Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/704

 RACE

628

RACE

feeling and interest between the North and the South on the question of slavery brought about the Civil War. Negro slavery was then brought to an end in the United States, when, in the interest of the Union and as a military measure, President Lincoln issued his Proclamation of Emancipation (1 January, 1863). Since acquiring freedom the negro has increased in numbers and advanced in a material way. Discrim- ination, prejudice, and fierce criticism have spurred on the more ambitious and more respectable class among them to acquire education and property. In less than forty years of freedom, up to the year 1900, the num- ber of blacks that could read and write rose from 5 per cent to 55 J-^. The rate of increase of the negro popu- lation is estimated by United States Census author- ities to be about 15 per cent for the ten years preced- ing the Census of 1900. The Census Reports for 1900 give 8,833,994 negroes for the Continental United States. There are also 363,742 persons of pure or mixed negro blood under United States jurisdiction in Porto Rico. The Census statistics for 1910 in rela- tion to the various races are not as yet available, but by using the normal percentage of increase, we may estimate the approximate figures for that year, placing the present negro population of the Continental United States at 10,158,092. The census of mulattoes or those of mixed blood of varying degree was taken in the years 1850, 1860, 1870,"and 1890. While this enumeration is acknowledged to be very subject to error, some general results have been obtained. The indications are that from 11 to 16 per cent of those classed as negroes have some degree of white blood. The figures warrant the belief that between one-sixth and one-ninth of the negro population of the Conti- nental United States have been regarded by four groups of enumerators as bearing evidence of an ad- mixture of white blood. In the South negroes form about one-third of the population. In 1900 three- tenths of the entire negro population of the country were living in the adjoining states of Georgia, Ala- bama, and Mississippi. These, together with the adjacent Atlantic-Coast states (Virginia, North, and South Carolina) and the Gulf states (Louisianf and Texas), had then each over half a million negroes. In 1900 the negro population was distributed by states as follows : —

Georgia 1,034,813

Mississippi 907,630

Alabama 827,307

South Carolina 782,321

Virginia 660,722

Louisiana 650,804

North Carolina 624,469

Texas 620,722

Tennessee 480,243

Arkansas 366,856

Kentucky 284,706

Maryland 235,064

Florida 230,730

Missouri 161,234

Pennsylvania 156,845

New York 99,232

Ohio 96,901

District of Columbia 86,702

Illinois 85,078

New Jersey 69,844

Indiana 57,505

Kansas 52,003

The remaining states had less than 50,000 each, making up the total of 8,833,994.

Leading Occupations. — The Census Reports show that negro agricultural labourers, farmers, planters, and overseers, unclassified labourers, servants, wait- ers, launderers, and laundresses constituted 83-6 per cent, or about five-sixths, of the negroes in all wage- earning occupations in the Continental United States. The same documents also show that 27 occupations

include 95-4 per cent, or over nineteen-twcntieths, of all negroes in wage-earning occupations. More than three-fourths (77-3 per cent) of the negroes live in the country. In 1900 there were in the United States 746,717 farms operated bv negroes. These farms covered 38,233,933 acres, valued at .S499,943,734. Of the 746,717 farms operated by negroes 21 per cent were owned entirely, and an additional 4-2 per cent owned in part, by the farmers operating them; in other words, forty years after emancipation 25-2 per cent, or about one-fourth, of all negro farmers had become land owners. The value of all taxable property now owned by the coloured people in the United States is estimated at $550,000,000.

Education. — Statistical summaries which are available from 16 former slave states give for 1908-9 in the common schools for coloured children an average daily attendance of 1,116,811. In these schools are employed 30,334 coloured teachers. There are 141 public high schools for the coloured race with 10,935 pupils and 473 teachers. The governmental education report for 1910 also gives statistics of 189 secondary and higher schools, colleges, industrial schools, etc., for coloured students (excluding public high schools). These schools are usually under the control of various religious denominations. Some are controlled by pri- vate corporations and are classed non-sectarian. The list is admitted to be incomplete. Only two Catholic schools are given in the list, namely, St. Joseph's In- dustrial School, Clayton, Delaware, and St. Francis's Academy, Baltimore, Maryland. There are, besides these, two other Catholic boarding schools for col- oured boys, one at Rock Castle, Virginia, the other at Montgomery, Alabama, besides the Van de Vyer College, at Richmond, Virginia, and others. There are also several Catholic boarding schools for coloured girls where academic and industrial branches are taught. The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament have institutes at Rock Castle, Virginia, Nashville, Tenn., and Cornwells, Pennsylvania. The coloured Oblate Sisters, of Baltimore, and the Holy Family Sisters, of New Orleans, have each several boarding institu- tions. The Catholic day schools for coloured children number about one hundred. No education is given in the South except in separate schools.

Many of the schools described in the Government report of non-public high schools are termed normal and industrial schools and institutes. Others are termed missionary colleges. They are supported largelv by the religious denominations of the North. Considerable income is also derived from tuition fees and private subscriptions. Generous allotments are al.so received by the non-Catholic institutes from edu- cational funds established for freedmen by Northern philanthropists, such as the Peabody Fund, the John F. Slater Fund of New York. The John F. Slater Fund alone disbursed 872,950 (about £14,590) to various coloured institutes throughout the South in 1909-10. The so-called non-sectarian colleges receive also state and municipal aid. In 1868 Samuel Chap- man Armstrong, a celebrated friend of the negro, founded Hampton Institute of Virginia for the educa- tion of negroes and Indians. At the present writing (1911) Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute has 1374 students, male and female, with 112 white and coloured teachers. Hampton has been the inspiration of an extensive system of similar educational and industrial institutes for the coloured race throughout the South. The most noted offspring of Hampton is Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama, which now has 1698 students, 1137 of them male, and 561 female. There are 185 instructors, all coloured. The property of the institute is valued at .11,278,635 (£255,727)." It has a large endowment, which is being increased. The total income of the school for 1909-10 was $258,940.

Religion. — The negro has a religious nature. His