures indicate that on the farms of Negro farmers in the State as a whole the acreage in cotton and corn per work animal was: for owners, 19.5, for cash tenants, 27.7, and for share tenants, 32.3. Co-operation among independent owners and cash tenants along the lines of the agricultural communities of Europe would give them the same advantages in conserving imple- ments and animal power that the share tenant has. The "latifondia," or collective leases of Sicily and some "co- operatives" of France are nothing more than groups of independent farmers which substitute a co-operative associ- ation for a landlord. The association performs the func- tions performed by the landlord of a plantation. It super- vises the purchase and co-operative use of fertilizers, seeds, animals and machinery. Both white and colored independent farmers in the South have a long distance to go before such co-operation can be brought about. There is no more intense individualist than the small farmer, and much of this individualism is re- flected in the independent Negro owners and renters. In- dividual opinions as to time of planting, quality of seed, ex- tent of fertilization and use of work animals are still too divergent to allow an association to run smoothly. The fact 13 Negro Population in the U. S. opp. cite, Tables 69 and 73. 82 Negro Migration that it can succeed is, however, indicated by the success of plantations. These, in many respects are co-operative units. This is especially evident in the co-operative use of the farm animals and implements on the plantation. One consideration which will militate greatly against the co-operative purchase and use of animals is that the farmer, being isolated, wishes to use the work animal at odd times for riding or driving. In fact this control of the work animals from a central barn and the denial of their use for riding or driving to laborers or share tenants is one of the most irksome features of the plantation system to the Negro. On the basis of income, yield obtained, and expense of land implements and animals used the case may be stated as follows : The share tenant, using the more valuable land and animals, and with the facility of making more efficient use of land animals and implements by reason of organiza- tion and supervision by the landlord, gets slightly better results per acre than the other classes, but his results per acre are not greatly different from those obtained by the owner class. The interest of the owner in the land he has paid for, ana 1 in the crop of which he reaps the full benefit, practically offsets the superiority of the land and super- vision of the share tenant. The cash tenant, occupying an intermediate position between the owner and share tenant with respect to value of land, implements and animals used, nevertheless falls below both the other classes in yield per acre. The incomes of share tenants are, therefore, less than those of owners and renters not so much through individual inefficiency in production, as through the differences in division of the product. DEPRECIATION AND WASTE. Purely from the stand point of the landlord , wear and tear on the land is the most freq uent objection to Ne groes escap- ing from the supervision of the share tenant system. One of the most effective safeguards against this depreciation of The Life of the Tenant Classes 83 la^H is the diversification of crops. Table 11, however, in- dicates that the farms of share tenants are the least diver- sified. There are almost 2 acres in cotton for each acre in corn on the farms of share tenants, slightly less on the farms of cash tenants, and only 1.3 acres in cotton for each acre in corn on the farms of owners. This is due to the fact that where the cropping and labor systems exist on the same plantation, the landlord prefers to raise the feed crops with wage labor, confining the share men to cotton as far as possible. This facilitates the par- tition of the two shares, and enables the landlord, who has to furnish feed, to raise it himself, rather than necessitating its purchase from the share tenant. The owner cannot be accused of allowing his land to depreciate faster than the share tenant through lack of diversification. Nor is the renter class open to this accusation to the extent believed by the general public in the South. The exhaustive one crop system of cotton culture has a much firmer hold on the share tenants. With regard to the items of maintenance for which less reliable figures a re obtainable, such as fertil izers used, in- ten sive cultivation, maintenance of terraces and drains, it is probable th at the share tenant class, wi th the more intel- ligent supervision of the lan dlord is slightly more efficient. That is, he is always directed in these matters b v a supervis- in g resident landlord. He is the refore compelled to adopt measures for maintaining the fer tili ty of the land to a gr eater extent than either of the other two classes^ In the case of resident landlords, however, cash tenants can also be required by written contract and by supervision to do as much in this respect as share tenants. In fact Brooks noted that in the Upper Piedmont, where absentee landlords are at a minimum, renting is not regarded as a great evil, on ac- count of the fact that written contracts covering the main- tenance of the fertility of the soil are entered into and en- forced by nearby landlords. Also because Negroes, who are 84 Negro Migration more scattered among a majority white population, have more chance to observe progressive farming methods than they do in solid Negro Black Belt communities. As to own- ers, their individual interest in the land in which they have invested, plus such supervision as they can be given by county farm demonstration agents must be relied on to prompt them to take the necessary precautions against de- preciation. As a class, however, owners must be almost equally as ef- ficient in this respect as are share tenants, otherwise, start- ing with inferior land, the owners could hardly continue to so nearly equal the production per acre attained by share tenants. That rash tenants as a Hass are inferior in this respect is indicated by the fact that their yield per acre is not only less than that of share tenahls'^wKo oc cupy more valuable land, but ajso less than that o f owners who occupy les s valuable lan d. This very general survey of the factors of production and yield obtained, indicates the futility, purely from an eco- nomic standpoint of attempting a sweeping general state- ment as to which system is "better for the tenant" or "better for the landlord." Too much depends upon the individual tenant or landlord. The foregoing facts do, however, make it possible from the standpoint of the yield obtained and the factors of production used to give the following categorical statements : (1) If the tenant is young and without either capital, or sufficient experience to invest borrowed money wisely in animals and implements which will be efficiently used, there is but one place for him on the farm, outside the status of laborer, and that is share tenancy. (2) If the tenant has slightly more experience and has sufficient capital to buy animals, implements and machinery, he is better off as a cash tenant. From the landlord's point of view the existence of this class is not so desirable. Un- scrupulous landlords who enforce the share system rigor- The Life of the Tenant Classes 85 ously, giving their tenants in return the minimum of con- cessions are enabled, as we noted at the beginning to make as high as 25 per cent on their investment. This, of course, can be called nothing short of exploitation through a sys- tem. The landlord cannot attain such a high return on his investment from the cash tenant. He is also in danger, if his contract is not written or if the tenant is lazy or dis- honest, of seeing his land deteriorate. (3) If the Negro has a family of any size, has farming experience and capital, the logical status for him is land ownership. As an owner nothing stands between him and the realization of rent for his land, interest for his capital invested, wages for his labor and that of his family, and, if he proves to be a successful farmer, profits on his enter- prise. There is no indication that the growth of a con- siderable owner class is a detriment to the economic life of the community either from the point of view of annual production or from the point of view of depreciation of land and capital used. On the other hand there is much evidence of the superior prosperity, self-interest and com- munity interest of the owners. ABUSES. Up to this point the different classes of tenants and own- ers have been contrasted with one fundamental assumption, namely, that the relationship is not abused by either the landlord or the tenant. But the economic and social gen- eralizations are often upset by the unscrupulous of one class or the ignorant and shiftless of the other. U nscrupulous landlords, w ith the aid of laws making it a cri minal offense to leave a contract while in debt, have cre- ated condition s on some plantations which amount to peon- ag e or practical re-enslaveme nt of share tenants. Un satis- f actory crop settlements at the end of jthe y^SLLJbave been at th eroot of m uch discontent with the sh are tenant stat us. The landlord has a legalized lien on the crop and, if 86 Negro Migration he is also a merchant who encourages the reckless ex- tension of charge accounts during the year, upon which he charges a high rate of interest, and for which he submits a bill or verbal statement to a man who cannot read or add, then he keeps the Negro perpetually in debt. Investigations following the Arkansas riots of 1920 have shown that this condition, on some plantations, was a funda- mental factor in the discontent. On the other hand, landlords very justly complain that they HayejOi£yir^particular in renting their land outright because, as th e_rent Jsjto be paid out of the crop over which th ey do not ha ve mudLconlrol, and^-as-advances for food, fertilizer, and feed, with legitimate interest charges are often to be added to this rent T theyrisk loosing consider- able sums on shiftless, unsuccessful, and dishonest tenants, a nd thev afc^ r g k greater rteprpriafjnn nn their land. Such individual abuses of the tenant relationships whether by landlord or by tenant, are but additional reasons why landlords prefer to stick to share tenant cultivation and why Negroes prefer to escape from it. STANDARD OF LIVING. Family Life. — The chances of utilizing a large family as an economic asset are distinctly in favor of the owner and cash tenant, not only because they can extend their opera- tions merely by renting additional acres, but also for the reason that the share tenant is a dependent whose task is usually to raise the cotton crop. His food and clothing are obtained on the basis of credit advances, and the landlord therefore prefers to keep down his accounts by choosing single men, unless the tenant has several children of suf- ficient size to work in the fields. Food. — The census of 1910 indicated that in Georgia there were 1.6 cows per owner, .9 per cash tenant and only .6 per share tenant. This successively larger number per cash tenant and owner holds good through the different sections The Life of the Tenant Classes 87 of the State. Owners and cash tenants also return more pigs and poultry than the share tenants. More than 22,000 share tenant farms in the State, or 40 per cent of the total, had no poultry. 14 Share tenants are not only usually without the capital to purchase these animals, but they are, in their very relationship to the farm not in a position advan- tageous for raising animals. Saddled as they are with the cotton crop, they are not in a position to raise the feed crops, as was previously shown by the diversification index. Negro share tenants are as backward about cultivating garden products as they are about domestic animals. There is space around almost every house for a small kitchen gar- den, but in t he absence of knowled ge or much encourage- ment to cultivate it, it goes unused, or supports only a few rowsoi ll coiiarq s. J ' UDservers ftave otten noted with sur- prise the purchases of food which Negro tenants make which could easily be grown at home in spare hours. During the summer of 1917, when the Negro Migration was at its height, the writer visited many plantations. The landlords who seemed to have been particularly successful in retaining their labor were all questioned as to how they had succeeded. A surprisingly large proportion emphasized the fact that they had encouraged the gardens and domestic animal breeding of their tenants. These items of home grown food add materially to the comfort and satisfaction of the farm dwellers. In this respect owners and cash ten- ants are better off than share tenants. In regard to food purchased there is also a distinct limi- tation on a number of share tenants. If they are without capital, as most of them are, they depend on the local mer- chant or the landlord to credit them for their food until *^*4he crop is harvested. In many cases there is an absolute limit beyond which the "one horse" farmer cannot go in book credit. During the plantation investigation of 1911, Brooks noted that in many cases this limit was $100. "Negro Population in the United States. 1790-1915, Table 69, 88 Negro Migration Clothing. — No statistics are available for clothing bought, but the same limitations of credit are imposed on share tenants in this respect as in the purchase of food. Housing. — The figures in Table 11 above indicate that owners uniformly occupy the most valuable houses, cash tenants next and share tenants the poorest. The average values of buildings per farm i n the State as a who le were : for owner farms, $293, cash tenant farms, $189, and share tenant farmc, jfira Th ese values ap eak for themselves. Even the owner's, house at $295 is poor enough, but the h nii.qpg qj the share tenants are often unsp eaRable. Con- s tructed of green lumber and in ninety-nine cases ou t of a hundred unpainted, they warp , spring jcracks and Jsaks, and present a bare and uninviti ng appearance fromj vithout and within. . They are predominantly of the one room construc- tion^ sometimes with an 8' x 1CK lean-to addition. They seldom have more than one or two small windows with rough board shutters, and almost never more than one chim- ney, with migrated fireplace. It is in these cabins that families, sometimes large ones, with the added company of several dogs, live. The general significance of this low standard of living is more fully treated in the last chapter. It cannot, how- ever, be too frequently emphasized that all students of the race question agree that the most pressing problem of the Negro is his standard of living. Educating him to pro- duce more hinges on the ability of educating him to want more. As a passage from share tenant to cash tenant or cash tenant to owner, means an improvement in the stand- ard of living, it is a movement to be heartily encouraged. ^ PERMANENCY OF RESIDENCE. The share tenant, the renter, and the o wner are l ikewise successively more attached to tne land and less Hkely to The Life of the Tenant Classes 89 mo ve ofte n. It is the latter landless, well nigh purposeless element which makes the tasks of economic improvement, social betterment and leadership among the Negroes so dif- ficult. The following table indicates the shifting tendency of the tenants and especially the share tenants: TABLE 12. Georgia: Percentage Distribution of Farmers by Term of Occupancy and Tenure. ' All Farmers ' Negro Farmers——* Years on Cash Share Cash Share Farm Owners Ten'ts Ten'ts Owners Ten'ts Ten'ts Under 1 year.. 7.6 25.9 44.6 6.0 20.1 39.8 1 year 6.5 15.7 17.5 5.5 14.2 17.8 2 to 4 years. . . . 21.9 33.0 26.3 22.7 35.0 29.1 5 to 9 years.... 20.5 15.1 7.7 22.8 17.8 8.8 10 years & over 43.5 10.3 3.9 43.0 12.9 4.5 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 (Ratios computed from U. S. Census, 1910, Bulletin "Stability of Farm Operators.") Conside rably more than half of the share tenants had been occupying their farm for less than two years, and only 13.3 percent had been occupying their farm for more thanJL^ears. About one-third of the cash tenants had been occupying their farm less than two years, another third from two to five years, and another third more than five years. Of the owners only 11.5 per cent had been on their farm less than a year and considerably more than two- thirds had been there for over five years. This shifting is due more to the tenant system than to racial 'characteristics. This is indicated first by the fact that Negro owners change their residence sn my^h Ip^ fi^«««+1y +l ? r. s h are tenants, and by the fact that the shifting in all farmers, both white and colored, shown in the table, is slightly greater than the shifting of colored farmers. In other words there are proportionately more white than colored cash and share tenants who have been on their farm less than two years. Such restlessness is of necessity a tremendous stumbling 90 Negro Migration block to programs inaugurated in order to foster greater interest in the farm and rural life. Inter-racial good will, or even the individual acquaintanceship which must precede inter-racial good will are well-nigh impossible. From the point of view of the development of a class of influential leaders, the shifting of the tenant classes is equally dis- advantageous. GENERAL STANDING IN THE COMMUNITY. There is no doubt that the backbone of the rural Negro population is the group of successful Negro owners and renters who have demonstrated their productivity and use- fulness to the community. The Negro race looks to this class for its leaders and supporters of rural institutions. The low incomes of wage-hands and tenants preclude their participation to any marked degree in the financing of insti- tutions and their initiative, undeveloped because of the dependency of their position, is not sufficient to make them successful leaders. In race relations, also, the existence of this class of farm- ers, permanently attached to the land, is very beneficial. The fact that they are taxpayers heightens the respect which members of the white race have for them. The fact that their occupancy is more permanent allows acquaintance- ship to grow and stimulates confidence in their activities. SUMMARY. These complex differences among the tenant classes bring the realization that much more is involved in land tenure in the South than the mere technical details of farming. Tenure systems penetrate even deeper than the economic life of the rural districts. They are determinants also of the social structure. Figures on changes in land tenure are therefore convenient methods of measuring a whole series of very complex economic and social changes in rural life. The Life of the Tenant Classes 91 On account of the mistaken apprehensions concerning the increase in tenancy in the United States, the fact that own- ership as well as tenancy is increasing cannot be too greatly emphasized. This indicates that the iijcxease of tenants is re cruited from the inferior labor class rather th an from the su perior owner class. Thinking in terms _of the individ- ual Negro, it is evi dent that he would prefer, if possible, to leave the^st atus of laborer and en ter any of the tenant clashes, to leave the statu s of share tenant and become renter or ow ner, and to leave W status of renter and become ow ner. _ The pressure of individual motive is in this direc- tion. Th e obstacles are, unwillingness of landlo rds to rent o r sell land, and inability of the individual, th rough mis- V' fortune or shiftlessness, to accumulate the necessary capital for t he transition . Such a powerful motive at play in the N egro population suggest s itself immediately as possibly a princip al factor in mig ration. In a region of static agricultural c onditions, wh ere plantations continue to follow, as closely as possible the^old w ay, it is evident that young Neg roes, as they grow u p, must move off the fa rm. There is no opportunity for them except as their parents die. In many sections, how- ever, the movement has gone so far as to cause an actual decrease in the acreage cultivated. Th e pla nters have in- sisted on conditio " 3 so uafagatahla +n, thf f orrr> popula- tion that their labor supply h ag gradually dwindled, or they have worn out their lands with exhaustive cotton culture a nd prefer to let them lie idle. The~frJegroes from these regions have mny p/ * 1 *" f " th* g^tion s where the agricultural opp ortunities are better T and many of them have become det ached from the soil and have gone to th e city. The fol- lowing chapters are devoted to the relationship between these changes in rural organization and the movement of population. PART II. THE POPULATION MOVEMENTS CHAPTER I THE DIVERSITY OF MIGRATIONS. One of the most evident ways in which the colored and white populations of Georgia have responded to these dif- fering opportunities in different sections of the State has been by migration. The land, or opportunity is localized, immovable, and more or less fixed in quantity. The labor, on the other hand is mobile, and may shift from place to place, increasing or decreasing in quantity with the changes in demand. It is the inter-action of the demands of the land with the supply of agricultural labor which has fur- nished the chief causes of migration. Urban opportunity has exerted some influence, but the Negroes in 1910 were still 80.9 per cent rural. Both Negro laborers and white laborers have shifted from certain sections into certain sections, and the movements of the two races have been in the same direction, differing only in the relative numbers of migrants furnished by each race. This, in itself is an indication that the same economic and social forces are at work among the two races, but of course, in differing degrees. The movements have their economic and social effects as well as causes. Social institu- tions are made unstable in the sections losing heavily by migration, and in sections gaining, race problems are more aggravated where white and colored people who are un- accustomed to one another are brought into competition. These effects of migration will be discussed more at length in the last chapter of this study. The present chapter will be devoted to a closer study of the areas which are losing The Diversity of Migrations 93 and those which are gaining in Negro population. The suc- ceeding chapter shows concretely how important a part the tenant system plays in determining the population increase of rural areas. city and country. The urbanization of the Negro population has attracted much attention, especially since large groups have recently moved into northern cities. As the census makes no closer classification of the birthplace of persons than the State of birth, movement into cities cannot be obtained from this source. Increases and decreases of population, however, if marked, constitute a good measure of the movement. The following figures indicate the distinct drift cityward of both the white and the colored people of Georgia : TABLE 13. Georgia: Rural and Urban Population^ 1 ) Number- Per cent — % 1890 1900 1910 1890 1900 1910 Negro pop.* Urban . . 123,862 161,061 224,826 14.4 15.5 19.1 Rural .. 734,953 873,752 952,161 85.6 84.4 80.9 White pop.- Urban . . 133,515 185,123 313,606 13.6 15.7 21.9 Rural .. 844,842 996,171 1,118,196 86.0 84.3 78.1 Total pop.- Urban .. 257,472 346,382 538,650 14.0 15.6 20.6 Rural .. 844,842 996,171 1,118,196 86.4 84.3 78.1 These figures indicate the increasing importance of city life among Negroes. While still proportionately a small problem, the urban problem is a growing one. The Negro urban population increased from 14.4 per cent in 1890 to 19.1 per cent in 1910. The greater part of this increase — from 15.5 to 19.1— was in the single decade 1900 to 1910. The rural Negroes, however, still constitute over four-fifths of the total population. While almost as large a proportion of the white population is living in rural districts, the white people too show a marked drift cityward. This tendency is 1 United States Census of 1910, Population, Vol. II, p. 37. 94 Negro Migration slightly greater than among the Negroes since the white urban population increased from 13.6 per cent in 1890 to 21.9 per cent in 1910. These percentages may be misinterpreted if the actual numbers upon which they are based are not kept in mind. The percentage of increase indicates that an increasingly greater portion of the people are living in cities, but it does not indicate that the number of people in the country is decreasing. The rural population is growing, but the city population is growing faster. The first three columns of Table 13 show that city and country both are increasing in Georgia, and that the cities merely receive a part of the nat- ural increment of the country districts, a part remaining to swell the numbers of rural inhabitants. An examination of the numerical increases in the table bring this out more clearly. While the percentage of Negroes living in rural communities decreased from 85.6 in 1890 to 80.9 in 1910, the number increased from 734,953 to 952,161, a nu- merical increase of 78,409 and a rate of increase of 9 per cent. On the other hand the cities increased at a faster rate, because of the fact that their population was in the beginning much smaller than that of the country districts. The cities increased from 123,862 in 1890 to 224,826 in 1910, a percentage increase of 39.6 and a numerical in- crease of 63,765. When it is considered that some of the increase in city population is due to the extension of ^boundaries &nd some to the growth of new towns to such a size that they are included in the urban area, it is seen that the urban increase is by no means so significant as that in rural dis- tricts. In fact, about 15,000 of the urban increase was due to the growth of towns which were less than 2,500 in popu- lation in 1900 and greater than 2,500 in 1910. That is to say 14 incorporated places which were villages of less than 2,500 in 1900 were for that reason enumerated as "rural," The Diversity of Migrations 95 but on account of 10 years' growth they were enumerated as urban by the census of 1910. Such a change, of course, does not indicate as large a migration as might be assumed from the statistics of increase in urban population. It therefore appears that while there is a distinct trend toward urbanization, the movements of paramount importance in Georgia are those arising from the shifting of farm popula- tion. THE RURAL DISTRICTS. 1. Villages. — The census calls any town of less than 2,500 inhabitants a rural community. In some sections of the country this renders their classification deceptive. Some unincorporated rural communities are very thickly popu- lated, while some towns, with wide limits of incorporation are thinly populated and concerned chiefly with agricultural interests rather than with manufacture and trade. They depend upon the surrounding agricultural areas for food and raw materials. It is obvious that in these cases the census classification would be inaccurate. In manufactur- ing sections it would include too much. Suburbs of cities, outside of corporate limits, and manufacturing villages of less than 2,500 inhabitants whose occupations are not in any sense rural, and whose homes are clustered city fashion, around a large manufacturing plant, are obviously not as rural as towns slightly over 2,500 which depend for the support of their activities on surrounding farming popula- tions. Such inaccuracies do not apply to any great extent to Georgia, or for that matter, to any part of the Cotton Belt. The following table indicates the proportion of the total population in 1910 which was living in villages of between 250 and 2,500 inhabitants and which was classed as rural by the census. The "rural" counties are grouped accord- ing as they are losing by migration, gaining slowly or gain- ing rapidly. 2 (See shading of Map II.) 2 Computed from U. S. Census of 1910, Population, Vol. II. Analysis for "Georgia," Table 1, giving population of "Minor Civil Divisions." Village Per cent Per cent Popu- in in open lation Villages Country 55,698 12.5 87.5 71,900 17.1 82.9 109,157 19.1 80.9 96 Negro Migration TABLE 14. Georgia: Percentage of Total Population Living in Villages of 250 to 2,500. (103 "Rural" Counties.) Total County P'opu- Group lation Decreasing in population. 460,449 Increasing slowly 410,271 Increasing rapidly 565,991 Thus 83.6 per cent of all the population of these counties live in the open country. Even the 16.4 per cent in villages is largely concerned with rural affairs. In the cotton belt "these places consist merely of the merchandizing, ginning and marketing concerns with a sprinkling of professional men whose clients are nearly all farmers. In point of numbers these villages of less than 2,500 are not very important. There were 516 in Georgia in 1910. Their aggregate population was 283,803, or only 1 1 per cent of the total population of the State. 3 It is therefore evident that a study of population classed as "rural" by the Census, represents in Georgia a compara- tively accurate picture of conditions among the farming population even though the small population of villages is included as rural. 2. The Open Country. — Travelers in the South frequently remark on the wide stretches of country and the separation of houses. It is not at all unusual to go several miles without seeing a house. The passing of the plantation sys- tem has done away with the "quarters" grouped around the ■and lamWing, flnH in Northern Ce^x^A ^ ill lilt mountains' some lumbering is also done. The distribution of the Negroes of Georgia who are engaged in gainful occupations indicates that, outside of city and transportation trades, the 8 United States Census of 1910, Population, See Note 2. The Diversity of Migrations 97 great mass is engaged in agriculture.* Any movement of population in the rural districts is, therefore, closely related to the conditions of farm life. Table 15. Negroes of Georgia 10 Years of Age and Over Engaged in Gainful Occupations. Occupations Total Male Female Agriculture 410,266 257,974 152,292 Manufacturing and Trades .... 43,933 39,309 4,624 Domestic Service 100,809 14,615 86,194 Transportation 22,869 22,865 4 All other 37,659 31,849 5,810 Total 615,536 366,612 248,924 3. Local Migration. — One further fact is to be noted before the study of migration is made by counties, namely, that local movements, which are very hard to measure, and yet which are of importance, take place within counties. These cannot be measured by studying the increases and de- creases of the county as a whole. The change from the labor system to the tenant system of cultivating a single large plantation often involves a local increase of considerable sig- nificance. Usually the proportion who are young, single men is higher among laborers than among tenants. A change from laborers to tenants therefore means an increase in the plantation population proportionate to the size of the tenant families. On the other hand, the use of a large num- ber of tenant farms for orchards, or for pasture land would reduce the population of a local district. These local move- ments are bewildering in their number and effects. Some idea of local increses can be gained by the figures for the population of minor civil divisions of selected counties. 5 * Compiled from Census of 1910, Occupations, p. 449-450. 5 U. S. Census of 1900 and 1910. The census does not publish 98 Negro Migration The irregularity of increases and decreases in local areas is marked. As a whole, the Negro population of Crawford County, decreased during the decade, by 15.4 per cent. The area represented by districts number 573 and 577, however, gained 50 Negroes, while the other distiicts showed losses in colored population ranging from — 50 to — 340. Greene County as a whole increased by 3.7 per cent. Six of its minor civil divisions, however, actually decreased, while the increases among Negroes in the others ranged from 9 to 570. Jackson County as a whole increased 13.2 per cent. Five of its minor civil divisions, however, showed small de- creases, while the increases in the others ranged from 25 to 508. These irregular increases are too divergent to be explained by differences in birth and death rates. There can be no essential difference in health conditions because the areas are small and contiguous. It therefore appears that there is a constant and widespread shifting of the Negro population which is too great to be measured accurately for many of these local areas. L,ocal studies of migration in limited areas would indicate minutely the exact causes for gain and loss in Negro population. This study is, however, confined to the presentation of increases and decreases in whole counties on which accurate data is available in the Census. As such it is representative of general conditions in the county, but it is to be remembered that these conditions may be concen- trated in local areas and not spread evenly over all of the rural districts. DIRECTION OF RURAL MIGRATION In order to determine the direction and extent of the movements of Negro population the best method is to study the increases in the towns and counties of Georgia, and com- the population of minor civil divisions by race, but these figures were obtained from an unpublished tabulation made in the Cen- sus Office under the direction of Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones, and loaned for this study. The Diversity of Migrations 99 MA» It. GEORGIA y «W«n tnt of Increase In Hegro Rural Population. Urban and Mountain Counties. □ Percentage Inoiea.se in Rural Counties Under 7$ (Losing by Migration) 1 1 to 15 (Stationary^ «15 to 20 (Gaming slow- ly by Migration) 20 and over (Gaining rapidly by Migration) ioo Negro Migration pare these local increases with the increase in the total Negro population of the United States during the decade 1900-1910. The rate of increase for the whole country, 11.2 per cent, may be taken as a rather accurate measure of the excess of Negro births over deaths for the 10 years, since the country as a whole was neither gaining nor losing perceptibly by in- ternational Negro migration. In order that this determin- ation might not be too arbitrary, however, a range from 7j^ to 15 per cent may be taken as indicative of excess of births over deaths. Any area whose increase in Negro population for the decade falls between these limits may be considered a stationary area as far as perceptible migration is concerned. Districts whose Negro population increased at a rate slower than 7j4 per cent may be considered as losing by migration and those increasing at a rate faster than 15 per cent considered as gaining by migration. Districts increas- ing at a rate of over 20 per cent can be said to be gaining rapidly by migration. Map II indicates these rates of increase for the rural dis- tricts of Georgia. 6 Of the 144 counties shown on the map the 16 mountain counties and 24 counties containing towns of over 2,500 are left unshaded. The remaining 104 rural counties are shaded to indicate their increase in Negroes. The shading shows that the 7 stationary counties are well scattered. Of the 97 other counties, 37 were losing, 24 gaining slowly and 36 gaining rapidly. A glance at the map shows that the decreasing area corresponds closely to the 6 Based on percentages of increase shown in U. S. Census "Negro Population in the United Slates, 1790-1915." Table II. Counties grouped at the end of this table under "Notes on Changes in Boundaries" are grouped in the Map and the in- crease figured for the whole area because changes in county lines make census figures deceptive as to increase or decrease of individual counties in the area. In case a city was located in such an area its population was deducted. Inasmuch as there was an adjustment between the Urban county of Clarke and the rural county of Oglethorpe, the latter was left unshaded. The Diversity of Migrations ioi ante-bellum Black Belt. This area contains 27 of the de- creasing counties, while the upper Piedmont contains only 7 and the Wiregrass 3. The areas increasing slowly em- brace 25 counties, which lie mostly on the borders of the Black Belt. Two of these counties are on the border of the southwest Black Belt, only 7 on the edges of the central Black Belt, 8 in the Upper Piedmont and 7 in Wiregrass. Of the 36 rapidly increasing counties, 24 are in the Wiregrass and the adjacent southwest IBlack Belt sec- tion; 5 are in the Upper Piedmont 6 are on the borders of the Black Belt. It may therefore be said that the ante-bellum central and coast Black Belts are losing, the borders of the Black Belt, including most of the Upper Piedmont, gaining slowly, the Wiregrass and southwest Black Belt gaining rapidly. Numerically this migration may be calculated by grouping the counties according to their shading on Map II into the following table: TABLE 16. Migration of Negroes in Georgia,( 7 ) 1900-1910. Excess of Negro Births Actual Migration Popu- over Increase Indicated lation, Deaths at 1900- by Dif- Districts 1900 IS Per cent 1910 ference Rural- Mountain 10,017 1,503 —1,171 —2,674 Areas losing... 249,659 37,449 —1,301 —38,750 Stationary areas ....... 54,854 8,228 6,011 —2,217 Areas gaining slowly 142,268 21,340 24,961 3,621 Areas gaining rapidly 231,326 34,699 61,446 26,747 Rural area of counties con- taining a city 185,628 27,844 —11,537 —39,381 Cities 161,061 24,159 63,765 39,606 TOTAL 1,034,813 155,222 142,174 —13,048 T Computed from U. S. Census, 1910, Negro Population in the United States, 1790-1915, Table II. A check on this method 102 Negro Migration The first column indicates the 1900 population of the various groups of counties. The second indicates the nat- ural increase which might have been expected in the popu- lation if there had been no movement and if the excess of births over deaths had caused an increase of 15 per cent dur- ing the decade. Although the Negroes of the country as a whole increased only 11.2 per cent, and the Negroes of Geor- gia 13.2 per cent, it is estimated that the excess of births over deaths in Georgia would have caused that State to increase by 15 per cent, had Georgia not suffered loss by migration. The third column is the actual increase in colored popula- tion between 1900 and 1910, as shown by the census. By subtracting the third from the second column, i. e., subtract- ing the actual increase from the expected increase of 15 per cent, we obtain a fairly good approximation of the extent to which the actual increase by excess of births over deaths is offset by population movement. This is shown in column 4. The Negro population of the State was 1,034,813 in 1900. If it had increased by 15 per cent (155,222) it would have been 1,190,035 ; such, however, was not the case. The 1910 census showed only 1,176,987 Negroes, an increase of only 142,174. This leaves the difference between 115,222 and 142,174, or 13,048, to be accounted for by migration from the State. As a matter of fact the figures as to birthplace confirm this assumption closely. (See footnote 7.) It will be noted from Table 16 that the mountain counties, decreasing rural counties, and stationary counties lost of estimating migration is provided by comparing totals with Table 19, Negro Population in the United States. Whereas, this estimate indicates that the State as a whole lost 13,048 by migration, Table 19 indicates an increase of 19,004 Georgia- born Negroes outside the State, from this the increase of 1,257 born elsewhere but living in the State should be deducted, leaving an excess of 17,747 in the increase of emigrants over the increase of immigrants. The estimate in Column 4, Table 16, is, therefore, conservative because it falls 4,700 below the actual figures in Table 19. The Diversity of Migrations 103 about 43,641 Negroes by migration. The slowly increasing counties of the Piedmont and borders of the Black Belt gained about 3,621 and the rapidly increasing Wiregrass about 26,747. As a whole the urban counties gained only about 200. Within these urban counties there was a loss of the rural districts to the cities both by exten- sion of city boundaries to include rural areas, and by migra- ton, for while the total population of these counties was practically stationary, the population of the towns increased by 39,606, and the population of adjacent rural districts de- creased 39,387. DIAGRAM I. RELATION OF INCREASE IN NEGRO POPULATION TO INCREASE IN NEGRO FARMERS, 1900-10. (Counties grouped according to shading of Map XI.) Counties grouped ac- cording to movement of population. Losing (Mountains) Losing (Blaok Belt) Percentage of Increase In: Population ■■ Farmers V7A Stationary Gaining Slowly Gaining Rapidly The fact that the mountain counties included less than one per cent of the Negroes of the State in 1900 and that these small numbers are dwindling, warrants their exclusion from any further study of Negro migration. The Negroes in these counties are the descendants of the few slaves who were owned in this section. For the present, therefore, the migration from the Black Belt rural counties to the Piedmont and Wiregrass rural counties will be analyzed more closely. As to the causes of this movement : We may dismiss almost 104 Negro Migration immediately any assumption that it is due to inherent race traits rather than to the environment, for the white popu- laton is moving in the same direction. It was previously noted that the increases in both white and colored popula- tion for the various counties are very similar. 8 Using the increase in total number of farms as the best index of opportunity, we note that increase in farms corre- sponds closely with increase in population (see also Table 17). This is shown graphically on Diagram I, which charts the percentage increase 1900-1910 in farms operated by Ne- groes and in the Negro population. The diagram is based on the total increase in the groups of counties as combined in Table 16. The fact that they vary so nearly together shows that the presence or absence of opportunity for farm- ers is a powerful factor in the rural population movement. 8 See Footnote 1, Introduction. CHAPTER II THE MOVEMENTS OF COUNTRYMEN It is evident from the material already presented that migrations of Negroes are by no means new phenomena. The descriptions of the actions of f reedmen during the period of disorganization known as reconstruction, indicate that the movement started with emancipation. This very unstable condition soon settled down to a steady flow of Negroes from the old Black Belts. Examination of past censuses by the same methods used in the previous chapter indicates that mo s_t of the counties in the ante-bellu m Black Belt of Georgia h ave been stationary or decreasing almost continuously since 1 880. Examination of birthplac e statistics of the Census indicates tha t there has also been a shift from the Border Stat es northward and from the old Cotton States westward fo r the past forty years. At this stage it should also be emphasized that the move- ment is by no means a simple phenomenon. It arises from complex social and economic conditions and is attended by complex social and economic changes. One of the most enlightening indications of the desire of the Negro to take advantage of his agricultural opportunity and the extent to which he is able to do so is found in a study of rural migra- tion. As previously indicated, the principal shift before 1915 was from one rural district to another within the .S outh 1 — * movement from certain agricultu ral communities t o other agricultural communitie s. The number moving from coun try to city was relatively sm all. Since 1910, however, the entra nce of the boll weevil into Georgia and th e excep tional ind ustrial opportunities of the North have changed the cur- rent of migration. The boll weevil lessened opportunity in the soutnern portion of the State, slackened the immigration 1 1 06 NJegro Migration , / *> CL ^ ji into the section, and,,' in some cases, caused planters « to cut - independent farmers/bec^ne discouraged and move^f away. 1 j-i ridffipfnrlniat fnrmnn brrmrtff di iroura geH g rid m n vH away . - This emigration from the boll weevil section, with the normal amount of emigration from the Black Belt, gave a much greater impetus to the previously slow current moving to the North. The first part of this chapter is devoted to a closer analysis of the movement from 1900 to 1910, and the second part to a description of the movement since 1915 in so far as it affects rural districts. CAUSES OF MIGRATION BEFORE 1910 The more critical student will doubtless object that the method used in the previous chapter lacks sufficient defi- niteness in relating migration to farm conditions. Map II indicated the general movements in the geographical belts, but in these belts exceptional counties were noted whose population movement differs from that in the surrounding counties. It cannot be said, therefore, that population move- ment corresponds perfectly with any geographic section or with any grouping of counties based on the percentage which Negroes form of the total population. The next logical step is to search for a third condition whose variations corre- spond to the changes in population more closely than do 1 In description of this movement it is felt that clearness and brevity demand that the detailed facts be largely based upon a study of Georgia. The States north of Georgia were not af- fected by the boll weevil and hence did not suffer nearly the same loss in Negro population. The States west of Georgia had been previously affected in a similar manner. The slight in- crease in Texas and the actual decrease in Louisiana, noted in Table 1, are, in a measure, due to the fact that these two States were affected by the weevil before 1910. Floods in Alabama, and tariff troubles with sugar in Louisiana, aggravated the con- ditions in these States. A good general idea of how the other States compare with Georgia in respect to the loss of Negroes can be gained from the report of the U. S. Department of Labor, "Negro Migration in 1916-17," Washington, Government Printing Office, 1919. The Movements of Countrymen 107 variations in geographic location or percent Negro in the total population. In view of the importance of land tenure as outlined in Part I, this factor suggests itself immediately. For the benefit of those who may have a more scientific interest in the Negro population movements and social measurements, a more accurate statistical determination of the relation between changes in land tenure and rural population move- ment between 1900 and 1910 is given in the statistical appen- dix. The previous chapter (Map II and Diagram I) indicated that increase in populatio n and increase in far ms are closely ron necte3. The, mere/presentation of the fart that farms and population show similar rates of increase in the coun- ties as grouped in Diagram I leaves two questions unsolved : first, the fact that the two fluctuate together does not show which is the cause and which the effect; second, it does not show the extent to which one is the cause of the other. The first difficulty is one which arises because so many social and economic phenomena may be now a cause and again an effect of other phenomena. This is the case with land tenure and population movement. In decreasing counties it is easy to see how both could be true. Worn out land, or landlords who would rather let their land lie idle than grant Negroes' demands to rent, would cause an exodus from the county. On the other hand, an exodus caused by some external factor such as higher wages could easily cause a decrease in farms cultivated. Unless, however, agricultural conditions remain less favor- able in the deserted section than in surrounding areas, laborers and share tenants will be brought back. Over a con- siderable period of time, therefore, even in decreasing coun- ties the cause-effect relationship seems to have been from farming conditions to population movement more than from population movement to farming conditions. In counties 108 Negro Migration increasing rapidly by migration the relationship is clearer still. There is no way for population movement alone to increase the number of independent farmers unless oppor- tunity previously exists for them. In fact, when planters desire to hold to the labor or share tenant system, an influx of Negroes aids them because it increases the available labor supply. If, therefore, it can be established that increase in inde- pendent Negro farmers is more closely associated with in- crease in population than is increase in Negro farm labor, then we will have shown that the lack of agricultural oppor- tunity leads to movement from a district while favorable opportunity for farmers leads to movement into a district or to such a condition that young men find places on farms as they grow up and the county does not lose them. To establish this point a quantitative statement of the relationship is desirable. This can be arrived at only by em- ploying a logical and exact method of measuring the relation- ship between such factors which vary in a number of cases. 2 The following table is constructed so as to make these variations in Negro population and farm increase stand out for the counties in Georgia. In order that the comparisons might be accurate, all coun- ties were eliminated from consideration in which very small Negro rural population, or suburban populations rendered 2 The method of correlation is presented in as popular a form as possible. Sufficient use has been made of it in measuring relationships in economics and biology to warrant the omission of the detailed mathematical proof of the assumptions under- lying it. These are given fully by G. U. Yule in "An Introduc- tion to the Theory of Statistics," and by H. L. Moore, in "Forecasting the Yield and Price of Cotton." The principal steps in the reasoning and abridged proof of the derivation of the Pearsonian co-efficient of correlation are given in the sta- tistical appendix. The Movements of Countrymen Table 17 Negro Population and Farm Increases, Georgia, 1900-1910 ( — ) Minus sign denotes decrease. 109 COUNTIES ll 55 (y) IS « a •Si I (Y) (X) "sa-a (XY) •9 (Y 2 ) Stewart Crawford Wilkinson Marion Talbot Schley Gordon Liberty Heard Oconee Clinch Jones McDuffie Baldwin Camden Mcintosh Chattahoochee Upson Ware Glascock Echols Forsyth Douglas , Bartow Webster Putnam Quitman Bryan Hall Banks Paulding Fayette Glynn Gwinnett .... Taylor Haralson Butts Greene Charlton Campbell .... -1,456 —896 —876 —485 —309 —292 —275 —259 —258 —209 —212 —162 —158 —148 —133 —103 —74 —64 —25 —8 1 15 16 38 68 121 141 184 215 224 243 254 287 288 353 383 393 419 446 448 69 31 —80 188 364 30 30 131 141 348 46 421 210 84 —30 -144 156 273 30 85 15 63 101 197 51 515 144 37 108 114 58 190 —19 140 281 90 267 526 —9 180 -2,156 -1,596 -1,576 -1,185 -1,009 —992 —975 —959 —958 —909 —912 —862 —858 —848 —833 —803 —774 —764 —725 —708 —699 —685 —684 —662 —632 —579 —559 —516 —485 —476 —457 —446 —413 —412 —347 —317 —307 —281 —254 —252 —231 —269 —380 —112 64 —270 —270 —169 —159 48 —254 121 —90 —216 —330 —444 —144 —27 —270 —215 —285 —237 —199 —103 —249 215 —156 —263 —192 —186 —242 —110 —319 —160 —19 —210 —33 226 —309 —120 498 429 599 133 —65 268 263 162 152 —44 232 -104 77 183 4,648 2,547 2,484 1,404 1,018 984 951 920 918 826 832 743 736 719 275 357 694 645 111 599 21 584 196 527 152 501 199 489 162 469 136 468 68 438 157 399 —124 335 87 312 136 266 93 235 89 227 111 209 49 199 132 171 66 168 7 120 67 97 10 94 —64 79 78 65 30 64 no Negro Migration Table 17— Continued COUNTIES Incr. (y) Incr. (x) Dev. (Y) Dev. (X) Prod. (XY) Sq. (Y«) Rockdale. Warren . . Miller. . . . Polk Pierce. . . . Effingham Clayton . . . Telfair... . Hancock . . Harris .... Spalding. . Macon Henry .... Pike Clay Taliaferro. . Lincoln .... Meriwether . Baker Jackson .... Madison . . . Johnson Hart Wayne Lee Dougherty , Monroe . . . Randolph. Walton. .. Jefferson. . , Columbia. . Calhoun . . . Twiggs.... Pulaski Jasper Morgan Lowndes. . , Early Wilkes Terrell Dodge Mitchell. . . 496 511 549 556 558 574 606 635 640 679 749 790 795 839 866 902 906 913 948 1,007 1,009 1,025 1,055 1,082 1,155 1,178 1,311 1,347 1,360 1,401 1,445 1,486 1,591 1,775 1,839 2,173 2,291 2,308 2,345 2,744 2,755 3,660 90 402 147 205 127 102 249 239 588 371 354 493 512 536 188 421 359 670 261 421 311 208 308 39 449 266 348 227 426 560 465 226 408 668 675 738 362 640 1,073 724 574 712 —204 —189 —151 —144 —142 —126 —94 —65 —60 —21 49 90 95 139 166 202 206 213 248 307 309 325 355 382 455 478 611 647 660 701 745 786 891 1,075 1,139 1,473 1,591 1,608 1,645 2,044 2,055 2,960 —210 102 —153 —95 —173 —198 —51 —61 288 71 54 193 212 236 —112 121 59 370 —39 121 11 —92 8 —261 349 —34 48 —73 126 260 165 —74 108 368 375 438 62 340 773 424 274 412 43 —19 23 14 25 25 5 4 —17 — 1 3 17 20 33 —19 24 12 79 —10 37 3 —30 3 —100 159 —16 29 —47 83 18 123 —58 96 396 427 645 99 36 1,271 867 565 122 42 36 23 21 20 16 9 4 4 2 8 9 19 28 41 42 45 62 94 95 106 126 146 207 228 373 419 436 491 555 618 794 1,156 1,297 2,170 2,531 2,586 2,706 4,178 4,223 8,762 The Movements of Countrymen Table 17— Continued in COUNTIES Incr. (y) Incr. (x) Dev. (Y) Dev. (X) Prod. (XY) Sq. (Y 2 ) Sq. (X«) Laurens 4,588 911 21,088 10,878 2,066 6,666 1,251 217 3,910 3,747 354 898 3,888 —489 17,588 6,678 666 3,266 951 —383 2,410 1,947 —246 298 3,697 94 8,477 2,167 —82 694 15,117 120 56,856 7,433 222 13,865 904 Group I 2 Counties Group II 5 Counties Group III 6 Counties Group IV. 2 Counties Group V 2 Counties 74 116 634 30 44 Totals 97,186 971.86 32,951 329.51 27,186 271.86 271.86 2,951 29.51 29.51 25,423 254,230 8,020 156,428 1,564,280 73,929 6,277 62,770 860 Totals divided by i 00 Difference between guessed and true averages, their prod- ucts and squares, (a) Correct Total 246,210 1,496,351 61,910 (a) Products and squares of difference are used to correct the product and square columns after dividing the totals by the number of cases (100.) Inas- much as 000 is omitted from the product and square columns, after dividing by 100, only is omitted. The proper correction is indicated in the last line by dividing the sums of the products and squares by 100, i. e. by adding to the totals which omit 000, and subtracting the products and squares of the dif- ferences between guessed and true averages. onrl pinning tVmm i-mrfcf fhr fignrfl t n fe r mnrrtH' For fuller explanation of Guessed Average method, see appendix. Figures computed from U. S. Census, Negro Population in the U. S. Table II and 73, Census of 1900, Vol. V Agriculture, Table 10. The counties grouped at the end of the table make up areas in which new counties were created between 1900 and 1910, see foot note page 112. The number of counties indicated in each group is the number which composed the area in 1900. Their increases have been added to the population of the new counties created in the area. In the mathematical operations this group increase was divided by the number of counties in order that each county might be treated as a single case on the same basis with other counties in the table. For instance, in Group I, the group population increase was 911, of which 455.5 was assigned arbitrarily to each of the two counties which were in this area in 1900. Subtract the guessed average from 455.5, i. e. 455.5 — 700 and the result is — 244.5, which is the deviation of the population increase of each of the two counties. Multiply this by two and the result, — 489, is the deviation of the group from the popula- tion average. Multiply the square of — 244.5 by two and the result, 120,254 is the Y square for the group. Multiply — 244.5 by — 192.5, which is the deviation of each county from the average increase in farms, and the result, 47,066, when multiplied by two gives 94,132, which is the product of the two deviations for the group. This process has been followed with the five counties in Group II, the six in Group III, the two in Group IV and the two in Group V, thus giving to each group a weight corresponding to the number of counties which composed it in 1900. ii2 Negro Migration the Census figures on rural population increases in the county inexact. 3 The 100 counties remaining after eliminations were made are arranged in the order of their increase in Negro popu- lation. This increase is shown in Column I. Column II shows the increase in farms operated by Negroes in each county. The average increase in Negro population and the average increase in independent Negro farmers was then obtained. By subtracting the average increase in population or farms from the increases of each individual county the extent to which the counties deviate from this average is obtained. Column III shows these deviations of the in- creases in population in every county from the average in- crease in population. Column IV shows the deviations of the increases in farms. In this table, especially the columns showing the devia- tions from the averages, the eye can easily follow the rela- tionship between the two movements. If, in a given county, both the farm increase and the population increase are below the average, then both deviations bear the minus sign. If both are above the average, they bear the plus sign. In either of these cases a positive relation is implied. If, however, the population increase, in a county, is less than the average for 8 The counties omitted were: Mountain counties, with very small Negro populations (see Legend Map II) ; Clarke and Oglethorpe counties, on account of mutual adjustment of boun- daries and suburban areas; Bibb, Fulton, Richmond, Chatham, Sumpter, Muscogee, Elbert, Cobb, Dekalb, Troup, Colquitt, Car- roll, Newton, Houston and Brooks, on account of Urban and Suburban areas included as rural in one census or the other. Groups in which new counties were created between 1900 and 1910 were treated as follows: Population for all counties in the area was figured in 1900 and 1910. The increase of the whole area was treated as uniform. That is to say it was divided equally among the counties which composed the area in 1900 and is carried that way in the table. These groups are listed as such at the foot of the table. The Movements of Countrymen 113 the 100 rural counties, while the farm increase, in the same county, is more than the average, then the one deviation is plus and the other minus and a negative relationship is in- dicated. This degree of relationship between the pairs of observations is clearer still in the fifth column, which is ob- tained by multiplying the two deviations together. In the event that both population and farm increase are either above or below the average, the product of the deviations is a plus quantity. In the event, however, that the deviations are in opposite directions from their averages, as in Talbot (the fifth county in the table), their product is minus. In the event both deviations are large, the product is of course a large quantity, in the event one is large and the other small, the product is a smaller quantity, and in the event both deviations are small, the product is so small as to be relatively insignificant. Examination of Column V, which lists these products, reveals that there are only sixteen of the 100 counties for which the deviations did not agree in sign, and for which the product is a minus quantity. Many of these are very small products, and the sum of all the minus products deducted from the sum of all the plus products leaves a very large postive number. This, in such a large number of cases, is indicative of a strong positive relationship between the two observations. But it may be given a more definite quantitative value by the method of correlation. By this method the relationship expressed in Table 17 is reduced to a coefficient which can- not be numerically greater than plus or minus 1. The closer the coefficient is to plus one, the greater the degree of posi- tive relationship between the phenomena observed. The closer it is to minus one the greater the degree of negative relationship, and the closer it is to zero, the more doubtful the relationship. In this case the coefficient arrived at as indicative of the relationship between increase in Negro population and in- crease in independent Negro farmers was .811. The rela- ii4 Negro Migration DIAGRAM II. CORRELATIONS OF NEGRO *OT>ULATION INCREASE, 1900-1910 WITH INCREASES IN THE CLASSES OF FARM WORKERS. & U) Regression lines plotted from the means of the systems as zero, in units proportional, to <®r <£? the standard deviations. j\s $r (2) 0>" t &*■-; t5) 'Z. NO 1< tionship is therefore very close. By comparing the coefficient showing the relation between increase in population and increase in farms, and that between increase in population and increase in farm laborers 4 we see that while the relationship between increase in farmers and population is very high, the relationship be- tween increases in laborers and population is almost *This second correlation was worked out on the basis of census figures as to increase in improved acreage by counties. From this increase in improved acreage was subtracted the amount of increase attributable to new independent farmers on the basis of 25 acres each. The remainder was considered a fairly accurate index of the increases or decreases in the acreage operated by hired labor. The Movements of Countrymen 115 negligible. These coefficients are compared graphically in Diagram II. The other factors which might be correlated with popu- lation increase in order to exhaust possible causes would be : Increase in rural laborers other than farmers. 2. Social causes such as lynching, injustice in the courts, jim crow cars, etc. As to other rural laborers, the largest groups in the State in 1900 were comprised of the 8,000 turpentine laborers, and the approximately 5,000 laborers in sawmills and lumber gangs. These numbers are insignificant in influ- encing the population, which contains 122,000 independent farmers and 110,000 farm laborers (not working on home farm). As to the social causes, such as lynching, injustices in the courts, jim crow cars. It must be said that there is no way of tracing a direct relation- ship of these causes to the movement from one rural dis- trict to another within the South. They operate to a larger extent in the movement from country to city. Inasmuch as lynching is sporadic and affects directly only a small proportion of the population over a short period of time, its effects are difficult to determine unless by first hand investi- gation immediately after the disturbance. This is more fully discussed in the latter part of this chapter devoted to the migration of 1916-17. Inasmuch as the attitude towards the Negro in the courts, and in public carriers and institu- tions, is uniform throughout Georgia, it cannot be counted among the causes of movement from one part of the State to another. Increase in number of Negro farmers, of all classes, therefore, stands out as the predominating' cause for movement from one rural district to another. But as noted in Part I, this number of Negro farmers is composed of three classes, share tenants, cash tenants, and owners. The third, fourth, and fifth correla- tion coefficients shown above were worked out to measure the relation between the increase in these three classes with the increase in population. n6 Negro Migration In interpreting these coefficients, which are population with share tenancy, .600, with cash tenancy .499, with owner- ship .462, it is to be remembered that these tenant classes may increase in four ways in a given area. 1. Through the entrance into the class of a man who has previously been living in the area but who was in some other class of farm population, i. e., a change in tenure status without a movement. 2. Through the entrance into one of the classes of a man from some other county who had either been an agri- cultural laborer or who had not been engaged in agriculture. 3. Through the movement of men from one county to another without a change in their tenure status. 4. Through the movement of men from one county to another in order to effect the change from one tenure class to another. The correlation coefficients showing the relation of tenure classes to population are disturbed by the first group, but with allowance made for this disturbance they measure factors 2, 3 and 4. From this it is expected that share tenant increases will exert the largest influence on population increases. 1. Be- cause in 1900 there were more Negroes in share tenancy than in any other class, and these tenants moved most fre- quently. Therefore share tenants moving from one county to another formed a considerable migrant population. Also share tenants increase more rapidly because change from laborer to share tenant is only nominal and requires no capital. On the other hand, cash tenants were less numerous to begin with, they move less, and there are fewer who have ability to enter this class. The owners are still less numerous, move still less, and there are still fewer who have the ability to enter this class. These conditions are reflected in the regular descending order of the correlation coefficients. It would be a mistake, therefore, to attempt to interpret The Movements of Countrymen 117 the coefficients as indices solely of the relative desire of the Negro to enter the different tenant classes, or solely of the ability to enter them. They represent a measure of the extent to which this desire and ability combined, work themselves out in population movement across county lines. To sum up the relationships between increases in farmers and the increases in population between 1900 and 1910, our coefficients indicate: 1. Increases in total number of farms operated by Negroes are closely associated with increase in Negro population. So close is this relationship that it stands out as the prin- cipal cause of migration within the rural districts of the State. Th e superior far m opportunities of the Upper Pied- mont a nd Wiregras s have been drawing the population away fro m the old Black Be lt * 2. Increases and decreases in number of farm laborers are almost unrelated to population movement. 3. Owing to the large proportion of farms which are operated by share tenants who move from place to place frequently, and to the number of laborers who move to enter share tenancy, the relationship between increases in share tenants and increases in population is high. 4. Owing to the smaller proportion of the rural Negroes who were renters in 1910, the relative stability of this class, and the difficulty of entering it, increases in the renter class have been less closely related to population movement. 5. Owing to the fact that the owner class is the smallest numerically, the most stable, and the most difficult to enter, increases and decreases in ownership have had less effect on population movement than the other two classes of farmers. MIGRATION DURING THE WAR During this tremendous shifting around of rural popula- tion from 1870 to 1910 a few of the migrants became per- manently detached from the land and moved to the cities n8 Negro Migration of Georgia or to States West or North. The entrance of the United States into the war and the simultaneous en- trance of the boll weevil into Georgia set at work factors which had previously been of little relative importance and the city-ward movement was increased. The same currents in rural migration were, however, noticeable. The new currents were superposed on them and in some cases they offset the old currents. The results of the first hand investigation of migration during the summer of 1917, made for the U. S. Department of Labor, give a detailed picture of this movement. It is interesting to note, in connection with the boll weevil as a cause of migration, that this pest entered the very section of the State which had been gaining most heavily by migration, and that the labor agents from the North, who were probably aware of the disorganization caused by this pest, operated more extensively in the rural districts of south- west Georgia than anywhere else. The following quotation from the report based upon personal interviews with Georgia planters in 1917 indicates the new characteristics of the movement. "The reports of plantation owners and farm demon- strators indicate that only about 300 farmers and farm laborers have migrated from the Piedmont section, 1,200 from the central Black Belt, 3,200 to 3,500 from the 20 counties in the southwest Black Belt and Wiregrass suffer- ing heavy and moderate damage from the boll weevil, and 1,200 from the Wiregrass and Coast counties, This indi- cates a total of about 5,2 00 Negro fa rmers and farm laborers who left the .State during **"* y^ars 1Q1 / ; and 1917." "T heir replies indicated that the lin e of heavy movement correspo nded closely to the line of heavy dam age by the we evil The ho11 w ppvjI ran not, however, be take n as the onl vxause of the movement in this section. In this sec- ti on three of the worst lynchings ev er seen in Georgia occurred during 1915 and 1916. The planters in the imme- The Movements of Countrymen 119 diate vicinity of these lynchings a ttributed the movement from t heir places to the fact that the lynching parties had terrori zed their Negroes. Some of the co unties remote from the lynchings, how ever, showed as heavy a m ovement as th e counties where the lynching took place. On th e whole, th e weevil, together with the simultane ous off ers of high wages, seemed to be the main determining factor in the m ovement from southwest Georgia. Z. R. Pettet, the State crop estimator, says in his annual report for 1916: "The Negro exodus has been greatest in the territory that has been infested [with the weevil] long enough to make it difficult to grow a paying crop of cotton. The reported acute labor- shortage line coincides closely with the line of third-year infestation, except along the southern State line." It appears from this study • that the planters inter- viewed in the heavily damaged counties sustained a loss of 13 per cent of their plow hands, and those in the counties with moderate damage sustained a loss of 9 per cent. These percentages are slightly higher than the percentage of loss in the areas as a whole, for the reason that points of heavy movement were selected for study. The loss for all 10 heavily damaged weevil counties would probably be close to 10 per cent and for the 10 moderately damaged counties about 6 per cent. The rural districts of the Wiregrass showed slightly less disturbance in their farming population and the Central Black Belt and Upper Piedmont were prac- tically undisturbed. The foregoing percentages are based upon figures obtained from plantation owners. These owners, living in the county towns, usually supervise their plantations closely or provide a competent overseer. The majority of Negroes on their places are, therefore, wage hands or share croppers; a few rent land from the planter. These are supervised almost as close- ly as the wage hands and share croppers. Of the '4,831 plows operated by planters interviewed in the boll-weevil section, 120 Negro Migration 1,722 were operated by wage hands, 2,334 by share croppers, and 775 by renters. That is to say, 36 per cent of the Negro plow hands on these places were working for wages, 48 for a share of the crop, and only 16 paid a fixed rental. T his indicates that the area infested by the w eevil happened to coincide with the areas w here the ojd jpjantation system is most firmly estab lished. As a consequence the great majority of the Negroes leaving were wage hands and share croppers. Of the 534 leaving the boll-weevil section only 20 or 30 were renters. Two classes of Negro farmers were not reached by this inquiry among plantation owners. They were ( 1 ) independent renters on the land of absentee landlords, and (2) negro landowners. Only a scattering number of these were reported by farm demonstrators and local merchants as having left ; but while these higher types of the Negro farmer constitute only a small part of the total movement, the few who have left are noteworthy for the reason that they point to causes other than economic for their movement. The new tendencies to move from South Georgia, therefore, at least for two or three years have more than offset the old tendency to move into this land of previous agricultural opportunity. It is interesting to note, however, that in the movement from South Georgia again the share tenant and the labor classes contributed the over- whelming majority of the migrants. The renters and owners held on and constituted the stable class. Thus the moYenien^of 1916-17 bears all the earmarks of the earlier move ment of freedmen. Discont ent with the old plant ation svstenTwhich still prevai ls on some of th e South- e rn farms wa s intensified by low wages in 1914 and 1915, and th e appearance of the bo ^ wfrfvi 1 *" *hp smith western c orner of the State. Higher wages were offe red in the northern rities apd artjfipal stimjilation wa^s provided by the, labor a^er^ rep resenting northern in dustry. The begin- ni ngs of the movement may T therefore, be c haracterized as an intensification of the shift of Negro population which The Movements of Countrymen 121 has been taking place for the past 50 years, but which was a ccelerated by the boll weevil an d abnormal conditions of no rthern indust ry. S kuce the movement started, however, it has induced a great amount of dis cussion a m ong the N egroes . themselves. This discussion has emphasized the social grievances of Negroes in the South, and since a distinct pu blic opinion h as been created, even among the masses of Negroes, the s ocial causes have been playing a part in the migration. They are, briefly: Injustice in the courts, lynching, de- ni al of suffrage, discrimination in publi c conveyan ces, and inequalities in educational advanta ges. These are causes - \ which may be expected to become more and more influ- > ential in the future. CHAPTER III. CITY AND INTER-STATE MIGRATION The thousands of Negroes who have moved from Black Belt districts into other rural areas have constituted the great tide of migration. In the shift, however, a certain number have become detached from the land and have moved to nearby towns. Some have wandered still further into Northern cities. The very rapid rate of increase in urban areas indicates that the Negro population of towns and large cities is constantly receiving additions from the rural areas. It was noted in Chapter I, of this part, that the increase, between 1900 and 1910, of 63,765 Negroes in the towns of over 2,500 in Georgia was numerically less than the increase of 78,409 Negroes in rural districts, but on a percentage basis this means a rate of increase of 39.6 per cent in cities as against 9 per cent in rural districts. Part of this rapid rate of increase in urban population was due to the extension of city boundaries between 1900 and 1910 to include new areas, part to the 14 places which were smaller than 2,500 in 1900 but larger than 2,500 in 1910, and part to the natural increase by births over deaths. But fully 25,000 of the increase is attributable to migration from country town. Excluding the tov/ns added to the urban area between 1900 and 1910 because of their growth, and noting the increase only in towns which were considered urban in 1900, the growth shown is 46,00a 1 Making due allowance for extension of corporate limits in these towns the following is a very close approximation of their true increase by migration : Negro Population Towns of 2,500 in 1900 161,061 Estimate same area 1910 203,061 Increase 1900-1910 42,000 Per Cent Increase 1900-1910 26.0 iU. S. Bureau of the Census. Negro Population, 1790-1915, p. 96. 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. 124 Negro Migration sional men. The large planters absorbed much of the retail mercantile function and did their wholesale buying in the scattered towns. Social life centered around the "big house" and the "quarters" of the plantation rather than around the county seats. An almost immediate effect of the disintegration of the plantations was the development of villages. A number of these have grown into small towns and all of the widely scattered towns of 1865 have now grown to be cities. By 1880 there were 170 3 of these villages, and in the next 30 years they showed a remarkable increase. They not only trebled in number but also increased in size. Number of Villages in Georgia, 1880 and 1910 According to Size of Village Total Population Number of Number of of Village Villages, 1880 Villages, 1910 Less than 500 104 344 500 to 1,000 33 98 1,000 to 1,500 11 38 1,500 to 2,000 7 20 2,000 to 2,500 5 16 Size not enumerated 10 Total 170 516 The table above indicates a rapid increase in the number of villages of all sizes. This very significant growth came about as a by-product of the increase of the population of the surrounding country and the areas of increase have been largely dependent on the movement of the rural popu- lation. This is indicated by Table 14, whlclf showed that in counties decreasing by migration only 12.5 per cent of the population lives in villages ; in the counties increasing 8 These figures as to increase in number of villages are taken from an actual count of villages shown in the table of popu- lation of Georgia by minor civil divisions, Census of 1890, Vol. I, Population, Census of 1910, Vol. II, Population. White and colored populations of these villages are not separately shown. They are the smallest subdivisions of a minor civil division tabulated by the census. City and Inter-State Migration 125 slowly 17.1 per cent live in villages; and in the rapidly increasing section 19.1 per cent live in villages. This is to be expected from the nature of the factors underlying the rural population movement. With static agricultural conditions and continued concentration of land- ownership in the hands of a few, the growth of the small centers of population is naturally stunted. On the other hand, in actively progressive agricultural areas, with an in- creasing number of prosperous independent farmers and families attached to the land, the growth of the village and small town as the center of community life is naturally stimulated. Towns Under 25,000. — The Census enumerates as Urban all towns of 2,500 and over in population. Many of the towns which were mere clusters of houses around a cross-road in 1860 are now in this class. A striking example is States- boro, Georgia, which was incorporated with less than 50 inhabitants between 1880 and 1890. It had grown, by 1910, to be a town of 2,529 inhabitants. Fourteen such new towns were included in the Urban area of 1910. These are indi- cated by an X on Map III. ffie growth of these small town s is largely dependent upon the agricultural conditions o f thfl g^rrnnnHinor rural areas. T his is graphically illustrated by comparing Map III with Map II. It will be seen that the increase in towns under 10,000 corresponds rather closely to the increase in the surrounding rural areas. The towns with the slow rates of increase are mostly in the Black Belt. The rapidly increasing towns are, for the most part, in the Upper Pied- mont and Wiregrass. The farming area immediately surrounding the small town, however, loses Negro population by the growth of the town. The Urban counties (those on Map III containing a circle) actually lost 11,537 in Negro population between 1900 and 1910, whereas on the basis of excess of births over deaths in their population one would have expected an in- 126 Negro Migration UIP III. GEORGIA Percentage of Increase of Negroes in Cities • 1900-1910. ^7 *"'! £ t OILMER S. /— "' IchATTOOOa/) OOROON p^ .^ \j>-y^i /<§ 7"— -y— 4S555 ® U~T ( m \ Q FLOTp fl babtow j CHEROKEE [FORSYTH/ ^*' S V _^— ■< •""'\ -^J-C. j-.-^-A^ J\ \l f yMAOISONV ELBERT % ^ <;; AOLD1W) l «»/t\ yS^^M _~*7\ V in 1900, Over a, 500 in 1910. Size of Circle indicates Size of City. Percentage Inoreaee indi- cated as follows: ^j Under SO Peroent @ 20 to 40 Peroent 40 to 60 Peroent 60 Peroent and Over. fl M \ „ V&kU S \mmmU «« .<* I MONROE \ JONES • J..^ V ■. |/ S 1 /T^ >-*'"H WASHINQTOI. \ \ ^." "* j TALBOT / V V^ FOrf0 >.- i>,OOs\ ^^.^"^J \ [CHATTA (MARION | "" f MACON / S: .' \ LAURENS •"% f r<. i i^feasT SUMTER L o l\ • t U._._-\_.._Vi. -j CR1S(> j \/ TELFA.R V A/ T -._JU / \ ^T* r-> ^ (TERRELL, L EE ; : V J-. W J X. T'\ APPLINO f X ST-T •' RANDOLPH \ | I I TURNER j""" . Jj , 1 ' j ' \^ A . ^ ff*>t v — ' ■» ' h s ~ S— C ,rw,n >■ x i ™»"' N \ i " s ■■ *** DOuSSeRTY • WORTH ; *-\, ,■ cotrttL ' f^\ .j. — / \ BACON I / iS '^. WA,y " E ! COL*OITT ; JMO j l. O j f V.LOWNOESf' j ORAOY 1 TM0MAS j BROOKS .) (S) r^-.^ i j i (< *\ j A 1 —? City and Inter-State Migration 127 crease of at least 27,844. 4 Some 3,800 of this loss was due to encroachment of town limits on rural area, but this leaves a discrepancy of about 34,500 to be accounted for by the movement from the urban counties. The extent to which one of these small towns draws on its surrounding rural areas for Negro population is further illustrated by the following table compiled from a first hand investigation made by the writer in 1913 covering about 75 per cent of the population of a town. 5 Birthplace of Heads of Negro Families. Athens & Clarke County 635 Jackson 31 Oconee 77 Morgan 20 Oglethorpe 55 Franklin 16 Wilkes 51 Madison 14 Greene 46 Distant Counties 200 Elbert 34 Total 1,179 Thus 54 per cent of the heads of families in Athens were born in the town or in Clarke County. Twenty-nine per cent were born in the counties which cluster around Clarke and 17 per cent in more distant counties. This condition further reflects itself in the fact that in towns whose activities are predominantly for the surround- ing rural area the proportion of Negroes in the total popu- lation tends to vary with the proportion in the surrounding rural areas. White people form a higher proportion of the population in all towns than they form in the surround- ing rural areas, but the variations in this proportion depend on the variations in the surrounding rural areas. For in- stance, of the towns under 10,000 in population in Georgia, those located in very black counties — Albany, Americus, Bainbridge, Cordele, Cuthbert, Dawson, Fort Valley, Mil- ledgeville, Sandersville, Thomasville, Valdosta, Washington and Waynesboro, have marked Negro majorities. The towns of Barnesville, Covington, Griffin, LaGrange *See Table 16. 5 The Negroes of Athens, Ga., p. 7. 128 Negro Migration and Newnan, though located in counties slightly over 50 per cent Negro, have a Negro population of from 35 to SO per cent of their total population. In these towns manu- facturing and educational enterprises have tended to change the proportion of white people in the population. The towns of the Piedmont and Wiregrass sections, — Carrollton, Car- tersville, Cedertown, Dublin, Douglas, East Point, Elberton, Fitzgerald, Gainesville, Marietta, Monroe, Quitman, States- boro, Summerville, and Toccoa, all have marked white majorities. With the exception of Savannah and Brunswick the larger towns, with relatively more opportunity for white men, have white majorities. In other words, just at the point where manufacturing and mercantile enterprise comes in and gives the town other activities than those of serving the surrounding rural areas, the white element in the population begins to increase much more rapidly than the colored element and the relative num- ber of Negroes to whites does not reflect so nearly the proportions in the surrounding rural areas. The reasons for this condition can be best illustrated by the following table of the occupations of the Negroes of Athens, from the study cited above (page 39) : Distribution of Negroes Gainfully Employed Per Cent Occupation Groups Number of Total Professions and Business 108 5. Clerical Work 18 1. Skilled Trades 181 8. Domestic Service (including Laundress) 1,102 51. Unskilled Labor 764 35. 2,173 100. Athens had a white population of 8,597 and a colored population of 6,316, because the State University and a number of wholesale firms and factories attract a white popu- lation. Albany, on the other hand, had a white population of 3,378 and a Negro population of 4,812 because the pro- portionate need for domestic servants and common laborers City and Inter-State Migration 129 is relatively the same in towns of all sizes, while, in towns such as Albany, which are surrounded by large Negro popu- lations there are relatively more colored men in the building trades and on odd jobs such as drivers and porters. There is also additional opportunity in these towns surrounded by large Negro majorities for Negro merchants and profes- sional men. In Upper Piedmont towns, such as Gaines- ville, surrounded by a majority white population, the odd jobs and skilled trades are occupied to a greater extent by white people and there are relatively fewer opportunities for Negro merchants and professional men. As the small town or village is the first stop ping place for many rural Negroes who eventually find their way in to t he larger towns and cities, th e sou ndness of the smal l town i nstitutions is of strategic influence in their training for cit y life. A s tne Ne groes in the small towns are the inter- medianes through which ideas and institutions from the pity rea.cn {he large rural populating they are in a position t o exert an influence on the surroundin g rural gro ups all out of proportion to their number. This, intermediary function is theirs : 1. Because the activities and institutions of Negroes in small towns are based on the surrounding rural areas and, a wisely governed town adds to its own prosperity by stim- ulating the general prosperity of the surrounding rural areas. 2. Because colored people in small towns are in closer contact with the local white leaders and are, therefore, in a strategic position in race relations. 3. Because the ideas, ideals, and institutional models, which for the most part, radiate from large centers, are transmitted to the rural Negro through the medium of the small town or village. I 4. Because, as a more compact and highly organized population group, towns are able to accomplish co-operative / and institutional enterprises which are out of the reach of / the scattered, unorganized rural communities. 130 Negro Migration This ability of the village to serve the surrounding rural areas better than they could possibly serve themselves is clearly indicated by the development of two types of schools. (a) Negro Baptist Association Schools. — Throughout the South the Negro Baptists are organized into associations which embrace several counties. Many of the associations operate schools. Most of these are small elementary schools with a few high school pupils and rooms for boarders from outlying sections of the association. Though they draw many of their pupils from the country and send many graduates to teach and preach in surrounding rmc?l schools and churches, they are almost invariably located on the edge of the largest town or village in the association. The few that are in the open country, as a rule do not prosper with- out outside aid, because they are not located in a place central enough to hold the maximum interest of all the mem- bers of the association ; because they lose the interest of the most influential members, who live in town ; because country boys would much prefer going to town to school; and be- cause, being out of the current of ideas which flows froYu city to small town, they are more likely to be unprogres- sive. (b) County Teacher Training Schools. — Another striking illustration of the superior ability of the small town to develop institutions is in the County Teacher Training School movement. The Negro rural schools are hampered by poorly-paid, under-trained teachers. The low salary makes it imperative to fill the schools with local talent. This means that year after year, many rural schools are taught by young girls who have had no training beyond that given in the school in which they teach. In many cases this is not even a full grammar school education. To meet this need the Slater Fund desired to stimulate the growth of local institutions which could take local pupils and give them greater advantages than were offered by the one room rural City and Inter-State Migration 131 schools. The central idea was to develop some one of the rural schools to a point where it could offer high school courses, limited teacher training, industrial and agricultural work which would cultivate an appreciation of rural values. A small boarding department was planned in order to give the schools a wider clientele. Except where these schools were begun in connection with some private institution, previously established, they have, almost without exception, gravitated to villages, thereby gaining the advantage, both of rural surroundings and of the use of some public school which already had a better building and teaching staff than the one room schools of the open country. The village patrons together with the patrons in surrounding rural districts raise more money for addi- tional equipment and teachers than any one rural district could raise. Constructive workers in the race and other social prob- lems are too likely to neglect these extreme small towns of strategic importance for the more evident problems of the large city or the open country. It is apparent, however, especially in view of the rate at which rural Negroes sift through these places, that constructive programs would do well to take into account the possibilities of work in villages and small towns. By so doing they react on the city prob- lems through the migrants from the small towns and on the rural problems through the influence of the small town leaders and institutions on the rural population. The develop- ment of the automobile is giving even greater influence to the small towns. LARGE CITIES Before 1910 there was very little migration of Negroes from the Cot ton States to JNofthern c ities. There has been, however t considerable urban developm ent within the South. In Georgia, the four cities with a total population of over 25,000 are: Atlanta, with 154,839; Savannah, with 65,064; 132 Negro Migration Augusta, with 41,040, and Macon, with 40,665. All of these places except Augusta are increasing in Negro population at a fairly rapid rate. But they show a larger and larger proportion of white residents in each successive census. All have grown to their present size from small towns since the Civil War. While the continued growth in size and complexity of activity of these places offers a wider and wider range of opportunity to white mill workers, clerical workers and business men the only added attraction for Negroes in the large city, other than the proportionate increase in domestic service and common labor opportunities, is in the concen- tration, of purely Negro activities such as banks, large schools, church and lodge headquarters, and newspapers. The influence of domestic service opportunity is indicated by' the grea t predominance of voung femal es in the city Negropopulations. In lJie_£nuth. Atlantic- -States there were in 19T0only 862^ males per 1,000 jeirt?l p<; in cities of 25,000 to^lUqU UU. "TiTcities e * im ,000 ar^ ™,»r .+w#> we re only 835 males p er 1,0 00 females. In Atlanta the re were only 810 ma les per 1,000 fem ales,' an excess oQ,464 females in the Negro pop ulation. Of this excess. 3.562 was in. the 15 to 30 year age group.® INTER-STATE MIGRATION. One group of inter-state migrants may be classed as c ity mi grants. These are the Negroes who move North. They are attracted almost entirely by Urban opportunity. This #roup was o£j^Jiyj£l¥Jitlk Jmportance before 1910. The other group of in ter-state migrants is made up of those who move a short distance from one rural are a to another a cross S tafelines , or from one town to another jadihin the South. This group, before 1910, included the large ma- jority of the inter-state migrants in the Cotton Belt. Inas- « Negro Population, 1790-1915, opp. cite, pp. 154-201. City and Inter-State Migration 133 much as the former move is Northward and the latter mainly Westward into the Gulf Coast- Wiregrass strip of territory, the general trend of the movement of Negro population may be said to be Northward and Westward. In the United States, in 1910, the Negroes reported their State of Birth as follows : 7 TABLE 18. Residence of Negroes Born in the South Per Cent of Number Born Negroes Born Residing in in the South in the South The United States— 1910 9,109,153 100.0 1900 8,216,458 100.0 Increase 892,695 The South— 1910 8,668,619 95.2 1900 7,866,807 95.7 Increase 801,812 The North and West— 1910 440,534 4.9 1900 349,651 4.4 Increase 90,883 That is to say that, in 1900, 349,651 Southern born Ne- groes were living in the North and West, but this number represented only 4.4 per cent of all Southern born Negroes. The number of Southern born Negroes in the country in- creased almost 900,000 between 1900 and 1910, but the num- ber of Southern born Negroes living in the North increased only about 91,000. This means that for each southern-born increase the migrant group. But this number was hardly sufficient to materially alter the proportion of southern- born Negroes living in the North, because in 1900 only 4.5 per cent of all southern-born Negroes lived in the North, and by 1910 this proportion had increased very slightly to 4.9 per cent. Among Georgia-born Negroes the inter-state migration before 1910 is indicated as follows : 8 7 Negro Population, 1790-1915, pp. 66-67. 8 Negro Population in the U. S., 1790-1915, p. 81. Census of 1900, Population, p. 702. 134 Negro Migration TABLE 19. Residence of Negroes Born in Georgia. Number Number Increase Per cent in 1910 in 1900 1900-1910 Increase Total born in Georgia. 1,248,352 1,090,336 158,016 14.5 Living in Georgia... 1,097,257 958,245 139,012 14.5 " in other States 151,095 132,091 19,004 14.4 " "Florida.... 45,699 27,744 17,955 64.7 " "Alabama... 31,202 31,106 96 .3 " "Tennessee.. 13,075 11,250 1,825 16.3 " "Arkansas.. 10,013 11,495 —1,482 —13.1 " " other South- " " em States 28,313 38,022 —9,709 —25.3 Total So. States 128,302 1 19,617 8,685 7.4 Living in N. Y 3,792 1,925 1,867 97.0 " Illinois . . . 2,874 1,674 1,200 71.7 " N. J 1,578 490 1,088 222.4 All other 14,549 8,385 6,164 71.0 Total Non-Southern States 22,793 12,474 10,319 82.7 This indicates that in 1900 there were 132,091 Georgia born Negroes who had migrated to other States. Of these, however, only 12,474 lived in Northern and Western States and 119,617 in Southern States, i. e., only 1.1 per cent of the total Georgia-born Negroes had moved outside the South, and 10.9 per cent had moved to other States in the South. By 1910 the number of Georgia-born migrants outside of the South had increased to 22,793, an increase of 10,300. As- suming that the death rate of Georgia-born in the North was about 25 per thousand, per year, this means that some 13,000 Georgia-born Negroes moved North during the decade. This is less than 1.3 per cent of the Georgia Negroes in 1900. Although the No rth wnrd moypm°nt has been gaining headway, it appears that the important shift b efore 1910 wa_s to other Southern States. The earlier m igrations from Georgia were Southward int oJTlorida and the W iregrass lands ot Alabama, and Westward into M ^issippi, Louisi- ana, Texas and Arkan sas. The Census of 1890 showed 12,993 Georgia-born Negroes in Mississippi, 11,736 in Texas, City and Inter-State Migration 135 and 5,445 in Iyouisiana. By 1900 most of these had died and no more had moved in to take their place and in the table above these States are included in the 38,022 Georgia- born Negroes in other Southern States. It will be seen that there was a rapid increase in the movement to Florida between 1900 and 1910, just enough movement to Alabama to barely maintain the Georgia-born population, a slight movement to Tennessee and very slight movement to other Southern States, the Georgia-born Negroes in these States decreasing 11,091 either through deaths or further move- ment. Between 1916 and 1917 the Western areas and parts of Northern Florida were disturbed by the boll weevil and floods. The boll weevil also entered Georgia and accelerated the movement from the State. The westward stream of migration was blocked by adverse conditions and this movement had, perforce, to turn northward. Thus at first it was not so much a change in the essential character of the forces as a change in their area of incidence and their intensity which caused the movement to change in direc- tion. Since the northern opportunity was predominantly urban this was an urban movement. CLASSES MIGRATING Truthe first hand st udy of the mig ration of 1916-17 made for the Department of Labor, the writer 9 esti mated that Whereas a bout 6 T 000 Negro fa rmers anH farm laborers had moved North during the two years, there were fr om 5,000 to JL QQO laborers who moved from cities and towns in Geo rgia. The following extracts from the report made on the situa- tion at the time indicate the character of this movement : "The towns Iprated in ibfl rA^nnc where the farmers were disturbed have, nf ™^rse . suffered a gr eater loss than the towns of the Pi edm o nt and tho B l a ck Belt. Skilled iof.r>™>rc AcpA^ioiiy ko^A bf Ar> ^ ro wn from all towns ^B ecause 9 See Footnote 1, Chapter II. The facts are as of the summer of 1917. 136 Negro Migration wa ges of skilled labor run proportiona tely higher in the N orth than in the South. The mass of Mfi gro day, laborers has been disturbed only in Savannah. Macon r W avcross. Albany, Thomasville and smaller towns in Southern Georgia. Augusta and the smaller towns in Middle Georgia have lost Negroes, but recent attempts to secure laborers for canton- ment construction in three Middle Georgia cities were successful. * * * The towns of the Upper Piedmont have also suffered a relatively slight loss. ]\^ seem.*? t hat the large majority of t he migrants from to wns have been drawn f rom the best and poor est elements. The unemployed an d sh,i ft1p<;<; wprp ta,ken up by . agents and (a fterward, some of) the property-owning .a nri money- sa ving class paid th ei r own wp y u p . *" Bricklayers. — I he bricklayers of Georgia are about equally divided between the two races. In Augusta the head of the Negro bricklayers' union reported that 12 out of 134 had moved North and 4 had returned (June, 1917). Reports from other towns indicated that from 5 to 10 per cent of the Negro bricklayers had moved. Enough have ^remained, however, to carry on construction work without incon- venience. The head of the bricklayers' union of Augusta attributed the movement of these tradesmen entirely to the fact that increases in wages, ranging from 10 to 15 cents per hour, were offered in Northern cities. About the same con- ditions hold for the plastering trade. "Carpenters. — Although a sprinkling of Negro carpenters moved North from the towns, no great shortage has been felt. From 2,000 to 4,000 carpenters have been employed in Atlanta, 1,500 to 2,000 in Macon, and 1,000 or more in Augusta for the construction of Army cantonments. About half of these were Negroes. * * * Hitherto carpenters have been getting 30 and 35 cents per hour ; cantonment work pays 40 cents. 1 Ship carpenters are badly needed in Savan- nah, but this is a new trade for the South. "Day Labor. — Practically all of the day labor in Georgia,, outside of the Upper Piedmont and mountain towns, is done by Negroes. All through the Cotton Belt fertilizer works, oil mills, gins, and compresses employ Negroes, and in the larger towns employment is also furnished to Negroes as railway shop helpers, street laborers, porters, drivers, hod 1 Carpenters in the North in 1920 were making about five times this amount and wages have also advanced in the South. City and Inter-State Migration 137 carriers, etc. This class of labor is scarcer in Georgia than it probably ever has been before, and a number of employers complain of green and inexperienced hands. The fertilizer plants — one or more in every town of over 2,000 people — employ from 30 to 300 men. They take on about 25 per cent of their labor in the fall and reach their maximum in January and February. The managers of these plants, especially in the southern portion of the State, report that many of their hands have moved north since they were laid off in the spring. They are apprehensive that they will not be able to renew their force without considerable trouble. After the cotton picking sea- son is over, any shortage in these plants must eventually be made up from the surrounding rural districts, because the farmer can not compete with the town employer in the matter of wages. In 1916, when farm hands were getting 50 and 75 cents a day, the oil mills and fertilizer works paid 80 cents and $1 and $1.25 a day. During the latter part of the 1916 season many of these industries were paying $1.50 and $1.75 a day. Complaint of incompetent labor is especially prevalent among railway shop foremen and bosses of section gangs. Negroes who work for the railroads, however, are contin- ually shifting their employment, even in normal times. The Central of Georgia shops at Macon, the Atlanta, Birming- ham & Atlantic shops at Fitzgerald, and the Atlantic Coast Line shops at Waycross reported great disturbance last sum- mer and a continued shifting of their labor up to date. The Central of Georgia shops in Macon employ about 600 Negroes, mostly unskilled, and they report that during the three months March-May, 1917, when a labor agent was active in Macon, they lost approximately 200 Negroes per month, or one-third of their normal force. In normal times their turnover was about 100 per month. The section gangs of the Georgia Southern & Florida ; Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic; and parts of the Central of Georgia and Coast Line are also reported short. In general, the movement of common laborers has been stopped by a rise in the scale of wages from 75 and 80 cents per day in 1916 to $1.25, $1.50, and $2 a day in the summer of 1917." Tt...tlmQ appears * W, corresponding to the .f arm owners a nd renters in the country the re is algn a stable "uppe rv. • 138 Negro Migration tenth" among the Negro population of the towns, com- posed of the merchants, doctors, teachers and preachers. Just as the unattached agricultural laborers constitute the shifting class in the country districts, so the domestic and the common laborer is the migrant in the city. Home owner- ship is still proportionately small in the Negro population. Only 22 per cent of Negroes in the United States who occupy "other than farm" homes are owners. A fourth of these homes are mortgaged. The owners of other than farm homes, however, increased between 1890 and 1910 from 143,500 to 285,000, or about 100 per cent. 10 This growth of a stable, home-owning class in the town is fully as encouraging as the growth of landownership in the country. It is to the personal interest of these settled property-owning Negro leaders to keep their fellow towns- men from migrating. It is therefore very significant that these leaders did not oppose but rather encouraged the migration of 1916-17. Although their personal interest is in seeing their race stay in the South, the conditions from which they were moving were so patently undesirable that the leaders either did not discourage or actively encouraged the movement. CAUSES OF CITY MIGRATION The abnormal wage conditions of 1916-17 are so widely known that little need be said in connection with them as a principal cause of the movement. It has also been noted that the movement itself created a sort of a suction which drew others along. Dr. W. T. B. Williams, the colored investigator, on the Department of Labor survey, summed this up in the following keen observation : " The unusual amou n ts of money coming in, the glowing accounts f rom the North, and the excitement and stir of greafT Towcls leaving, work upon t he feelmgs__of many NeftfQesr Thev pull up and follow aTmo s F without-gnrason. they are stampeded into action. This accountsj njarge part 10 Negro Population, 1790-1915, p. 460. City and Inter-State Migration 139 fo r the apparently unreasonable doings of many who give up i-^nnri positions or sap-jti^; y^Jllf^Jhj™^^ Or good busi nesses to go No rth." In speaking of the more definite causes of the move- ment he continues: "The treatment acorded the Negro always stood second, whe n not' first, amuiig die leasons given by Negroes for leavin g the ijouth . 1 talked with all classes of colored peo- ple from Virginia to Louisiana, farm hands, tenants, farm- ers, hack drivers, porters, mechanics, barbers, merchants, insurance men, teachers, heads of schools, ministers, drug- gists, physicians, lawyers, and in every instance the matter of treatment came to the front voluntarily. This is the all-absorbing, burning question among the Negroes." It is this "treatment," which operates more and more as a cause for race movement as the Negro develops a fuller group consciousness. It demands the attention of the really constructive statesmen of the country. Although this is a topic which has as many angles as there are race contacts in the South, the most discussed phases are housing, protection and justice in the courts and various institutional provisions for colored people. These tend more to cause the movement to cities than to influence the movements from one country district to another. Ho using. — Negro rental property is notoriously a high yielding inv^mpn t in .^nntViAm tnwnc anH sanitary COn- HitJrmc Jn many nf the "NTpprrp, dJS,^^* "* thggp towns have b een properly termed atr ocious. A first hand study of a Piedmont town and educational center in Georgia revealed the following conditions i 11 Rooms Occupied by Negro Families: Number of Families Number of Families Occupying Occupying 1 room 148 5 rooms 43 2 rooms 517 6 rooms 27 3 rooms 313 7 rooms 9 4 rooms 156 Over 7 rooms 11 Less than 5 rooms 1,134 5 or more rooms 90 11 See The Negroes of Athens, Ga., opp. cite, Chapter III. 14° Negro Migration Thus it appears that the two-and three-room houses are the most usual and that 1,134 or 93 per cent of the 1,224 families live in houses of fewer than five rooms. A more detailed examination of the premises surrounding these houses showed that the inmates of 1,008 of them use out- side privies in some form. Most of them have a small earth closet close to the house. A ^ ew have no p rivy at all on the prpmicpc, ..3^ 11 S ? t h at of a nei gh bor, In such cases the landlords build no fence between the houses and provide one joint privy for four or five houses. In one instance the inmates of five houses were using one small box-like house, six by four feet, and in another four large double houses were using one privy of the same dimensions. The soil is further polluted by the continued dumping of waste water and scraps in the back y ards. No Negro re nted house has a^si n k. The_ water is emptied on the ground. Among these privies and waste-water dumps are the 519 wpIIc frnm oftant in c ity migrations. The influence of these socia l causes is also increasing as the Negr o develops an increasingly definite group conscious- ness^ 15 This list includes all the principle grievances of the Negro except denial of the ballot and poor facilities in public convey- ances. While these grievances cause movement from South to North, they are not included in this list of causes of movement from country to city because within any state conditions of travel and of suffrage are the same for countrymen as for city dwellers. CHAPTER IV. THE RESULTS OF MIGRATION Such a volume of movement as has been described in pre- ceding chapters can but have profound effects upon the Negro population and upon the communities gaining or losing by migration. Some description of these effects is necessary before the study is complete. Almost all of the so-called Negro problems are com- plicated by the fact that there are many migrants in the colored population. To trace fully the detailed results of migration would require a rather ambitious treatment of many different phases of the Negro question. The best that can be done in the remainder of this study is to out- line some of the most patent effects. Even these are not presented in detail. The brief treatment given, however, indicates that some abnormalities which are often said to be due to traits inherent in the Negro race may be largely explained by the abnormal number of migrants in the population. M any students of the ra ce problems have tended to attribute ab normalities in sex" distrib ution, fecundity, vitali ty, crim inality, insanit y, and evert in, Negro insti- tutions almost entirely to inherent traits of racial he redity. it is not withm the province Of this volume to determine the extent to which the Negro has a different racial heredity from the white man. In trying to do this we would be com- pelled to traverse too much debatable ground. Anthro- pologists, physiologists and psychologists have too many points to settle before this question can be answered with any degree of scientific accuracy. If, however, it appears that many of the peculiarities in population and institutions can, in a large measure, be accounted for by 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. 150 Negro Migration and morality is necessarily great. The writer's study of Athens, Georgia, revealed the following condition of the women with children under 18 years of age: Athens, Georgia. Conjugal Condition of 742 Negro Women with Children Number single 30 or 4 per cent of total Number widowed 113 or 16 per cent of total Number separated S3 or 7 per cent of total Number living with husband 546 or 73 per cent of total The number of women with illegitimate children indi- cates' ulZioraIff)ra^^ and separated census does not tabulate separately the conjugal condition of Negro women rearing children, but in the total female population the following proportions prevailed in 1910: Conjugal Condition: Per Cent Female Population 15 Years of Age and Over— 1910 (p. 237)2 Single Married Widowed Divorced Negro 26.6 57.2 14.8 1.1 White 30.1 59.0 10.1 .6 This indicates that there are proportionately fewer col- ored than white women single. This is probably due to earlier marriages. But a larger proportion of Negroes are widowed or divorced. The proportions in urban communi- ties, where migration has upset the ratio between the sexes, are quite different from the proportions in the population Conjugal Condition: Per Cent of Negro Female Population in Urban Communities--1910 (p. 270) Single Married Widowed Divorced Middle Atlantic States. 30.8 52.6 15.8 .5 South Atlantic States.. 30.2 49.4 19.2 .9 2 Inasmuch as this chapter is almost entirely based on data contained in "Negro Population in the United States, 1790-1915" U. S. Bureau of the Census, numerous footnotes are avoided by merely including page references to this volume in parentheses in the text. The Results of Migration 151 as a whole. This table indicates that the proportion of single and widowed females is considerably higher in the cities of both the North and the South than in the total Negro pop- ulation. Much of the low morality and looseness of family tie s indicated bvthese figures is due to t he disturbance in the ratio of the tw a sexes throug h migration. Number of Children Born. — The census figures tabulated under the heading of "Fertility" need further interpreta- tion for several reasons. In the first place, they are a ratio of the number of children to the number of women 15 to 44 years of age. This ratio depends on the proportion of women who are married, the number of children born and the proportion who survive. With this in mind the follow- ing figures from the Census of 1910 are suggestive (p. 288) : In the South there were 617 white children under 5 years of age per 1,000 white women of 15 to 44 years of age, while there were only 554 colored children per 1,000 colored women of 15 to 44 years of age. In other words, even in the South, where the Negro population increases most rap- idly, the disturbances in sex ratio, marriage rate and infant mortality have reduced the proportion of colored children below that of the native white children. In the North there were only 282 colored children per 1,000 col- ored women 15 to 44 years of age, whereas there were 442 white children per 1,000 white women of the same age. This is in part due to the disturbance in the sex ratio and the consequent lowering of the marriage rate, and it is in part due to the rise in the standard of living in North- ern communities. The increased struggle for existence in the cities and increased living expenses causes a decrease in the birth rate. This is indicated by the fact when the ratio is based on married women instead of all females between the ages of 15 and 44 it is as follows: Children under 5 years per 1,000 married females in the South, 749 white and 757 colored, in the North 539 white and 396 colored. 152 Negro Migration Studies of the sex ratio of our immigrant population indicate that there is almost as much disturbance, in their birth rate, but that males predominate among the European immigrants while females predominate among the Negro migrants. Similar small proportions of children to the total foreign born population, and married males to the foreign born population may be noted. The migration since 1916 was at first so largely made up of male laborers that the inequality of sexes in the Eastern cities has tended to be reduced. In some of the industrial cities which had no appreciable Negro population before 1916, there is now a great excess of males. Excess of Deaths Over Births and Vitality. — It is fairly well known that the Negro populations in Northern cities are not self-sustaining by excess of births over deaths. This is to be expected from the foregoing statement that there were in 1910 only 282 colored children to each 1,000 colored women 15 to 44 years of age in the North and only 396 for each 1,000 married women of that group. In a study of the Negroes of Boston, Massachusetts, John Daniels noted 3 that between 1900 and 1910 in Greater Boston, the birth rate and death rate among the Negroes were exactly equal, being 25.4 per 1,000 in each case. Among the whites the birth rate was 26.9 and the death rate 18.7. The birth rate has not even equalled the death rate except recently. Daniels points out that from 1870 to 1875 the Negro death rate was as high as 41.3 per thousand while the birth rate was only 30.9. "The excessive mortality and paucity of births have thus worked for the extinction of Boston's native Negro population." An examination of the annual reports of the Commis- sioner of Public Health of New York City, 4 indicates that s "In Freedom's Birthplace," John Daniels, pp. 471, 134, and 136. 4 "Annual Reports," Commissioner Public Health, New York City, 1906, 1916. Tables showing Total Births and Deaths for Colored in New York City. The Results of Migration 153 in the 10-year period 1906-1916 there was an average ex- cess of deaths over births among the Negroes of New York amounting to about 400 per year, the total excess for the 10-year period being 3,964. In 1910 the death rate among the Negroes of New York was 25.1 and the birth rate 22.2. This actual loss of about 3 per cent in ten years is in startling contrast with the gain of over 15 per cent in Georgia between 1900 and 1910. In this respect migration from the Cotton Belt bids fair to reduce the rate of increase in the Negro population tremendously. This means that the increasing populations of these Northern cities are maintained by constant additions of migrants from the South. Unfortunately, no comparable statistics are available for the Southern States. Only a few large cities and two border States are included in the Census vital statistics registration area. Such figures as are available, however, seem to indicate that the differences in rates of increases of native-born Negroes in the North and in the South are due rather to a difference in birth rate than in the death rate. In fact, the Negro death rate for 24 Southern cities was 29.6 per thousand, and in 33 Northern cities was 25.1. The large rural population of the South must then have a death rate of somewhere around 20 to 25 per thonsand (p. 315), and a very high birth rate, for it is from these areas that the increases in the cities of the South as well as the North are drawn. A much more detailed study of the refined death rate (per 1,000 Negroes of different ages in the population), and of the rates from different diseases is necessary before exact conclusions are warranted as to what these figures indicate in regard to the vitality of the Negro. In the number of migrants in the population, however, we have an explanation for much of this irregularity in birth and death rates of different sections. It can be seen that in the country districts where the number of migrants form only a small proportion of the population, the ratio of sexes 154 Negro Migration is comparatively undisturbed, the number of married women higher, the standard of living lower, and hence that there is a larger proportion of married women and more children per married woman. On the other hand, although deaths from malaria and typhoid are probably more fre- quent in the country, the Negro's chief foes, tuberculosis and pneumonia, are more deadly in the city, and especially in the colder climate of the North.. But the superior intelligence of migrants and the fact that they are in the more robust age group bring their general death rate in the North down slightly below the rate in Southern cities. A bnormal Social Classes. — T he high proportion of crim- inals, delinquents, a nd insane amonff Neg roes has also been attribut e hy many writern tft racial traits. Here again, however, are a grou p of p h enomena which may, to some gvten^ ha flvpantnH frntn the H^Qf^rb^re nf any population by migration . The available data a jso ind icate th e influence o£ migratio p on abnormal classes in the Negjo p opulation. The following figures are suggestive of the principal factors underlying the situation. (439) Prisoners and Juvenile Delinquents: Commitment Rates per 100,000 of Each Race, 1910. White Negro The North 503.2 2,836.0 The West 815.7 3,667.4 The South 258.1 880.3 T he low commitment rate for white and colored in the South in due both to the predominance of the rural ele- m ent and tcr the small proportion of migrants in the South- ern populat ion. In the West North Central section, which approaches the South in its proportion of rural inhabitants, the com- mitment rate for native white people was only 296 per 100.000, or only 38 more than the rate in the South. , Its commitment rate for fqrejgja,.boni whites was, however, 550.1. That is, among the migrants the commitment rate The Results of Migration 155 wa s_almost double that of the nft tivr whitr-rrrnplr This in fluence of city life and migration on the crime rate is fu rther evident from the rates in New England w ith 630.2 commitments per 100,000 per native whites and 1,143.2 for the same number of foreign born. Due to th e concentration in citie s the commitment rate for both native and foreign born in New England is more than double that in the West~Nnrth Central States, whi le in both secti ons the rate foi L-foreign born migrants is double that of _t he native w hites. T his discussion indicates the e ffects of ^u rbanization and the disturbance of the fa mily life on crimeT This is espe- cia lly evirleiiL in the ngures on Negro commitmen ts since the r ate in the North is about ZY 2 times the r ates i n the S outh. Th e strain of urb an life and migration is also evident in the insanity rate a mong the Negroes (p p. 448-457). In 1910 the number of insane admitted to asylums per 100,000 of each racial class was: 59.7 among the whites of the South Atlantic States and 44.6 among the Negroes. In the Middle Atlantic States, on the other hand, the number was 105.9 for whites and 153.8 for Negroes. Although these differences in rates reflect in part the differences in prac- tice of admitting insane and in the facilities for caring for them, still they also reflect the greater strain o f the urban Hf» nf tli a Mrn-fo rm fog rm^a^ ffrfa jc further empha- sized Jw the difference in urban and rural insanity rates in thAJM^rth a *H South The Negro insane admitted to hos- pitals in 1910 were as follows : Middle Atlantic States, 45.8 per 100,000 rural Negroes and 115.6 for the same number of urban Negroes, South Atlantic States, 31.8 per 100,000 rural Negroes, and 86.2 per 100,000 urban Negroes. Social and Economic Classes. — Migration also plays its part in forming and redistributing the social and economic classes. The Negro population was in 1860 subdivided only into farm laborers, artisans, domestics and free Negroes. 156 Negro Migration But in the past sixty years the differing response to economic opportunity has created a wide range of Negro classes. In the rural districts the farm laborer, tenant and owner are on very different planes, and in the city the common laborer, the domestic, the skilled tradesman, the business man, and Negro leader are quite distinct types. As the more energetic atnd successful respond more quickly to opportunity and move toward it, many of the leaders of the race are now located in the city group. In fact, with the centralization of Negro churches, lodges, business, and newspapers in the city, the leadership of the colored people seems to be definitely centered in the urban districts. ORGANIZATION Agricultural Organisation. — The constant shifting of the colored population also has deep rooted effects on the organ- izations in which the Negro participates. Throughout Part I the plantation and other forms of rural organization were considered as causes of migration, but the loss of population in turn has its reaction upon this rural organiza- tion. It was noted that in 1865-70, in the area from which the ex-slaves began to move, many planters began to aban- don the gang labor system, offering share tenancy as a basis for keeping the Negro contented with farm life. Simi- larly in 1916-17, the loss of labor and the boll weevil reacted upon the farmers of Georgia, and in order to meet the situ- ation, less cotton was planted per hand. With more diversi- fied food crops the farmers found that they could cultivate more land with much less labor. In fact the Negro migra- tion in this respec t is enfo rcin g the diye rsificatiQiuof agri- cultu re and the introduction of machinery, two of the most nee ded reforms in the Cotton Belt system of cu ltivation. Though the shortage of labor works a hardship during the transition period, in the long run its results will be bene- ficial, if it leads to the termination of the tyrannical rule The Results op Migration 157 of King Cotton over the Black Belt, and the establishment of a large number of relatively prosperous small farmers in the place of the extensive gang labor system of exploiting the soil. But the change in farm life and in relations between tenant and landlord are even more significant. Labor troubles discourage many planters and they sell out or rent their lands. Those who wish to retain laborers and halvers must make concessions. The Report of the Department of Labor noted that the planters who were most successful in holding labor were those who accorded the best treat- ment. The movement seems to emphasize this treatment in the minds of planters and renders them more willing to democratize the plantation. Industry. — The most radical change caused by the move- ment since 1916 has been the entry of some 140,000 colored men in industry. These are, to a great extent concentrated in eleven large industrial cities. The cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, De- troit, Indianapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, include about 40 per cent of all Negroes living outside the South. In 1920, 230 plants employed some 115,000 of the 140,000 in manufacturing industries. According to industry, colored laborers in the North were distributed about as follows: iron and steel, 40,000; automobile, 25,000; meat packing, 15,000; Pullman shops and yards, 15,000; miscellaneous, 40,000. Management has been only too glad to welcome this addition to the labor supply, and the majority of employ- ment managers interviewed in the spring of 1920 expressed themselves as well pleased with the results obtained with Negro labor. Progress in industry has, however, been made almost entirely outside the union, in open shops. Unskilled laborers predominate. Some plants have the definite policy of not admitting colored men except in the 158 Negro Migration capacity of unskilled laborers, while others employ as many in skilled trades as apply qualified for the job, but state that the large majority are not qualified for skilled positions. Still others hold that there is no job in their shop which Negroes cannot fill after a reasonable apprenticeship. Since management is so pleased to have the Negro added to the labor supply, when Negroes are barred from jobs for which they are fitted it is almost always through the preju- dice of unions, foremen, or groups of employees who have been with the company for a long time. In the present active labor market, however, it seems that most colored men are eventually able to find a place in some open shop where they can employ all the skill that they possess. About 10 per cent are now in semi-skilled jobs, such as furnace repair masons and tenders of almost automatic machinery. A bare five per cent are found in the skilled positions, such as truck drivers, stationary and hoisting engineers, foundry moulders, rolling mill miters and rollers, butchers, skilled auto body builders and heat finishers, and foremen. There is one Negro who has risen to the position of chief chemist of a large manufacturing plant and several who are heads of large trucking departments. There are numbers of skilled building tradesmen, car- penters, painters, plasterers, and plumbers, who come up from the South but are unable to ply their trade because of the stronger hold of the unions in these fields. Such men usually accept work as semi-skilled or unskilled laborers in industrial plants. Because progress in skilled occupations has been made almost entirely outside the unions, in open shops, labor leaders often accuse the Negro of favoring scab labor. In fact several plants used large numbers of Negroes during the recent steel strike. This, however, is not always due to a simple tendency to act as strike-breakers. In the first place, the colored laborer is more or less justi- The Results of Migration 159 fied in feeling that a dispute between the American Federa- tion of L,abor and management is none of his affair because there are very few local unions which admit Negroes. Ex- ceptions to this are to be found in scattered trades such as the hod carriers, paving men's and teamster's locals. In these occupations there are so many Negroes that the union's hold on the trade is materially weakened if they are not in the organization. The longshoremen and packing-house em- ployees present the only cases of perfect unionization of colored labor, and their organization in these trades has been accomplished almost wholly under the War Labor Board rather than under peace time labor leadership. In other cases a few colored men are admitted to the union for the sake of appearances and these are the last to be sent out on jobs by master tradesmen. These complaints are wide- spread among colored men in close touch with the in- dustrial situation and among the laborers themselves. Just before many strikes there have been eleventh hour efforts to get colored tradesmen into the organization. In one or two instances it leaked out that the naive plan was to get the colored men in, call the strike, then make one of their demands that no more colored men be employed. This strategy has succeeded in several instances, notably in the strike of Chicago waiters in 1912. As a result, when white union men strike it means that by doing so they give the colored laborer the first opportunity which he has had to fill a job for which he is trained, but from which he has been previously barred by the very union which accuses him of being a scab. In other words, in case of a strike, the Negro is presented with the alternative of being loyal to an organization which has discriminated against him or of exercising his first and perhaps only op- portunity to employ His full degree of skill. This puts a different aspect on strikebreaking. But in cases where Negroes are in the union they play the 160 Negro Migration game. Numerous instances of individual plant strikes have occurred and the large colored membership of the coastwise longshoremen's unions in New York struck with the others in 1920. This case is, however, complicated by the fact that Negroes are among the strikers and among the strikebreak- ers. The latter are of the strikebreaker element which exists among both white people and Negroes. The question which arises is: How are Negro leaders to reach this ele- ment and teach them that though they are justified in taking places from which they have been barred by discrimination, they have not so much ground for stepping into the places vacated by unions which they could have joined had they so desired ? The fact that white labor organizations have been so unsuccessful in reaching this element of their race after such long continued effort does not hold out much encour- agement to Negro leaders in seeking to answer this riddle. In the meantime the Negro strikebreaker, whether justified or unjustified in his moves, will continue to cause the maxi- mum amount of friction in the North. The best course would, therefore, seem to be for the col- ored man to stick to the open shop in industrial plants and to form the habit of depending upon his own leaders for aid in adjusting grievances ; and when this fails in industry to push for plant organizations of the type of the employees of the National Cash Register, and the Goodyear Rubber Company employees ; to enter locals in the building trades and similar occupations, when this course is possible, or to form his own locals and convince the white labor leaders that they can play the game as long as its decent rules are observed. Regardless of fair promises from the national labor leaders, as long as prejudice is so widespread among local unions, it would seem that the best plan is for the Negro to steer clear of them except in cases where he is convinced of the sincerity of their overtures or is in posi- tion, by sheer weight of numbers, to get a square deal. Even The Results of Migration 161 in the latter case it would seem best for him to organize in separate locals, affiliated with the white organization. A measureable degree of success has already been attained by following their own leaders. An example of this is furnished by the Dining Car Cooks and Waiters' Associa- tion, in whose organization the National Negro Urban LTeague was influential. This association was^ at first, purely a Negro organization, but later it was affiliated with the white railway workers. Their policy has been to co- operate wherever possible with both labor organizations and the management. Their success in the former is indicated by their final affiliation with the white workers, in the latter by the fact that several of the railroads broke all precedents in 1^20 by allowing the members time off to attend the annual convention. Realizing the weakness of their past appeals to Negro labor, the 1920 meeting of the American Federation has fought for the abrogation of clauses restricting the member- ship to certain of their branches to white labor only. But removing this prescription in charters against Negro mem- bers and overcoming the prejudice oTthe membership to such an extent that colored men are actually admitted to the locals are, however, two entirely different matters. The Federation now proposes to take the "first step towards meet- ing this situation squarely by employing Negro organizers. It has passed resolutions to the effect that the number now used should be increased. If this is actually done and the men are wisely chosen they cannot only give local leaders valuable advice as to the proper policies for organizations to adopt, but can also cultivate that knowledge and sym- pathy against which prejudice cannot stand. Above all, in determining policies of leadership the col- ored laborer and the white union need to remember that the keynote must be cooperation — a philosophy of which the Principal of Tuskegee, R. R. Moton, is the strongest advo- 1 62 Negro Migration cate. The leadership must be one which will determine poli- cies with due regard to the just claims of colored men, the worthy ends of the union and the peace and prosperity of the community at large. In a nut shell the problems of the Negro in industry, be- sides those of wages and hours are: (1) To extend the number of plants where he can work. (2) To overcome prejudice and extend the number of jobs within the plant which he can fill. (3) To increase his efficiency through study, and applica- tion. (4) To develop his own organization and leadership, which will cooperate with the constructive elements in the unions. Religious Institutions. — Colored churches are oft en com- pletely ^organized T>y the movement of population. On the othe r hand, during _Jhe nask~aoftfrwag4- in 1916-17, some of the citv churches were severely {axed to ca re for the rapid addition to their congregation s. In a survey of a typical county of Georgia, W. B. Hifl outlines the following conditions of the churches: 5 ."Two colored churches are practically dormant as one has no regular pastor and only occasional services, while the other has become a mission church with only a dozen members." "Practically all the Negroes claimed membership in some church, but when asked where their church was located, the investigator would often be told that it was 'way down in Ogelthorpe (County)/ The Negroes are very loath to change their membership from one church to another, so when they migrate to Clarke from other counties they keep their membership in the old church and attend services in the church near their new home." 5 Hill, W. B., The Negroes of Clarke County, Georgia, Opp. Cit, pp 49-51. The Results of Migration 163 "Of the 17 colored churches, five have pastors on half time, six have pastors serving 2 others or one-third time, 6 have pastors with 3 others or one-fourth time. It will be noticed that while there is a large number of colored churches considering the size and the population of the county, four of them have less than 100 members. Some of these could be combined so as to have services three Sundays every month, if not four." The consideration of the Negro rural church therefore demands an appreciation of the shifts of the population of its surrounding area, — whether its congregation is drift- ing away or whether it is increasing through migration, whether its books are burdened with a number of mem* bers who have moved off and are attending church else- where, whether it has a large number of regular attend- ants who are members of distant churches, and whether, if it is shrinking up, it cannot be combined with some neighboring church which is also diminishing in impor- tance. Educational Institutions. — One of the most noticeable effects of migration on Negro schools is in the disturbance of attendance. During the cotton chopping and picking months in the spring and fall, so many Negro children work in the fields that the attendance on rural schools dwindles to a minimum. Sometimes there is a temporary exodus from city to country during these periods. While a large proportion of migrants are young single Negroes, a large "number alsu move^in families. This means "Qiat In Some areas theYe is a wide fluctuation of school population " and attendance f ronfone year to the next£ In nve years, some counties lose as much as 3 per 6 A study of the school censuses indicates that from 1908 to 1913 the increase in population 6 to 18 years of age in the various counties corresponds rather closely to the rate of in- creas of the total population between 1900 and 1910. The in- creases between 1913 and 1918, however, show plainly the effects 164 Negro Migration cent of their school population throu gh migration, while some-lncxeaging_counties, gain as much as 60 per cent in scho ol popul ation. Inasmuch as the State school report for 1918 showed that 2,480, or 85 per cent of the colored schools in Georgia, were in one room buildings, the tre- mendous burden which these rapid fluctuations of popu- lation puts on the school facilities will be readily under- stood. There is evidence that the increase in colored school population and increase in appropriations for colored schools are in many counties almost unrelated. Exam- ining the 105 rural counties for which accurate records of expenditures are available as far back as 1908, 7 the following distribution of counties is obtained for the period 1908-13: Number of Counties Increasing Decreasing Negro School Expenditure Expenditure Population for Salaries for Salaries Total Counties Increasing .... 55 12 67 Counties Decreasing ... 29 9 38 Total 84 21 105 It appears that there was a tendency all over the State towards increase both in school population and expenditure in colored schools, for 67 of the counties were increasing in population and 84 increasing in expenditures. It also ap- pears that the expenditures for Negro teachers' salaries was realized to be so low in 1908, that there was a tendency to increase them in many counties regardless of whether the Negro school population was increasing or decreasing. of the migration of 1916-17. Heavy losses in school population are evident in the sections of the State disturbed by the boll weevil and the labor agents. 7 Annual School Reports, Georgia State Dep't. of Education, 1908, 1913, and 1918. Tables showing colored school population and expenditure for colored teachers' salaries. The Results of Migration 165 Twenty-nine of the counties, though decreasing in popula- tion, showed increases in teachers' salaries. To this extent the above figures are a distinct encouragement. But in the twelve counties which showed an increase in population with a decrease in expenditure for teachers' salaries the situation is reversed. That so many counties, with such a low original expenditure for Negro teachers' salaries, should decrease this amount, though the Negro children were increasing, seems unpardonable. If the later five-year period, from 1913 to 1918, is exam- ined the following distribution is obtained : Number of Counties Increasing Decreasing Number of Expenditure Expenditure Counties for Salaries for Salaries Total Counties Increasing . ... 36 16 52 Counties Decreasing. ... 38 15 53 Total ... 74 31 105 During this period the disturbance of the population in the movement of 1916-17 caused a few more counties to de- crease in colored children. Of the 53 counties decreasing in population, 38 continued to increase their provision for teach- ers' salaries in colored schools. But of the 52 counties in- creasing in colored school population 16 (decreased the amount provided for colored teachers. It is interesting to note, however, that none of the 12 counties which, during the period 1908-13, decreased their expenditures for colored schools despite an increase in colored population were still pursuing this policy during the period 1913-18. All of these 12 counties began to make substantial increases in their col- ored teachers' salaries, even though 9 of them began to de- crease in colored population during the second period. The 16 counties which, during the second period, were decreasing their expenditure for colored teachers' salaries though in- creasing in population, are a separate group from the 12 of 1 66 Negro Migration the first period. All but 3 of these 28 counties, which during one of the two periods, pursued this policy, have substantial Negro majorities in their population. The pro- cess therefore seems to be one of subjecting the already overcrowded Negro rural schools of the Black Belt to fur- ther crowding in order to provide much needed facilities for the more scattered white population of these counties. The substantial number of counties which, during both periods, increased their expenditure for Negro schools re- gardless of decreases in the Negro population, may be said to indicate an increasing tendency in the majority of communi- ties to do justice to the Negro schools. The substantial in- creases in expenditure for Negro teachers' salaries after some counties had lost heavily by the migration of 1916-17, and after the Negro's complaint against his school facilities had been forcefully brought to the attention of County school boards, doubtless indicates the effort on the part of these boards to do their share towards checking the move- ment by rendering belated justice to the schools. RACE RELATIONS Areas Losing by Migration. — In districts from which the Negro is moving the general effect seems to be a lessen- ing of race prejudice. People who do not go below the sur- face accuse the Negro of restlessness and unreliability, but the general effect on white people of the discussion which accompanies the movement seems to be to center their attention on the factors which make for the discontent of the colored population, and to emphasize the justice of some of the complaints of the Negro. Again race preju- dice seems to diminish as the proportion of the Negroes in the total population becomes smaller. The migration of Negroes from the Black Belt areas and the resultant increasing percentage of white people in the total population relieves the fear of Negro domination. Perhaps the passing of the old-fashioned demagogue, who could so easily make The Results of Migration 167 political capital by playing upon this fear in the minds of the ignorant voters in very black districts, is, in part, due to the dispersion of Negro population and the increasing pro- portion of white people in almost every Southern com- munity. A reas Gaining by Migration. — In areas gaining by migra- tion, prejudice seems, at least tempor arily, to assume its most aggravR^ forme Tl 1f M nfYirfirnpr>t f population since the Civil War has done much to brea k down that personal rplatmngm'p hptwppn fami %s Q f ex-sl ave owners and ex- slaves which has been such a pot pnt mflaCQCCi maintaining w hite sympathy for the Neg ro's problems and stimulating mutual-aid* Many of these Southern white people with the best ante-bellum traditions were the most understanding and sympathetic friends of the colored people. In areas gaining by mjgration, white people and c olored people who are stranger s to one another come togethe r without the ante- be llum traditions. More or less competitio n and race fric- tioiL jesults. In the most extreme casjj ^dll»*takes the form of riots suc h as those of Atlanta ^n 1908, oj the recent ri ots in Northern citie s. It also impears in^ fce increased tendency toward s segregation i" , Nor thern r.itipg. This is especially evident in the schools and social agencies of Phila- delphia, Chicago, St Louis and a number of Ohio cities. On the other hand, in moving out of the Black Belt into these "whit er" areas, the Negroes are m ore interspersed with a w hite population. They have more chance to observe pro- gressive farming and industrial methods and attain a higher standard ot living, and tney are~m"a position to benefit by the' better roads and piiblic"works of the areas which have a la rger population ot white people in the population, and a higher , per capita w ealth. This brief sketch of the effects of migration on Negro problems indicates its wide influence. The Negro popula- tion has changed so rapidly during the past 50 years, and bids fair to continue to change so rapidly, that the student of any 1 68 Negro Migration problem of Negro population, institutions, or race relations would do well to bear in mind constantly the tendency to change and make allowance for this tendency in reaching his conclusions, otherwise the result of a study made at a stated time may lead to conclusions which are true enough for the time, but which are completely altered a few months afterward. This is to be considered in all surveys, for migration is not only constantly changing the distribution of Negro population, but as this chapter indicates, it is also constantly changing the sex composition, fecundity, vitality, crime and insanity rates, economic organization, religious and educational institutions, and relations with the white group. The effects of migration also vitiate comparisons between sections of the country unequally affected unless these effects are known and unless allowance is made for them. CONCLUSION SUMMARY On the whole, there is no cause for pessimism regarding the shift of Negro population, nor can the recent rapid migration be said to indicate the influence of any essentially new forces. The movements arose in the Black Belt in 1865, precipitate d the breakdown of the old gang la bor plantations, and have continued in more or less s teady streams of mi- grants f rom the origina l Cottnn Kelt rnnn ties. The break- down of labor plantations has progressed with varying rap- idity in the different parts of the South. Though many of the old plantations are still owned by one man, most of them are subdivided into tenant farms and cultivated only in part by labor. The remainder are cultivated entirely by tenants. Many Negroes have also become independent owners of farms. The only group of rising Negro farmers which is distinctly dangerous to the economic life of the community is the independent Negro renter on the land of absentee landlords. In farming efficiency there seems to be little difference be- tween the community of gang labor, or share tenant plan- tations, and the community of Negro owners or supervised renters. The social structure of the community is, on the other hand, greatly strengthened by the element of inde- pendent Negro farmers with their higher standard of living, greater attachment to the land, and greater ability to act as leaders. The movement of rural population before 1910 was pre- dominantly a shift from the plantation area to other rural districts of greater agricultural opportunity. Incident to this movement, however, there has been a growth of Negro town and city populations. The growth in villages and 170 Negro Migration towns has been especially marked. These small centers are becoming more and more important in the colored population because of the rate at which Negroes move through them into the town or city and because of the influence of their leaders and institutions upon the Negroes in the open coun- try. Very recently a number ol cities in the Cotton Belt have grown rapidly. When a city begins to grow through manufacturing and distributing enterprises rather than by enterprises solely dependent upon the surrounding country districts, its white population increases much faster than its colored population. Still, the Negro is attracted to these places by the proportionate increase of domestic service and common labor opportunities on the one hand, and the pro- fessional, mercantile and race leadership opportunities on the other. These cities, therefore, have substantial and in- creasingly important Negro populations. Northern cities were increasing at a fairly rapid rate through mi gration of Negroes before 19 10. but the migrants ca me mostly from the Border States. The, Cotton States we re exchanging population among them selves. With the exception of the Southward movement into Florida, this movement among the Cotton States was Westward. After 1910, however, and especially after the outbreak of the Euro- pean War, opportunity in the industrial sections of the North was not only greatly increased, but agricultural opportunity in the Gulf Coast States was nullified by poor crops, floods, and the cotton boll weevil. The movement since 1915, therefore, has been Northward. Desire for superior earning power, standard of living and standing in the community, enjoyed by the higher tenant classes has been the chief cause of movement from one rural district to another, but the superior advantages of the city have attracted large numbers to urban districts. These social advantages in the housing, protection, schools and churches of the city play an increasingly important part in the movement from country to city and from South to Summary 171 North. The recent rapid movement has caused extended discussion among the Negroes of their social grievances, and, with the development of a distinct group feeling, these causes may be expected to play an even greater part in future movements. This disturbance of population aggravates many of the Negro problems and general community welfare problems. Domestic service opportunities attracting the females in one direction, and agricultural and industrial opportunities at- tracting the males in another, upset the normal ratio between the sexes in communities affected by migration. There re- sults a low marriage rate with its attendant low birth rate and increase in immorality. T he^ rise in the standard of living which f ollows the change from the si mple life of the c ountry to the complex life of the city al so reacts toward IpgQ^ning the size of family, especially in No rth cities. While the Negro escapes from some diseases to which he is subject in the South, he exposes himself to the rigors of the Northern climate, and probably suffers a slightly higher death rate in the North. This low birth rate and high death rate mean that northern Negro populations, under the present conditions, are not self-sustaining and in order to continue they must receive constant replacements from the South. The upset of families and the strain of city life also increase the crime, insanity, and dependency rates. Though migration creates conditions unfavorable to vi- tality and morality, the general trend of the movement is towards better institutions. Not only does the Negro obtain better schools and churches by leaving the Black Belt areas, but by moving he also calls the attention of the South to his complaints against the existing institutions and creates an additional interest in improving them. Ra ce relations, on the other hand, ar e very often badly strained in communities receiving- a rapid increase by migra- tion. It is H era thnt nre prpji| difg_has been manifested most cruelly^ But even in these communities the Negro finds 172 Negro Migration b etter institutions and a fuller p articipation in the commu- nit y lif e. In the communities from which Negroes move the relief from the fear of race riots and the emphasis which the movement gives to the justice of many of the Negro's claims for better treatment lessens race prejudice. The dispersion of the Negro population brings larger oppor- tunities for learning the white man's methods and standard of living through observation. CONSTRUCTIVE MEASURES The complications arising from the movement of Negroes while serious are, therefore, not grounds for undue pessim- ism. In communities gaining by migration many of the difficulties can be alleviated by energetic measures to adjust the migrant in industry, to correct his abnormal health con- ditions and family life, and to develop a community ac- quaintanceship to take the place of the lost personal rela- tionship, which existed in the ante-bellum South. In the communities losing by migration the first need is to so or- ganize agriculture and industry that, where Negro labor is needed, high wage offers elsewhere may be met with pro- portionate increases. The second need is for a fuller reali- zation of the necessity of a more just policy towards the Negro in community relations and a more energetic pro- gram of fostering this justice. Unless effort is made to alleviate the social grievances of the Negro, no amount of effort to alleviate economic injustices is going to stop the movement. This statement of the needs of communities is rather gen- eral. A number of very concrete constructive measures which have been tested and which seem to be meeting the actual needs in a very hopeful way may be cited. The movement of population has emphasized the fact that there are three factors to be considered in race relations — the Negro himself, the South and the North. The great need for sympathy, understanding and constructive leadership Constructive Measures 173 among these three parties to race adjustment was urged by the report of Negro Education in the United States, even be- fore the great migration Northward. Now, since so many Negroes live in the North, their problems are more than ever national rather than sectional. Federal Government. — It is but natural and logical, with the passing of strong sectional feeling on the Negro question, that the Federal Government, through its various bureaus should inaugurate programs of research and Federal aid. ( 1 ) The exhaustive first hand study of Negro Education, made cooperatively by the Bureau of Education and the Phelps-Stokes Fund, was a good beginning in the organiza- tion of nation-wide programs for increasing the efficiency of Negro education. This should be followed up by an appro- priation from Congress to the Bureau of Education for permanent work in Negro education with a staff of spe- cialists capable of research and helpful advice. (2) As a result of the interest of the Secretary of L,abor in the Negro migration of 1916-17, and of the survey of the movement made directly under the office of the Assistant Secretary, a Bureau of Negro Economics was established in the Department of L,abor. A staff of colored investigators has been maintained, both in Washington and in the field. These men did excellent work in keeping in touch with the wages, hours, living conditions and special problems of the Negro wage earners and were able to cooperate effectively with the various State Departments of Labor. This work, begun as a war measure, should without a doubt be con- tinued. A special significance attaches to this work be- cause it was begun by a Democratic administration on a non-partisan basis. (3) As a counterpart to this work among the Negroes in industry, the Federal Department of Agriculture should have similar research and advisory specialists concerned with the Negro in agriculture. Although all of the farm demon- stration work in the South, and all Southern problems 174 Negro Migration worked on by the Office of Farm Management are vitally concerned with the Negro, there is nowhere, in the vast or- ganization of the Department of Agriculture, in Washington, a colored specialist who can concentrate on the problems of the 3,000,000 Negro farmers. In their chief need — that of so organizing agriculture that better wages can be paid and a profit still realized — com- munities are directly aided by the campaign of the States Relation Service of the Department of Agriculture, and its corps of farm demonstration agents in the field. Any pro- grams for rural improvement can be greatly aided by this force of earnest, technically trained, local agricultural lead- ers and the work they are doing to promote farming effi- ciency is of sterling character. The number of Negro farm demonstrators should be increased. There is, however, another phase of rural life to which as yet comparatively little attention has been paid. This is the field of contacts, other than the mere wage or rental relationship, between landlord and tenant. The need in this field is for demo- cratizing the plantation as some industries have been demo- cratized. Almost all close observers of the movement from rural districts testify to the ability of certain planters to hold their labor supply even in the midst of a much disturbed area. In a majority of instances these planters owe their success not only to satisfactory wages, but also to attention to items of tenant welfare. Housing, stimulation of fruit raising, gardening and animal husbandry, interest and advice in local leadership and family affairs, and aid for local churches and schools are among the methods used by land- lords to make their laborers and tenants feel that the rela- tionship is one more vital than a matter of dollars and cents. Above all these planters emphasize an attitude of even- handed justice in contracts and accounts rather than the paternalistic attitude of the past.' They have realized they are paying earned wages not giving gratuities. The plantation and the community of small independent Constructive Measures 175 farmers have marvelous possibilities as social units — units of rural organization, which, with the aid and interest of the thoughtful local white leaders and landowners could, like the European cooperatives, develop their own credit system and by the exercise of thrift rid themselves of the crop mort- gage and high credit prices in a year or two. They could increase individual efficiency wonderfully by mutual aid in the purchase of the more expensive agricultural implements, and by cooperative culture and marketing. They would form the basis of a more healthy social life and could de- velop the local institutions to such a point that they would be really vital parts of the community life. In research along these lines, observation of the methods of the most success- ful communities and dissemination of knowledge of these methods among all communities, the Department of Agricul- ture has the opportunity to round out its program of farm demonstration, so efficiently begun, and to develop a rural organization which will allay much of the present discontent. (4) Industry. — Among the employers there is a need in industry for the same spirit of even-handed justice which is needed in agriculture. In addition, in the North there should be fairness in hiring and firing, especially during a period of unemployment. In the interests of industrial, as well as inter-racial peace, Negro leaders should do all in their power to reduce the numbers of the strikebreaker element in their race. If the American Federation of Labor is to live up to its claims of non-discrimination and do its part towards the problem of the Negro in industry, the policy of local unions of refusing to admit Negroes or to allow colored locals to be organized must be changed. Until this time it would seem that the best course for the Negro is to develop his own organization so as to approach the unions with a solid front. Some good work along this line has been done by the National Urban League. Movements of this type are to be highly commended. 176 Negro Migration (5) Churches. — There is a great need for an approach to race relations in the Christian spirit of common human- ity. This spirit should pervade all phases of the activities of denominations. Tn organization, there is a need for a unified policy towards the colored people, for closer rela- tionship between the white and colored denominations in their governing councils and in the local federations of churches. Among the clergy there is need for a freer and more courageous expression of an enlightened viewpoint to- wards race relations, — a change from the policy of silence which, at present, renders it more than probable that people may be members of congregations in the South for years without ever hearing a word from the pulpit on this im- portant phase of community life. Among the laymen there is need for a keener and more active interest in the home mission activities for colored people. There is a general need throughout all churches for a return to the spirit of the old South, which manifested a real and active interest in the religious welfare of the colored people. Private Philanthropy. — (6) Private philanthropy will always have an important function to perform in race rela- tions. Democracies are always slow and have to be shown. Private initative must demonstrate the value of new mea- sures, before the majority adopts them. Just as the General Education Board experimented with and demonstrated the value of county farm demonstration agents before their work was taken over to the Department of Agriculture, and like- wise with expert supervisors of colored schools before these officers were included in Southern State Departments of Education, just as the Phelps-Stokes Fund could devote its energy and resources to a much needed nationwide sur- vey of Negro education, and just as the Jeanes and Slater Funds have so thoroughly demonstrated the need for indus- trial and teacher training work in public schools. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for legal aid, and the National Urban League for Constructive Measures 177 colored industrial relations worker and social workers, so, always, will there be experiments to make and trials to blaze, which will call for private initiative. The unselfish devotion of time as well as money to making programs "go" is especially needed in the local communities. State Governments. — The most pressing problems con- fronting Southern State Governments are those of sanita- tion, schools and protection from violence and injustice in the courts. (7) As a preliminary to intelligent improvement of health the registration of births and deaths should be enforced as strictly as possible, and State Departments of Health with administrative, as well as research, functions should be de- veloped. Among the Southern States only Virginia and North Carolina are approximating this ideal. Communities owe it not only to the Negro, but also to themselves to know more of the conditions which make for a high mortality rate and of the measures for eliminating these conditions. (8) Communities should cease allowing a few profiteer- ing landlords to endanger the lives of both white and black citizens. A full realization of the menace which the bad housing and congestion in Negro districts is to the health of the whole community should bring with it much stricter state and city laws regarding rental property, enforced by a Department of Health with powers of condemnation. (9) Almost all the Southern State Departments of Edu- cation, through the aid of the General Education Board, now have an efficient white school-man as supervisor of col- ored schools. So many of the ills of Negro schools are cur- able by efficient supervision that the work of these men has been of tremendous value to the South. Their influence should be extended by the provision of assistants and local supervisors, to work under their direction. The detailed needs of colored schools set forth in the Report of the the Bureau of Education and the Phelps Stokes Fund on Negro Education should be attended to as rapidly as pos- sible. The recommendations as to state aid for high schools, 178 Negro Migration and for industrial and teacher training work are especially urgent. (10) Lynching has been scathingly condemned by organi- zations representing the woman's clubs, the universities, Inter-racial Committees, governor's conventions and the press of the Southern States. Certainly, if the opinion of the better classes is so outspoken in its disapproval of these outrages, the State governments should be empowered to quell the outbreaks of the more unruly elements of the population. Several states have passed laws in regard to lynching recently. Their success will depend upon the courage of State officials. This subject was not mentioned in connection with the federal government because it would seem necessary to change the constitutional powers of fed- eral courts rather radically before they could deal with this menace. (11) Many of the complaints of the Negro against un- just arrests and convictions would be met by the abolition of the system of payment of fees to local officials on the basis of the number of arrests they make and the conse- quent cooling of their ardor for filling the local jails. A second evil which is said to contribute to lengthening sen- tences is the convict lease system, or the system of allowing counties to use their own convicts on their roads. Local judicial officers should be able to sentence men only to in- stitutions controlled by the State and operated in accord- ance with the modern methods of penology, and the practice of sentencing to county chain-gangs should be abolished. (12) Much of the high crime rate among Negroes is undoubtedly due to neglected or improperly handled juvenile delinquency. University of Georgia graduates in Atlanta and Savannah with colored assistants have inaugurated ex- cellent work with Negro juvenile offenders. As yet, how- ever, there is no State reformatory. Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina are the only States with State Colored Reform Schools worthy of the name. State reformatories Constructive Measures 179 and city probation officers for colored juvenile offenders are greatly needed throughout the South. Local Communities. — Though the need is pressing for the adoption of these policies by the Federal Government, pri- vate philanthropic agencies, the State Governments, and industries, the crucial needs must be met by the patient and sympathetic effort of the white and colored leaders in local communities. Although successful programs of community welfare are more efficient with central organization and ex- pert supervisors, no amount of this overhead work can relieve the people of the local communities of the responsi- bility for the public opinion and local machinery through which these programs must be worked out. No amount of state supervision can give to a community sound institutions unless the community itself is alive to the need for them. (13) For this reason it is extremely unfortunate that so large a proportion of newspaper articles dealing with the Negro treat only criminal or humorous news. It is impos- sible for the Southern communities to know the real happen- ings among their colored population from reading the local papers and equally as impossible for them to know of progress of the larger movements for improvement of race relations. Nor is it possible under such conditions to de- velop an enlightened public opinion on the subject. Since the recent migration some of the northern papers have adopted this short-sighted policy. Even such a former staunch friend of the Negro as the Chicago Tribune is widely known as a trouble maker because of its sensational treatment of inter-racial matters. The Negroes are thrown back on papers published by members of their own race, and the larger and larger group of Negroes who read are almost entirely dependent upon more or less destructive newspapers for news. This anomaly of two groups living side by side in the same town, with different organs of group opinion and differences, which make for friction, or at least misunder- 180 Negro Migration standing, could be in a measure corrected by local editors if they would give thought and effort to a Negro department in their paper. By treating seriously the local news among the colored population, the paper would form a real bond between the Negroes and the community. In noting the items of progress in race relations, keeping the constructive movements before the leaders of both races, and creating a sound public opinion on the various puzzling topics of race relations, they would do a genuine community service. (14) Every local community should learn of its own responsibility for sanitation in its Negro settlements, justice in its courts, law and order among its inhabitants, and a good school, good churches and recreation facilities for all its people, whether white or black. The first step towards accomplishing this is the founda- tion of a community committee such as has been formed in the counties of the South by the Southern Inter-Racial Committee. These committees are composed of white and colored leaders who can trust one another and who meet and work together on the problems involving race relations. These men not only are able to avoid inter-racial discord, but are in a position to forward constructive programs by modifying them so as to more nearly fit the needs of the colored population, and by arousing the interest of the col- ored population in their execution. In large cities, this inter-racial idea can be carried further to include placing colored workers on the staffs of the city associated chari- ties, visiting nurses associations, probation offices, etc. These workers are being trained in larger and larger num- bers, and are peculiarly capable of handling the special problems of case work among the members of their race. In meeting this responsibility, communities will not only create a saner community life, but will also share in the task of working out a program under which two races may live side by side without conflict — a task in which the dem- ocracy of the United States is being tested, while the civil- ized nations of the world who are "bearing the white man's burden" in Africa look on, hoping to be aided by our experience. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. — General Bibliography of the Negro American. Atlanta University Publication No. 10, Atlanta, 1905. Bibliography of Negroes. U. S. Congr. L,ib. 324. The Negro Yearbook. A "World's Almanac" of the Negro in the United States, edited annually by Monroe N. Work, Department of Records and Research, Tuskegee Institute. Annual Reports of the Southern Sociological Congress, Jeanes Fund, Slater Fund, and General Education Board, contain valuable data. Atlanta University Publications. Bulletins of Atlanta Uni- versity. Valuable contributions to Negro problems ap- pearing annually as proceedings of the University Con- ference and researches of the Department of Sociology. Baker, Ray Stannard: Following the Color Line. New York : Doubleday, Page & Company, 1908. A sugges- tive description of race relations written in a popular vein. Boas, Franz: The Mind of Primitive Man. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1911. A scientific analysis of the factor of racial heredity. Census, U. Si, 1900, Bulletin No. 8. Negroes in the U. S. Census, U. S., 1910, Bulletin 129. Negroes in the U. S. Census, U. S., 1919, Special Report, Negro Population in the U. S., 1790-1915. An extremely valuable compila- tion of data. It contains many tabulations not to be found elsewhere in the Census volumes. Cutler, J. E. : Lynch Law. New York : Longmans, Green & Co., 1905. The most complete treatment of this subject. DuBois, W. E. B. : The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago : A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903 and Darkwater, New York : Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920. These give a side of race relations which should be known. They are remarkably written introspective accounts of the im- pressions of a colored man, but are extremely pessi- mistic. 1 82 Bibliography Evans, Maurice S. : White and Black in the Southern States. L,ondon: L,ongmans Green & Co., 1915. Writ- ten by an Englishman with intimate knowledge of con- ditions in South Africa. Gives useful comparisons be- tween the South and South Africa, based on first hand observation. Hammond, Mrs. L,. H. : In Black and White. New York : Fleming H. Revell, 1914. A sympathetic account of race relations as seen by a Southern woman. Southern Women and Race Adjustment. L,ynchburg, Va.: J. P. Bell & Co., 1917. Hart, A. B. : The Southern South. New York : D. Apple- ton & Co., 1912. A stimulating book full of intimate knowledge of the section. Hoffman, F. L,. : Race Traits and Tendencies of the Amer- ican Negro. American Economics Assn., 1896. Vol. XI, Nos. 1-3. A study in vital statistics. Jones, Thomas Jesse : The Negro and the Census of 1910. Hampton, Va. : Hampton Institute Press, 1912. Negro Population in the U. S. Annals Am. Acad., September, 1913. et al : Negro Education in the United States. Bulletins 38, 39, U. S. Bureau of Education, 1917. Authorita- tive and comprehensive. Kerlin, Robt. T. The Voice of the Negro. New York : E. P. Dutton and Co., 1920. A keen analysis of recent trends in Negro public opinion through a study of the colored press. Mecklin, J. M. : Democracy and Race Friction. New York : The McMillan Company, 1914. Excellent dis- cussion of the philosophy of race relations. Miller, Kelly: Race Adjustment. New York: Neale Publishing Co., 1908. An illustration of the attitude of the cooperative group of colored thinkers. Moton, Robert Russa : Finding a Way Out. New York : Doubleday Page & Co., 1920. Autobiographical account of the life of the successor to Booker Washington. Full of the cooperative spirit of race relations. Well worth while. Murphy, Edgar Gardner: The Basis of Ascendancy. New York : The MacMillan Company, 1909. Bibliography 183 The Present South. New York : The McMillan Com- pany, 1904. Two treatments of the philosophy of race relations which should by all means be read. Odum, Howard W. : Social and Mental Traits of the Negro. New York: Columbia University, Studies in History Economics and Public L,aw, 1910. A scholarly treatment of several phases of the Negro problem, especially psychology and folk-lore. Washington, B. T. : As leader of the cooperative school of colored thought and pioneer advocate of industrial education, all of his works are of importance, especially, Up From Slavery,, The Story of the Negro, and Char- acter Building. Weatherford, W. D. : Negro Life in the South. Nash- ville, 1911. Present Forces in the Uplift of the Negro. Nashville, 1912. Two books which are excellent reading for beginners. 2. — Rural Organization App, Frank : New Jersey Agricultural Experimental Sta- tion Bulletins 294, 311 and 320. Studies of tenure in Monmouth and Sussex Counties, N. J. Atlas of American Agriculture, Advance Proof Sheets. U. S. Dept. of Agriculture (in press, 1920), Govt. Printing Office. Banks, E. M. : Economics of Land Tenure in Georgia. New York: Columbia University Press. Studies in His- tory Economics and Public Law, 1905. Out of date, but contains useful data for the student in this field. Bitting, Samuel T. : Rural Landownership Among Ne- groes in Virginia. Phelps-Stokes Fellowship Studies, No. 3, Univ. of Virginia, 1915. Brooks, R. P.: Race Relations in the Eastern Piedmont Section of Georgia. Political Science Quarterly, June, 1911. The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, 1865-1912. Mad- ison, 1914, Univ. of Wisconsin, History Series. A scholarly and useful study of the plantation system. 1 84 Bibliography Bruce, P. A. : The Plantation Negro as a Freeman. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1889. Historical view- point. Carver, T. N. : Selected Readings in Rural Economics. Boston: Ginn and Company, 1916. DuBois, W. E. B. : The Negro Landholder in Georgia, U. S. Dept. Labor Bui 35, 1901. A pioneer study of the Negro as a property owner, full of useful data, but needs bringing up to date. Galpin, C. J. : Rural Life. New York : The Century Co., 1918. Hill, W. B. : The Negroes of Clarke County, Georgia. Phelps-Stokes Studies No. 2, Univ. of Ga., 1914. Kelsey, Carl : The Negro Farmer. Univ. of Penn. Pub- lications. Philadelphia, 1902. L/EiGH, Frances B. : Ten Years on a Georgia Plantation. London: Richard Bentley and Son, 1883. Phillips, U. B. : Plantation and Frontier Documents. Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1909. A useful sourcebook on ante-bellum plantation system. History of American Slavery. New York : D. Apple- ton and Co., 1919. Rogers, W. M. : The Negroes of Oconee County, Georgia. Phelps-Stokes Studies, No. (in press), University of Georgia, 1920. Sims, N. L. : The Rural Community, Ancient and Modern. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920. A com- prehensive sourcebook. Spillman, W. D. : Land Classification and Land Tenure. American Ec. Review, March, 1918. and Goldenweiser : Farm Tenantry in the U. S. Year- book of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1916. Stone, A. H. : Studies in the American Race Problem. New York : Doubleday Page & Co., 1908. A planter's ex- periment with Negro and Italian labor. Taylor, H. C. : An Introduction to the Study of Agricul- tural Economics.. New York: The McMillan Com- pany, 1905. U. S. Office of Farm Management. Bulletins — Local Sur- veys of Yazoo Mississippi Delta, Sumter County, Geor- gia ; Brooks County, Georgia ; Anderson County, S. C. ; Ellis County, Texas. Bibliography 185 3. — Local Studies (Other Than of Rural Organization) Daniels, John : In Freedom's Birthplace. Boston : Hough- ton, Mifflin & Co., 1914. study of Boston Negroes. Du Bois, W. E. B. : The Philadelphia Negro. Philadel- phia: Univ. of Pa. publication, 1899. A pioneer sur- vey of a large city. The Negroes of Farmville, Va. Bulletin U. S. Dept. of Labor, 1898. Epstein, A. The Negroes of Pittsburgh, Pa. University of Pittsburgh, 1918. El wang, W. W. : Negroes of St. Louis, Mo. Univ. of Mo., 1904. Haynes, George E. : The Negro at Work in New York City. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1912. An excellent analysis of a Northern city population. Johnson, M. K. : School Conditions in Clarke County, Georgia. Phelps-Stokes Studies No. 3, Univ. of Ga., 1915. Long, Frank Taylor: The Negroes of Athens and Clarke County, Georgia, in the Great War. Phelps-Stokes Studies No. 5, Univ. of Ga., 1919. Martin, A. E. : Our Negro Population. Kansas City : 1912. A study of the Negroes of Kansas City. Morton, R. L. : The History of Negro Suffrage in Virginia Since the Civil War. Phelps-Stokes Studies, Univ. of Va., 1918. O'Kelly, H. S. : Sanitary Conditions of the Negroes of Athens, Georgia. Phelps- Stokes Studies, No. 4, Univ. of Ga., 1917. Ovington, Mary: Half a Man. New York: Longmans Green & Co., 1911. The Negro in Trades Unions in New York City. An- nals Am. Acad. 27:551-558, 1906. Ramsay, D. Hiden: Negro Criminality. Phelps-Stokes Studies, Univ. of Va., 1914. (Published in "Lectures and Addresses on the Negro in the South.) Reed, Ruth : The Negro Women of Gainesville, Georgia. Phelps-Stokes Studies, Univ. of Ga., No. (in press, 1920). Snavely, Tipton Ray : The Taxation of Negroes in Vir- 1 86 Bibliography ginia. Phelps-Stokes Studies, Univ. of Va., 1917. Thom, W. H. T. : The Negro of Litwalton, Va., and the Negro of Sandy Spring, Md. Bulletins, U. S. Dept. Labor, 1901. Woofter, T. J. Jr. : The Negroes of Athens, Georgia. Phelps-Stokes Studies, No. 1, Univ. of Ga., 1913. 4. — Migration U. S. Department of Labor, Special Bulletin, 1919 — Negro Migration in 1916-17. A symposium of individual re- ports on conditions in different states, with descriptions Qof the movement and its causes. Carnegie Foundation : Preliminary Economic Studies of the War, No. 16. Negro Migration During the War. Compiled by Emmet J. Scott. New York, 1920. Woodson, Carter G. : A Century of Negro Migration. Assoc, for Study of Negro Life and History, 1918. A general historical study. 5. — Statistics Moore, Henry L. : Forecasting the Yield and Price of Cot- ton. New York: The McMillan Company, 1917. Pearson, Karl : The Grammar of Science. London : A. C. Black, 1911. Yule, G. U. : An Introduction to the Theory of Statistics. London: C. Griffin and Co., 5th Ed., 1919. APPENDIX General Statistical Method The first objective of social science in accurately analyzing its problems is to state them in terms of definite forces which oper- ate in well defined groups and are associated with resultants which can be measured and counted. The next is to group these elements logically and determine the real importance of each. When this is accomplished it can give descriptions of the ele- ments of the problem which are as clear and significant as the diagram of a mechanical engineer. This often means an analysis of human motives, which, in many of their aspects are too intangible to be easily measured. A mixture of motives is always at play in the complex medium of society, and it is accordingly difficult to separate one from another or to measure their influence on individual behavior apart from the influence of the forces of the physical environ- ment. Motives are intangible and hard to measure because they are, to such a large extent, mental phenomena. From this point of view all motives are desires. But for any desire to become a motive there must be movement, effort aimed at satisfaction. Such reactions constitute human behavior. The number of times they manifest themselves, under certain conditions, can be measured and counted; and if, when a certain condition occurs in a number of areas, or, if when it recurrs a number of times, the same behavior manifests itself in the large majority of in- dividuals, the trait of behavior may be said to be associated with that condition. But, for the inference to be of scientific value, the condition must be as definite as the behavior. This definite- ness can be secured by describing conditions in terms of mea- surable elements, such as "increase in number of farms operated by independent owners of the land." The presence or absence of such an element can be verified by observation. In these terms, the problem of scientific social research is, to describe the true relationship between definite traits of group behavior and definite elements in the situations in which groups are found. 1 88 Appendix A population movement, looked at as an effort to satisfy desires, renders this task somewhat easier than it is in most social problems. The movement itself is a very tangible, mea- surable trait, and, furthermore, two situations are involved, the one from which population shifts and the one into which it shifts. Certainly, if groups of men are so profoundly affected that they leave their residences and acquaintances and chance their future among strangers there must be some powerful mo- tive or complex of motives back of the move — some condition which is odious, some desire which cannot be satisfied in their old home. Given a sufficient number of more or less homo- geneous areas which are losing population, an observer can de- termine certain elements common to the situations in each, from which the movement seems to rise. Whether these con- ditions are fundamental and permanent causes of the movement or not, can be verified by observing the migrant in his new sur- roundings, and finding out if he escapes the conditions which were odious in his old surroundings — if he satisfies the desire which he could not satisfy before moving. This gives a double check on the causes of the movement which is based on con- crete, observable facts. But, in the midst of such complexity as organized social groups present, how is definite assurance to be obtained that observations are accurately made, or relationships correctly tested. The scientific method for obtaining this assurance was outlined by Durkheim in 1895 in his "Les Regies de la Methode Sociologique," as follows: The old logicians' methods are of very little value in social reasoning because they assume a science already advanced to such a stage as to offer incontestable laws from which logical reasoning may proceed by comparison of cases which agree or differ in one point only. Social groups are too complex to ever agree or differ in only one respect. The real social method is, therefore, a statistical method. The groups studied may be compared with respect to the phenomenon under investigation and a phenomenon which is thought to be its cause. When the extent to which the two are present or absent in the same group fluctuates, uniformly in the same direction, this simple parallelism of values constitutes, in itself, a proof of a relation- ship which may often be stated quantitatively, provided a suf- ficient number of cases are studied. This process of accurately measuring the quantitive relation- ship between a social force and a change in society is a great Appendix 189 time-saver for the student. As Durkheim points out, it obviates the necessity of discussing minutely each of the possible causes. After their relative importance has been measured, attention can be centered on the forces which have the closest relationship to the change. The task of the Chapter on "Migrations of Countrymen" is of the kind which Durkheim had in mind when he outlined this method. At that time, however, the statistical method was relatively undeveloped. What he described was little more than a modification, by a more liberal use of mass data, of the logic- ians methods of reasoning. Since that date material contribu- tions have been made to the use of mathematical methods for attaining exactitude, and scientists have demonstrated the » value of the methods in Biology, Psychology, and Economics. Mod- ern sociologists are insistent that knowledge of the statistical method of induction is the most useful tool of the student of social science, but as yet, the application of statistics to social problems is in its infancy. Since the chapter on Movements of Countrymen demonstrates the practical use of correlation in measuring social relationships, it was thought advisable to include the fundamental steps in the logic of this method and a condensed mathematical deriva- tion of the Pearsonian coefficient in this appendix. Correlation General Measures — A method of measuring the relation be- tween two variables, or, to keep the terminology of the previous section, — of measuring the extent to which the presence or ab- sence of a certain element of a situation is coincident with cer- tain changes in the population, is herewith outlined. (For more technical treatments of the mathematics of correlation, see bib- liography.-statistics.) 1. The most widely known measure of a variable series is the arithmetic average, which is the sum of the individual mem- bers of the series divided by the number of cases. In Table 17, the method of guessing the average was used. This is valid because the sum of a series of deviations from any quan- tity which we may guess, when divided by the number of cases in the series and added to the quantity guessed is equal to the true average. This makes it possible to guess a round number which greatly facilitates the calculation of deviations, and later 1 88 Appendix A population movement, looked at as an effort to satisfy desires, renders this task somewhat easier than it is in most social problems. The movement itself is a very tangible, mea- surable trait, and, furthermore, two situations are involved, the one from which population shifts and the one into which it shifts. Certainly, if groups of men are so profoundly affected that they leave their residences and acquaintances and chance their future among strangers there must be some powerful mo- tive or complex of motives back of the move — some condition which is odious, some desire which cannot be satisfied in their old home. Given a sufficient number of more or less homo- geneous areas which are losing population, an observer can de- termine certain elements common to the situations in each, from which the movement seems to rise. Whether these con- ditions are fundamental and permanent causes of the movement or not, can be verified by observing the migrant in his new sur- roundings, and finding out if he escapes the conditions which were odious in his old surroundings — if he satisfies the desire which he could not satisfy before moving. This gives a double check on the causes of the movement which is based on con- crete, observable facts. But, in the midst of such complexity as organized social groups present, how is definite assurance to be obtained that observations are accurately made, or relationships correctly tested. The scientific method for obtaining this assurance was outlined by Durkheim in 1895 in his "Les Regies de la Methode Sociologique," as follows: The old logicians' methods are of very little value in social reasoning because they assume a science already advanced to such a stage as to offer incontestable laws from which logical reasoning may proceed by comparison of cases which agree or differ in one point only. Social groups are too complex to ever agree or differ in only one respect. The real social method is, therefore, a statistical method. The groups studied may be compared with respect to the phenomenon under investigation and a phenomenon which is thought to be its cause. When the extent to which the two are present or absent in the same group fluctuates, uniformly in the same direction, this simple parallelism of values constitutes, in itself, a proof of a relation- ship which may often be stated quantitatively, provided a suf- ficient number of cases are studied. This process of accurately measuring the quantitive relation- ship between a social force and a change in society is a great Appendix 189 time-saver for the student. As Durkheim points out, it obviates the necessity of discussing minutely each of the possible causes. After their relative importance has been measured, attention can be centered on the forces which have the closest relationship to the change. The task of the Chapter on "Migrations of Countrymen" is of the kind which Durkheim had in mind when he outlined this method. At that time, however, the statistical method was relatively undeveloped. What he described was little more than a modification, by a more liberal use of mass data, of the logic- ians methods of reasoning. Since that date material contribu- tions have been made to the use of mathematical methods for attaining exactitude, and scientists have demonstrated the lvalue of the methods in Biology, Psychology, and Economics. Mod- ern sociologists are insistent that knowledge of the statistical method of induction is the most useful tool of the student of social science, but as yet, the application of statistics to social problems is in its infancy. Since the chapter on Movements of Countrymen demonstrates the practical use of correlation in measuring social relationships, it was thought advisable to include the fundamental steps in the logic of this method and a condensed mathematical deriva- tion of the Pearsonian coefficient in this appendix. Correlation General Measures — A method of measuring the relation be- tween two variables, or, to keep the terminology of the previous section,— of measuring the extent to which the presence or ab- sence of a certain element of a situation is coincident with cer- tain changes in the population, is herewith outlined. (For more technical treatments of the mathematics of correlation, see bib- liography,-«tatistics.) 1. The most widely known measure of a variable series is the arithmetic average, which is the sum of the individual mem- bers of the series divided by the number of cases. In Table 17, the method of guessing the average was used. This is valid because the sum of a series of deviations from any quan- tity which we may guess, when divided by the number of cases in the series and added to the quantity guessed is equal to the true average. This makes it possible to guess a round number which greatly facilitates the calculation of deviations, and later 190 Appendix correct the guess by a simple process. (Moore, — Forecasting the Yield and Price of Cotton p. 19. Theorem II.) 2. The averages of two series, however, tell us very little. We need still another measure, in terms of which, we can tell, in each single case the proportion in which the variation of one observation from the average of its series stands to the variation of another observation from the average of its series. The best description of the need and derivation of such a meas- ure is found in Moore's "Forecasting the Yield and Price of Cotton," pages 20-22. "The arithmetical mean of the frequency distribution gives us one of the most important summary descriptions of the dis- tribution: it gives the centre of density of the distribution. But in economic, as well as in most other measurements, it is extremely important to know how the several observations are grouped about the arithmetical mean of the measurements, and a coefficient showing the manner of grouping is a measure of dispersion. Just as we found that the arithmetical mean of the measurements gives us an idea of the centre of the density of the measurements, so, as a measure of dispersion, we might take the arithmetical mean of the deviations of the magnitudes from the mean of the observations. But if we followed this plan, we should meet with an embarrassing difficulty: The deviations of the measurements from the arithmetical mean are some of them positive and some of them negative, and if we take account of the signs of the deviations, then, the sum of the deviations is zero. We therefore choose, as our measure of dispersion the square-root of the mean square of the devia- tions about the arithmetical mean of the observations and we call this measure the "standard deviation." The measure of the dispersion of a series of observations about its average is then derived by squaring the deviation of each observation, summing the squares and dividing by the number of observations and extracting the square root. With 2 as our symbol for "the sum of," and n for the number of cases, in a series whose individual 2 X 2 deviations are designed by Y, the standard deviation is: For the example the total of column 6, table 17 gives the sum of the squares of the population deviationsl56,428,000.When this sum is divided by n (100) and corrected for the difference between the guessed and true averages the result is 11,49,035. Appendix 191 The square root of this quantity is 1220. With 210 = .811. ' 303,500 » PMJmiBLL EMUn; Willi lilt luiniulu r.C«-VV r thopvobablcerroj ' jtf jhr rn n ffi n i nn t , 111 1 i V V & x J U - \'~ m^ ±.141. Thk . rnpa^g tVint Mj\th akt , 1 1 ■ 1 1 r !Ji'/M AP-X Each dot represents a county increase in population and farmers. VITA The author was born June 18th, 1893, in Macon, Georgia. His secondary education was received in Athens, Georgia. In 1912 he graduated from the University of Georgia with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The following year was spent as Phelps-Stokes Fellow at the University of Georgia. The next three years were occupied in assisting in a study of Negro Education in the United States, which was under- taken cooperatively by the Phelps-Stokes Fund and the United States Bureau of Education. The academic year 1916-17, which was. begun as Fellow of the American Uni- versity at Columbia University, was interrupted by the war. After preparing a report for the United States Depart- ment of Labor, on Negro Migration, the author entered the army, where he remained until the middle of 1919. For the last four months in France he was placed on detached ser- vice with the Army Educational Corps and attended lectures under Professor C. Bougie in Sociology and Professor A. Souchon in Rural Economy at the Sarbonne. His studies in the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University were resumed in 1919-1920. He was lecturer in economics in Teachers' College for one term of that year. While in residence he took courses under Professors Franklin H. Giddings, R. E. Chaddock, Henry L,. Moore, R. S. Wood- worth and A. A. Tenney. He has assisted in the prepara- tion of "Negro Education in the United States" and has published "The Negroes of Athens, Georgia," and "Negro Migration, 1916-1917 — from Georgia and South Carolina."