The Atlanta University Publications, No. 13 The Negro American Family A Social Study made by Atlanta University under the patronage of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund Price, 75 Cents The Atlanta University Press ATLANTA, GEORGIA 1908 / Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library Cedric Dover Library EMORY UNIVERSITY - -xouia evei tract, violable at the master's pleasure, quasi marriages are continually thus voided, are, in this way, brought to consider their matrimonial alliances as a thing not binding, and they iact accord¬ ingly. We are then assured by the most unquestion¬ able testimony ~that licentiousness is the. necessary result of our system.'* ' __ „Address of the Presbyterian Synod of Kentucky, 1834. r ^'Chastity is no virtue among them; its violation neither injures female character in their own estima¬ tion, nor in that of their master and mistress. No in-n struction is ever given/no censure pronounced. I speak not of the world.j I speak of Christian families generally.' Lexington (K$.) Luminary^ circa 1834. 1 5 general licentiousness Marriage, as a civil or- enjoy. Our laws do S existing among them, be, by any sanction, the ; eed, "until slavery waxeth lere cannot be any legal rite, or the enforcement r, all the regulations on master s absolute right of disposal of them he y to consult merely his longer separate the wife convenience or interest low advantageous might ence, all marriages that , would be a mere con- Their present They HIIII —: " — •tf' The Atlanta University Publications, No. 1 3 The Negro American Family Report of a Social Study made principally by the College Classes of 1909 and 1910 of Atlanta Uni¬ versity, under the patronage of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund; together with the Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University on Tues¬ day, May the 26th, 1908 Edited by IV. E. Burghardt Du Bois Corresponding Secretary of the Conference The Atlanta University Press ATLANTA, GEORGIA 1908 ATOQW WffiAW. W.l KWf.l KW/J tW/3 KW/ I""*\IE weiblicher Tugend steht bei manchen Stammen in viel hoherer Achtung als die typischen Sittengemalde vermuthen lassen." Schneider, on Negroes. *'v I 'HE contempt we have been taught to entertain for the blacks makes us fancy many things that are founded neither in reason nor experience." Alexander Hamilton. * * A S fathers, husbands and brothers, you are summoned to rally around the standard of the Eagle to defend all which is dear in ex¬ istence." Andrew Jackson to the Negroes of Louisiana in 1814. M&UMA COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY ATLANTA UNIVERSITY /4^W4^W#>\ Contents Page Program of the Thirteenth Annual Conference 4 Preface 5 Bibliography 6 Part I. Marriage Section 1. Scope of this Study 9 Section 2. Africa 10 Section 3. Slavery 18 Section 4. Present Conjugal Condition 26 Section 5. The Size of the Family . . . . . . 31 Section 6. Sexual Morals 37 Part II. The Home Section 7. Africa 42 Section 8. Slavery 45 Section 9. The Country Home 50 Section 10. The Village Home 54 Section 11. The City Home . . . 58 Section 12. City Homes of the Better Class 64 Section 13. A Study of Eight Homes 68 Section 14. The Evolution of the Negro Home .... 80 Part III. The Economics of the Family Section 15. Africa 97 Section 16. Slavery 99 Section 17. General Economic Condition 104 Section 18. Georgia . 107 Section 19. Income Ill Section 20. Budgets 114 Section 21. Rents 122 Section 22. Food 126 Part IV. The. Family Group Section 23. Differentiation of Classes 127 Section 24. The Negro Families of Dougherty County, Ga. . 128 Section 25. The Social Life of the Country 130 Section 26. The Negro Family in New York .... 132 Section 27. A Study of Thirteen Families . . , . 134 [Section 20A. Expenditures of Laborers] 148 Section 28. Conclusion 151 Index 154 The Thirteenth Annual Conference PROGRAMME Subject: The Negro American Family First Session, 10:00 a. m. President Ware, presiding. Subject: "The Home." Address: Dr. G. F. Dickerman, Field Agent of the Trustees of the Slater Fund. Address: Mr. W. T. B. Williams, Field Agent of the Trustees of the Slater Fund. Second Session, 11:30 a. m. Subject: "Health and the Family." Special Talk to Men: Dr. J. W. Madison, of Atlanta. Special Talk to Women: Miss L. S. Cathcart, of Lincoln Academy, N. C. Third Session, 3:00 p. m. Eleventh Annual Mothers' Meeting. (In charge of the Gate City Free Kin¬ dergarten Association), Mrs. Hattie Landrum Green, presiding. Subject: "The Children." 1. Kindergarten songs, games and exercises by 150 children of the four free kindergartens: East Cain Street—Miss Ola Perry. Bradley Street—Mrs. J. P. Williamson. White's Alley—Miss Ethel Evans. Summerhill—Miss Hattie Sims. 2. Remarks by visitors. 3. Reports of the year's work and contributions. Fourth Session,. 8:00 p. m. President E. T. Ware, presiding. Subject: "The Negro American Family." Paper: Archdeacon E. L. Henderson, of the Diocese of Georgia. Address: Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, Chicago. ERRATUM Page 122. To the table on the proportion of students paying their way, add, 1878-1879 37.4% 62.6% Preface In 1897 the Atlanta University Negro Conference made an investi¬ gation into the "Social and Physical Condition of Negroes in Cities," which involved a study of 4742 individuals gathered in 1137 families, living in 59 different groups, in 18 different cities. These data were compiled by the United States Department of Labor and published in Bulletin number ten; and, as the editor said, "Great credit is due the investigators for their work." The object of the investigation was to study the mortality of Negroes and the social and family conditions. The study of Mortality was continued in 1906 by Atlanta University publication number eleven. The present study continues the study of social conditions from the point of view of the family group. This study is therefore a further carrying out of the Atlanta Uni¬ versity plan of social study of the Negro American by means of an annual series of decennially recurring subjects covering, so far as is practicable, every phase of human life. The object of these studies is primarily scientific—a careful research for truth conducted as thor¬ oughly, broadly and honestly as the material resources and mental equipment at command will allow; but this is not our sole object : we wish not only to make the Truth clear but to present it in such shape as will encourage and help social reform. Our financial resources are unfortunately meagre: Atlanta University is primarily a school and most of its funds and energy go to teaching. It is, however, also a seat of learning and as such it has endeavored to advance knowledge, par¬ ticularly in matters of racial contact and development, which seems obviously its nearest field. In this work it has received unusual encouragement from the scientific world, and the published results of these studies are used in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Very few books on the Negro problem or any phase of it have been published in the last decade which have not acknowledged their indebtedness to our work. On the other hand, the financial support given this work has been very small. The total cost of the 13 publications has been about $14,000, or a little over $1,000 a year. The growing demands of the work, the vast field to be covered and the delicacy and equipment needed in such work call for far greater resources. We need, for workers, laboratory and publications, a fund of $6,000 a year, if this work is going adequately to fulfill its promise. Last year a small temporary grant from the Car¬ negie Institution of Washington, D. C., greatly helped us, and this year our work was saved from suspension by an appropriation from the John F. Slater Fund. In past years we have been enabled to serve the United States Bureau of Labor, the United States Census, the Board of Education of the 6 The Negro American Family English Government, many scientific associations, professors in nearly all the leading universities, and many periodicals and reviews. May we not hope-in the future for such increased financial resources as will enable us to study adequately this the greatest group of social problems that ever faced America ? A Select Bibliography of the Negro American Family Bibliography Atlanta University Publication No. 10—Bibliography of the Negro American. 1905. Edwards, R. H.—Studies in American Social Conditions, No. 2; The Negro Problem, 1908 (See Section 4). Books and Pamphlets Atlanta University Publications—Mortality among Negroes in Cities. Atlanta. 1896. 51 pp. 8vo. Atlanta University Publications—Social and Physical Condition of Negroes in Cities. Atlanta, 1897. 72, 14 pp. 8vo. Atwater, Wilbur Olin, and Charles Dayton Woods—Dietary studies with reference to the food of the Negroes in Alabama in 1895 and 1896. Washington, 1897. 69 pp. 8vo. (U. S. Dept. of Agri.) Bacon, Benjamin C.—Statistics of the colored people of Philadelphia. Phila., 1856. Bacon, Benjamin C.—Ibid. Second edition with statistics of crime. Phila., 185&. 8-24 pp. 8vo. Baltimore Association for the moral and educational improvement of the colored people. Annual report. 2d, 3d, 1866-67. Bait., 1866. 68, v. 8vo. Brackett, Jeffrey Richardson—Notes on the progress of the colored people of Mary¬ land since the war. Bait., 1890. 96 pp. (Johns Hopkins University Studies. Series 8, No. 7-9.) 8vo. Supplement to the Negro in Maryland. Buford, Mrs.—Domestic missions among the plantation Negroes. N. Y.,189—? 4 pp. 8vo. Chestnutt, Charles W.—The house behind the cedars. Boston, 1900. 8vo. The marrow of tradition. Boston, 1901. The wife of his youth. Boston, 1899. 12mo. Clowes, W. Laird—Black America. Reprint from the Times. London, 1891. xiii, 240 pp. sm. 8vo. Map. Condition of the people of color in Ohio. With interesting anecdotes. Boston, 1839. 48 pp. 12mo Crummell, Alexander—The black woman of the South: her neglects and her needs. Cincin., 14 pp. 8vo. Delaware association for the moral Improvement and education of the colored peo¬ ple. An. Reps. 1867, 1869,1870. Wilmington, Del. DuBois, W. E. B.—The Philadelphia Negro. Publications of the University of Penn¬ sylvania, No. 14. Phila., 1899. 20, 520 pp. Diagrams, 3 maps. DuBois, W. E. B.—The souls of black folk. Chicago, 1903. viii, (1), 264, (1) pp. gVOi Edwards, Bryan—History, civil and commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies. Phila., 1806. 4 vols. 8vo. Portrs. Atlas, 4to. Folded table. Elwang, Wm. Wilson—The Negroes of Columbia, Mo. Columbia, 1904. vii 69 nn 8vo. Plates. Map. Frissell, Hollis Burke, and Isabel Brevier—Dietary studies of Negroes in eastern Va in 1897 and 1898. Wash., 1899. 45 pp. 8vo. (U. S. Dept. of Agric.) Bibliography 7 Goodell, Will—The American slave code in theory and practice. Judicial decisions and illustrative facts. N. Y., 1853. 431 pp. 12mo. Haygood, Atticus Green—Our brother in black, etc. N. Y., 1881. 252 pp. 12mo. Hickok, C. T—The Negro in Ohio. 1802-1870. Cleveland, 1896. 182pp. 12mo. Hrdlicke, Ales—Anthropological investigations on one thousand white and colored children of both sexes, the inmates of the New York juvenile asylum, etc. N, Y., 189—? 86 pp. 8vo. Ingle, Edward—The Negro in the District of Columbia, Johns Hopkins University Studies. Vol. XI. Bait., 1893. 110 pp. 8vo, Johnson, Mrs. E, A.—The Hazeley family. Philadelphia, 1894. Jones, C. C.—The religious instruction of the Negroes in the United States. Savan¬ nah, 1842. 277 pp. 12mo. Kemble, Fanny—A journal of a residence on a Georgian plantation. N. Y., 1863. 337 pp. 12mo Kingsley, M. H.—Story of West Africa, 1899. West African Studies. Travels in West Africa. Laidlaw, Walter, editor—The federation of Churches and Christian workers in New York City. N. Y., Sociological canvasses, 1896—. 8vo. First, 112 pp., 2d, 116 pp. Livermore, Mrs. Elizabeth D.—Zoe; or the quadroon triumph. A tale for the times. 1st vol., 327 pp. 2d vol., 306 pp. 12mo. Majors, M. A.—Noted Negro women. Chicago, 1893. Miller, Kelly—Race Adjustment. 1908. 306 pp. Minutes of the Biennial Meetings of the National Association of Colored Women. Nos. 1-6,1897-1908. McDonald, Arthur—Colored children. Chicago, 1899. 14 pp. 16mo. Mossell, Mrs. N. F.—The work of Afro-American women. Phila., 1894. 178 pp. 12mo. Needles, Edward—Ten years' progress, or a comparison of the state and condition of the colored people in the city and county of Philadelphia from 1837 to 1847. Phila., 1849. Negro mother's appeal, The—A poem. London, 185—? 4 pp. 8vo. Negro young people's Christian and educational congress, Atlanta, 1902. The United Negro. Atlanta, 1902. 600 pp. 8vo. Olmstead, F. L.—A journey in the back country. N. Y., 1861. 492 pp. 12mo. Olmstead, F. L.—A journey in the seaboard slave states. N. Y., 1856. 723 pp. 12mo. Olmstead, F. L.—A journey through Texas. N. Y., 1857. 516 pp. 12mo. Payne, Daniel A.—A treatise on domestic education. Oincin., 1885. Pollard, Edward A.—Black diamonds gathered in the darkey homes of the South. N. Y., 1859. 12mo. Richmond, Leigh—The Negro servant. Boston, 1814. 16 pp. 12mo. Robertson, John—On the period of puberty in the Negro. Edinburgh, 1848. 8 pp. 8vo. Schneider, W.—Die Kulturfaehigkeit desNegers. Frankfort, 1885. Scruggs, L. A.—Women of distinction. Raleigh, 1893. Shorter, Susan L.—Heroines of African Methodism. Xenia, O., 1891. Smith, Mrs. Amanda—Autobiography of Amanda Smith. Chicago, 1893. Stowe, Harriet Beec her—Uncle Tom's Cabin. 1852. Stowe, Harriet Beecher—Dred. 577 pp. Truth, Sojourner—Sojourner Truth's narrative. Boston, 1875. United States Census—References to the Negro-American family: 1890: Vol. on Population, Part I: sex, conjugal condition. 1890: Vol. on Farms and Homes: ownership. 1900: Vol.11: Sex, conjugal condition, homes owned. Vol. V, VI: Farms and Crops: ownership. Special Reports: Statistical Atlas. Bulletins: No. 8: Negroes in the United States by W. F. Wilcox and W. E. B. DuBois. Wash. 1904. 333 pp. No. 22: Birth rate. United States Department (Bureau) Qf Labor Bulletins: No. 10. Condition of the Negro in various cities. 8 The Negro American Family No. 14. The Negroes of Farmville, Va.: A social study, by W. E. B. DuBols, Ph.D. No. 22. The Negro in the black belt: Some social sketches, by W. E. B. DuBois, Ph.D. No. 32. The Negroes of Sandy Spring, Md. A social study, by W.T.Thom, Ph.D. No. 35. The Negro landholder of Georgia, by W. E. B. DuBois, Ph.D. No. 37. The Negroes of Litwalton, Va.: A social study of the "Oyster Negro," by William Taylor Thorn, Ph. D. No. 38. The Negroes of Oinclaire Central Factory and Calumet Plantation, La.. by J. Bradford Laws. No. 48. The Negroes of Xenia, Ohio, by Richard R. Wright, Jr., B.D. Webster, Noah, J r.—Effects of slavery on morals and industry. Hartford, 1793. Periodical Literature American Economic Association Publications: Race traits and tendencies of the Negro. F.L.Hoffman. 11:1. American Journal of Sociology: Special assimilation.. S. E. Simons. 7:539-56. Annals of the American Academy of Political Science: Settlement work among colored people. C. B. Chapin. 21:330. Arena: Impossibility of racial amalgamation. W. S. McCurley. 21: 446. Atlantic: Negroes: What they are doing for themselves. S. J. Barrows. 67 : 805. Mulatto factor in the race problem. A. H. Stone. 91:658-62. Intensely human. T. W. Higginson. 93:588. Chambers Journal: Family life in Negro town. 17:12. Charities Review: Colored children in the District of Columbia. H.W.Lewis. 5:94. The make-up of Negro city groups. (L. Brandt.) Charities 15:7. The Negro home in New York. M. W. Ovington. 15:25. Fresh-air work among colored children in New York. M. W. Ovington. 17:115. Chautauquan: Negroes in Washington, D. C. M. W. Noble. 14 : 183. Southern Negro women. O. R. Jefferson. 18 : 91. Social life of Southern Negroes. W. T. Hewetson. 26 : 295. Educational Review: Social and industrial capacities of Negroes of the South. 45 : 383. Lend a Hand: The new Negro woman. B. T. Washington. 15 : 254. Nation: Social problem in Baltimore. 77 : 497-8. National Monthly: Advance of Negro women in the South. L. S. Orrick. 21:172. Outlook: Gain in the life of Negro women. Mrs. B. T. Washington. 76 : 271-4. The Negro woman and the South. E. H. Abbott. 77 :165, 689. Social and moral decadence of Negro women. E. Tayleur. 76 : 266. American Statistical Association: The Negroes of St. Louis. VIII. Lillian Brandt. Hampton Negro Conference: Nine reports. 1897-1905. Slater Fund, Proceedings and Occasional Papers of: No. 9. Hobson and Hopkins: Colored women of the South. The Negro American Family Part 1. Marriage Section 1. The Scope of this Study. This essay is an attempt to study the family among Negro-Americans—its formation, its home, its economic organization and its daily life. Such a study is at once faced by a lamentable dearth of material. There is comparatively little exact information on many important points. Nevertheless there is perhaps enough to give a tentative outline which more exact research may later fill in. In each case an attempt has been made to connect present conditions with the African past. This is not because Negro-Americans are Africans, or can trace an unbroken social history from Africa, but because there is a distinct nexus between Africa and America which, though broken and perverted, is nevertheless not to be neglected by the careful student. It is, however, exceedingly diffi¬ cult and puzzling to know just where to find the broken thread of African and American social history. Accurate scientific inquiry must trace the social history in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen¬ turies of such Negro tribes as furnished material for the American slave trade. This inquiry is unfortunately impossible. We do not know accurately which tribes are represented in America, and we have but chance pictures of Negro social conditions in those times. Assum¬ ing, however, that the condition of Negro tribes in the nineteenth cen¬ tury reflected much of their earlier conditions, and that central and west Africa furnished most of the slaves, some attempt has been made to picture in broad outline the social evolution of the Negro in his fam¬ ily relations. For past American conditions the chief printed sources of information must be sought for in the vast literature of slavery. It is difficult to get a clear picture of the family relations of slaves, be¬ tween the Southern apologist and his picture of cabin life, with idyllic devotion and careless toil, and that of the abolitionist with his tale of family disruption and cruelty, adultery and illegitimate mulattoes. Between these pictures the student must steer carefully to find a rea¬ sonable statement of the average truth. For present conditions there are, in printed sources, only the Census reports, the eight studies of the United States Bureau of Labor, the previous studies of this series, and a few other sources noted in the bibliography. To supplement this, sixteen students of the college department of Atlanta University have made a study of 32 families. These studies are based on first-hand knowledge, and are unusually accurate. They do not, however, represent properly the proportion of different types among the mass of Negroes. Most of the families studied belong to the upper half of the black population. Finally, to 10 The Negro American Family repeat, this study is but a sketch with no pretense toward attempting1 to exhaust a fruitful subject. The main cause of its limitation is lack of material. Section 2. Africa. The data relating to African family life is frag¬ mentary, relating to different times and places, and has all degrees of authority, from that of hurried passing travellers to that of careful students of local conditions like Ellis. In generalizing, then, one can never be very certain of his ground. Ratzel gives this general sum¬ mary: Marriage is concluded by purchase. This feature appears, to the suppres¬ sion of all others, among those tribes who accumulate capital by the owner¬ ship of herds. The practice of wife-purchase is found, however, also among agriculturis-ts, and a man's wealth is measured by the number of his wives. Polygamy is usual wherever there are means to support it. We sometimes find the young bridegroom living in his father-in-law's establishment till the birth of his first child. Only the ruling chief of the district has the right to take any man's daughter without the usual payment, just as the chief's daughter may select any man, who thereby from a peasant becomes a chief. 1 Many pretty features are met with in connection with the courtship. Among the Madis the daughter first takes the mother into her confidence, and she informs the father. He fixes the price, and the couple obey absolutely, whether "yes" or "no" be the end of the negotiations. The marriage cere¬ monies are almost entirely secular. Oxen are slaughtered and there is sing¬ ing and dancing. Among tribes where good manners prevail, during all this time the bride never leaves the hut which her father has built for her, but sits surrounded by her new brothers and sisters-in-law, who extol the charms of married life. At the same time she may partake of the marriage-feast, but without letting herself be seen. The folio wing picture of a ceremony in greater style is given by Cameron. First the bridegroom performed a solo- dance for half an hour; and when this was over, the bride, a girl of nine of ten years old, was placed, with all the state that could be mustered up, on the shoulders of a woman, and. borne to the dancing-place, while a second woman supp6rted her from behind. The bridegroom gave her two or three tobacco- leaves and beads, which she threw among the dancers. Then the bridegroom and bride danced together for ten minutes with very unseemly gestures, after which he snatched her up, and disappeared with her into his own hut. The dancing, yelling, and drumming went on all night. Three pictures of betrothal and marriage may be given; the first is among the Tshi-speaking people of the west coast, after Ellis: When a girl arrives at the age of puberty, usually in the eleventh or twelfth year, she is taken to the water-side by others of her sex, and washed. At the same time an offering, consisting of boiled ham, mashed and mixed with palm-oil, is scattered upon the banks of the stream by the members of her family, who call upon the local gods, and inform them that the child has reached a marriageable age. In Cape Coast the girl is taken to the rock of the goddess Ichar-tsirew, and there washed. After the washing, a bracelet, consisting of one white bead, one black, and one gold, threaded on white cord, is put on the girl's wrist. These three beads in conjunction are termed i Innumerable fairy tales point to the prevalence of this rule among primitive races. Marriage 11 abbum, and their being taken into use is a sign to the Sassur that its pro¬ tecting care is no longer required. In the interior, on such occasions, girls are streaked with white. The natives seem to judge of a girl's fitness for the married state rather by the development of the bosom, than by the fact of menstruation having com¬ menced ; for if it be not developed at the time of performing the ceremony, they wait until it becomes so before taking the next step, which is for the purpose for announcing her eligibility for marriage to the men of the com¬ munity. The girl is carefully adorned with all the ornaments and finery in the possession of the family, and frequently with others borrowed for the occasion. A silk cloth, in place of the ordinary cotton one, extends from the waist to the ankle, and is carefully arranged over a neatly-made attohfo, a kind of bustle made of rolled cloth, on which infants are carried, and which is kept in position by being attached to the girdle of beads worn by all females. The silk cloth is kept in position by a silk handkerchief, which is tied over it, round the waist. The hair is covered with gold ornaments, neck¬ lets, armlets, and anklets of gold and aggry beads encircle her neck, arms, and ankles; and her bosom and the upper part of her body, which is left uncov¬ ered, is marked with white clay in very fine lines. Of course a girl thus attired would be a daughter of a wealthy family, but even the poorest people contrive to make some show on these occasions. Thus decorated, the virgin is escorted througli the streets by a number of young people of her own sex, one of whom usually carries an open umbrella over her; while the remainder sing a song in honor of her maidenhood, and inform the men that their friend is now of a marriageable age. As the na¬ tives of the Gold Coast are a far handsomer people than any other Negro race with which I am acquainted, and possess usually superb figures, and an erectness of carriage which is no doubt due to the habit of carrying articles on the head, there is frequently something very attractive about these young girls, who, in their constrained and graceful movements, seem overflowing with youth and health. Shortly after a virgin has thus advertised herself, she is married. Perhaps she has previously been betrothed; but, if not, the public advertisement of her charms and marriageable condition seldom fails to produce suitors. If the girl's family agree to the match, the amount to be paid for her is handed over by the suitor, and he at once prepares a marriage festival. Rum, gin, and other intoxicants, together with tobacco and pipes, are sent by him to the family of the bride, for the distribution amongst their kinsmen and intimate friends, and in notification of the approaching happy event. Sometimes it is announced with greater pomp, by means of a long train of people, bearing provisions of all kinds upon their heads, who parade through the town, sing¬ ing songs in honor of the occasion. These preliminaries having been com¬ pleted, the bride is led to the house of the bridegroom, where a feast is pre¬ pared for the friends of both families, who keep up an orgie until long after the husband has retired to his wife. Next morning, if the husband be sat¬ isfied concerning his wife's purity, he sprinkles her over the head, shoulders, and breast with a thick powdering of dried clay; and sends her to parade the streets, accompanied by a number of young girls, who sing songs in her honor. The day following, her life as a married woman commences. Should the husband be in doubt as to the virtue of his bride, he may, under certain conditions, repudiate her. 1 i Ellis: The Tshi-Speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa, pp. 234-7. 12 The Negro American Family The second extract is from Tylor and relates to the Zulus: Many Zulu girls are mere flirts, but when a girl finds that her father and brothers are seeking some one to recommend to her as a husband, she sud¬ denly disappears, having hied away to her lover's kraal. If the family ap¬ proves, in a day or two a party of men appear at the home of the future bride, driving two or three cows. They all act in a friendly manner and the visitors go away leaving the cattle. When the eventful day arrives the bride and a party of friends set out for the bridegroom's kraal, which, however, they will not enter until night, sing¬ ing and dancing as they go. Early in the morning they go to the nearest stream, and about noon come up and begin a dance, the bridegroom's party looking on. When both sides have finished, a cow slaughtered by the bride¬ groom's party is given to the bride's party. At night the girl wanders about the kraal, followed by the female relatives of the bridegroom. She is supposed to be trying to run away and the girls to be preventing her. The next day the bridegroom, his brothers, sisters and friends, take their seats in the cattlefold and the last part of the ceremony takes place. The bride comes in with her party of girls, carrying in her hand a spear One girl bears a dish of water and a calabash, and another some beads. Then, coming up singing and dancing, the bride throws the water over her hus¬ band. She also sprinkles her brothers- and sisters-in-law, striking the latter, as a symbol that from that time she assumes authority over the girls in her husband's household. After this she breaks the staff of the spear and makes a run for the gate of the kraal. If she is not stopped by a young man ap¬ pointed for the purpose it is a great disgrace, and the husband has to pay a cow to get her back. The marriage rites are then finished. The third picture is from among the Yoruba-speaking peoples of the west coast: When a man desires to marry a girl his parents visit her parents and make proposals of marriage. If they are accepted the suiter sends a present of native cloths and kola-nuts, and after consulting a babalawo, a day is ap¬ pointed for the wedding. The marriage fepst is held at the house of the parents of the bridegroom, and the bride is conducted there by a procession of women, who sing an epithalamium. The bride is put in bed by a female of the bridegroom's fam¬ ily, who remains concealed in the apartment till the bridegroom has joined the bride; after which she receives the "tokens of virginity," and coming out of the room displays them to the assembled company. She then carries them to the house of the parents of the bride, who never attend a daughter's wed¬ ding feast, and next morning they are hung on the fence for the edification of the public. In this abstention of the bride's parents from the feasting and merry-making, we perhaps find a lingering survival from marriage by cap¬ ture. The producer of the "tokens" is selected from the family of the bride¬ groom to ensure that there is no deception, because the husband's family has no interest in falsifying the facts, while the wife's family has; but virginity in a biide is only of paramount importance when the girl has been betrothed in childhood. The marriage feast is continued on the next day. It is not uncommon for newly wedded couples to visit some celebrated shrine and offer sacrifices together, a practice which, together with the fixing of the wedding day by a babalau'o, shows an increasing disposition on the Marriage 13 part of the priests to control or interfere with matters that are purely social and quite beyond the domain of religion. Of betrothals among these people, Ellis says: Girls of the better classes are almost always betrothed when mere children, frequently when infants, the husband in futuro being sometimes a grown man and sometimes a boy. Betrothal confers upon the male all the rights of mar¬ riage except consummation, which takes place shortly after the girl arrives at puberty. Since the early age of betrothal makes ante-betrothal unchastity a physical impossibility, the absence of the primitice when the marriage is consummated proves that the girl has been unchaste after betrothal, that is, after the husband in futuro had acquired an exclusive right to her person, and consequently he has a right to repudiate her. In such a case he may dismiss her, sending a few broken cowries to her mother, and the girl's family must return the amount paid for her, and the value of all presents made; but it is more usual to effect a compromise. In this custom of infant child betrothal we probably find the key to that curious regard for ante-nuptial chastity found not only among the tribes of the Slave and Gold coasts, but also among many other civilized people in different parts of the world, and which certainly cannot be attributed to any feelings of delicacy, since husbands lend their wives without compunction, and often merely as a sign of friendliness. In West Africa virginity in a bride is not valued per se, but because it is a proof that the betrothal has not in¬ fringed the exclusive marital privileges of the husband in futuro ; and non- virginity in a bride is only a valid ground for repudiation when the girl has been betrothed at a tender age, for unbetrothed girls can bestow favors upon whom they please. Thus no man who marries a girl without early betrothal feels aggrieved if she should prove not to be a virgin, for until she is married or betrothed she is perfectly free, and mistress of her own actions. . . . A great deal of evidence might be adduced to show that the custom of child- betrothal leads to virginity being expected in a bride, and its absence being regarded as a just ground for repudiation.1 By such ceremony the African family is formed. Of the rights thus obtained Ellis says, referring to the Yorubas: By marriage the man acquires the services of his wife in domestic affairs and an exclusive right to her embraces. That is, she may not have inter¬ course with other men without his knowledge and consent, but there is no objection to his waiving his right in favor of some other person, and men sometimes lend their wives to their guests or friends, though more frequently their concubines, for in a household there are both wives and concubines, the latter usually being slaves. Each wife has her own house, situated in the "compound" of the husband, and her own slaves and dependants. The wife first married is the head wife, and is charged with the preservation of order among the women. She is styled Iyale (Iya ile), "Mistress of the house." The junior wives are called Iyawo (Iya owo), "Trade-wives," or "Wives of com¬ merce," probably because they sell in the markets. Family relationships in Africa are usually traced through the female line, a survival of the older matriarchal family. From this there is gradual change toward the fuller patriarchal type. Ellis says of the Yorubas: i Ellis: Yoruba-Speaking Peoples, &c., pp. 153-4,174-188. 14 The Negro American Family We find a great change from the customs of the other tribal groups of this family of nations, in the Yoruba manner of tracing descent and blood re a- tionship; descent and consanguinity being no longer reckoned exclusively in the female line, with succession to chiefdom, office, and property trom brother to brother, and then to sister's son; but in the male line as far as succession to dignities is concerned, and on both sides of the house for blood descent. The Yoruba family—using the word family as meaning a group of persons who are united by ties of blood—is thus quite a different organiza¬ tion to that which we found existing among the Tshi and Ewe tribes, where a family consists solely of persons who are connected by uterine ties, and in which, as two persons of the same blood may not marry, the father is never related by blood to his children, and is not considered as belonging to the family. In the Tshi and Ewe tribes the clan-name is the test of blood-rela¬ tionship, and as property follows the laws of blood-descent, it ensues that property never goes out of the clan; for, with descent in the female line, a family is only a small circle of persons, all of whom bear the same clan-name, within the larger circle of the clan itself. Among the Yoruba tribes the blood-tie between father and child has been recognized, and the result of this recognition has been the inevitable down¬ fall of the clan-system, which is only possible so long as descent is traced solely on one side of the house, as may be readily shown. Since two persons of the same clan-name may, under the clan-system, never marry, it follows that husband and wife must be of different clans. Let us say that one is a Dog and the other a Leopard. The clan-name is extended to all who are of the same blood; therefore, directly the blood relationship between father and child comes to be acknowledged, the children of such a pair as we have supposed, instead of being, as heretofore, simply Leopards, would be Dog- Leopards, and would belong to two clans. They in turn might marry with persons similarly belonging to two clans, say Cat-Snakes, and the offsprings of these unions would belong to four clans. The clan-system thus becomes altogether unworkable, because, as the number of clans is limited and cannot be added to, if the clan name still remained the test of blood-relationship and a bar to marriage, the result in a few generations would be that no marriages would be possible. Consequently the clan-name ceases to be the test of con¬ sanguinity, kinship is traced in some other way, and the clan-system disap¬ pears ; or,as appears to have been occasionally the case, descent is boldly trans¬ ferred unto the male line, and marriage in the father's clan is prohibited, that of the mother being ignored. The Yorubas have adopted what appears to have been the usual course, and blood relationship is now traced both on the father's and on the mother's side, as far as it can be remembered, and mar¬ riage within the known circle of consanguinity is forbidden. When we consider the extraordinary vitality the system of descent through mothers possesses, so long as it is undisturbed by foreign influence, it seems probable that the acknowledgment of a father's blood-relationship to his children was brought about by the intercourse of the northern Yorubas with the Mohammedan tribes of the interior. That the Yorubas formerly had the system of female descents is known by an ancient proverb, which says, "The esuo (gazelle), claiming relationship with the ekulu (a large antelope), says his mother was the daughter of an ekulu." If the male system of descents had been in vogue when this proverb was invented, the esuo would have been made to say that his fathei was the son of an ekulu. Moreover in spite of legal succession from father to son, children by different mother's, but by the same father, are by many natives still scarcely considered true blood re- iiitionSt Divorce 15 It is no doubt in consequence of the change from kinship in the female line to kinship on both sides of the house that the family has become, to a certain extent, disintegrated. On tho Gold Coast, where the uterine family is the only one known, the family is collectively responsible for the crimes or inju¬ ries to persons or property committed by any of its members, and each mem¬ ber is liable for a proportion of the compensation to be paid. Similarly, each member is entitled to share the compensation received for injury to the per¬ son or property of one of the members. The head of the family can, if the necessity should arise, pawn, and in some cases sell, a junior member; while, on the other hand, the junior membeos have a right to be fed and clothed by the head of the family. Among the Yoruba tribes there is no collective re¬ sponsibility in a family, except that parents are responsible for crimes com¬ mitted by their children; the head of the family cannot pawn the younger members, the latter cannot claim, as a matter of right, to be supported by him. When a man dies his sons divide all his property between them. The daughters have no inheritance in their father's house, but they divide between them the property of their mother, for here, as with the Tshi, Ya and Ewe tribes, the property of a wife is always separate and distinct from that of her husband. If a man- has no sons his property falls to his brothers, or, if he has no brothers, to his sisters. From these laws of inheritance there is no departure, and a man cannot disinherit a legal heir. A man can, within cer¬ tain limits, give away property during his lifetime, provided it is purely per¬ sonal and not family property; but he cannot make a will, or any arrange- menr for its disposal after death. Succession to property entails the obliga¬ tion of defraying the debts of the deceased.1 Marriages may be dissolved by divorce. Ratzel says: Dissolution of marriage is not only rendered difficult by the business thread which runs through the band of wedlock, but apart from this, it comes into relation with legal institutions. Divorce is rare among tribes who lead a simple life undisturbed; nor is adultery so frequent among them as among those who have accumulated capital, possess numerous slaves, and have come into closer contact with Arabs or Europeans. But even among these a mar¬ riage is not dissolved without formality, as might appear on superficial ob¬ servation. Among the corrupt tribes of the Gold Coast, only princesses have the privilege of separating from their husbands without coming before a tribunal. Some white clay, handed over by the husband, serves as a sign of dismissal. Common people on the other hand have to appear before the chiefs, who decide the case. If they allow the wife her divorce, her family keep the purchase money, and the chiefs present the woman with a piece of white clay, with which she marks the trees of the principal street as a sign that she is no longer a wedded wife. If the divorce is granted to the man, the wife's family have to return the sum received. An interesting example of innovation in this domain is given by Broyon in his description of Unyam- wesi, where he relates how the Arabs had formerly from selfish motives intro¬ duced a law that a woman who broke anything of theirs became their slave. The Negro women had turned this to their own advantage. In order to get free from an uncongenial husband, they would break something of the chief's, and become his slaves. Among West Coast tribes, Ellis says of the Yorubas: i Ellis, Yoruba speaking peoples, loc. cit. j 6 The Negro American Family Adultery can only be committed with a married woman. Adultery in a wife is punishable by death or divorce, but as a rule the injured husband beats his erring wife and recovers damages (oje) from the adulterer. In extreme cases, where the husband is a man of rank and discovers the couple in fact, they are sometimes both put to death. If a husband should divorce his wife for adultery, he can claim the restitu¬ tion of the money he paid for her, but not if he sends her away for any other cause. When a wife is divorced or put away, no matter for what cause, the husband retains any children she may have borne him ; but if a child be too young to leave the mother, it does not come to the father till ten or twelve years of age. We see here a great change from the Tshi tribes, among whom under every circumstance of divorce or separation the mother retains her children, though she is liable to her husband for a certain sum to compensate him for what he has paid for their maintenance. There children belong ex¬ clusively to the mother, but here they belong to the father, and the innova¬ tion is undoubtedly due to the alteration in the system of descents. When a husband systematically neglects his wife and refuses to perform his marital duties, she can call upon her family to assemble and hold a pala¬ ver ; when, if the husband promises to amend his ways, he is given an oppor¬ tunity of retrieving his character. If after all there is no improvement, or if he refuses to treat his wife properly, she is at liberty to leave him, and sometimes, if he is of inferior rank, the indignant family tie him up and flog him.1 Some idea of African family government may be had from a study of the Gold Coast by a native: The Headman, as his name implies, is the Head of a village community, a ward in a township, or of a family. His position is important, inasmuch as he has directly to deal with the composite elements of the general bulk of the people. It is the duty of the Head of a family to bring up the members thereof in the way they should go; and by ''family" you must understand the entire lineal descendants of a head materfamilias,if I may coin a convenient phrase. It is expected of him by the State to bring up his charge in the knowledge of matters political and traditional. It is his work to train up his wards in the ways of loyalty and obedience to the powers that be. He is held respon¬ sible for the freaks of recalcitrant members of his family, and he is looked to to keep them within bounds, and to insist upon conformity on their part with the customs, laws, and traditional observances of the community. In early times he could send off to exile by sale a troublesome relative who would not observe the laws of the community. It is a difficult task that he is set to, but in this matter he has all-powerful helpers in the female members of the family, who will be either the aunts, or the sisters, or the cousins, or the nieces of the Headman; and as their in¬ terests are identical with his in every particular, the good women spontane¬ ously train up their children to implicit obedience to the Headman, whose rule in the family thus becomes a simple and an easy matter. "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." What a power for good in the Native State System would the mothers of the Gold Coast and Ashanti become by judicious training upon native lines! The Headman is par excellence the judge of his family or ward. Not only is he called upon to settle domestic squabbles, but frequently he sits as judge i Ellis, loc. cit. Polygamy 17 over more serious matters arising between one member of the ward and another; and where he is a man of ability and influence, men from other wards bring him their disputes to settle. When he so settles disputes, he is entitled to a hearing fee, which, however, is not so much as would be payable in the regular Court of the King or Chief. The Headman is naturally an important member of his "company," and often is a captain thereof. When he combines the two offices of Headman and Captain, he renders to the community a very important service. For, in times of war, where the members of the ward would not serve cordially under a stranger, they would in all cases face any danger with their own kinsman as their leader. The Headman is always succeeded by his uterine brother, cousin, or nephew—the line of succession, that is to say, following the Customary Law.1 The reasons for polygamy in Africa are social and economic: Lichtenstein remarks of the Kaffirs that "there are fewer men than women, on account of the numbers of the former that fall in their frequent wars. Thence comes polygamy, and the women being principally employed in all menial occupation." Now, without accepting the inference that polygamy is initiated by the loss of men in war, we may recognize the fact which Lich¬ tenstein does not name, that where the death rate of males considerably exceeds that of females, plurality of wives becomes a means of maintaining population. Since in every society the doings of the powerful and the wealthy furnish the standards of right and wrong, so that even the very words "noble" and "servile," originally expressive of social.status, have come to be expressive of good and bad in conduct, it results that plurality of wives acquires, in places where it prevails, an ethical sanction. Associated with greatness, polygamy is thought praiseworthy; and, associated with poverty, monogamy is thought mean. Hence the reprobation with which, as we have seen, the one-wife sys¬ tem is regarded in polygamous communities.2 Their ideas of right and wrong differ in no respect from our own, except in their profsssed inability to see how it can be improper for a man to have more than one wife.3 Parental affection is strong in Africa. Sweinfurth says: Parental affection is developed among the Dyoor much more decidedly than among the other tribes. A bond between mother and child which lasts for life is the measure of affection shown among the Dyoor. Parents [among the Dinkas] do not desert their children, nor are brothers faithless to brothers, but are ever prompt to render whatever aid is possible^ Family affection is at a high ebb among them.4 Ratzel says: Agreeably to the natural relation the mother stands first among the chief influences affecting the children. From the Zulus to the Waganda, we find the mother the most influential counsellor at the court of ferocious sov¬ ereigns like Chaka orMtesa; sometimes sisters take her place. Thus even with chiefs who possess wives by hundreds the bonds of blood- are the strongest. The father is less closely bound up with the family. He is indeed 1 O. Hayford: Gold Coast Native Institutions, pp. 76-78. 2 Spencer: Sociology I, pp. 671, 669. 3 Livingstone, Zambesi, p. 809. 4 Sweinfurth: Heart of Africa. 18 The Negro American Family the head, and is recognised as such; it is said too that the Negro is in gen eral a lover of children and therefore a good father. But even here he often rules more by force than by love. Among the institutions recalling Roman law which Hubbe-Schleiden, an expert on that subject, found among the Mpongwes, he mentions their domestic or family life: "We find among them the patria potestas equally comprehensive and equally strict, if not carried into such abstraction. Wives, children, servants, are all in the power of the pciter-familias or oga. He alone is quite free; a degree of independence to which a woman among the Mpongwes can never attain." Yet that woman, though often heavily burdened, is in herself in no small esteem among the Negroes is clear from the numerous Negro queens, from the medicine-women, from the participation in public meetings permitted to women by many Ne¬ gro peoples. Out of some such ideas of marriage and married life the Negro was brought to America as a slave. The ideas were not those of the more highly developed modern nations. But they were definite and prac¬ ticable, and evolved through long social struggle; the Africans who had invented them lived up to them and were, as Sumner shows so well, as moral as modern men; i. e., as faithful to their Mores. Section 3. Slavery. The first fact which students of slavery must remember is the great disproportion among the sexes in the imported slaves. The first demand of the plantations was able-bodied male field hands. Edwards speaks . . of the great disproportion of the sexes in the yearly importations from Africa. It has been shown from unquestionable authority, that one-third only were females. Thus, notwithstanding every allowance for the Creoles, or natives, who may reasonably be supposed to have increased according to the general laws of nature, there was in the year 1789, in Jamaica alone, an excess in. its Negro population of 30,000 males.1 Traces of this can be found in the census reports of the United States, which unfortunately separate the sexes amongNegroes only as far back as 1820. [See chart on opposite page.] Such a social derangement through violence, war, and severe eco¬ nomic competition is an effective cause of wide sexual irregularity, even with a people living under their own carefully elaborated moral code; but with a transplanted and broken nation the effect was indeed disastrous. The first instiuctive effort of the transplanted group was to restore the ancestral Mores. Edwards says: It is a truth well known, that the practice of polygamy, which universally prevails in Africa, is also very generally adopted in the West Indies; and he who conceives that a remedy may be found for this by introducing among them the laws of marriage as established in Europe, is utterly ignorant of their manners, propensities, and superstitions. It is reckoned in Jamaica, on a moderate computation, that not less than ten thousand of such as as are called Head Negroes (artificers and others) possess from two to four wives. This partial appropriation of the women creates a still greater proportion of single men, and produces all the mischiefs which are necessarily attached to the system of polygamy.2 l Edwards: West Indies, II, pp. 175-170. 2 Edwards, loc. cit. Slavery 19 Sex of Negro Population. CENSUS OF 1820 1830 1840 1850 I860 1870 1880 1890 1900 MALES.... 902,991 1,166,276 1,432,998 1,811,259 2,216,744 2,393,263 3,253,115 3,725,561 4,393.221 FEMALES. 873,820 1,132,366 1.440.760 1,827,649 2.225,086 2,486,746 3,327,678 3.744.479 4,447.568 FEttAUS TO I.OH MUS 967 969 1,005 1,008 1,003 1,039 1,020 1,005 1,012 1,000 MALES 5U. Females t tRAde WA l »RECONS Itfvn* S«ut» Even under such conditions, however, traces of African family insti¬ tutions persisted: The men exacted a great show of respect from their families. I have often taken pleasure in watching a Negro carpenter at Guadaloupe when he ate his meals. His wife and children gathered around him, and served him with as much respect as the best drilled domestics served their masters; and if it was a fete day or Sunday, his sons-in-law and daughters did not fail to be present, and bring him some small gifts. They formed a circle about him, and con¬ versed with him while he was eating. When he had finished, his pipe was brought to him, and then he bade them eat. They paid him their reverences and passed into another room, where they all ate together with their mother. I reproached him sometimes for his gravity, and cited him to the example of the governor, who ate every day with his wife; to which he replied that the governor was not the wiser for it; that he supposed the whites had their reasons, but they also had theirs; and if one would observe how proud and disobedient the white women were to their husbands, it would be admitted 20 The Negro American Family that the Negroes, who kept them always in respect and submission, are wl^®r and more experienced than the whites in this matter. The father says e Negroes were often very eloquent, and that they all spent much time in ridi¬ culing the whites and their customs.1 When in any case these ancestral customs in family, clan, and tribal life could be preserved, revolt against slavery followed. This is the secret of the Haytian Revolution: For many years there had been bands of runaway Negroes in the mountains under their chiefs. The earliest known of these chiefs was Polydorin, 1724; he was succeeded by Macandal, of whom the Negroes seemed to stand in superstitious dread. The great chief of these ma¬ roons at the time of the revolt was Jean Francais, and he was followed by another black called Biassou. One of their agents said to the French commissioner: I am subject of three kings: of the King of Congo, master of all the blacks; of the King of France, who represents my father, and of the King of Spain, who represents my mother. If I passed into the service of the republic, I would perhaps be brought to make war against my brothers, the subjects of these three kings, to whom I have promised fidelity.1 When Christophe declared himself emperor, Some writers have thought that this was purely an act of grandiloquence and mimicry on the part of Christophe, but it is truer to say that in it he was actuated by a clear insight into the needs and peculiarities of the people with whom he had to deal. There is nothing in the constitution which did not have its companion in Africa, where the organization of society was truly despotic, with elective-hereditary chiefs, royal families, polygamic marriages, councils, and regencies. But, undoubtedly, the form in which these things were put into writing was influenced very much by the language and systems which were known in Europe. Toussaint, Dessalines, and Christophe had ministers and others in their employ who were men educated in France.2 The government organized'was founded on the ancient African clan: But we have now to consider that, which was the foundation of this system, which at once marks the insight of Toussaint and Christophe, and the African origin of their government. This is the system of agriculture. This system was adopted at the time of the reconciliation between the French and the blacks, under the advice of Toussaint. Some writers have called it an at¬ tempt to establish feudalism in the island, and the system does have a resem¬ blance to it, but it also has many points of similarity with the organization of society in many African tribes. There was a division of the population into military and civil or laboring classes, the latter including both free and slave laborers. The territory was parcelled out to chiefs or lords, and the laborei-s were bound to the soil, which they were compelled to work under a rigorous system of inspection; for their support apart of the produce was set aside, the rest going to the chiefs, and for the support of the king or gen¬ eral government and the army. The army was kept under stern discipline, which made it possible to arm the free men and laborers; the women did a large part of the agricultural labor. Under Toussaint the administration of this labor system was committed to Dessalines, who carried it out with the 1 Airnes; Journal of American Folk-Lore, p. 25. 2 Aimes: Journal of American JFolk-Lore, pp. 26-29. Slavery 21 utmost rigor, and it was afterward followed by Christophe in the same man¬ ner. The latter went so far as to import 4,000 Negroes from Africa, which he took means to bind to his person and form into a national guard, for patrol¬ ling the country. These regulations brought back for a time a large part of the prosperity which the island enjoyed.1 In Brazil "the Negroes brought their language and usages, which were found as original as on the coast of Africa." The patriarchal feeling remained very strong. The tribes seemed to be families, considering the prince as the father; the tie never died. "These princes are frequently seen sitting on a stone in the street, surrounded by a crowd who come to them for judgment. At the corner of the Travessa de S. Antonio, is a stone or post, for many years the throne of an African prince from Angola. . . . The natives of Congo elect a king among themselves, to whose decrees they submit in a similar manner."2 There is also a good account of an African funeral as practised in Jamaica. The person described above may be the Mumbo Jumbo of the Mandingoes, whose duty it was to execute public authority in the hall of the tribe upon the female offenders. The punishment was by whipping in public.3 In Lowndes county, Ala., in 1892, a description of a Negro country wedding tells of the chasing of the bride after the ceremony in a man¬ ner very similar to the Zulu ceremony described on a previous page. Careful research would doubtless reveal many other traces of the African family in America. They would, however, be traces only, for the effectiveness of the slave system meant the practically complete crushing out of the African clan and family life. No more complete method of reducing a barbarous people to subjection can be devised. The Indian could not be reduced to slavery because, being in his own home, he could not be permanently and effectively separated from his clan, and the clan fought for his freedom. Only in the isolated islands, then, was Indian slavery successful, and died out there for want of a slave trade. The essential features of Negro slavery in America was: 1. No legal marriage. 2. No legal family. 3. No legal control over children. This is not inconsistent with much teaching of the morals of modern family life to slaves; the point is that the recognition of the black family from 1619 to 1868 was purely a matter of individual judgment or caprice on the part of the master. Public opinion and custom counted for much, and the law tended to recognize some quasi family rights— forbidding, for instance, in some cases the separation of mothers and very young infants—yet on the whole it is fair to say that while to some extent European family morals were taught the small select body of house servants and artisans, both by precept and example, the great body of field hands were raped of their own sex customs and provided with no binding new ones. Slavery gave the monogamic family ideal to slaves, but it compelled and desired only the most imperfect practice i Aimes: Journal of American Folk-Lore, pp. 29-30. 2 Ibid, p. 24. s Ibid. 22 The Negro American Family of its most ordinary morals. A few quotations will illustrate these con¬ clusions: A slave cannot even contract matrimony, the association which takes place among slaves and is called marriage being properly designated by the word contubernium, a relation which has no sanctity and to which no civil rights are attached.1 A slave has never maintained an action against the violator of his bed. A slave is not admonished for incontinence, or punished for fornication or adultery; never prosecuted for bigamy, or petty treason, for killing a hus¬ band being a slave, any more than admitted to an appeal for murder2 Slaves were not entitled to the conditions of matrimony, and therefore they had no relief in cases of adultery; nor were they the proper objects of cogna¬ tion or affinity, but of quasi-cognation only.* A necessary consequence of slavery is the absence of the marriage relation. No slave can commit bigamy; because the law knows no more of the mar¬ riage of slaves than of the marriage of brutes. A slave may, indeed, be for¬ mally married, but so far as legal rights and obligations are concerned it is an idle ceremony. ... Of course these laws do not recognize the paternal relation as belonging to slaves. A slave has no more legal authority over his child than a cow has over her calf.4 In the slave-holding States, except in Louisiana, no law exists to prevent the violent separation of parents from their children, or even from each other.7 Slaves may be sold and transferred from one to another without any stat¬ utory restriction, as to the separation of parents and children, i Negroes in the United States, 1904, p. 49. The Negro American Family A similar comparison of races in Massachusetts follows: Conjugal Condition—Negroes of Massachusetts, 1900 mams Single j Married Native white, native parents 52 84 Negro 57 12 FEMALES Native white, native parents 1 50 Negro 50 34tta Report, Mass. Bureau of Statistics. 64 50.99. 37.27 35.71 11.33 12.42 0.34 0.23 Single I Married 1 Widowed loworoed 0.47 0.37 Some other comparisons follow: Conjugal Condition of the Negroes of Xenia, oi Fartnville, of Sandy Spring, and of the Population of the United States, by Sex [The per cents for Xenia, for Farmville, and for Sandy Spring are computed from w.hedules: those for the United States are taken from the United States census re¬ ports for 1890 and 1900.] civil division Kenla Farmville Sandy Spring United States- Native whites native parents — 181(0 19(H) . ... Native whites, foreign parents— 1890 1900 Foreign whites— 1890 1900 Negroes— ' 181)0 1900 TotalUnitedHtates 1890 1900 PER CENT OF MALES C 55 22. OS 25.00 15.85 65.28 65.44 76.72 28.54 28.8 66 08 65.4 4 74 5.4 48.82 48.7 48.65 52.9 2 25 2.9 28.06 25.6 65.98 67.8 5 51 6.5 25.01 26 4 69 02 65.6 5 40 7.0 80.95 SO 1 68.88 68.6 4.65 5.4 8.50 5.15 4 28 PEB CENT OF FEMALES 20 TEABS OF AGE OB OVER ■o S3 o ® xs a £ 0 T3 In these statistics we have striking evidence of the needs of the Negro American home. The broken families indicated by the abnor¬ mal number of widowed and separated, and the late age of marriage, show sexual irregularity and economic pressure. These things all go to prove not the disintegration of Negro family life but the distance which integration has gone and has yet to go. Fifty years ago "fam¬ ily" statistics of nine-tenths of the Negroes would have been impos¬ sible. Twenty-five years ago they would have been far worse than to¬ day, and while there is no perceptibly change of moment in tt^ statistics of 1890 and 1900, most of the tendencies are in the right direc¬ tion, and a healthier home life is in prospect. Section 5. The Size of the Family. The birth rate of the Negro American is not accurately known. It probably runs from 27 per thou¬ sand, as indicated by statistics in Massachusetts, to a birth rate of over 40 per thousand in the rural districts of the South, where the race is still massed. A table of fecundity on a sugar plantation is given as follows: 32 The Negro American Family 0 «-i Females 15 to 19 years of age Females 20 to 29 years of age Females SO to 39 years of age Females U0 yrs. of age or over Females age not reported Children c each fen Females Children Children living Females Children Children living Females Children Children living Females Children | Childx-en living Females Children Children 1 living None.. 1 .... 11 7 1 1 2 2 2 i 11 6 11 9 1 1 2 4 8 5 12 9 1 2 2 2 4 2 3 4 12 6 6 2 6 3 4 . .. 2 8 2 8 ft r> 1 5 2 6 1 5 5 3 15 6 6 . .. . 1 6 1 6 3 7 1 7 5 8 1 8 3 1 8 7 fl 1 9 5 10 3 30 15 il 1 11 10 42 1 12 10 1 12 13 1 13 1 5 14 15 1 15 6 16 2 32 17 Of these 80 women 58 have had children. These 58 have had 268 children, or an average of 4.62 per woman, of which 154, or 57.5per cent are still living. In 34 cases out of the 58 the first child was still living.l 1 U. S. Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor 38:103. Comparing the number of women of child-bearing age we may get some measure of fecundity, although a distorted one on account of the large infant mortality among Negroes: Num,ber of children under 5 years of age to 1,000 females 15 to 44 years of age for the Continental United States:2 Total While 3 Colored Excess of Colored 1;; 249.38 158.0 494.27 871.5 278.19 171.1 525.13 387.0 241.40 lf.6.0 457.83 343.8 297.22 180.4 579 77 3i-7.2 137.63 116.0 204 49 218.9 260.67 161.4 509.61 383.8 These records are but partial, and refer to city Negroes chiefly. The Atlanta University study of 1897 found 1137 city families containing 4742 individuals, composed as follows: Heads of families 1,974 41.63% Children 2,107 45.70% (Grandparents 2 11% Uncles and aunts 2.91% Grandchildren 2 38% Nephews and nieces ™ 1.47% Other relatives 37 78% Boarders and lodgers 148 3.02% 4,742 100.00% Size of the Family 35 The size of the Negro family is unknown. There were,, in 1900, 1,833,854 private Negro families in the United States. Sueh private families represent 98 per cent of the total population. Assuming that they represent 98 per cent of the Negro population—and this is pure assumption—they would contain 8,663,973 or 4.6 persons to a family, a figure probably lower than the truth. Some data bearing upon the size of the family may be found in the bulletins of the United States Bureau of Labor; by combining four tables there we have this: Negro Families by Size in Four Towns 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 It) 20 21 22 24 25 INCLUDING ALL CHILDREN BORN INCLUDING ALL CHILDREN LIVING INCLUDING THE PRESENT CENSUS-FAMILY GROUP No. Of Families 22 108 109 109 76 59 49 58 37 45 87 24 27 26 13 7 6 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 Total.. 821 Average No. of Persons 216 327 436 380 354 343 464 333 450 407 288 351 364 195 112 102 54 19 20 21 22 24 25 5,329 6.49 Families 54 209 189 152 110 90 75 70 32 24 19 10 8 2 2 1,047 Persons 54 418 567 608 550 540 525 560 288 240 209 120 104 28 30 17 4,858 4.64 Families 78 191 194 154 125 91 56 45 36 19 14 2 2 1,010 Persons 78 582 616 625 546 324 190 154 24 26 28 15 4,342 4.3 A* table of Negro families by size in four small towns, a district in the black belt, and for all races in the United States, 1890 and 1900, follows in percentages: Members ifl family Georgia Country district Negroes Ohio Town Negroes Maryland Town Negroes Virginia Town Negroes United States Total families 1890 1900 2-6 7-10 11 and over Total 9.09 73.95 15 33 1.63 10 18 80.84 8.18 .80 5.45 63.64 26.06 4.85 4,96 72.90 19.47 2.67 363 73.33 20.97 2.07 5.00 74.70 18.10 2.20 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.00% 100.0.% 100.00% The sources of error in these statistics are: the broken families among Negroes, which for economic and social reasons increase the apparent families of one and two, and the absence of large hotel and institution families in the Negro group. 36 The Negro American Family The economic condition of the Negro is influencing the sex morals of the race in two ways: First, present low wages and a rising economic standard is postponing marriage to an age dangerously late for a folk in the Negro's present moral development. Secondly, present econ¬ omic demand draws the Negro women to the city and keeps the men in the country, causing a dangerous disproportion of the sexes, as Mr. Kelly Miller has pointed out.1 The enormous preponderance of colored females over males, especially in our large cities, is a persistent and aggravating factor which has almost wholly escaped the attention of our sociological philosophers. The census of 1900 gives 4,447,568 Negro females against 4,393,221 Negro males, leaving an excess of 54,347 of the gentler sex in the United States. This gives a residue of thirteen left-over women to each thousand of the male population. But this is utterly insignificant when compared with the excesses revealed by the statistics of the large cities. The predominance of the female element is per¬ haps the most striking phenomenon of the urban Negro population. The subjoined figures will show this excess in fifteen cities of more than 20,000 N egroes. Excess of Colored Females, 1900 Excess No. females OlTT Females Males of to each • females 100 males Washington 48,854 38.348 10,006 126 Baltimore 44,195 35,063 9,132 126 New Orleans 42,585 35,129 7,456 121 Philadelphia 33,673 28,940 4,733 116 New York 33,534 27,132 6,402 124 Memphis 25,359 24,551 808 103 Louisville 20,297 18,842 1,455 108 Atlanta 20,921 14,806 6,115 143 St. Louis 18,020 17,496 524 103 Richmond 17,878 14,354 3,524 123 Charleston 17,552 13,970 3,582 125 Nashville 16,775 13,269 3,506 125 Chicago 14,(177 16,073 *1,996 88 Savannah 15,344 12,746 2,598 120 Norfolk 10,738 9,492 1,246 113 Total 379,312 320,221 59,091 118 * Surplus Males. These cities, with an aggregate Negro population of 699,533, show a female excess of 59,091. Chicago is the only city where the females are not in the majority, which is doubtless due to the fact that a new city is always first settled by the men, who pave the way for a subsequent female influx. If every Negro male in these cities should be assigned a helpmeet there would still remain eighteen left-over females for every one hundred couples. In Atlanta this unfortunate residue reaches the startling proportion of 43 out of a hundred. Washington and Baltimore have respectively 10,006 and 9,132 hopeless females, for whom there are neither present nor prospective hus¬ bands. No such astounding disproportion prevails anywhere among the white race. The surplus women who give Mrs. Gilman such anxious solici¬ tude scarcely exceed one in a hundred even in such man-forsaken cities as New York and Boston. If then the evil be a threatening one among the white race with such an insignificant surplus, what must be said of its mul¬ tiplied enormity when we turn to the situation of the black race, where the excess is more than one-sixth of the male sex? Preponderance of one sex i Miller: Race Adjustment, pp. 169-170. Sexual Morals 37 over the other forebodes nothing but evil to society. The maladjustment of economic and social conditions upsets the scale where nature intended a balance. The argument of Mrs. Grilman is as correct as it is courageous: "Where women preponderate in large numbers," she says, "there is a pro¬ portionate increase in immorality, because women are cheap; where men preponderate in large numbers there is also immorality because women are dear." Section 6. Sexual Morals. Without doubt the point where the Negro American is furthest behind modern civilization is in his sex¬ ual mores This does not mean that he is more criminal in this respect than his neighbors. Probably he is not. It does mean that he is more primitive, less civilized, in this respect than his surroundings demand, and that thus his family life is less efficient for its onerous social duties, his womanhood less protected, his children more poorly trained. All this, however, is to be expected. This is what slavery meant, and no amount of kindliness in individual owners conld save the system from its deadly work of disintegrating the ancient Negro home and putting but a poor substitute in its place. The point is how¬ ever, now, what has been the effect of emancipation on the mores of the Negro family. The great and most patent fact has been differentiation: the emer¬ gence from the mass, of successive classes with higher and higher sexual morals. Of. this, unfortunately, there is no adequate measure¬ ment. Subjoined are the figures of total and illegitimate births in Wash¬ ington, D. C.: Washington, D. C. Year 18T0.... 1879.... 1880.... 1881.... 1882... 1883.... 1884.... 1885.... 1886.... 1887.... 1888.... 1889.... 1890.... 1891 1892.... 1898.... 1894.... 1895.... 18% 1897.... 1898..■. 1899.... 1900.... . 1901 1902.... 1903.... 1904.... 1905.... 1906.... 1907.... Total Negro Births Reported ,659 793 ,536 ,592 ,397 ,482 ,500 ,584 ,761 ,756 ,804 ,848 ,891 ,910 ,963 ,001 ,942 ,842 ,875 ,043 ,737 ,867 ,735 ,846 ,817 ,224 ,275 ,199 ,322 Percentage of Illegitimate Births Reported Negro Population 18.8 18.1 18.6 19.7 21.1 20.2 22.2 22.9 19.5 22.3 26.2 26.4 25.0 27.1 26.7 25.7 26.8 27.0 25.9 25.1 27.6 25.5 24.3 24.7 22.7 24.6 24.7 22.1 21.4 43,404 59,596 75,572 86,702 38 The Negro American Family These figures are very imperfect. The total Negro births in Wash¬ ington are quite unknown, being only partially reported; the illegiti¬ mate birth reports come from hospitals and city physicians, and it is impossible to say whether they are as far below the truth as the total birth reports, or not. Comparing this reported illegitimacy with other localities, we have: Massachusetts, 1856-91 IB per 1,000 Belgium, 1900 74.5 " " Austria, 1881-95 147.7 " " Negroes in Washington, 1907 214 " " Large cities of Bavaria 268 " " Salzburg (Province, Austria) 272 " " Kaernthen (Province, Austria) 435 " " Jamaica, 1897 611 " " Compared with the population the apparent illegitimate birth-rate of Washington Negroes was: 1880 5.4 per 1,000 births. 1890 6.4 " " " 1900 5.5 " " " While these figures are a very doubtful basis of exact judgment, they point without doubt to wide-spread sexual irregularity. But this irreg¬ ularity belongs to thfe undifferentiated mass: some of them decent people, but behind civilization by training and instinct. Above these and out of these are continually rising, however, classes who must not be confounded with them. Of the raising of the sex mores of the Negro by these classes the fact is clear and unequivocal: they have raised them and are raising them. There is more female purity, more male continence, and a healthier home life today than ever before among Negroes in America. The testimony supporting this is overwhelming. A Baltimore slum-worker says: My work in a large city has covered a period of nearly fourteen years. Thousands of girls have passed under my observation; many of them have already begun their careers, several are teachers in the Baltimore city school system, and are doing their part in life. The home life of all these individuals was not of the best kind, but with this much to be deplored in their condition I believe the per cent of immorality to be low. At this writing, my work is in a veritable slum. Degradation of every kind is rampant. In the next block above us houses of ill fame line both sides of the street. The occupants of these places are white. In a street parallel to this are houses occupied by both white and colored. Many of our children come from these places. The greatest per cent of degradation I have ever witnessed exists here. What the harvest shall be only Providence knows; but, taken all in all, I believe that 8 per cent would cover the mathemat¬ ical reckoning as far as figures may be taken indicative of conditions of society. The principal of Hampton writes: I have had an experience of twenty-one years with colored people, during which time I have been intimately acquainted with a large number of them at Hampton Institute. I have gone into their homes and have had perhaps as much opportunity as most any white man for knowing intimately their life. Sexual Morals 39 I am glad to bear witness to my knowledge of the clean, pure lives of a large number whom I have known. I have often said, what I believe to be true, that it would be hard to find in any white institution in the North the freedom from low talk and impure life as is to be found at Hampton, where 1,000 young people of two races are brought together. The colored race is not degraded. Many of the young people who came to me years ago had no conception of the wrong of certain lines of conduct and who, since they have gained that knowledge, have lived up to what they know. I have seen young people coming from one-room cabins, where morality seems well nigh impos¬ sible, who sloughed that old life, and have made good use of the cleared knowledge which they have gained at Hampton. I have often said that my own boy would be less likely to hear low talk here than in most Northern institutions for the whites. My own judgment in the matter is confirmed in the experience of others. For a number of weeks an English gentleman, who is making a most careful study of the race, has been staying at the school. He has mingled with the boys in their play, in their workshops and in their dormitories, and he confirms my im¬ pression and that of my disciplinarian, who himself is a colored man, living in close contact with the young people of the school. A Southern white woman of Virginia says: It was the most sorrowful part of slavery that there could be no legal mar¬ riage for the slaves, no protection for the virtue of women. Even now there are no laws to protect the colored girl, such as have always existed for her white sisters. In discussing any question that relates to the Negroes, regard should be given to the rapid formation of classes among them. There is a respectable class, and this class is increasing, where married parents live virtuous lives, guard the sanctity of their homes, and strive to bring up their children in the path of virtue. The principal of a large Negro girls' school writes: When a Southern white man told my predecessor that all Negro women were impure his reply was, "I suppose you know, I don't." I have seen Negro women who I have good reason to believe are living virtuous lives under con¬ ditions of trial such as our virtuous white women as a class know nothing about. Through my sainted wife I know of examples of colored women whose firmness in resisting temptation makes them worthy to represent any race. Of those same women I can speak without reserve on all these points. Their modesty and genuine worth are conceded by white, as well as colored; their marital fidelity is above question. Many of them have passed through the stage of courtship and entered married life under my own personal observa¬ tion, and even the most fastidious could find nothing but what was proper and pure. We have Negro women around us here who are for duty's sake remaining single, though sought by the very best of our young'men. One of the most touching things to come under my notice has been the many mothers who come to beg us to take their girls, saying, "I know I am not what I ought to be, but I don't want her to be like me." We could fill Scotia over and over again every year with girls whose parents want them in a safe place, so that they may grow into good women. In these nearly fifteen years we have not had the basis of a scandal involving a member of this school inside of our grounds, and we believe that our record as a school* both for honesty and purity, will bear comparison with the female schools generally. 40 The Negro American Family It would not be wise however in our zeal to refute the false assertions in Mr. Thomas's book to overlook the fact that many of them are in a measure true. We cannot do our duty to the Negro while we keep ourselves ignoran of his true condition, and no Thomas or any other man can overdraw the picture of the morals of the uncared-for masses of the Negro in the South, not because they are Negroes, but because they are uncared for. From the black belt of Alabama a white woman writes: I have been for thirteen years working among, for and with, Negroes. The first four years' work and life were at Hampton, and I will say nothing much about that, for the Hampton teachers have a better and larger knowledge of students and graduates than I have. I would say, however, that it was because I saw such positive proof of high-mindedness and beauty of char¬ acter among the Negroes and because we saw, year after year, the coining in of earnest, self-respecting boys and girls, that Miss Dillingham and I felt we must go out and show the way of light to some who lived in dark places and had never had a chance to know what really was the right in any part of life. It was because we had firm belief in the Negro that we came, and each year but carries deeper conviction that we were then right. We came here (Cal¬ houn) in 1892. During the nine years since I have been constantly filled with admiration of the people who, with but little to work for and with constant and deep temptations, are able to withstand the temptation and struggle on to get a precarious living, in the strength of high convictions and deep and ever-increasing self-respect. When we came we felt that the free living rep¬ resented sin, but in a very few months we believed it represented the natural iife of a group of people who had never been shown or taught life on a higher plane. After a few months of life among them they took hold of what little we could do and began to reconstruct their lives. Of course we found many whom we then believed, and still feel, were leading pure, good lives, merely from inborn instincts. In regard to the morality of our girls at school, I do not want to omit a statement which, knowing the community, seems to be almost miraculous. In the last twelve years only two girls who have ever been in our school have been known to go wrong. One was of mixed Indian, Negro and white blood. She has been brought up in a house of vice and brutality, has heard bad language and low talk and seen low life and brutal living ever since babyhood; has been brutally beaten and knocked about, and it was small wonder that she died last week in sin of every sort. The other, a girl of six¬ teen, is feeble-minded, so that after trying to teach her for four years we found she knew but little more than when she started in school. These two cases had not been in school for several years, and are the only ones out of many hundreds who have attended who have gone astray. Our boys and young men from sixteen to twenty-five years of age are up¬ right and self-respecting in the majority of cases. Of course, in this com¬ munity, one of the worst in the whole South, when we came here we found all kinds, good and bad, but there is daily evidence of desire and strivings for high standards of living, and victories over self that are marvelous. From the black belt of Mississippi a teacher writes: The trend and tendency are very decidedly towards better things in the moral life, and it has been in existence long enough to have molded a very considerable portion of the Negro people to a nobler life than Thomas seems to know about. The more I study the matter the more I am convinced that Sexual Morals 41 with all the evils resultant from slavery and from the sudden freedom, the indictments brought against the race now have never been fully true, and it is less true now than formerly. I have had fourteen years of experience and observation in teaching in the heart of the black belt of Mississippi. There is an increasing number of men who have a high regard for chaste womanhood, who are earnest in the desire to protect women from impurity of every kind. They welcome and forward such agencies; for the promotion of purity is the White Cross with its pledge of reverence for women. The number of girls who would resent solicitations to evil is not a small one and among those who have been carefully reared, who have bad some¬ thing of moral training, the percentage of those who go astray is a small one. The number of homes where the pure ideal of family life exists has increased constantly since I have been in the South. There are some pure homes among the poor and illiterate. Among those who are educated the dishonored homes are few. A colored Y. M. C. A. secretary of wide travel and experience says: After fourteen years of constant laboring among my people throughout the South, especially among young men in the cities and students in the boarding schools of all grades, I am firmly convinced that a heroic and suc¬ cessful fight is being waged against immoral tendencies inherited from cen¬ turies of debasing slavery. Of course there is much dross yet to be burned away before we can have only pure gold remaining. I confess with great sorrow of heart that there are some members of my race, and possibly a large proportion, who could be put down as fitting one or more of the foul characteristics of Mr. Thomas, nor do I seek to cover this acknowledgment with the fact that in every other race on the earth, indi¬ viduals can be found equally low in life and character. But there are various classes among the freedmen as among other people. Born and reaped in Canada, and having spent three years just prior to my coming South in 1888 as a civil servant at Ottawa, where I mingled freely in church and social life with some of the best of white Canadians, I find myself greatly encouraged as I compare my experience of the past fourteen years with those of my earlier life, and especially the three years referred to above* I have met in all sections of the country hundreds of colored women whose bearing has been as suggestive of good as that of the women of the fairer race in the North. I have also come into close contact with thousands of young men whom I know to be struggling against unfortunate inherited tendencies and unfavorable environment. It is true that only a few of the Negro race have yet attained to the degree of perfection possible among men, but between those few and the submerged masses is a promising and inspiring host of men and women in various stages of moral, intellectual and industrial evolution. While, "then, the tendencies are hopeful, still the truth remains: sex¬ ual immorality is probably the greatest single plague spot among Ne¬ gro Americans, and its greatest cause is slavery and the present utter disregard of a black woman's virtue and self-respect, both in law court and custom in the South. One thing further may be said, with diffidence but hearty conviction. The marriage mores of modern European culture nations, while in many respects superior to those of other peoples, are far from satis- 42 The Negro American Family factory, as Prostitution, Divorce and Childlessness prove only too con¬ clusively. Much has been written as to remedies and improvements, chiefly in the line of punishing prostitution, denying divorce and stressing child-bearing as a duty. It seems to the writer that here the Negro race may teach the world something. Just as Olivier has pointed out that what is termed Negro "laziness" may be a means of making modern workingmen demand more rational rest and enjoy¬ ment rather than permitting themselves to be made machines, so too the Negro woman, with her strong desire for motherhood, may teach modern civilization that virginity, save as a means of healthy mother¬ hood, is an evil and not a divine attribute. That while the sexual appetite is the most easily abused of all human appetites and most deadly when perverted, that nevertheless it is a legitimate, beneficent appetite when normal, and that no civilization can long survive which stigmatizes it as essentially nasty and only to be discussed in shame¬ faced whispers. The Negro attitude in these matters is in many re¬ spects healthier and more reasonable. Their sexual passions are strong and frank, but they are, despite example and temptation, only to a limited degree perverted or merely commercial. The Negro mother- love and family instinct is strong, and it regards the family as a means, not an end, and although the end in the present Negro mind is usually personal happiness rather than social order, yet even here radical reformers of divorce courts have something to learn. Part 2. The Home1 Section 7. Africa. The general description of African homes given in Ratzel2 presents a good picture of the present Negro home on that continent: The domiciles of the Negroes, in the widespread tendency to grouping round a central point, and to fencing, as well as in the prevalent light con¬ struction with grass, reeds, stalks or boughs, show a principal due to no¬ madism. Genuine nomads build temporary huts of brushwood, which they protect by laying mats or skins over them; a construction which extends from the fish-eaters of the Red Sea even to the Hottentots. The only firm part of these huts is some kind of stone wall carried round them to prevent the rain from washing away the sand, and the water from pouring into the house.2 Among the pastoral races the individual huts are usually placed in a circle round an open space, into which the herds are driven and at night. Larger villages often contain several enclosures, hedged or palisaded, for herds and flocks; and the whole settlement is finally once more surrounded by a large hedge. This main hedge is further strengthened with a stockade, and in the agricultural villages a ditch is added. All the Babemba villages are thus fortified. But a chief point in laying out an African village is to make the approach difficult. This is defended, as for instance by the Fans, with poi- 1 Considerable parts of sections 7-11 were first published by the editor in the South- em Workman, vols. 30 and 31, and are here reproduced by permission. 2 Ratzel: History of Mankind, II; pp. 398-102. The African Home 43 soned splinters of reed stuck in the ground just after the Borneo fashion; or, in extreme cases, is placed in a forest stream, in the sand of which tell-tale footprints are quickly washed out.1 The conical style of hut-building prevails among nearly all the Negroes of Africa. The plan is circular or oval, the elevation conical or bee-hive shaped, with the entrance low; the height being that of a man, and the diameter twice as much. The bee-hive shape is the most frequent. Even the large handsome palaces of the Waganda and Wanyoro, or the regular huts of the tribes on the Upper Nile, are nothing else. Around this type are grouped the huts from the Niger to the Nile, and from Suakop to Sobat. Roomier and more comfortable huts are found especially in the Upper Nile district: as among the Bongos, whose huts run to 24 feet in height, or the Jurs; but how¬ ever commodious the internal dimensions may be, the door is always low and, as a rule, there are no windows. While the round or scattered arrangement of the village harmonises with the circular plan of this style of architecture, rectangular huts result in its being laid out in streets. A band of rectangular hut-building passes from the Manyema country through the northern Congo basin to the Cameroons. Here two rows of dwelling-huts form a street or row, closed at the two ends by council-houses, or similar "public buildings." The ingress and egress are in the longitudinal sides. The houses of one side often lie under one common roof, so as to produce two "long houses" lying opposite to each other. In this we may perhaps recognise the early state of things out of which the rectan¬ gular single premises have grown. We are still more reminded of the Ameri¬ can or Polynesian "long houses" by the sleeping quarters for unmarried men which are found, from the Madi country westwards, through the whole region of rectangular building. In West Africa the little round huts of the restless Babongo are found intermingled with the rectangular Fan huts. From the Fish river to Uganda and Liberia, Africa, devoid of cities, shows only slight variations in style of building and arrangement; and these are due partly to the material, partly to transmitted customs. South of the Zam¬ besi the building is not so good because material is less abundant, and quite the best building is in the northeast; but the work is everywhere transitory, because straw, reeds, and mud are used by preference.2 Larger buildings, used as palaces and assembly houses, are executed in both styles. The palace huts of the Wahuma chiefs, which are over 30 feet high, and have an arched entrance 12 or more feet high; the palace-hall of the Monbuttu king, described by Schweinfurth, 50 feet high, 65 feet wide, 165 feet long, are mighty edifices for the circumstances of Central Africa. The "palaver huts" of West Africa do not fall far short of these. Cholet found the hall of a small chief in the trading village of Kosso to be 13 feet long and 65 wide. Buildings of this kind are decorated with colors, usually black, white and red, and with wood-carvings. Here, again, South Africa is behind the northern equatorial region. # In East Africa we find the mud-huts, often half under ground, surrounding a large rectangular court, known as tembe, and in transition-regions like Darfour, we see stone and mud-houses mixed with the conical huts; but,wher- ever Moorish and Arab influences in Africa has not led to stone building, and so to the ornamental style, the village-premises in Africa are of little com¬ pactness, and correspondingly small and perishable.4 1 Ratzel: History of Mankind, Vol. II, p. 398. 2 Ibid, pp. 399-400. 3 Ibid, p. 400. 4 Ibid, p. 401. 44 The Negro American Family Some villages on the west coast are described as composed of square, gable- roofed huts, ranging on both sides of one or more broad streets, and built always on the banks of streams—the natural high¬ ways of the land. In the rear of each house is a small kitchen garden, but the plantations, worked by the women, are a mile or so distant in the forest.1 Further east, on the banks of the Congo, villages may be found consisting of a number of low conical grass huts, ranged round a circular common. In the center are several large shady fig trees. The doorways to the huts are very low—scarcely thirty inches in height.2 Further down the Congo appear the long-house villages, much like similar types among the North American Indians. The long rows of houses are all connected together in blocks of from fifty to three hundred yards in length. The doorways are square apertures in the walls, two feet square and about a foot and a half above the ground. Within, the long block is divided into several apartments for the respective families forming the clan. The roof glistens with a coating of tar, and there are shelves for fuel and netting for swinging the crockery. 3 The town of Ikondu.in the northern part of the Congo Free State has for homes double cages tastefully built of grass-cane, 7 feet long by 5 feet wide and 6 feet high. These cages are separate but connected by a common roof, so that the central apartments are common to both cages, and in these the families meet, perform their household duties, receive friends, and chat. "These cane cages are as cozy, comfortable and dry as ships' cabins," and are surrounded by banana trees, gardens and great tracts of waving sugar-cane.4 Of the homes themselves we learn that they usually consist of one and two rooms, kept in a neat and orderly manner, for the most part, and not crowded with inmates. The hut was designed primarily for sleeping and shelter in time of storm, and most of the lives of inmates were passed out of doors. A hut on the west coast is described as con- sisting^of two rooms, one used as a kitchen and sitting-room, the other as a sleeping apartment. In the middle of the kitchen, elevated above the clay floor, was the fire-place, the smoke of which must escape by the low door. Here, from morning to night, some sort of cooking is carried on by the women—steaming cassava, boiling or roasting plan¬ tains, stewing fish or wild meat. The children have some little mess of their own to cook—an ear of maize, or some little fish.6 At night, when the evening meal was served, all this village seated themselves together but grouped by families, in the open air, either on low stools or on the ground, around the basin of vegetables and the little iron pot with fish and nut gravy. Plantain leaves were used as plates, and torches of the gum trees flared and lighted the night. After the meal, all drank from jugs of water, carefully cleaned mouth and teeth with their fingers, and threw away the plates on the waste heap at the end of the street. 6 iNassau: Mawedo, p. 81. 2Stanley: Through the Dark Continent, II, p, 72. 3 Stanley: Through the Dark Continent, II, pp. 133-135. ' ^Stanley: Ibid, II, pp. 169-170. SNassau: Mawedo, p. 52. ^Nassau: Ibid, p 31 The African Home 45 Such homes and customs vary infinitely in different parts of Africa. Among the Zulus of South Africa the huts are built in circular kraals and are made of long poles, the ends of which are fastened in the ground and the tops bent together and lashed about with a tough native vine. Thus a strong, basket-like roof is made, resting on up¬ right posts and covered tightly with long grass. Such huts are very strong, are impervious to rain, and within, the dirt floors are often polished like a mirror.1 At the other extreme of Africa, about the headwaters of the Nile, Schweinfurth found dwellings 30 x 20 feet, with projecting roofs, covered with grass and skins. The walls were B to 6 feet high, and bound together with split Spanish reed. Such huts are astonishingly strong. The doorway is large and closed by a door made of one piece. The hut is divided into two apartments. The huts of the Dinka, still further down the Nile, are conical and often 40 feet in diameter. Their foundations are of clay and chopped straw, and the supports of hard wood. Such buildings last eight or ten years. 2 This casual glance at some of the homes of the African barbarians of today will serve to give us, perhaps, a fairly correct idea of the homes of our Negro ancestors. The slaves came from all parts of Africa, from all stages of barbaric culture, and from homes like those we have noted, as well as, probably, from others worse and better. Section 8. Slavery. Once landed in the West Indies and "sea¬ soned" to the new climate and surroundings, the slaves built houses not unlike those they had left at home. Nothing was provided for them save some rough building material. From this the slaves constructed their homes, driving four posts into the ground and weav¬ ing the walls of wattles so as to make a room 10 x 15 feet and 5 or 6 feet high, or possibly two rooms. There was no floor, window, or fire¬ place, and the roof was thatched with palms. Furniture was scanty; a rough platform raised the sleepers from the earth, and this some¬ times had a mat or blanket; then there was perhaps a table, some low stools, an earthen jar for water, an iron pot for cooking and calabashes for eating. The cooking was done out of doors usually, and if the fire was made indoors there was no place for smoke to escape save through the doorway. When slaves were few and land plentiful these rude homes were not unpleasant. They often had two rooms, could be kept clean and shady; and something like the old African life, with quasi-chief, medicine¬ man and polygamy appeared. Such tendencies, however, quickly passed, and the cold brutality of slavery appeared, where life was nothing and sugar was all. The homes of the slaves became dirty one- room lodges where, crowded like cattle, men slept in dreamless stupor after endless hours of forced and driven toil. All pretense at marriage and the protection of black women was virtually swept away, and 1 Tyler: Forty Years Among the Zulus, pp. 41-43. 2 Schweinfurth: Heart of Africa, II, pp. 118,119,160. 46 The Negro American Family herded and whipped like cattle, the black men existed until like beasts they fell in their tracks and died, and fresh loads of half putrid new¬ comers were emptied on the shores by the thrift of British noblemen and New England deacons. - When slaves were brought to the mainland of America, different building materials and colder climate substituted the square log hut for the older forms. At first the slaves were housed in rough cabins near the master, and the accommodations of the two differed chiefly in size and furniture. Thus arose the first type of slave home in America—the "Patriarchal Group." The central idea of this arrange¬ ment was distinctly mediaeval and feudal, and consequently familiar to its white founders. First there was the house of the master—a large log house of two or four rooms; near it were grouped the one-room log cabins. With the light building material of the Indies it cost little more trouble to build two rooms than to build one. But with the heavy logs of Carolina pine, one room was as much as could be afforded. The room was ten to fourteen feet square, and six or more feet high; it had still the dirt floor. A cooler climate, however, made some other pro¬ visions necessary; a rough fire-place of stones was made, sometimes with a hole in the roof for the smoke and sometimes with a chimney of clay and wood. A hole in the wall, closed by a wooden shutter, served with the door for light and ventilation. The slave cabin was thus a smaller and meaner edition of the Big House; there the chim¬ ney was stone or brick, the house of logs, with board floor, and parti¬ tioned into two or four rooms and a hall. Here the group lived as master and men. At first the bond between them was almost purely legal and economic. The slaves were white and black, and the social station of the master not usually high. The condition of the bondsmen therefore depended largely on accident and whim. Here they were squalid, dirty, and driven with the lash; there a lazy, dawdling crowd, or again, simply thrifty farm-hands. Out of this chaos evolved the Virginia ideal. The white bond-servants became gradually free and migrated southward; a rigid slave-code carefully fixed the status of the black slave; he was no longer allowed to intermarry with white servants or to become a full-fledged freeman; on the other hand, exces¬ sive and wanton cruelty toward him was in some degree restrained. The slave had learned the English language and had assumed Chris¬ tianity. Bonds of friendship and intimacy grew up between black and white; the physical group of Big House and cabins differentiated; some came nearer, others receded, but all formed a great feudal family of lord and retainers. But the curse of such families, with slaves at the bottom and a privi¬ leged aristocracy at the top, ever was and ever will be, sexual debauch¬ ery. The morals of black women and white men are found to be ruined under such an arrangement, unless long-revered custom and self- respect enter to check license. But the African home with its cus¬ toms had long ago been swept away, and slavery is simply a system for crushing self-respect. Nevertheless time was slowly beginning to The Slave Home 47 provide remedies. White fathers could not see their black children utterly neglected, and white mothers saw the danger of surrounding their sons with vice and ignorance. Thus, gradually, the better class of slaves were brought closer into the bosom of the family as house- servants. Religion • and marriage rites received more attention and the Negro monogamic family rose as a dependent off-shoot of the feu¬ dal slave regime. The first sign of this was the improvement in the Negro home; the house of the house-servants became larger,sometimes with two rooms; a more careful regard for outward decency was mani¬ fest, and the direct intercourse between the cabin and Big House brought better manners and ways of living. One can easily imagine in this development how slavery might have worked itself out for the good of black ,and white. And usually those persons North and South who dwell on the advantages and training of slavery have this phase of development in mind. The cotton-gin doomed the patriarchal slave group. Commercial slavery, which looked upon the slave primarily as an investment, meant death to the Negro home. One of the first signs of the changed condition of things was, perhaps, the "Detached Group" as I shall des¬ ignate the second type of slave homes. The "Detached Group" was the group of slave cabins without a Big House—i. e., removed from the direct eye of the master, either to a far part of the same plantation or to a different plantation. The Big House has turned to brick, with imposing proportions, surrounded by trees and gardens and a certain state and elegance with which the old South was flavored. The house- servants are now either lodged in the Big House or in trim cabins near. The mass of the slaves are down at the "quarters" by themselves, unr der the direct eye of the overseer. This change was slight in appear- ance but of great importance; it widened the distance between the top and bottom of the social ladder, it placed a third party between master and slave, and it removed the worst side of the slave hierarchy far from the eyes of its better self. From the "Detached Group" to "Absentee Landlordism" was but a step. The rich lands to the southwest, the high price of cotton, and the rapidly increasing internal slave trade, was the beginning of a system of commercial slavery in the gulf states which will ever remain a disgraceful chapter in American history. In its worst phase there was no Big House and cultivated master, only an unscrupulous, paid overseer, lawless and almost irresponsible if he only made crops large enough. The homes of the field hands were filthy hovels where they slept. There was no family life, no meals, no marriages, no decency, only an endless round of toil and a wild debauch at Christmas time. In the forests of Louisiana, the bottoms of Mississippi, and the Sea Islands of Georgia, where the Negro slave sank lowest in oppression and help¬ lessness, the Negro home practically disappeared, and the house was simply rude, inadequate shelter. But whither went the Big House, when so entirely separated from the slave quarters? It moved to town and with it moved the house- 48 The Negro American Family servants. These privileged slaves were trained and refined from con¬ tact with the masters; they were often allowed to accumulate apecu- lium; they were in some cases freed and gained considerable property, holding it in some friendly white man's name. Their home life im¬ proved, and although it was far from ideal, yet it was probably as good as that of the Northern workingman, with some manifest differences; sexual looseness was the weakest point, arising from subordination to the whites and the lessons learned therefrom by the servants them¬ selves. They lived often in small one or two-room homes behind the masters' mansions, reached by alleys—a method which has since left the peculiar alley problem in Southern cities. Some of the slaves and the freedmen lived in a Negro quarter by themselves, although the dis¬ tinctive Negro quarter of towns is largely post-bellum. Thus we have in slavery times, among other tendencies and many exceptions, three fairly distinct types of Negro homes: the patriarchal type, found at its best in Virginia, where the housing of the slaves might be compared with that of the poorest of the Northern working- men; the separate group and absentee type where the slaves had prac¬ tically no homes and no family life; and the town group where the few house-servants were fairly well housed. In discussing slavery and inci¬ dents connected with it, these varying circumstances are continually lost sight of. The house of the slave, which I have sought to show in its various relationships and degrees of squalor, had certain general character¬ istics which we must notice carefully. First, there was the lack of comfort; the Negro knew nothing of the little niceties and com¬ forts of the civilized home—everything of beauty and taste had disap¬ peared with the uprooting of the African home, and little had been learned to replace them. Thus, even to this day, there is a curious bareness and roughness in the country Negro home, the remains of an uncouthness which in slavery times made the home anything but a pleasant, lovable place. There were, for instance, few chairs with backs, no sheets on the beds, no books, no newspapers, no closets or out-houses, no bedrooms, no tablecloths and very few dishes, no carpets and usually no floors, no windows, no pictures, no clocks, no lights at night save that of the fire-place, little or nothing save bare rough shelter. Secondly, and closely connected with the first, was the lack of hygi¬ enic customs: every nation has its habits and customs handed down from elders, which have enabled the race to survive. But the continu¬ ity of Negro family tradition bad been broken and the traditions of the white environment never learned; then, too, the rules and exactions of the plantation favored unhealthy habits; there ensued a disgusting lack of personal cleanliness, bad habits of eating and sleeping, habits of breathing bad air, of wearing inadequate clothing—all such changes and abuses in everyday life for which the world's grandchildren must eventually pay. Thirdly, there was in the slave home necessarily almost an entire lack The Slave Home 49 of thrift, or the ordinary incentives to thrift. The food and fuel were certain, and extra faithfulness or saving could make little or no differ¬ ence. On the other hand, cunning and thieving could secure many a forbidden knick-knack, far more than honest cultivation of the little garden spot which each family often had. The thriftiest slave could only look forward to slavery for himself and children. Fourthly, there was the absence of the father—that is, the lack of authority in the slave father to govern or protect his family. His wife could be made his master's concubine, his daughter could be outraged, his son whipped, or he himself sold away without his being able'to pro¬ test or lift a preventing finger. Naturally, his authority in his own house was simply such as could rest upon brute force alone, and he easily sank to a position of male guest in the house, without respect or responsibility. Fifthly, and correlated to the last, was the absence of the mother. The slave mother could spend little or no time at home. She was either a field-hand or a house-servant, and her children had little care or attention. She was often the concubine of the master or his sons, or, if unmolested in this quarter, was married to a husband who could not protect her, and from whom she could at any time be parted by her master's command or by his death or debts. Such a family was not an organism at best; and, in its worst aspect, it was a fortuitous agglom¬ eration of atoms. From the following pictures of slave homes one gets varying degrees, ranging from the worst to the best: The dwellings of the slaves were palmetto huts, built by themselves of stakes and poles, thatched with the palmetto leaf. The door, when they had any, was generally of the same materials, sometimes boards found on the beach. They had no floors, no separate apartments, except the Guinea Negroes had sometimes a small enclosure for their "god house." These huts the slaves built themselves after task and on Sundays.—Florida, 1830. The houses for the field-slaves were about fourteen feet square, built in the coarsest manner, with one room, without any chimney or flooring, with a hole in the roof to let the smoke out.—South Carolina, 1819. The huts of the slaves are mostly of the poorest kind. They are not as good as those temporary shanties which are thrown up beside railroads. They are erected with posts and crotches, with but little or no frame work about them. They have no stoves or chimneys; some of them have something like a fire¬ place at one end, and a board or two off at that side, or on the roof, to let off the smoke. Others have nothing like a fireplace in them; in these the fire is sometimes made in the middle of the hut. These buildings have but one apartment in them; the places where they pass in and out serve both for doors and windows; the sides and roof are covered with coarse, and in many in¬ stances with refused, boards.—1840. On old plantations the Negro quarters are of frame and clapboards, seldom affording a comfortable shelter from wind or rain; their size varies from 8 by 10 to 10 by 12 feet, and six or eight feet high ; sometimes there is a hole cut for a window, but I never saw a sash or glass in any. In the new country and in the woods, the quarters are generally built of logs, of similar dimensions. —1840. 50 The Negro American Family Amongst all the Negro cabins which I saw in Virginia I cannot call to mind one in which there was any other floor than the earth ; anything that a Nort ern laborer or mechanic, white or colored, would call a bed; nor a solitary partition to separate the sexes.—Virginia, 1840. The slaves live generally in miserable huts, which are without floors and have single apartment only, where both sexes are herded promiscuously together.—Missouri, 1837. The dwellings of the slaves are log huts, from 10 by 12 feet square; often without windows, doors, or floors, they have neither chairs, table or bedstead. —Alabama, 1837.1 On a very large plantation there were many exceptionally small Negro cabins, not more than twelve feet square interiorly. They stood in two rows with a wide street between them. They were built of logs with no windows —no opening at all except the doorway, with a chimney of sticks and mud; with no trees about them, no porches or shade of any kind. Except for the chimney—the purpose of which I should not readily have guessed—if I had seen one of them in New England I should have conjectured that it had been built for a powder-house, or perhaps an ice-house; never for an animal to sleep in.—South Carolina, 1859. 2 There was a street or common two hundred feet wide, on which the cabins of the Negroes fronted. Each cabin was a frame building, the walls boarded and whitewashed on the outside, lathed and plastered within, the roof shin¬ gled; forty-two feet long, twenty-one feet wide, divided into two family tene¬ ments, each twenty-one by twenty-one; each tenement divided into three rooms—one the common household apartment, twenty-one by ten; each of the others (bedrooms),'ten by ten. There was a brick fireplace in the middle of the long side of each living-room, the chimneys rising in one, in the middle of the roof. Besides these rooms, each tenement had a cock-loft, entered by steps from the household room. Each tenement is occupied, on an average, by five persons. There were in them closets, with locks and keys and a varying quantity of rude furniture. Each cabin stood two hundred feet from the next, and the street in front of them being two hundred feet wide, they were just that distance apart each way. Each cabin has a front and back door,and each room a window closed by a wooden shutter, swinging outward on hinges. Between each tenement and the next house is a small piece of ground enclosed with palings, in which are coops of fowl, with chicken hovels for nests and for sows with pig. In the rear of the yards were gardens, a half acre to each family. Internally the cabins appeared dirty and disordered, which was a pleasant indication that their home life was not much interfered with, though I found certain police regulations were enforced.—South Caro¬ lina, 1859. s Section 9. The Country Home. There were reported in 1900, 1,832,818 private Negro homes in the United States Assuming that these homes are distributed approximately in the same proportion as the popula¬ tion, and we may conclude that 74% of these homes, or 1,350,000, are in the country districts of the South. Here, as we would expect, the Negro home is for the most part either the actual slave home or its lineal descendant. Emancipation brought iThe above quotations are from Weld's Slavery as It Is. 2 Olmsted: Seaboard Slave States, p. 11. 3ibid, II, pp. 49-50. The Country Home 51 at first no violent or far-reaching change in Negro country-home life. In the back districts there was no change at all. Big House and slave quarters remained and toil, though nominally on a wage basis, was really the old forced labor with a Christmas donation. Gradually, in towns and other regions, emancipation gave rise to an attempt to sub¬ stitute a sort of State slavery for individual bondage. The machinery of the State judiciary, was, in many cases, after the withdrawal of the Freedmen's Bureau, used to place Negroes under the control of the State. ''Vagrancy," theft, loitering, "impudence" and assault were the easily proven charges which forced large numbers of Negroes into penal servitude. The next step was to hire the labor of these persons to private contractors; thus was born the Convict Lease System. Many large planters conducted their plantations with such labor, and erected for them "barracks" and "stockades"—i. e., large enclosed quarters, guarded by high fences and crowded with inmates. These quarters were wretched, insanitary and small, and the death rate of convicts was enormous. The Convict Lease System was, however, found to be better suited to certain large operations such as brickmaking, road- building and mining, than to ordinary farming, and its use on the regular plantations was therefore limited, although not entirely dis¬ carded even to-day. The share and rent systems of farming gradually came to replace the slave system in most cases. The best class of masters entered into contracts with their freed slaves, and the latter worked on as hired laborers. There were, however, difficulties in the carrying out of this plan. The Negroes naturally felt like seeing something of the world after freedom came. To stay on the old plantation and pursue the same dull round of toil had little attraction to a people fired with new thoughts and new ambitions. It was therefore very difficult to stop the roving instinct of the new laborers. To some extent this was accomplished by offering better wages and better houses. Frame cabins and board floors came gradually to replace the worst of the slave quarters. Still this change was but gradual and was checked by the crop-lien system or Slavery of Debt, which was soon powerful enough to keep the tenant from moving by legal process, despite his likes or dislikes. Consequently the living conditions of such freedmen were but a degree above those of former times. In the course of dec¬ ades, however, a change was noticeable. The dirt-floor has practi¬ cally disappeared, and fully half the log-cabins have been replaced by frame buildings, and glass windows have appeared here and there. The great impulse toward better housing came however from the new land owners. Immediately after emancipation tha Negroes began to buy land, aided somewhat by the Freedmen's Bureau, somewhat by army bounties, but mostly by the general bankruptcy. The peasant proprietors who thus arose, gradually demanded better houses. But here the anomalous situation of Southern industry showed itself: there was no ideal home-making to which the better class of freedmen could look. There were no white, green-blinded New England cottages scat- 52 The Negro American Family tered here and there, no middle class dwellings—only the Big House and the slave-pen, and nothing between. The black landholder could not think of building a mansion and he therefore built a slave cabin with some few improvements. He put a porch on the front, perhaps, cut one or two windows, and at last added a lean-to on the back for a kitchen. He beautified the yard and his wife made some tasty arrange¬ ments indoors. If he went further than this in the number of rooms or the furnitux-e, the chances are that he got his new ideas from his friends who had moved to town. The attraction of town life was very great to the freed slave. His few holidays and stolen pleasures in the past had centered there, and the whole aspect of concentrated life there pictured to him along-cher¬ ished ideal of liberty. Many therefore at the first chance migrated to town, worked as mechanics or laborers and built them homes. They found in town new ideas of small comfortable dwelling places and some of them built little two, three and four-room houses such as were never seen in the country. From these patterns the country Negro learned, and two and three-room homes appeared here and there in the country. Still the reign of the one-room cabin was not seriously disputed, and an investigation in a typical black-belt county shows 40% of the fami¬ lies in one room, 43% in two rooms, \Q% in three rooms and 1% in four or more rooms. If these figures are true for the South, 440,000 Negro rural families still live in one room. Let us now notice more particularly what a one-room home is and means. Of course it has no peculiarly intimate connection with the Negro or the South. It is the primitive and natural method of dwelling of all men and races at some time. The cave-dwellers, the American Indians, the French peasants, the American pioneers, all lived in the one-room homes. Under certain conditions of life such homes may be fairly comfortable. Given a man and wife, the necessity of economy of heat, an active outdoor life, and a scarcity of the finer sort of build¬ ing material, there can be no better home than the old roomy log hut with its great fireplace. An increase in the number of inmates, how¬ ever, or a decrease in the size of the house, or a change in the manner of life, can easily transform this kind of home into a veritable pest house. This was exactly the history of the Negro's one-room cabin. Large families of children grew to maturity in it under poor moral restraint at best. There was not available building material to provide large houses, so that the original houses were built smaller and then cut in halves, with a family in either part, and then jammed closely together so as to cut off light and air. The improvements since the war have tended toward the addition of one room, more rarely two, and the changing of the building material from logs to sawn lumber. The great defects of the Negro country home, however, are still plain. They may be classed under eight chief heads: (a) Poor Light. Glass windows in the country Negro homes are the exception. The light enters therefore only in pleasant weather, and The Country Home 53 then chiefly from the open door or one or two small apertures in the wall, usually of two or three square feet. (b) Bad Air. A natural consequence of this is bad air and almost no ventilation. There are plenty of corners never reached by sunlight or fresh air, and as cooking', washing and sleeping go on in the same room an accumulation of stale sickly odors are manifest to every visitor. At night, when the air holes in the walls and the doors are tightly closed, from two to a dozen people sleep in a condition of air which is fatal to health. In the older log-hut the chinks in the walls admitted some fresh air. In the new board homes even this source is shut off. One of the most fruitful sources of lung disease among post-bellum Negroes is this wretched ventilation in their homes. (c) Lack of Sanitary Appliances. A room so largely in use is with difficulty kept clean. The dish-water forms a pool beside the door; animals stray into the house; there are either no privies or bad ones; facilities for bathing even the face and hands are poor, and there is almost no provision for washing other parts of the body; the beds are filled with vermin. To be neat and tidy in such homes is almost im¬ possible. Now and then one does find a tiny cabin shining and clean, but this is not the rule. (d) Poor Protection Against the Weather. The average country home leaks in the roof and is poorly protected against changes in the weather. A hard storm means the shutting out of all air and light; cold weather leads to everheating, draughts, or poor ventilation ; hot weather breeds diseases. The conditions are aggravated in cases where the huge old- fashioned fireplace has been replaced by a poor smoky stove. (e) Crowding. So far as actual sleeping space goes, the crowding of human beings together in the Black Belt is greater than in the tene¬ ment district of large cities like New York. In one black-belt county, out of 1474 Negro families living in the country district, 761 lived in one room, 560 in two rooms, 98 in three rooms and 60 in four or more rooms. In this county there were 25 persons for every ten rooms of house accommodation, while in the worst tenement districts of New York there are not above 22. From the single couple in one room it was an easy transition to large families with grown children occupying diminutive single-room dwell¬ ings. Sometimes married sons or daughters continue to live at home, thus introducing a second or third family. Finally the migration of young men in search of work at different seasons and in different years brings in a class of male lodgers. As a result many families entirely outgrow the physical home and use it only for sleeping and huddling in time of storm. Of real group family life there is, in such cases, little, and in this absence of group training and presence of discomfort and temptation there develop untold evils. (f) Poor Food. In such homes the matter of storing and preparing food and drink is a serious problem. The well water is often tainted, or 54 The Negro American Family the spring so far away as to make water scarce. The cupboards for keeping food are dark, dirty and ill-ventilated. The method of prepar¬ ing the meals before the fireplace or over the rickety stove is wasteful and unhygienic, filling the room with odors and making the food diffi¬ cult to digest. (g) Lack of Privacy. Above all, the moral and educational effect of living in one room is very bad. Of course one must not suppose that all modesty and home training disappear under such circumstances. Often there is peculiar ingenuity in guarding the children and incul¬ cating good habits. Still, the lack of any considerable degree of pri¬ vacy, the difficulty of cleanliness in a room so much used, the crowd¬ ing and hurry and vulgarity of life, is bound to leave its impress on the children and to send them into the world sadly lacking in that finer sense of propriety and decency which it is the peculiar province of the home to impart. (h) Lack of Beauty. Finally, it is manifest that the sense of harmony and beauty receives its first training at home. At best, the ordinary Negro country home is bare and lonely, and at worst, ugly and repell¬ ing. Out of it are bound to come minds without a sense of color con¬ trast, appropriateness in dress, or adequate appreciation of the beautiful world in which they live. Pictures in these homes are usually confined to handbills and circus posters; the furniture is rude, tables are not set for meals, beds are not properly made. When there is an attempt at decoration it usually lacks taste and is overdone. Such is a picture of the poorer homes of the Negro in the coun¬ try districts of the South. It varies, of course, in time and place. There are sections with much more of squalor and indecency than I have pic¬ tured. There are other sections where the homes are larger and the conditions greatly improved. On the whole, however, the one and two- room cabins still prevail and the consequences are bad health, bad mor¬ als, and dissatisfaction with country life. Section 10. The Village Home. Migration to town was one of the first results of imagination. In 1900 17.2% of the Negroes of the South lived in cities of at least 2500 inhabitants and probably one-fifth in places of at least 1000 inhabitants. There is considerable difference in the condition of this population in the villages and in the larger cities; and as the course of urban migration is usually from the country to the village, then to the town and thence to the city, it is important that we devote some attention to the freedman's home in the villages of the South. The village community varies in size and kind. The most primitive is a cluster of farm houses with outlying fields, something like the Ger¬ man dorf. This kind of community is not well developed in the South, The Village Home 55 the constituent homes seldom being near enough together to form farm villages like those of the old world. Nevertheless, the partial cluster¬ ing of a few score of people make a community life which differs con¬ siderably from the country life proper. Two communities in DeKalb county, Georgia, will illustrate this phase of life. Doraville and a neighboring unnamed village contain in all eleven families, with an average of twelve to a family. Five of these families own their homes, while the rest rent on shares. The farms, being within twenty miles of Atlanta, are small—from one to eleven acres. Most of the houses are rudely constructed of logs or boards, with one large and one small room. There is usually no glass in the openings which serve as windows, and they are closed by wooden shutters. The large room always contains several beds, and some home-made furniture, consisting of tables, chairs and chests. A few homes have three rooms each, and one has five. Most of the homes are poverty-stricken and dirty, but a few are well- kept and neat. Another village group is found in Israelville, Prince Edward county, Virginia. Here are 123 inhabitants, strung along in a straggling com¬ munity and forming a sort of suburb to Farmville, two miles distant. Twenty-two of the 25 families own their homes, and the other three rent from colored landlords. Seven families live in one-room log cab¬ ins; nine live in two-room log cabins; i. e., in cabins with a lower room and a loft for sleeping purposes. Three families live in three- room frame houses, and six in houses of four or more rooms. The average size of the family is five, and there are, on an average, two persons to a room, or 2^ rooms to a family. These homes are distinctly of two kinds—old dirty log huts, and new neat frame houses. The Atlanta Conference of 1897 gave us a glimpse of conditions in several villages. As an example of bad conditions let us take a group of four¬ teen families in Tuskegee, Alabama. There were 79 persons in these families—36 males and 43 females—inhabiting 35 rooms, making an average of 2% persons to a room, and nearly 3 persons to each sleeping- room. Only two of these families owned their homes, the other twelve paying on an average $3.40 a month in rent. Three other groups—one in Tuskegee, one in Macon, Mississippi, and one in Sanford, Florida, present a better picture. Here 48 families of 220 persons occupy 203 rooms, 118 of which are sleeping-rooms. Thirty-five own their homes and 12 rent at an average of $3.27 a month. Perhaps we can find in Farmville, Virginia, as good a picture as is needed of the small-town life. Farmville is near the geographic cen¬ ter of an old slave State and had 2471 inhabitants in 1900, of whom half or more were Negroes. Two hundred and sixty-two Negro families in 1890 occupied homes as follows: 56 The Negro American Family FAMILIES OCCUPYING DWELLINGS OF Size of Family One room Two rooms Three rooms Four rooms and. over Total 1 member 1 9 1 2 13 2-3 members 12 4 43 59 22 1 13 IS) 11 1 18 86 4-6 members 23 105 18 51 11 or more members 5 7 Total families 17 134 45 262 17 268 135 330 750 The one-room cabins are rapidly disappearing from the town. Nearly all of the 17 are old log cabins. They have one or two glass windows, a door, and a stone fireplace. They are 15 or 20 feet square. The 134 two- room homes are mostly tenements: a. large, cheaply rbuilt frame house is constructed so as to contain two such tenements. The upper room is often used as the kitchen, and the lower as living and sleeping-room. The rooms are 15 and 18 feet square and have two windows. Three- room houses are generally owned by their occupants, and are neater than the tenements. They are usually tiny new frame structures, with two rooms, one above the other in front, and a small one-story addi¬ tion at the back for a kitchen. To this a small veranda is often added. Four-room houses have either a room above the kitchen or are like the double tenements. Few of the houses have cellars and many are poorly built. The locations, however, are usually healthful and the water good. Gardens are generally attached. Six and a half per cent of the families live in one room, 51.1 per cent in two rooms, 17.2 per cent in three rooms; there are 1.6 persons to a room, and nearly three rooms to a family. Forty-three and a half per cent own their homes, mostly from two to five rooms. Of the 148 tenants, 15 rent from Negro land¬ lords. To the above may be added, by way of comparison, a short account of Covington, Ga., the county seat of Newton county. This is a town of 2000 inhabitants, about evenly divided between the races. In the surrounding country there are many small communities composed entirely of Negroes, which form clans of blood relatives. A few of these settlements are neat and thrifty, but most of them have a dirty, shiftless air, with one-room cabins and numbers of filthy children. Such communities furnish the emigrants for the towns. In Covington there are a few one-room cabins, but the average family occupies two or three rooms. The houses are all one-story, and a common type is that of two rooms with a hall between, and sometimes a kitchen at¬ tached to the back end of the hall. Often there is also a front porch. There are detailed statistics available for fifty of the better-class fami¬ lies. Forty-one of these own their homes and nine rent. The homes consist of The Village Home 57 Two rooms, 9 Three rooms, 14 Four rooms, 14 Five rooms or more, 13 In all, 188 individuals occupy 184 rooms. There is also a lower ele¬ ment in the town and a great deal of idleness and loafing, arising in part from the irregularity of work at certain seasons of the year. On the outskirts of the town are many dives and gambling-dens where liquor is sold. On Saturday nights there is much disorder here. The more thrifty Negroes buy homes on installments, putting up, often, one room at a time until they get a two or three-room home. In Xenia, Ohio, we have these homes:1 Xenia, O., Fjiimilies by Size of Family and, Number of Rooms to a Dwelling families occupying dwellings of Size of Family One Room Two Rooms Three Rooms Four Rooms Five Rooms Six Rooms Seven Rooms Eight Rooms Nine Rooms Ten Rooms Eleven Rooms Twelve Rooms Total Families 1 member 8 12 13 12 8 3 • 51 2 members 1 18 34 20 15 12 10 2 112 3 members 6 11 32 31 17 12 11 2 2 1 125 4 members 8 16 20 11 10 2 2 1 1 1 72 5 members 8 13 17 20 4 3 1 1 1 64 6 members 1 10 6 9 2 1 1 2 32 7 members 1 5 2 1 2 1 2 1 15 8 members 1 2 6 2 1 1 13 9 members 8 1 2 1 7 10 members 3 1 1 6 11 members 1 1 12 members 1 1 18 members 1 1 14 members 1 1 Total Families . 16 57 130 117 79 48 30 11 5 3 4 1 501 Total Rooms 16 114 390 468 895 288 210 88 45 30 44 12 2100 In Negro village life is the growing differentiation of conditions. Upon the country Negro just emerging from the backwoods, the village life acts as a stimulus. Left to themselves, to chance surroundings and chance acquaintances, and above all to chance openings for work, the new-comers rise or fall. The successful ones give the first evidence of awakening in improved housing—more rooms, larger windows, neater furniture, the differentiation of sleeping-room, kitchen and parlor, and general improvement in tidiness and taste. The worst im¬ migrants sink into village slums, where vice by concentration and example assumes dangerous forms. The fact is often noted that there is more vice among village Negroes than in the country. This is true, but needs to be supported by the additional fact that the village also shows more civilized classes of Negroes. 1 Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor, No. 48. 58 The Negro American Family Between these extreme classes the mass of Negroes waver in their struggle for existence. In some towns the majority are home-owners and on the rise; in others the balance is toward the bad. If, however, the chances are against the Negro in the village, one thing is certain: he'seldom returns to the farm. Quickened by the village life he passes on to the town and city to try again. Or he may have some success in the village and be fired with ambition for larger fields. Finally the taste for vice in the village slum may send criminals and degenerates to complicate the city problem, North and South. The village, then, is a clearing-house. It stimulates and differentiates; it passes no mate¬ rial—good, bad and indifferent—to larger centers, and unfortunately sends few back to country life to stimulate the people there. In a peculiar sense, then, the village home—the problem of housing the Negro in the smaller towns of the South—is peculiar. Good homes at this point would send out children healthy in body and soul to the city on the one hand and, with little additional effort, to the country on the other. You can with difficulty send the city boy to the country, for it is an unknown land; but the village boy knows the country par¬ tially, and properly-directed effort might be the inspiraton of neat village homes in the weird and arid waste of log cabins along the country side. Section 11. The City Home, (a) The Slums of Atlanta. Atlanta is a typical post-bellum city and had, in 1900, 37,727 Negroes. This grow¬ ing city is built on the foot of the Alleghanies, a series of great round-topped mounds, which presents many difficulties in drainage and grading. The city is circular in form and over half of the Negro population is crowded into two wards, one on the east and the other on the west side of the city. The nucleus of Negro population in Southern cities is the alley. It is seen at its worst in the slums of Charleston, Savannah, Washington, and such cities. It represents essentially a crowding—a congestion of population—an attempt to utilize for dwellings spaces inadequate and unsuited to the purpose, and forms the most crushing indictment of the modern landlord system. Attention has lately been directed to the tenement-house abominations, but little has been said of the equally pestilential and dangerous alley. The typical alley is a devel¬ opment of the backyard space of two usually decent houses. In the back yard spaces have been, crowded little two-room dwellings, cheaply constructed, badly lighted and ventilated, and with inadequate sanitary arrangements. In Atlanta the badly drained and dark hol¬ lows of the city are threaded with these alleys, usually unpaved and muddy, and furnishing inviting nests for questionable characters. The worst type of these homes is the one-room cabin with sidings of unfin¬ ished boards running up and down; no ceiling or plastering, no win¬ dows, no paint, an open fireplace, and the whole of this cheerless box set directly on the ground, without cellar or foundation. Next to these The City Home 59 come two-room houses, built in the same way, but with one or two windows and still without porch, blinds, or fence. Such cabins are so crowded together that they nearly touch each other, and the sun must get high before it can be seen from these alleys. Sometimes such rooms are papered inside by the inmates. They are 14 or 15 feet square and 8 or 10 feet high. The furniture is scarce—a bed or two, a few chairs, a table, a stove or fireplace, a trunk or chest. The floor is bare, and there are no pictures. Sometimes six or eight persons live in two such rooms and pay $1.50 a month or more for rent; sometimes as much as $4.00. These houses have water outside in a well or street hydrant; the out¬ houses are used in common by several tenants. Probably twenty per cent of the Negro homes in Atlanta fall into this class. The surroundings of these homes are as bad as the homes. In the third ward most of the streets are in very bad condition, the longest of them having paved sidewalks only about half their length, while the shorter ones are not paved at all. The streets are of soft red clay, with¬ out gravel or cobble stones. In the first ward, out of 25 typical homes, 4 had no water on the premises, 12 had wells (which are dangerous in Atlanta and apt to be infected by sewage), 9 used hydrants in the yards or on the streets. Only four had direct sewer connections. Conditions as to light and air vary, but in general there is less to complain of here, save that the careless construction of the houses makes the sudden changes of tem¬ perature in the winter peculiarly trying. This lack of protection in winter is made worse by the conditions of the foundations. Most of the houses are perched on wooden or brick pillars, allowing unchecked circulation of air beneath—a boon in summer, a danger in winter. The poor drainage of many of the hollows between the hills where these alleys lie gives rise to much stagnant water, pools and the like, and the unfinished sewer system often leaves masses of filthy sediment near these homes. In the fifth ward, one of the poorer sections, an Atlanta University senior made the following estimates: 30 per cent of the families live in 1 room. 40 " " " " 2 rooms. 15 " " " " 3 rooms. Of the houses, 60 per cent were plastered inside. 50 per cent were painted outside. About half the population dwelt in districts which may be designated as "slums," although many of these were respectable people. Only 35 per cent of the homes looked clean and neat. There were five per¬ sons to every two rooms in the district, and three persons to every two beds. Sixty per cent of the homes had practically no yards, and 95 per cent of the homes were rented. 60 The "Negro American Family In the whole city of Atlanta the Negroes lived as follows in 1900: In 1 room, 622 families. In 2 rooms, 1654 families. In 3 rooms,, 1357 families. In 4 rooms, 1039 families. In 5 or more rooms, . . . . 1902 families. Thfe great majority of the one and two-room homes and some of the others are thoroughly bad as places of shelter. In other words, a third of the black population is poorly housed and, as stated before, a fifth very poorly. The result of all this crowding is bad health, poor family life, and crime: The actual physical crowding is often great, as for example: 42 families of 6, in 1 room. 15 families of 7, in 1 room. 12 families of 8 or more, in 1 room. 21 families of 10 or more, in 2 rooms. 6 families of 12 or more, in 3 rooms. This crowding, however, is not nearly so bad or so dangerous as the close contact of the good, bad and indifferent in the slum districts. Vice and crime spread with amazing rapidity in this way, and its spread is facilitated by the prevalent vice of Southern police systems, which make little distinction of guilt or desert among the young and old, the criminal and the careless, the confirmed rascal and the first offender, so long as they are all black. The most pitiable thing of all is the breaking up of family life, even when the mothers and fathers strive hard to protect the home. The high death-rate of the Negro is directly traceable to these slum districts. In the country the Negro death-rate is probably low. In the healthy wards of Northern cities the Negro death-rate is low; but in the alleys of Charleston, which are probably the vilest human habitations in a civilized land, the wretched inmates die in droves, while the country complacently calculates, on that abnor¬ mal basis, the probable extinction of black folk in America. (b) iSt. Louis.1 At present, then, almost half of the Negroes live in six wards, in which they form from 14.71 to 22.70 per cent of the population of the ward. These wards, ranked according to the proportion of Negroes, are the fourteenth, fifteenth, fifth, fourth, twenty-second, and twenty-third. Wards 4, 5, 14 and 15 form an irregular rectangle extending west from the river. Ward 4 is the mercantile section of the town and 5 contains many factories. The partial tenement-house investigation made by the Board of Health in 1897 showed that Ward 4 contained the highest number of tenement houses. Ward 14 consists of the Union Station and streets that may be considered its inevitable environment, and is no better than such sections are apt to be in an American city. Ward 15 consists partly of fine old residences that have degenerated into second and third-rate boarding houses, and partly of poor tenements and shanties that have never been anything else. . . . In Wards 4 and 5 the dwellings are crowded in behind factories and ware¬ houses. The white population is chiefly Italians and other south-eastern i Brandt in Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 8. The City Home 61 Europeans, and these districts are considered to be about the worst slums in the city. The fourteenth and fifteenth wards are not quite so bad, but the streets where the Negroes live consist of houses that are dirty and out of repair, if not actually in a tumble-down condition. Wards 22 and 23 lie west of 14 and 15, and are of a distinctly better character. They contain a better class of Negroes, the professional and successful business men. The houses in the Negro streets are comfortable and in fairly good condition, on the average, and many are owned by the occupant. This is a comparatively old section of the town, and the houses now occupied by Negroes were built by well-to-do white residents who have since moved farther west. Ward 23 includes also a poor quarter lying along the railroad tracks in low land which was once marshes. There is a considerable number of Negroes also in wards 25 and 26, which are very desirable residence sections. This number repre¬ sents chiefly domestic servants, but there are also two or three settlements of well-to-do Negroes on certain streets. The 865 in Ward 18 are nearly all servants. In general, it is true that the Negroes are almost absent from the sections of the city where there is a large foreign population, and that, with notable exceptions, they are concentrated in the worst houses of the worst sections, wherever the natural lay of the land or the unpleasant accessories of civiliza¬ tion, such as railroads and factories, make residence undesirable. - The over¬ crowding of rooms is a fact for which no statistics are available, but it is none the less a fact. . . . The hospitality of the Negroes, and their willingness to take in any friend who finds himself without a home, receives no check from the law. There are no State regulations concerning tenement houses, and the city ordinances go only so far as to class them under "nuisances" when they do not have "ade¬ quate" sewerage, drainage, ventilation, chimneys, halls, staircases, and "all reasonable precautions and provisions in every other particular, and adequate space for all occupants, so that the occupancy of said building or any apart¬ ment shall not be dangerous to life or health." Under such provisions it is not surprising that the agent of the Provident Association should find recently fourteen Negroes living in one room. The Negroes are kept in these undesirable localities not wholly by their own faults and incompetence, but partly by the obstacles which they en¬ counter when they try to go into a better neighborhood. No landlord wishes to have Negro tenants come into his houses, because it means a depreciation of the property sooner or later. When a Negro family moves into a street it generally happens that the white residents give place either to more Ne¬ groes or to a much inferior class of whites. To keep up the character of the street, therefore, or to reimburse himself in advance for the depreciation which he foresees, the landlord resorts to discriminating rents. A Negro going into a house previously occupied by a white family, is obliged to pay from 20 per cent to 50 per cent more than his predecessor. A certain house in Ward 25, for instance, rented for $25 per month to white tenants, but a Negro was asked $40. This is true even in the poorer districts. There are some comfortless three-room flats in Ward 14 which were occupied until recently by white people paying $8.00 per month; the Negroes living there now are charged $13. Sometimes when a Negro family moves into a "white" street the residents themselves undertake to deal with the question. . . . In the last ten years the condition of the Negroes in St. Louis has improved considerably, and general observation shows that one accompaniment of this improvement has been the acquisition of property, both for business purposes 62 The Negro American Family and for homes. The discriminating rents already referred to have had some influence in this discretion, for the more intelligent and more able Negroes have seen that it would be cheaper in the long run to buy their houses than to rent them. (c) Washington.1 The National Capital was evidently intended to be a city of homes. The original lots are of generous dimensions and front upon broad streets and avenues. These lots provided ample room for separate houses, with space for yards in the front and rear, and the squares were laid out in such a manner as to give access, by alleys, to the rear of each lot. This plan probably had in view the location of stables on the alleys, in the rear of each house. As the city grew the original lots were subdivided, and as land became more valuable a majority of the residences were built in blocks, with party walls, instead of being detached villas with light on all sides. Naturally, in portions of the city devoted to business, this was the usual method of building from the outset, and these dwellings and stores were, as a rule, brought to the very front of the lot, thus leaving a considerable space in the rear, as the original lots were generally from 100 to 200 feet in depth. The owners of property, as land values increased, sometimes sold off rear portions of their lots, and sometimes built small houses, facing the alleys, which they were able to let at rentals which gave them a high rate of interest on their money. These houses were often cheap fiame structures, which paid for themselves within a few years. In other cases they were of brick. As a general rule, the rooms were small and the first floor was on a level with the ground, without any ventilation under it. As a result of this, the sills soon became rotten, and dampness from the ground came through the floors. As a rule, also, there was no water in the house and no sewer connections. Water was often ob¬ tained by all of the residents of an alley from a single hydrant at the corner, and box privies were in general use. Many cheap frame and brick houses were also built upon the streets and avenues of the city prior to the adoption of proper building regulations, and these exist today, in a more or less dilapi¬ dated condition, often in proximity to handsome new dwellings. Many of these old houses are on valuable ground, and they serve to pay taxes until such time as the owner can sell his ground at a figure which he considers satisfactory. . . . The civil war brought a large influx of Negroes: It is estimated that from 30,000 to 40,000 Negroes from neighboring States came to this city at that time. These unfortunate and ignorant people were obliged to avail themselves of any kind of shelter they could find. In many cases rough board shacks with leaky roofs were occupied for years by grow¬ ing families, and rents were paid out of all proportion to the value of the property or the means of the tenant. Industrious colored men, whose labor would only command from a dollar to a dollar and a half a day, and hard¬ working colored women, whose lives had been spent over the washtub, have been obliged to pay, year after year, for shelter of the most indifferent kind, an amount which has yielded the landlord twenty per cent, or more, on his investment. The following extracts from the report of the health officer will show the conditions existing ten years after the Civil War: Leaky roofs, broken and filthy ceilings, dilapidated floors, overcrowded, l Sternberg: Report of Committee on Building Model Homes. The City Home 63 below grade, having stagnant water underneath, no drainage, no pure water supply, no fire protection, having filthy yards, dilapidated, filthy privy and leaky privy box, in bad sanitary condition generally, and unfit for human habitation, described, with few exceptions, the conditions of these hovels where the poorest class of our population stay out their miserable existence, and for which they pay rents varying from $2.50 to $10.00 per month. ... As specific examples of overcrowding, at a later date, I quote from the report of Miss DeGraffenried, published in 1896: One conclusion at least is evident, that rents in these alleys are dear, con¬ sidering the accommodations and environment. Moreover, the moral conse¬ quences of such narrow quarters are often disastrous. Crowded sleeping rooms contribute to vice and indecency. Indeed, crowding goes on to an extent not acknowledged to the canvasser by the tenants. At night these poor roofs shelter many more people than are here reported. I have no doubt that lodgers are harbored in these alleys whose pres¬ ence, for many reasons not creditable to the oecupants, is always concealed. The confessed facts are startling enough. We have here accounts of seven persons living in two rooms—the mother and her sons 21, 17 and 7 years of age, occupying one bed-chamber. Again, nine individuals live in two rooms; eleven people in four rooms. Five, almost all adults, sleep in one room—the mother 43, a son 21, and daughters 19,17 and 14; and four persons use another room—a mother 45, an aunt 70, a son 22, and a baby 9 months old. . . . Deanwood, East Deanwood and Burrville are scattered villages, merging into each other, and situated along the Chesapeake Beach Railway; here dwell colored people almost entirely. The villages are for the most part com¬ posed of new and respectable cottages owned by their occupants. Here and there may be seen dilapidated shacks occupied, while alongside stands a new cottage empty and for rent. Barry Farm is situated on the outskirts of Anacostia; this is another Negro settlement, and is a curious mixture of comfortable cottages, even handsome homes, owned by well-to-do colored people, and tumbledown hovels that bring exorbitant rents. Garfield and Good Hope are also colored communities on the order of Barry Farm ; these villages are situated on the hills to the east of Anascotia. The majority of the houses here are owned by their occupants There are no public^ service advantages in these outlying regions, with the exception of public water supply in Ivy City; but even here the people do not have water within their houses, nearly always obtaining it from the street hydrant. The communities just described are the only considerable aggregations of people of the laboring class to be found without the city limits. The character of old dwellings located in them is little better than we would condemn within the city. Nothing is being done to improve the quality of dwellings, and the new dwellings are of the cheapest kind. Moreover, the people who live in these suburban places are not the pick and shovel men, the cart drivers, the hod carriers, the stable men, of the city. They are for the most part more independent folk, such as messengers and skilled laborers in the depart¬ ments; colored men who work from place to place as porters, waiters, or house-servants, and who keep their wives and children in these little homes. They are the kind who will not rest until they own "a little place in the country," it matters little what sort of dwelling may be upon the "place.'' The worst hovels are occupied by driftwood: widows who subsist by doing laundry work for the neighbors in better circumstances; old people, sup- 64. The Negro American Family ported by sons and daughters in the city, and the children of the sons and daughters. . . . The company organized under the above charter from Congress [The Wash¬ ington Sanitary Housing Company] succeeded in securing stock subscriptions sufficient to justify it in commencing building operations and in October, 1904, twenty houses had been completed and were occupied by colored ten¬ ants. Seventeen of these houses were on Van Street S. W. The flats of three rooms and a bath were rented for seven dollars per month for lower and seven and one-half dollars per month for upper flats. The four-room flats were rented for eight and eight and one-half dollars per month. This is an average of $2.26 per room. It should be remembered that each of these flats has a good-sized bathroom, with a bathtub and a modern water-closet. There is a good range with water-back in the kitchen, and a small coal stove in the front room. The hot-water boiler connected with the kitchen range is placed in the bathroom and furnishes sufficient heat to make it comfortable. These flats have now been occupied by colored tenants, mostly day laborers, for nearly four years. They are in such demand that there is constantly a wait¬ ing list of applicants in case a flat becomes vacant. Many of the present tenants have occupied their flats since the houses were completed. The repairs required have not been excessive, and there has been very little loss from vacancies or failure to collect rents. . . . In the city of Washington the death rate among the colored population, in 1875, was 42.86 per thousand. In 1»06 it had fallen to 28.81 per thousand. Among the whites it was 21.04 in 1875, and in 1906 it" had fallen to 15.16. To what extent this decline in death rate is due to improvement in housing con¬ ditions it is impossible to say, but no doubt there has been some improvement, and this one of the factors which accounts for one of the gradual reduction of our death rate from the disgracefully high figures of twenty-five or thirty years ago. Section 12. City Homes of the Better Class. Atlanta. Scattered among other homes and gradually segregating themselves in better class districts is a growing class of Negro homes belonging to the rising groups of Negroes. These homes are often unnoticed because they are not distinguishable from corresponding white homes, and so are continually overlooked. In an address to the Negroes of Boston, Mass., Mr. George W. Cable said: "There is a notion among Southern people, which is not confined to them, . . . but which is upon the tongues of Negro.leaders—the notion that it is highly important that the Negro should be kept on the plantation. That is false. I say it because some white man ought to say it. What is civilization ? The cityfying of a people or making them what a city makes them. True, the city has many temptations, and many men and women go to shipwreck there. But it only means a more energetic process of selection, and as much as some go down, others go up." Whatever our views of the influx of Negroes into cities may be, it is clear that there alone can we find a class of Negro homes fully equal to the homes of the whites. This is significant. A determined effort has been made, especially during the reaction of later years, to judge City Homes of the Better Class 65 the Negro by his worst and lowest type. Even reputed friends and leaders of the race have been zealous in laying bare the weaknesses of the race and holding its faults up to ridicule and condemnation.. Some of this has been justified by a real desire to know the truth, but it has gone so far today as to obscure, almost, in the eyes of the majority of Americans, the. existence of a class of intelligent American citizens of Negro blood who represent as good citizenship, as pure homes and as worthy success as any class of their fellows. They may be found to some extent in the country. But the country was peculiarly the seat of slavery and its blight still rests so heavily on the land that the class of Negro farmers who can compare with the best white farmers of the North and West is very small. In the cities, however, the Negro has had his chance to learn. He has been quick¬ ened and taught. He has schools and contact with culture, and in those cases where he has been able to stand normal competition and abnormal prejudice he can, in a large number of cases point to homes which equal the best American homes—not, to be sure, in wealth or size, but in cleanliness, purity and beauty. This class is small and grades quickly down to homes which may be criticized; and still, as representing the best, there is good argument for calling these at least as characteristic of the race, as the alley hovels. A race has a right to be judged by its best. tTo illustrate this point let us take the best Negro homes of Atlanta, Georgia. They are largely homes of the graduates of Atlanta Univer¬ sity, and their owners are teachers, mail-carriers, merchants and pro¬ fessional men. These homes were thus described in the reports of the class in sociology of this institution in 1900: "They are good-sized one and two-story homes, having bathrooms and water in the house, and in many cases gas and electric-bells. There are seven or eight rooms, each with two or more windows, and both the house and furnishings are in good condition. There are from four to six occupants. The parlors and some of the other rooms have tiled hearths, and there is usually a piano or organ in the home. The walls are painted or pa¬ pered, the windows have white curtains and shades. In all cases these houses are owned by the occupants." A few houses are more elaborate than this, but this is a fair description of those that are referred to in this section. A detailed description of two or three of these homes will make the picture more vivid. Number 32 North Street is built on brick pillars with lattice-work between. The house is painted without and within, plastered, and the woodwork varnished. The kitchen is ceiled in yellow pine. The house is of two stories on a lot 50 by 100 feet, and has gas and water. On the first floor there is a hall 13 x 12% x 11 feet, with two windows; a parlor Yiy* x 14>£, a nursery, pantry, dining-room and kitchen. The parlor has a piano, and there are open fireplaces with tiled mantles, but, as is usual in the South, no other heating apparatus. The second story is like the first, save that there is no room over the kitchen. There are four bedrooms and a bath. There are eight 66 The Negro American Family in this family and they own the house. Another home, 160 Street, is a frame house two stories high, with eight rooms. It is a long, narrow house, with a hall running the whole length on one side. Two rooms are papered, the rest white- finished. There is a double parlor with piano, a dining-room and kitchen on the first floor, four bedrooms and a bath on the second. The furniture is good, and all the rooms are carpeted save the kitchen. There are seven inmates, and they own the house. The favorite type of bouse here for small families is one-story. The house at 260. Street is one-story, weatherboarded, plastered and painted, built on a brick foundation and nicely furnished. It has five rooms: one parlor 16x14 with a parlor set, carpet, table, sofa, four chairs and a piano; two bedrooms with sets of furniture; a dining- room, with a nice dining-table, three chairs, a refrigerator and side¬ board. The kitchen has a stove, table and cupboard. There are two inmates who have owned this property for seven years. Outside is a garden, with henhouse and woodhouse. Such homes as these are typical of the class with which we are deal¬ ing. These are, of course, exceptional, when one considers the great mass of Negroes of Atlanta; and yet, of over a thousand homes of all types studied by Atlanta University students in 1900, about forty were placed in this select class. If among the Negroes of the South two per cent of the homes of the freedmen have reached this type, it is a most extraordinary accomplishment for a single generation. In the country the percentage of comfortable homes is small, certainly not over one per cent and in many places less. In the towns and cities, on the other band, the percentage must often rise to five per cent and sometimes more. Any more definite statements than these would be purely conjectural. There are some criticisms that can be brought against this class of homes, although they apply equally well to the similar class of white homes in the South. First, in the economy of space there is a certain lack of coziness and convenience, which can easily be traced to cli¬ matic and social reasons. The log-cabin, so prevalent a generation since, was essentially a square box. Other rooms were made by add¬ ing, not by subdividing. So that today throughout the South the houses give one the impression of separate rooms in juxtaposition, rather than of a house subdivided according to convenience and rela¬ tive use of rooms. Long draughty halls, high sombre ceilings, and stiff square walls are the usual thing. Moreover, the kitchen contains a whole social history. In New England, where the mothers and their ancestors for generations have spent most of their time working in kitchens, this important part of the house has developed into a great, clean, sunny room, with abundant ventilation and ample working and storing space. In the South, where the kitchen was the domain of an alien race and servile caste, it was actually cut off entirely from the house, and sat alone cramped and small, in the back yard. Today it has gradually fastened itself to the house again, but with an unobtru- City Homes of the Better Class 67 sive, apologetic air. It sticks to an out-of-the-way corner, and is usually altogether too small for its purpose. I have seen kitchens, in the homes of well-to-do people, as small as eight or ten feet square, or about the size of my grandmother's pantry. Then, again, the cupboards, closets and storing-rooms of most Southern houses are too small and are ill- arranged. Cellars, owing to the climate, are very exceptional, and good attics are seldom found. There is room for argument as to whether the one or two-story house is most convenient, but certainly for a given amount of money the two-story house furnishes consid¬ erably more room space. In a one-story house the temptation always is, among all classes of Southern people, to turn bedrooms into recep¬ tion-rooms on occasions. This is always objectionable, especially where children are being trained to respect the sanctity of their pri¬ vate rooms. Then, too, the ventilation of the sleeping-rooms is a matter of some difficulty in a one-story house, where windows and doors near the living-rooms cannot be left open long. The heating problem in the South is serious. Nearly all well- perfected heating systems have been developed to supply the needs of cold climates. In a large part of the South fires are only needed regularly three months or less. Consequently furnaces and base- burners are too costly. On the other hand the open grate, while de¬ lightfully cheery, is wasteful, uncomfortable and dangerous. It is responsible for a large number of fires and accidents, and above all it heats the room so unequally that it is a source of colds, rheumatism and consumption. A Southern home, even of the better class, is a dreadfully cheerless place on a cold day. Some cheap heating apparatus in connection with the open grate is really in great demand. Outside these criticisms of the physical homes there are special moral dangers due to the environments of the best class of Negroes. The best Negro settlements are never free from the intrusion of the worst class of whites. A favorite situation for both white and colored houses of prostitution is in the Negro quarter of the town, and this often brings them near some of the best homes. I have seen a pros¬ perous country town where a prominent white official was not tolerated in the white residence section, but allowed to build and live in a pretty home in the midst of the best Negroes. In Asheville, N. C., one of the best Negro sections is ruined by an open house of ill-fame with white inmates. Again, the Negro sections of the city are usually poorly policed (save in criminal sections), poorly paved and lighted, and, above all, the system of Southern taxation falls heavily on the middle classes: in Atlanta, books, sewing machines, furniture, bicycles, horses and wagons, and all such small luxuries are taxed. The custom, too, of classing all Negroes together, in law and treat¬ ment, leads to carelessness in protecting the best of the Negroes from their own worst elements. A whole Negro district is put under a ban because of the lawlessness of a few, and the lack of purity in some Negro homes is sufficient excuse with many for treating the best of our women with neither courtesy nor decency. 68 The Negro American Family That with such surroundings, and among the mass of poor homes there is growing up a strong beautiful family life, housed decently, and even luxuriously in some cases, is a cause of congratulation and hope. Section 13. A Study of Eight Homes. The class in sociology of Atlanta University, 1908-09, made a detailed study of 32 Negro homes. Plans and descriptions of eight of these homes follow; the scale is one- fourth of that indicated: b£d &00*t 0£o £>00** r£>o*/t pogc* //vc# ro the roor Plan A.—Family of eleven persons (parents and nine children). This country house is a wooden structure with the boards running up and down. The roof is shingled with large home-made shingles. None of the walls are plastered, all of the floors are bare, and the win¬ dows are without glass panes, curtains or shades. They have wooden shutters. There are two bedrooms and a kitchen. In the large bedroom are two beds, a dresser, a sewing machine, a cupboard piled with quilts, a table with a bowl and pitcher upon it, a towel-rack and a few chairs. They have newspapers pasted upon the walls and several advertisement pictures—"Fairy Soap," "Baking Powder," "Root Beer"—tacked on. There are no books except the Bibles of the different members of the family and a few old school books. They take "McCaulay's Magazine," "The Yellow Jacket," the "Savannah Tribune," and the "North Geor¬ gian." There is a large fireplace. The second bedroom has no windows and no fireplace. It contains three beds and nothing more. The kitchen has two windows. It con¬ tains a stove, two small tables, a cupboard and a few chairs. The front porch is a mere platform, with no top over it. The house is kept moderately clean. There is a large front yard, bare,clean swept, A Study of Eight Homes 69 which merges into woods on one side and into a large kitchen garden on the other; from the front of the yard runs a path leading to another house. The back yard is also large, bare, and clean swept. It leads into woods and cotton fields. There is no other house in sight of this one. They get their water from a spring near by. Plan B.—Family of twelve persons (parents and ten children). This country house is made of pine logs 20 x 15, eight feet high ; roofed with split boards. The little room on the side is made of plank 10x13, roofed with split boards. The floor is laid with wide plank, 1 x 10. It has one chimney, three windows 2x3, with board shutters, three doors h% x 3. The porch is just wide enough to make a passage from the 70 The Negro American Family door of the main house to the room, and it is not covered. The yard is very small; cotton rows on one side run almost to the door, and in the rear are weeds and woods. There are three beds in the main building, with the paint worn off and a large yellow organ near the rear window. There are five home¬ made chairs and two benches ten feet long, two small trunks, a small table for the lamp and a large one for eating purposes. The dishes are kept in a box, the surplus food is also kept in a box. The cooking utensils are kept on a shelf outside of the window. The cooking is done in this building on the fireplace. The walls are covered with newspapers, with holes showing where mice have been gnawing. The bed is bare, and the bedclothes hang from the joist. No pictures are on the walls and no carpet upon the floor. There is one glass lamp of A Study of Eight Homes 71 small size and a small tin lamp. A gun is hanging over the door. The water is brought from a spring about 800 yards away. Ihe little out-room contains two beds and a bench about ten feet long, but no pictures on the wall, no books or carpet. The beds are painted yellow, fairly new. One large box is in the corner to keep clothes packed in. This is called the-guest room. Plan C.—Family of ten (widow and nine children). There are four rooms in this country house. In the room that is usually used for the reception of company is a dresser, a washstand, a center-table, straight chairs, one rocker and a bed. The floor has one small rug. There is no plastering on the walls. The inside walls are just the inside of the boards that form the weatherboardlng. The win¬ dow has no glass, but has a lace curtain hanging over it. The other room has two beds in it, a shelf upon which quilts are kept and a big box with things packed in it. In the kitchen is a bed, with a curtain between the bed and the part where the cooking is done, a shelf where the water-bucket stands, and a cupboard where the dishes are kept. In the dining-room is a long table. Chairs are carried from the other rooms to the dining-room as they are needed. In the front room are a few pictures, and on the mantle-shelf, which is a board nailed above the fireplace, is a big clock. There is one trunk in the front room and one in the other bedroom. In the front room the furniture is compara¬ tively new, because the family was recently burned out. Most of the water is taken from a well that is about two hundred yards from the house, and the rest is taken from a spring a little farther away. This house is heated by fireplaces in which, principally, oak wood is used. A good part of the lighting is done by the fire in these fireplaces in winter and by kerosene lamps in summer. In the yard are flowers and one bi^ oak tree. The house is not painted. On the inside of the house and all around it, everything is kept extremely clean. From the appearance of the fireplace one might think that it is whitewashed three or four times each week. The periodicals are "The Designer" and the "Delineator." The papers are "The Macon Telegraph," "The Atlanta Independent" and "The Dis¬ patch." In the kitchen is a medium-sized stove. Plan D.—Family of six (parents, one child and three brothers). This country house is a frame structure of four rooms, two on either side of a wide hall. The house is weatherboarded crosswise and painted white,with green bordering. Two windows of eight panes each admit light to each room. The front porch is comparatively wide and the back porch is very wide. The bedrooms are furnished with a wardrobe apiece, made of walnut. Each bedroom contains a bureau of walnut, and a large box upside down, covered neatly with newspaper, with a washpan, soap and towel on the top. In the front rooms are two beds, and in the back bedroom one bed. All the beds are well kept. The front room on the right has a carpet, 72 The Negro American Family somewhat worn, upon the floor. Beside the fireplace is an unpainted tinder-box, containing fat lightwood, chips and wood for making fires. All the rooms have fireplaces. Though some families in that section of the country sleep upon straw-beds, this particular family has feather- beds through the house. The front room on the right has a center-table standing upon three legs with glass feet. The back rooms have lofts stored with hams and dried pumpkins. The other rooms are ceiled overhead, with plastered sides. The walls of the front room are decked with pictures of "Noah's Ark," "Eternity," "Christ's Blessings," and to sum up the whole array of pictures, those which are not of the immediate family seem to con¬ tinually impress the fact that death is near. The lights of the house are the common Miller lamps with Rochester burners. The kitchen contains a common cook-stove, a cook-table, milk cans, churn, and general milk apparatus. The bedroom on the back contains also a new food safe, made of oak with doors of flowered wirecloth. Upon the tables of the rooms may be seen copies of the "Truth," an Atlanta Ne¬ gro publication; copies of cheap novels sold on trains, such as, "A Slow A Study of Eight Homes 73 Tiain through Arkansas," and a book called "Stories from the Ladies1 Home Journal." The Atlanta Journal is taken also. The yards are kept as free of obstruction as possible. In the front yard are a few flowers in beds, separated by cleanly-swept walks. The back yard con¬ tains a well and a side table, and perhaps half a dozen tubs made from syrup barrels. All water is carried into the house in well-polished cedar buckets. Plan E.—Family of three (widow and two daughters). This city house is a frame dwelling of three rooms: two bedrooms and a kitchen. One bedroom, 18 x 14^, has two windows and two doors, one leading to the next room and the other to some steps in front. The windows have no curtains nor shades. The walls are unplastered and, save for a few calendars, are bare. The floor has no covering. Within the room are a bed, a table, a bureau and a wardrobe. There is also a fireplace, with a mantel above upon which are. two vases, a calendar and one or two Sunday-school cards. The other bedroom is 18x12. The walls are bare and the floors uncovered. Th&re are two windows without shades and curtains. Within the room are a bed, a table and one or two chairs. There is a fireplace, with a .mantel above upon which irons are kept. The kitchen, which is detached, is 12x7. The 74 The Negro American Family walls are bare and unplastered and the floors uncovered. In it are a small cooking stove, a table, a food safe, a bench and four chairs. There is one window without shade or curtain, and one door. This family does not subscribe for any paper or magazine, and the books consist of some school books once used by children of the family. The yard in front is used as a place for washing, and the tubs and clothes-lines are there. The yard in the back is used for a garden. There are several trees and an outhouse in it. A hydrant supplies city water. Plan F.—Family of four (parents and two daughters). This city cottage is built of boards % x 12 in., with shingle roof and wooden supporting pillars. The walls of the room are made out of regular flooring lumber. The front room has paper on the walls, car¬ pet on the floor, and curtains at the windows. On the walls are two or three pictures of the members of the family. This room is used as A Study of Eight Homes 75 a bedroom as well as a parlor, and contains a bed, bureau, washstand, bowl and pitcher. The walls of the other two rooms and kitchen are destitute of paper, plaster and pictures, and the floors are bare. In one of these rooms is an old-fashioned bed and a bureau. In the other is .an iron bed, a piano and a bureau. In the kitchen is a table, a safe and a range. There are eight chairs in the house and one rocking- chair. There are a few books in the main room, such as: the Bible, and "Life of Fred Douglas"; there is also the Atlanta "Constitution." Coal and wood is used for heating purposes. The front room has a grate and the other two have fireplaces. For light, kerosene lamps are 76 The Negro American Family used. The yard is inclined from the front to the back. In the back is an outhouse and a well. In the front is a rosebush and a peachtree. PitAN G.—Family of seven (parents, two children, grandfather, uncle and nephew). This city house is a frame structure of three rooms, two on one side of a hall and one on the other. The house is weatherboarded crosswise and painted green. The front room on the right has two windows, the A Study of Eight Homes 77 front window being a large one-pane sash, with transom. The side window has four lights in two sashes. The rest of the rooms have two and three windows each. The front porch is ten feet wide at the widest part. The back porch is five feet wide. The front room contains an oak suit of furniture, with four straight-back chairs and two rockers. There is a rug upon the oak-stained floor. The casings of the room are cherry colored. The mirrored mantel is cherry with vari-colored tile hearth, and club-house grate. The bed mattress is of cotton felt. On the under shelf of a center-table are the daily issues of the Atlanta "Georgian," an Atlanta daily, together with weekly issues of the Atlanta Independent, a Negro weekly published here. On a small bookcase are "various books: novels like "Ishmael," a "Webster's abridged dictionary, and the "Home Encyclopaedia." The room back of this is the kitchen; it contains a common cook-stove, an iron bed used for "lounging," a cheap safe, an eating-table, a side table, a com¬ bination affair for holding flour, meal, coffee, spices, sugar, salt, etc.; the floor is kept well scoured. In the room across the hall are two beds, a washstand, a dresser, and a center-table. In this room is a small heater of ordinary style; nothing is upon the floor. Common cotton mattresses are upon the beds. The pictures are mostly of landscapes and portraits of the immediate family. In the hall is a common side¬ board. The lights are Miller lamps with Rochester burners. There are three or four alarm clocks in the house. There is a stand-pipe on the back porch, furnishing water for the house. The walls are all plas¬ tered, also overhead with scratchcoat finish. The front yard has grass, but no flowers. The back yard contains a coalhouse, chicken-house, water-closet and storeroom, a washbench and three tubs. Plan H.—Family of eleven (parents and nine children). A City Home: Parlor.—The walls are kalsomined in pink and blue. There are six painted pictures on the walls, two of the mother, one of the husband and four of rural scenes. The floor is carpeted with Brussels carpet and three rugs. The furniture consists of one parlor suite, mahogany- finished and leather-bottomed, and two bookcases, one in oak and one in oil-finish, with books such as the works of George Eliot, Dickens, Shakespeare, Irving, Poe; Latin, Greek, German and French text¬ books, and others. The room is heated by an open grate and lighted by gas. Reception Hall.—The walls are sand-finished, and kalsomined in blue and pink. There are six framed pictures, two of grandparents, one of sister, one of Fred Douglass, one of Booker "Washington, and one rural scene. The floor is carpeted with Brussels carpet and three rugs. The furniture consists of four straw-bottomed chairs, cherry-colored, one table, and one piano ebony-finished. The books consist of collec¬ tions of music. The room is heated by an open grate and lighted by gas. The woodwork of both these rooms is oil-finished. Dining-Room.—The walls are sand-finished, and kalsomined in pink. 78 The Negro American Family r>f?sr rc.oo& puaat SCj*lC • Ot*£ rOuRTH INCH to th£ foot The pictures consist of four framed pictures, chiefly of fruits. The floor is painted red and has a rug.k The furniture consists of twelve chairs, one table, one sideboard, oak-finished, and china closet oil- finished. The room is heated by open grate and lighted by gas. Study.—The walls are kalsomined in blue and cream. Thex-e are four framed pictures and one framed mirror on the wall. The floor is cov¬ ered with linoleum. The furniture consists of six chairs, one table, one desk and one piano. The books consist for the most part of school books—of grammar school and preparatory course—with magazines, A Study of Eight Homes 79 such as "The Ladies' Home Journal," "Woman's Home Companion," "Harper's," and others. The room is heated by a small heater and lighted by gas. Kitchen.—The walls are of painted wood. The floor is bare, painted. The furniture consists of one table, range, sink, drawboard. It is lighted by gas. Halls.—The walls are kalsomined in blue and yellow. The floors are covered with linoleum; the steps are carpeted. The halls are lighted with gas. 80 The Negro American Family Bedrooms.—The bedroom over the parlor has walls kalsomined in blue and yellow. The floor is carpeted. The pictures consist of four framed pictures. The furniture consists of one bed, one washstand, table, one dresser and four chairs, oak-finished. The room is heated by an open grate and lighted by gas. The bedroom over the reception hall has similar walls, the floor is covered with matting; the pictures consist of three framed pictures, two of parents and one of country scene. The furniture consists of one iron bed, dressing-table, chiffonier and three chairs. It is heated by an open grate and lighted by gas. The bedroom over the study has similar walls, is covered with matting and has four pictures of relatives and scenes. The furniture consists of a double bed, dresser, washstand, table and three chairs. It is heated and lighted as the others. The bedroom over the dining-room has similar walls, is covered with matting, and has one framed picture of a group of boys. The furniture consists of one ordinary bed, one folding-bed and dresser. It is heated by one small fireplace and lighted by gas. Next to this bedroom is the bathroom, 5 x 10 feet. Building Material.—The house is built of wood, with all the inside walls plastered with the exception of the kitchen. There is water through the house and in the yard. The house is lighted by gas; there is only one outhouse, the coalhouse. The house has had a recent coat of paint upon it. Section 14. Evolution of the Negro Home. The pictures on the fol¬ lowing pages present a series which illustrates partially the evolution of the Negro home: No. I—Group of African huts (loaned by the Southern Workman). No. 2—Storehouse for corn—Bongo (Schweinfurth). No. 3—Two dwelling-huts, 5-7 metres high—Bongo (Schweinfurth). No. 4—Corn warehouses—Niam-Niam (Schweinfurth). No. 5—Sleeping-hut for boys, kitchen-hut and dwelling-hut—Niam- Niam (Schweinfurth). No. 6—Dwelling-hut (6x10 metres) and palace of the king (25x50 metres, 17 metres high)—Monbuttos (Schweinfurth). Nos. 7-10—Slave-cabins, Southern United States (loaned by Southern Workman). Nos. 11-13—Negro city, tenements, Atlanta (photo, by A. J.Williams, '09.) Nos. 14-19—Negro city tenements, Atlanta, poorer class (photo, by A. J. Williams, '09). Nos. 20-27—Negro city tenements, Atlanta, better class (photo, by A. J. Williams, '09). Nos. 28-35—Homes owned by Atlanta Negroes (photo, by A. J. Wil¬ liams, '09). No. 36—Residence of a Negro minister, Decatur (photo, by Askew). No. 37—Residence of a Negro lawyer, Atlanta (photo, by Askew). No. 38—Residence of a Negro tailor, Atlanta (photo, by Askew). Evolution of the Negro Home 81 No. 39—Residence of a Negro working-woman, Atlanta. No. 40—Residence of a Negro-railway postal-clerk, South Atlanta. No. 41—Residence of a Negro contractor and builder, Atlanta. No. 42—Residence of a Negro grocer. No. 43—Residence of a Negro business man, insurance manager and proprietor of barber shops; now building and said to be the finest Negro residence in the South. It will have electric bells and lights, fireplaces, steam-heat, roof-garden, and 15 rooms. (Photographs 39-43 by Askew). Reproduced, by permission, trotn Stanley's u Through the Dark Continent..11 — Copyright, I878, ov mirper & Bi othirs. Reproduced, by permission, from Stanfey's I hrough the by Harper & Brothers 82 The Negro American Family Evolution of the Negro Home 83 Economics of the African Family 97 Part 3. The Economics of the Family Section 15. Africa. The family economy of Africa is simple and primitive, and may be described briefly in the words of Biicher:1 The economy of many Negro tribes shows ... a sharp division of the production and of many parts of the consumption according to sex; indeed even the extension of this distinction to the sphere of barter. As P. Pogge, one of our most reliable observers, says concisely of the Congo Negroes: "The woman has her own circle of duties independent of that of her husband." And in the description of the Bashilangas he observes: "No member of the family troubles himself about another at meal-times; while some eat the others come and go just as it suits them; but the women and the smaller children gener¬ ally eat together." And finally he reports further regarding the Lundas: "Under ordinary conditions, when a caravan has pitched its camp in a village, the women of the place are accustomed to bring vegetables and fowl into the camp for sale, while goats, pigs and sheep are usually sold only by the men. It is similarly related by L. Wolf that in the market of Ibaushi all the agricul¬ tural products and materials, mats and pottery are sold by the women and only goats and wine by the men. Each sex is thus possessor of its special product of labor, and disposes of it independently. The division of the labor production between the two sexes in Africa varies in detail from tribe to tribe; as a rule, however, agriculture and the prepara¬ tion of all the vegetable foods are also assigned here to the woman, and hunt¬ ing, cattle-raising, tanning, weaving to the man. This arrangement is often supported by superstitious usages. In Uganda the milking of the cows falls exclusively to men ; a woman is never permitted to touch the udder of a cow. In the Lunda territory, again,no man is allowed to take part in the extraction of oil from the ground-nut,as his presence is thought to frustrate the success of the operation. As a rule the carriers whom Europeans engage refuse to do women's work; Livingstone even reports a case of famine among the men in a certain district because no women were there to grind the corn they had on hand. The separation of the two sexes in the preparation and consumption of food is often made still more rigid by regulations of a semi-religious char¬ acter, forbidding the women the use of certain kinds of meat, which are thus reserved for men alone. Everywhere among primitive peoples the children become independent very early in youth and desert the society of their parents. They often live then for some years in special common houses, of which there are others for married men. These common-houses for men-folk grouped according to age, and frequently also for the unmarried women grouped in the same way, are found very widely distributed in Africa and America, and especially in Oceania. They serve as common places of meeting, work, and amusement and as sleeping-places for the younger people, and are used also for lodging strangers. They naturally form a further obstacle to the development of a common household economy based upon the family, for each family is gener¬ ally subdivided into different parts with separate dwellings. It may be asserted as a general rule for primitive peoples practising polyg¬ amy that each wife has her own hut. Among the Zulus they go so far as to build a separate hut for almost every adult member of the household—one for the husband, one for his mother, one for each of his wives and other adult members of his family. These huts all stand in a semi-circle about the en- lOarl Bucher: Industrial Evolution (translated by Wickett), chap. 1, pp. 85-38. 98 The Negro American Family closed cattle-kraal in such a way that the man's dwelling is in the center. Of course it is to be remembered that a hut of this kind can be constructed in a few hours.1 Miss Kuigsley says: 2 The House is a collection of individuals; I should hesitate to call it a devel¬ oped family. I cannot say it is a collection of human beings, because the very dogs and canoes and so on that belong to it are a part of it in the eye of the law, and capable therefore alike of embroiling it and advancing its interests. These Houses are bound together into groups by the Long ju-ju proper to the so-called secret society, common to the groups of houses. The House is pre¬ sided over by what is called in white parlance, a king, and beneath him there are four classes of human beings in regular rank, that is to say influence in council: firstly, the free relations of the king, if he be a free man himself, which is frequently not the case; if he be a slave, the free people of the fam¬ ily he is trustee for; secondly, the free small people who have placed them¬ selves under the protection of the House, rendering it in return for the assist¬ ance and protection it affords them service on demand; the third and fourth classes are true slave classes, the higher one in rank being that called the Winnaboes or Trade boys, the lower the pull-away boys and plantation hands. The beist point in it, as a system, is that it gives to the poorest boy who paddles an oil-canoe a chance of becoming a king. Property itself in West Africa, and as I have reason to believe from reports in other parts of tropical Africa that I am acquainted with, is firmly governed and is divisable into three kinds. Firstly, ancestral property connected with the office of headmanship, the Stool, as this office is called in the true Negro state, the Cap as it is called down in Bas Congo; secondly, family property, in which every member of the family has a certain share, and on which he, she or it has a claim; thirdly, private property, that which is acquired or made by a man or woman by their personal exertions, over and above that which is earned by them in co-operation with other members of their family which becomes a family property, and that which is gained by gifts or made in trade by the exercise of a superior trading ability. Every one of these forms of property is equally sacred in the eye of the African law. The property of the Stool must be worked for the Stool; work¬ ing it well, increasing it, adds to the importance of the Stool, and makes the king who does so popular; but he is trustee not owner of the Stool property, and his family does not come in for that property on his death, for every profit made by the working of Stool property is like this itself the property of the Stool, and during the king's life he cannot legally alienate it for his own personal advantage, but can only administer it for the benefit of the Stool. The king's power over the property of the family and the private property of the people under this rule, consists in the right of Ban, but not arriere Ban. Family property is much the same as regards the laws concerning it as Stool property. The head of the family is trustee of it. If he is a spend¬ thrift, or unlucky in its management, he is removed from his position. Any profit he may make with the assistance of a member of his own family be¬ comes family property; but of course any property he may make with the assistance of his free wives or wife, a person who does not belong to his family, or with the assistance of an outsider, may become his own. Private property acquired in the ways I have mentioned is equally sacred in the eyes lCarl Bucher: Industrial Evolution (translated by Wickett), chap. 1, p. 38. 2 West African Studies, 2d ed., pp. 3<55-8(i<5. Economics of the Slave Family 99 of the law. I do not suppose you could find a single human being, slave or free, who had not some private property of his or her very own. Section 16. Slavery. The economic revolution of slavery, so far as the family was concerned, was far-reaching. Newly imported Africans were in the West Indies often portioned off among the older slave families. These families were supposed to support themselves by food which they raised on plots of ground given them, the masters only helping out in case of drought. This, however, did not always work well, as the harder the slaves were driven the less time and inclination they had to raise food of the proper amount and kind. Gradually, therefore, on the continent, the system of "rations" came into use: every week or fortnight each slave family presented themselves at the master's storehouse and received an allowance of pork and corn- meal, and perhaps other food. Once a year, usually at Christmas-time, clothing was distributed. The following extracts will illustrate con¬ ditions : Rev. George Whitefield, in his letter to the slaveholders of Mary¬ land, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, published in 1739, said: My blood has frequently run cold within me, to think how many of your slaves have not sufficient food to eat; they are scarcely permitted to pick up the crumbs that fall from their master's table. The Maryland Journal, and Baltimore Advertiser, May 30, 1788, says: A single peck of corn a week, or the like measure of rice, is the ordinary quantity of provision for a hard-working slave; to which a small quantity of meat is occasionally, though rarely, added. Hon. Alexander Smyth, a slaveholder, and for ten years a Member of Congress from Virginia, in his speech on the Missouri question, said January 28, 1820: By confining the slaves to Southern States, where crops are raised for ex¬ portation and bread and meat are purchased, you doom them to scarcity and hunger. It is proposed to hem in the blacks where they are ill-fed. The report of the Gradual Emancipation Society, of North Carolina, 1826, speaking of the condition of slaves in the eastern part of that State, says: The master puts the unfortunate wretches upon short allowances, scarcely sufficient for their sustenance, so that a great part of them go half-starved much of the time. Hon. Robert Turnbull, a slaveholder of Charleston, S. C., says: The subsistence of the slaves consists, from March until August, of corn ground into grits, or meal, made into what is called hominy, or baked into cornbread. The other six months they are fed upon the sweet potato. Meat when given is only by the way of indulgence or favor. Others testify:1 The food of the slaves was generally cornbread, and sometimes meat or mo¬ lasses. l American Slavery as it Is, p. 28. 100 The Negro American Family The slaves had no food allowed them besides corn, excepting at Christmas, when they had beef. On my uncle's plantation the food of the slaves was cornpone and a small allowance of meat. Angelina Grimke Weld says:1 Only two meals a day are allowed the house-slaves—the first at twelve o'clock. If they eat before this time, it is by stealth, and I am sure there must be a good deal of suffering among them from hunger, and particularly by children. Besides this they are often kept from their meals by way of pun¬ ishment. No table is provided for them to eat from. They know nothing of the comfort and pleasure of gathering round the social board—each takes his plate or tin pan and iron spoon, and holds it in the hand or on the lap. I never saw slaves seated around a table to partake of any meal. Mr. Eleazar Powell, Chippewa, Beaver county, Penn., who resided in Mississippi in 1836 and 1837, said: The slaves received two meals during the day. Those who have their food cooked for them get their breakfast about eleven o'clock, and their other meal about midnight. Philemon Bliss, Esq., a lawyer in Elyria, Ohio, and a member of the Presbyterian church, who lived in Florida in 1834 and 1835, said: The slaves go to the field in the morning; they carry with them cornmeal wet with water, and at noon build a fire on the ground and bake it in the ashes. After the labors of the day are over, they take their second meal of ash-cake. "The legal allowance for food in North Carolina is, in the words of the law, 'a quart of corn per day.' See Haywood's Manual, page 525# The legal allowance in Louisiana is more, a barrel [flour barrel] of corn (in the ear), or its equivalent in other grain, and a pint of salt a salt a month. In the other slave States the amountof food for the slaves is left to the option of the master." (1839.) Thos. Clay, Esq., of Georgia, a slaveholder, in his address before the Presbytery, 1833, said: TUe quantity allowed by custom is a peck of corn a week. An observer who lived twelve years in the South says: In lower Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana, the clothing of the slaves is wretchedly poor; and grows worse as you go south, in the order of the States I have named. The only material is cotton bagging, i. e., bagging in which cotton is baled, not bagging made of cotton. In Louisiana, especially in the lower country, I have frequently seen them with nothing but a tattered coat, not sufficient to hide their nakedness. In winter their clothing seldom serves the purpose of comfort, and frequently not even of decent covering. In Louisiana the planters never think of serving out shoes to slaves. In Mississippi they give one pair a year generally. I never saw or heard of*an instance of masters allowing them stockings. A small poor blanket is gen¬ erally the only bed clothing, and this they frequently wear in the field when they have not sufficient clothing to hide their nakedness or to keep them warm. Their manner of sleeping varies with the season. In hot weather i American Slavery, etc., pp. 55-56. Economics of the Slave Family 101 they stretch themselves anywhere and sleep. As it becomes cool they roll themselves in their blankets, and lay scattered about the cabin. In cold weather they nestle together with their feet towards the fire, promiscu¬ ously. i The masters [in Georgia] make a practice of getting two suits of clothes for each slave per year, a thick suit for winter and a thin one for summer. They provide also one pair of Northern-made sale shoes for each slave in winter.2 The males and females have their suits from the same cloth for their win¬ ter dresses. These winter garments appear to be made of a mixture of cotton and wool, very coarse and sleazy. The whole suit for the men consists of a. pair of pantaloons and a short sailor jacket, without shirt, vest, hat, stock¬ ings, or any kind of loose garments! These, if worn steadily when at work, would not probably last more than one or two months; therefore, for the sake of saving them, many of them work, especially in the summer, with no cloth¬ ing on them except a cloth tied around their waist, and almost all with noth¬ ing more on them than a pantaloons, and these frequently so torn that they do not serve the purposes of common decency. The women have for clothing a short petticoat, and a short loose gown, something like the male's sailor- jacket, without any under garment, stockings, bonnets, hoods, caps, or any kind of over-clothes. When at work in warm weather they usually strip off the loose gown, and have nothing on but a short petticoat with some kind of covering over their breasts. Many children may be seen in summer months as naked as they came into the world.3 The allowance of clothing on this plantation to each slave, was given out at Christmas for the year, and consisted of one pair of coarse shoes and enough coarse cloth to make a jacket and trousers. If the man has a wife she makes it up; if not, it is made up in the house. The slaves on this plantation, being near Wilmington, procured themselves extra clothing by working Sundays and moonlight nights, cutting cordwood in the swamps, which they had to back about a quarter of a mile to the river; they would then get a permit from their master and, taking the wood in their canoes, carry it to Wilming¬ ton and sell it to the vessels, or dispose of it as best they could, and with the money buy an old jacket of the sailors, some coarse cloth for a shirt, etc. They sometimes gather the moss from the trees, which they cleanse and take to market. The women receive their allowance of the same kind of cloth that the men have. This they make into a frock; if they have any under garment they must procure them for themselves. . . . Every Saturday night the slaves receive their allowances of provisions,which must last them till the next Saturday night. "Potato time," as it is called, be¬ gins about the middle of July. The slave may measure for himself, the over¬ seers being present, half a bushel of sweet potatoes, and heap the measure as long as they will lie on; I have, however, seen the overseer, if he thinks the Negro is getting too many, kick the measure; and if they fall off tell him he has got his measure. No salt is furnished them to eat with their potatoes. When rice or corn is given they give them a little salt; sometimes half pint of molasses is given, but not often. The quantity of rice, which is of the small broken, unsaleable kind, is one peck. When corn is given them their allow¬ ance is the same, and if they get it ground (Mr. Swan had a mill on his plan¬ tation), they must give one quart for grinding, thus reducing their weekly allowance to seven quarts. When fish (mullet) were plentiful they were allowed in addition one fish. As to meat they seldom had any. I do not ^American It Is, p. 42. 2Ibid., p. 19. 3 ibid., p. 19. 102 The Negro American Family think they had any allowance for meat oftener than once in two or three months, then the quantity was very small. When they went into the field to work they took some of the meat or rice and a pot with them; the pots were given to an old woman who placed two, poles parallel, set the pots on them and kindled a fire underneath for cooking; she took salt with her and seasoned the messes as she thought proper. When their breakfast was ready, which was generally about ten or eleven o'clock, they were called from labor, ate, and returned to work; in the afternoon dinner was prepared in the same way. They had but two meals a day while in the field; if they wanted more, they cooked for themselves after they returned to their quarters at night. At the time of killing hogs on the plantation, the pluck, entrails aDd blood were given to the slaves.1 Mr. George W. Westgate, who had been engaged in the low-country trade for twelve years, more than half of each year, principally on the Mississippi, and its tributary streams in the southwestern slave States, said: Feeding is not sufficient—let facts speak. On the coast, i. e., Natchez and the Gulf of Mexico, the allowance was one barrel of ears of corn and a pint of salt per month. They may cook this in what manner they please, but it must be done after dark; they have no daylight to prepare it by. Some few plant¬ ers, but only a few, let them prepare their corn on Saturday afternoons. Planters, overseers and Negroes have told me that in pinching times,i. e., when corn is high, they did not get near that quantity. In Mississippi I know some planters who allowed their hands three and a half pounds of meat per week when it was cheap. Many prepare their corn on the Sabbath, when they are not worked on that day, which however is frequently the case on sugar plantations. There are very many masters on "the coast" who will not suffer their slaves to' come to the boats, because they steal molasses to barter for meat; indeed, they generally trade more or less with stolen property. But it is impossible to find out what and when, as their articles of barter are of such trifling importance. They would often come on board to beg a bone, and would tell how badly they were fed, that they were almost starved; many a time I have sat up all night to prevent them from stealing some¬ thing to eat.2 Slaves belonging to merchants and others in the city often hire their own time, for which they pay various prices, per week or month, according to the capacity of the slave. The females who thus hire their time pursue various modes to procure the money; their masters making no inquiry how they get it, provided the money comes. If it is not regularly paid they are flogged. Some take in washing, some cook on board vessels, pick oakum, sell peanuts, etc., while others, younger and more comely, often resort to the vilest pursuits.3 This is all that good or bad masters allow their slaves round about Savannah on the plantations: One peck of gourd seed-corn is to be measured out to each slave once every week. One man with whom I labored, however, being de¬ sirous to get all the work out of his hands he could before I left (about fifty in number), bought for them every week, or twice a week, a beef's head from market. With this they made a soup in a large iron kettle, around which the hands came at meal time, and dipping out the soup would mix it with their 1 Narrative of Mr. Oaulkins on estate of John Swan, near Wilmington, N. O., 1838. American Slavery as it Is, p. 13. 2 American Slavery as it Is, p. 30. 3 Ibid., p. 16. Economics of the Slave Family 103 hommony, and eat it as though it were a feast, This man permitted his slaves to eat twice a day while I was doing a job for him. * The custom was to blow the horn early in the morning, as a signal for the hands to rise and go to work, when commenced; they continued work until about eleven o'clock, a. m., when at the signal all hands left off and went into their huts, made their fires, made their corn-meal into hommony or cake, ate it, and went to work again at the signal of the horn, and worked until night or until their tasks were done. Some cooked their breakfast in the field while at work. Each slave must grind his own corn in a hand-mill after he has done his work at night. There is generally one hand-mill on every plantation for the use of the slaves. Some of the planters have no corn, others often get out. The substitute for it is the equivalent of one peck of corn either in rice or sweet potatpes; neither of which is as good for the slave as corn. They complain more of being faint who feed on rice and potatoes than when fed on corn. I was with one man a few weeks who gave me his hands to do a job of work, and to save the time one cooked for all the rest. The following course was taken: Two crotched sticks were driven down at one end of the yard, and a small pole being laid on the crotches, they swung a large iron kettle on the middle of the pole; then made up a fire under the kettle and boiled the hommony; when ready the hands were called around this kettle with their wooden plates and spoons. They dipped out and ate standing around the kettle, or sitting upon the ground, 'as best suited their convenience. When they had potatoes they took them out with their hands, and ate them. As soon as it was thought they had had sufficient time to swallow their food they were called to their work again. This was the only meal they ate through the day.2 The general allowance of food was thought to be a peck and a half of meal and three pounds of bacon a week. This it was observed is as much meal as they can eat, but they would be glad to have more bacon; sometimes they receive four pounds, but it is oftener that they receive less than three. It is distributed to them on Saturday nights, or on the better-managed plantations sometimes Wednesday, to prevent their using it extravagantly, or selling it for whiskey on Sunday. Olmsted says that the slaves take their breakfast at sunrise or a little be¬ fore, then go to the field and work until noon; their dinner is brought to them, and when the work is not too pressing they have two hours to rest. Promptly at sundown they stop work and return to their cabins. Then they go to the woods, bring wood and cook their supper, which will be a bit of bacon fried often with eggs, corn-bread baked in the spider, after the bacon to absorb the fat, and perhaps some sweet potatoes roasted in the ashes.3 The ploughmen got their dinner at twelve o'clock: those not using horses do not usually dine till they have finished their tasks; but this, I believe, is optional with them. They commence work at sunrise and at about eight o'clock have their breakfast brought to them in the field, each hand having left a bucket with the cook for that purpose. All who are working in con¬ nection leave their work together and gather in a social company about a fire, where,they spend about half an hour, at breakfast time. The provisions fur¬ nished them consist mainly of meal, rice, and vegetables, with salt and mo¬ lasses and occasionally bacon, fish and coffee. The allowance is a peck of meal or an equivalent quantity of rice per week, to each working hand old or young, besides small stores. 4 1 American Slavery as it Is p. 18. 2 Ibid. pp. 18-19 3Olmsted: Seaboord Slave States, I, pp. 120-122. 4 Ibid, I, p. tt) 104 The Negro American Family The slaves were furnished with a coat and trousers of coarse woollen, or woollen and cotton stuff for winter, and trousers of cotton osnaburg for sum¬ mer. They had two pairs of shoes, or a pair of shoes and a pair of boots each year. The women have two dresses of striped cotton, three shifts, two pairs of shoes, etc.1 Section 17. General Economic Condition. The chief occupations of Negroes in 1890 and 1900 were as follows: Negro Population, at least Ten Years of Age, Engaged in Specified Occupations: 1890 and 1900 Occupation 1890 1900 Per cent of Increase Continental United States: All occupations Occupations giving employment to at least 10,000 Negroes in 1900 Agricultural laborers Farmers, planters and overseers Laborers (not specified) : Servants and waiters Launderers and Laundresses Draymen, hackmen, teamsters, etc... Steam railroad employees Miners and quarrymen Saw and planing-mill employees Porters and helpers (in stores, etc.).. Teachers, professors in colleges, etc.. Carpenters and joiners Turpentine farmers and laborers Barbers and hairdressers Nurses and mid wives Clergymen Tobacco and cigar factory operatives Hostlers Masons (brick and stone) Dressmakers Iron and steel workers Seamstresses Janitors and sextons Housekeepers and stewards Fishermen and oystermen Engineers, firemen, (not locomotive) Blacksmiths Other occupations 3,073,164 *2,917,169 1,106,728 590,666 349,002 401,215 153,684 43,9ti3 47,548 19,007 17,276 11,694 15,100 22,581 J 17,480 5,213 12,159 15,004 10,500 9,760 7.586 6,579 11,846 5,945 9,248 10,071 6,326 10,988 $155,995 3,992,337 3,807,008 1,344,125 757,822 545,935 465,734 220,104 67,585 55,327 36.561 33.266 28,977 21.267 21,113 20,744 19,942 19,431 15,528 15,349 14,496 14,386 12,569 12,327 11.537 11,536 10,596 10,427 10,224 10,100 185,329 29.9 *29.8 21.5 28.3 56.4 16.1 43.2 53.7 16.4 92.4 92.6 147.8 40.8 -H5.5 14.1 272.7 27.7 2 3 38.1 47.4 65.7 87.4 +2.6 94.0 14.6 3.5 61.6 +8.1 $32.1 * Excludes turpentine farmers and laborers. + Decrease. t Turpentine farmers and laborers were included in "other agricul¬ tural pursuits" in 1890. $ Includes turpentine farmers and laborers. 2 Turning our attention specifically to the Negro farmer we may say: There was some ownership of land by Negroes before the war, but not much. During and after the war lands in Georgia and South Carolina were sold to Negroes on easy terms and Negroes bought land else¬ where. In 1875, there is reason to believe, Negroes held between two and four million acres of land; by 1880 this had increased to about six millions; to about eight millions in 1890, and to about twelve millions in 1900. 1 Olmsted, I, p. 129. 2 Bulletin No 8, p. 58. General Economic Condition 105 In 1900 there were 187,799 farms in the United States owned by Ne¬ groes, comprising about 12,000,000 acres. The owned farms constitute 25.2% of all Negro farms; the private farm-owning families 25.8% of all Negro-farms families. Taking all homes, both farm homes and others, we find that 20.3% of them are owned. There were 190,111 private farm-owning Negro families in 1900, and a somewhat larger number of farm-owning families of all sorts. Since 1890 the number of Negro farmers probably increased by about 36 or 38 per cent, the number of Negro owners increased over 57 per cent, and the percentage of ownership increased by 3.5. These percentages, although based on figures which are not entirely comparable, are sufficiently exact to measure approximately the advance toward farm ownership made .by the Negroes during the decade 1890 to 1900. These owners—including Indians and Mongolians, who constitute but 3% of all—have 15 million acres worth $179,796,639, and raised in 1899 products worth $57,422,983. They expended $2,624,595 for hired labor, and $1,197,180 for fertilizers. The black tenant farmer of the South is half way between slavery and free-ownership of the soil. The crop-lien system binds him in a black- belt of farming which is growing blacker. Under favorable conditions share tenants become cash renters and eventually owners, but this evolution is difficult. There are 283,614 Negro share tenant farmers in the United States and 273,560 cash tenants, and although the separate farms they cultivate are small, there is great concentration in owner¬ ship of land by the landlords. The colored tenants control 25 million acres of laud and 360 million dollars of farm property; they raise 200 million dollars worth of products annually, including 3 million bales of cotton, 73 million bushels of corn, 6 million bushels of sweet pota¬ toes, 200,000 tons of hay and forage, 1)4 million bushels of wheat, 2 million bushels of oats, 31 million pounds of rice and 62)^ million pounds of tobacco. The average share-tenant's farm is worth $628. It has land worth $435, $84 in buildings, $19 in tools, and $90 in live stock. It raises on an average $311 worth of products, or $7.33 worth per acre. Considering all Negro farmers, owners and tenants, we have in the United States 746,717 farms conducted by them, with an acreage about the size of New England. Of this acreage less than a million acres are in the North and 37 millions in the South. Of these farms 716,514 were improved by buildings, and they contained 38,233,933 acres, or 59,741 square miles, an area about equal to that of the State of Georgia or that of New England; 23,362,798 acres, or 61 per cent of the total area, was improved for farming purposes. The total value of property on these farms was $499,943,734, of which $324,244,397 represented the value of land and improvements, $71,903,315 that of buildings, $18,859,757 that of implements and machinery, and $84,936,265 that of live stock. The gross value of all products on farms of Negroes in 1899 was $255,751,145. Of this sum, however, $25,843,443 represents products fed to live stock, the value of which reappears and is to that extent duplicated in the reported value of animal products, such as meat, milk, butter, eggs and 106 The Negro American Family poultry; subtracting this amount we have a net value of $229,907,702, or 46 per cent of the total value of farm property in farms cultivated by Negroes. This sum represents the gross farm income. The total ex¬ penditure for labor on farms of Negroes in 1899 was $8,789,792, and the expenditure for fertilizers was $5,614,844. A third of the Negro farms yielded $100 to $250 income; another third $250 to $500 income; something over a seventh yielded over $500. The rest, 18 per cent, yielded less than $100. Estimating the net income after the rent has been subtracted, it is probable that 560,000 Negro-farm families have incomes between $150 and $170 a year, while about 200,000 families average $250 to $275 a year. The colored farmer conducts a little less than \ of all the farms in the United States; controls ^ of the total farm acreage and ^ of all farm property in value, and raises x\ of the products in value. In the South the Negro holds a third of the farms, a tenth of the acreage and a ninth of the property, and raises \ of the products. He conducts half the farms on which cotton is the chief crop, over a third of the rice farms, nearly a fifth of the tobacco farms, a seventh of the sugar farms and a tenth of the vegetable farms. Colored farmers raised, in 1899, 39.4% of the cotton on their own farms, besides what they raised as laborers on white farms; 9% of the rice, 21% of the sweet potatoes, 10% of the tobacco, and 4% of the corn. They owned 3% in value of the stock. The average Negro farm is worth 16% as much as the average white farm. The Negro is thus seen to be relatively a small economic factor according to his numbers, but nevertheless a factor that can¬ not be ignored and which is absolutely of great importance. To estimate the total property held by Negroes we may quote a report of a committee of the American Economic Association based on the census of 1900: It is the opinion of your committee that the census farm returns furnish a better basis for estimating the total accumulated wealth possessed by the Negroes in 1900 than is found in the only other source that has been used, namely, the assessors' returns for a few Southern States. The Census Bureau estimate is $200,000,000 for the value of (1) the farms, live-stock and implements on the farms owned and operated by Negroes and of (2) the live-stock on the farms rented by Negroes. This should be increased by (3) the farm property owned by Negroes and rented by them either to Negroes or to whites, and also by (4) the farm property other than live-stock owned by Negro farm tenants. It should be decreased by (1) the various unknown liabilities against this property in the hands of whites and by (2) the value of the live-stock of Negro tenants which is owned by white landlords. It is the belief of your committee that the subtractions would at least equal the additions, and that $200,000,000 may be deemed an outside estimate of the net value of the accumulated prop¬ erty owned by Negro farmers. Indeed it seems to us probable that this esti¬ mate would be large enough to include also the wealth owned by the 550,000 families of agricultural laborers. In other words, we believe that the total property held by these families is not greater than the legal claims held by whites againstNegro farm property plus the proportion of the $50,000,000 worth of live-stock on the farms of Negro tenants which is owned by whites, of nei¬ ther of which is any account taken in the Census Bureau estimate. Georgia 107 If this be granted, theD the further assumption may be ventured that the other 500,000 Negro families in the United States are no better off on the aver¬ age in the matter of accumulated wealth than are the 13^ million families occupied in agricultural pursuits. On that assumption the total accumulated wealth of Negro families in 1900 was in the neighborhood of $275,000,000. An inquiry into the value of the property held by Negro churches in 1890 gave as a result $26,600,000. As the Negro population of the United States increased between 1890 and 1900 by 18.0 percent and the number of Negro churches only about two-thirds as fast, the value of property held by Negro churches can hardly be supposed to have increased during the decade by more than 20 per cent. In that case the value of such property in 1900 was approximately $32,000,000. The legal claims against it owned by whites cannot be estimated. Nor does your committee see any way in which the amount of property held by Negroes other than family or church property can be approximated. The evidence in hand leads your committee to the conclusion that the accumulated wealth of the Negro race in the United States in 1900 was ap¬ proximately $300,000,000, and probably neither less than $250,000,000 nor more than $350,000,000. Section 18. Georgia. A more detailed picture of property owned by Negroes is furnished by the reports of the Comptroller-General of Georgia: Number of Acres and Assessed Value of Land Owned by Negroes of Georgia, 1874 to 1907 Year Acres owned Assessed value Year Acres owned Assessed value 1874 338,769 396,658 457,635 458,999 501,890 541,199 586,664 660,358 692,335 666,583 756,703 788,376 802,939 813,725 868,501 877,112 967,234 (al $1,263,902 1,234,104 1,262,723 1,294,383 1,348,758 1,522,173 1,754,800 1,877,861 2,065,938 2,262,185 2,362,889 2,508,198 2,598,650 2,822,943 3,047,695 8,425,176 1891 1,004,305 1,063,649 1,043,860 1,064,431 1,038,824 1,043,847 1,057,567 1,097,087 1,062,223 1,075,073 1,141,135 1,175,291 1,251,714 1,284,336 1,336,821 1,420,888 1,449,624 $3,914,143 4,477,183 4,450,121 4,386,366 4,158,960 4,234,848 4,353,798 4,340,100 4,220,120 4,274,549 4,656,042 4,779,263 5,181,471 5,455,328 6,282,436 7,149,925 7,972,787 1875 1892 1876.. 1893 1877 1894 1878. 1895 1879 1896 1880 1897 1881. 1898 1882.... 1899 1883 1900 1884 1901 1885 1902 1886 1903 1887 1904 1888 1905 1906 1890 1907 (a) Not reported. An examination of the records of typical counties show that this land was distributed about as follows. 108 The Negro American Family Farm Land, 1899, Approximate Distribution by Assessed Value Per cent Per cent of of Owners Value Under $100 46.9 9.4 $100 or under $300 31.1 23 8 $300 or under $500 11.3 19.2 $500 or under $1000 7.7 23.4 $1000 or under $2000 2.2 12.9 $2000 and over .8 11.8 100.0 100.0 Farm Land, 1906 Per cent Per cent of of Owners Value Under $100 36.5 5.5 $100 or under $300 32.7 18.5 8300 or under $500 14.3 17.8 8500 or under 11000 11.2 25.1 $1000 or under $2000 4.1 17.8 $2000 and over 1.2 15.3 100.0 100.0 Farm Land, 1899: Approximate Distribution by Acres Per cent of Owners Per cent of Acreage Under 10 acres 10 acres or under 50 60 acres or under 100 100 acres or under 300 300 acres or under 500 500 acres and over 30.5 32.4 16.5 17 4 2.3 9 16 12.1 16.9 42.2 13 9 18.3 100.0 100.0 Farm Land, 1906 Per cent of Owners Per cent of Acreage Under 10 acres 10 acres or under 50 50 acres or under 100 100 acres or under 300 300 acres or under 500 500 acres and over 30.3 31.7 16.4 18.5 2.2 .!> 1.5 12.1 17.1 44 9 12.7 11.7 100.0 100.0 Georgia 109 Assessed Value of Town and City Real Estate and Per Cent of Town and City Real Estate of Total Property Owned by Negroes of Georgia, 1875 to 1907 Assessed value Per cent of total property Yeah $1,203,202 22.31 1892 1,192,609 21.73 1893 1,154,422 21.26 1894 1,110,147 21.66 1895 1,094,435 21.12 1896 1,201,992 20.85 1897 1,323,045 20.42 1898 1,478,623 22.44 1899 1,657,101 21.85 1900 1,921,801 23.96 1901 2,098,787 25.74 1902 2,328,962 26.91 1903 2,499,389 27.97 1904 2,752,024 28.57 1905 8,103,486 29.80 1906 3,642,586 29.56 1907 4,131,216 29.10 Assessed value $4,668,733 31.40 4,851,144 32.43 4,635,055 32.22 3,436,778 34.28 4,437,329 33.38 4,321,620 31.73 4,374,565 31.89 4,346,396 32.32 4,361,390 30.89 4,351,935 27.84 4,389,422 28.89 4,668,620 27.93 5,165,000 28.55 5,512,217 26.73 5,950,036 25.05 6,710,189 25.90 Per cent of total property Georgia Town and City Property, 1899, Approximate Distribution by Value Per cent Per cent of of Owners Value Under $100 26.7 4.1 $100 or under $300 38.0 19.0 $300 or under $500 16.0 17 4 $500 or under $1000 13.9 27.2 $1000 or under $2000 3.0 10.4 $2000 and over 2.4 21.9 100.0 100.0 Town and City Property, 1906 Under $100 $100 or under $.300 .. $300 or under $500 .. $500 or under $1000 . $1000 or under $2000 $'2000 and over 110 The Negro American Family Assessed Value of Horses, Mules, Cattle, and Other Stock, and of Plantation and Mechanical Tools, Owned by Negroes of Georgia, 1875 to 1907 Assessed Value Horses, mules, cat¬ tle, and other stock (a) $241,106 1,926,942 1,641,367 1,704,230 2,054,787 2,213,021 2,031,361 2,361,662 2,387,282 2,245,801 2,166,569 2,178,518 2,314,356 2,315,480 2,915,635 3,429,223 Plantation and me¬ chanical tools 125. 162; 166, 143, 163. 225. 193. 238. 242! 228! 260. 304, 331. 384. 474. 645. Year 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 Assessed Value Horses, mules, cat¬ tle, and other stock $3,180,322 3,130,818 2,997,587 2,288,850 2,494,390 2,676,186 2,579,770 2,213,905 2,424,674 3,078,444 2,985,831 3,531,471 3,889,441 4,633,124 5,880,761 6,080,657 (a) Not reported. Assessed Value of Household and Kitchen Furniture Owned by Negroes of Georgia, 1875 to 1907 Year Assessed value Year Assessed value Year Assessed value 1875 $21,186 489,522 535,291 502,699 448,713 498,532 600,892 579,736 676,346 699,132 736,170 1886 $858,329 901,765 951,177 1,017,439 1,173,624 1,365,468 1,474,220 1,486,821 1,446,926 1,322,694 1,363,842 1897 $1,429,247 1,453,619 1,434,975 1,655,092 1,811,118 1,688,541 1,822,551 1,935,409 2,080,444 2,393,402 2,581,645 1876 1887 1898 1877 1888 1899 1878 1889 1900 1879 1890 1901 1880 1891 1902 1881 1892 1903 1882 1893 1894 1904 1883 1905 1884 1895 1906 1885 1896 1907 Assessed Value of Total Property Owned by Negroes of Georgia, 1874 to 1907 Year Assessed value Year Assessed value Year Assessed value 1874 $6,157,798 5,393,885 5,488,867 5,430,844 5.124.875 5,182,398 5,764,293 6,478,951 6.589.876 7,582,395 8,021,525 8,153,390 1886 $8,655,298 8,936,479 9,631,271 10,415,330 12,322,003 14,196,735 14,869,575 14,960,675 14,387,730 12,941,230 13,292,816 13,619,690 1898 $13,719,200 13,447,423 14,118,720 15,629,811 15,188,069 16,714,334 18,087,934 20,616,468 23,750,109 25,904,822 1875 1887 1899 18TT6 1888 1900 1877 1889 1901 1878 1890 1902 1879 1891 1903 1880 1892 1904 1881 1893 1905 1882 1894 1906 1883 1895 1907 1884 1885 1896 1897 Income 111 Since 1900 Negro property in Georgia has increased 83.4%. If Negro property throughout the Nation has increased in like proportion (and this is wholly conjectural), then, to use the phraseology of the Ameri¬ can Economic Association Committee: ltThe accumulated wealth of the Negro race in the United States in 1907 may be approximately $550,000,000 and possibly neither less than $550,000,000 nor more than $600,000,000." The economic situation of Negro Americans is thus summed up: To sum then the conclusions of this paper: half the Negro breadwinners of the nation are partially submerged by a bad economic system, an unjust admiration of the laws and enforced ignorance. Their future depends on common schools, justice, and the right to vote. A million and three-quarters of men just above these are fighting a fierce battle for admission to the indus¬ trial ranks of the nation—for the right to work. They are handicapped by their own industrial history which has made them often shiftless and untrust¬ worthy, but they can, by means of wise economic leadership, be made a strong body of artisans and landowners. A quarter of a million men stand econom¬ ically at the head of the Negroes, and by a peculiar self-protecting group economy are making themselves independent of prejudice and competition. This group economy is extending to the lower economic strata." 1 Section 19. Income. Some ideas of the income of Negro families may be gathered from the following figures: Number of Families by Size of Family and Annual Income. Farmville, Va., 1897 families of Annual Income One Member Two Members Three Members Pour Members Five Members Six Members Seven Members Eight Members Nine to Eleven Members Total Families 8 1 1 5 $50 to $75 5 4 1 1 11 $75 to |100 1 6 3 1 11 $100 to $150 1 7 6 2 2 1 19 $150 to $200 $201) to $250 i 8 14 4 5 5 9 4 3 3 4 3 2 2 2 29 40 $250 to $350 10 7 12 5 7 6 1 5 53 $350 to $500 1 7 13 7 1 4 5 6 44 $500 to $750 2 1 3 6 7 8 8 5 35 1 5 6 2 2 2 2 1 9 13 59, 34 48 SI 26 19 16 23 262 iFrom Papers and Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting American Eco¬ nomic Association, December, 1906. 112 The Negro American Family Number of Families by Size of Family and Annual Income Negroes of Xenia, Ohio, 1903 Annual. Income Under $50 $50 to $75 $75 to $100 $100 to $150 $150 to $200 §■200 to $"250 |250 to $350 $350 to $500. . .. $500 to $750 $750 to $1000.... $ 1000 or over.. Not reported. Total families of OX! ^ a E"i ® a 11 & a EH » 112 125 *•2 r?S 7.50 per week. Total $266 50 Expenditure Items Rent @ $3.00 per month $36 00 Clothing (two suits) 20 00 Underclothes 3 00 Shoes and stockings ft 50 Groceries and meat (a) 80c. per week 93 60 Doctor's bill and medicine 15 00 Life Insurance for 4 (a), 5c pr. wk. ea. 10 40 Incidentals and miscellaneous 12 10 Moving to Xenia 37 00 Fuel and lighting 30 00 Total $266 50 Income 113 Incomes According to Size of Family in Seventh Ward. 1896. Philadelphia Amount of Income Pex1 Year Size of Family Total Number of Families 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 to 15 $50 7 5 1 1 14 100 22 18 2 2 1 45 150 31 69 19 4 6 4 133 200 23 105 35 12 8 4 187 250 32 95 46 26 7 1 5 2 214 300 10 108 49 33 9 3 1 213 350 9 121 46 30 11 10 2 1 230 400 4 95 39 34 22 9 6 209 460 1 79 40 26 14 7 3 1 i 172 500 7 115 47 37 26 17 1 3 2 256 550 23 12 8 4 4 1 0 3 55 600 1 17 14 8 7 3 3 1 54 650 1 45 26 27 11 7 4 2 1 125 700 10 16 12 9 5 6 3 2 63 750 3 23 19 16 13 7 9 3 1 94 800 7 7 7 3 2 2 1 1 1 31 850 3 2 1 3 1 4 2 2 18 900 5 4 8 3 3 5 9 1 1 1 40 1000 to 1200 1 1 1 4 1 3 1 12 1200 to 1500 1 3 10 3 5 7 6 2 5 3 1 46 1500 and over. 2 6 10 12 6 5 10 3 2 4 5 65 Unknown — 15 67 17 6 2 2 1 110 Unknown size 55 The income according to size of family is indicated in the next table. From this, making the family a standard of five, and' making some, allowance for large and small families, we can conclude that 19 per cent of the Negro families in the Seventh Ward earn five dollars and less per week on the average; 48 per cent earn between $5 and $10; 26 per cent, $10—$15, and 8 per cent over $15 per week. Philadelphia, 1896 Average Earnings Per Week No. of Families Per Cent Remarks $5and less $5 to 10 $10 to 15 $15 to 20 $20 and over ,o„S 192... 420 1 228... 1088 581 91 96 8.8 9.6 47.8 25.5 4.0 4.2 Very poor. Poor. Fair. Comfortable. Good circumstances. Well-to-do. Total 2276 100.0 The following tables of Atlanta Negro budgets were made up in 1900: Annual Income of 124 Representative Families of Atlanta, and Amount and PerCent of Expenditure for Various Items Classified Income Number of Families Annual Income Annual Expenditure Total Average Rent Food Clothing Taxes Other Expenses and Savings Amt. Per Cent of Total Amt. Per Cent of Total Amt. Per Cent of Total Amt. Per Cent of Total Amt. Per Cent of Total $ 100 or under $ 200 200 " , 300 300 " 400 400 " 500 500 " 750 750 " 1,000 1000 or over 18 34 30 19 20 2 1 $ 2,504 8,480 10,004 8,234 11,288 1,760 1,125 $ 139 249 333 433 564 880 1,125 $ 288 1,038 864 770 804 11.50 12.24 8.63 9.35 7.12 $ 928 4,198 4,248 2,940 3,448 660 360 37.06 49 50 42.46 35.71 30.54 37.50 32.00 $ 570 1,800 2,060 1,285 1,755 350 200 20.37 21.23 20.69 15.61 15.55 19.89 17.78 $ 3 184 264 243 328 150 50 0.12 2.17 2.64 2.95 2.91 8.52 4.44 $ 775 1,260 2,568 2,996 4,953 600 515 30.95 14.86 25.68 36.38 43.88 34.09 45.78 2 crc Section 20. Budgets. There follow budgets showing the expenditures of seventeen Negro families, these except the first three were collected in 1909 by Senior and Junior students of Atlanta University: No. 1. Merchant's Account with a Farm Tenant. Alabama All of Dr. A. B. Or. Dr. A. B. 1898. To Balance $ Rent Taxes Interest Cash Tools— 3 prs. plow lines .. 45 1 plow 40 Shop work. Food— 147% lbs. meat 12 bu. meal 4 lbs. sugar 42 lbs. flour .$13 20 5 85 28 . 1 40 59 13 20 00 8 71 17 34 6 75 20 73 Carried forward $133 76 By Credit $117 27 Cash 47 91 3 bales Cotton 69 36 Carried forward $117 27 Brought forward. .$.133 76 Feed—Corn 13 85 4 bu. Oats .. 2 00 15 85 Clothing— 1 pr. Suspenders 10 1 hat 75 2 pr. pants 1 85 6 pr. shoes 6 70 22 yds. cloth 1 45 Seeds— IV/i bu. cotton seed 10 85 1 70 $162 16 Brought forward $117 27 k $117 27 Budgets 115 No. 2. Farm-Hand, i Five Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amount Man: 12 months' labor (a), $12.. Woman: 52 weeks' labor (§> $1.. Boy: 6 months' labor@ $3 $144 00 52 00 18 00 Food per week @ $1.70 for 52 weeks Fuel and lighting: 7 cords of wood @ $3.00, $21.00; oil @ 10c. a week for 52 weeks, $5.20 Clothing Miscellaneous Rent Doctor and medicine Surplus $88 40 26 20 50 00 10 00 18 00 10 00 11 40 Total $214 00 $214 00 No. 3. Laborer, 2 Five Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amount Man: 39 wks. work (a) $9 Wife: 12 wks. cooking (® $2.50 per wk.; 18 wks. washing @ $1 per wk $351 00 48 00 Rent 12 mos. @ $3 per mo Groceries and meat @ $4.00 per wk Dresses for wife and daughter 2 suits for boys 1 suit for husband Shoes and stockings for all... Underclothes for all Doctor's bill and medicine... Funeral expenses Life expenses @ 25c per wk Fuel Tobacco @ 20c per wk Miscellaneous On hand $ 36 00 208 00 7 00 4 50 5 50 8 75 2 00 21 00 20 00 13 00 33 00 10 40 14 45 15 40 $399 00 $399 00 No. 4. Farmer and Laborer, Four Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amount $300 00 100 00 Clothes $50 00 100 00 10 00 20 00 25 00 $205 00 195 00 Tax Amusements Other purposes 3 Unaccounted for $400 00 Total $400 00 iEstimated, see U. S. Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor No. 32. 2 Estimated' Xenia, Ohio, Bureau of the U. S. Bureau of Labor No. 48. 3 This portion includes a part which is spent upon drink. 116 The Negro American Family No. 5. Farmer and Teacher, Nine Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amt. Pr. ct. 8 bales of cotton weighing 500 $360 00 40 00 160 00 Food Fuel and light $280 10 2 50 82 00 25 00 15 00 205 40 41.2 .4 14.6 i 36.7 For teaching 8 months Sickness Other purposes Balance on hand $560 00 $560 00 100% No. 6. Laborer, Six Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amt. Pr. ct. $650 00 $250 00 100 00 13 00 3 00 284 00 38.5 15.25 2.00 .5 43.75 Clothes Taxes Light Other things Total $650 00 $650 00 100% No. 7. Laborer, Five Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amt. Pr. ct. $625 00 Food $250 00 125 00 121 00 30 00 27 00 72 00 40.0 16.0 15.75 4.8 4.2 19.25 Clothes Rent and taxes Fuel and light Family savings Other things |625 00 $625 00 100% No. 8. Farmer, Eleven Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amt. Pr. ct. Cotton Beans and potatoes Chickens $500 00 12 50 12 50 20 00 5 00 75 00 Paid out on land and stock Balance saved up $200 00 147 50 150 00 100 00 25 00 2 50 | 55.6 24.0 16.0 4.0 .4 Tobacco Peas Odd work on other farms Church and secret orders. Taxes Total $625 00 $625 00 100% Budgets No* 9. Brickmason and Driver, Seven Persons 117 Income Items Average yearly returns as brickmason and driver Total Amount $800 00 Expenditure Items Food Fuel '' |. Clothes '.. Payments on home and taxes For amusements Running house and pay¬ ments of water bills... For church purposes Sickness and tooth bill.. Societies Books, paper, periodicals Savings $800 00 Total No. 10. Farm=hand (Georgia), 12 Persons Amt. Pr. ct. !400 00 50 00 75 00 175 00 25 00 25 00 6 00 30 00 6 00 8 00 50.00 6.25 9.375 .875 12.50 21.00 Income Items of 30 bales cotton $47 .... 5 tons cotton seeds @ 16.50. Balance due landlord Total Amount $705 00 82 60 21 85 Expenditure Items Food 20 bbls. flour @ $6 $120 00 70 bu, meal @ $1.10.. 77 00 75 gal. molasses @ 45 33 75 825 lbs. meat @ 12 ... 99 00 $329 75 Clothes 7 suits @16.25 $113 75 Sunday dresses 21 25 Borrowed $25 note for . Mending shoes 2 boxes tobacco Gun (.second-hand)... Buggy (second-hand) Organ 6 tons guano @ 22.50... 2 boxes shells @55 Taxes $135 00 $819 35 Total No. 11. Janitor, Three Persons Amt. Pr. ct. $329 75 185 00 30 00 5 20 6 00 12 80 80 00 75 00 135 00 1 10 9 50 1819 35 40.3 16.4 42.2 Income Items Man's salary Woman's sewing House rent Amount $520 00 216 00 151 00 Total 00 Expenditure Items Food Clothes '. Insurance and church ... Amusements Medicine and toilet arti cles Other things Taxes Balance saved up Total Amt. $369 00 115 00 79 00 3 00 5 00 100 00 44 00 172 00 Pr.ct. 41.7 18.0 21.2 5.0 19.1 118 The Negro American Family No. 12. Brickmason, Nine Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amt. Pr. ct. $907 20 52 00 $278 30 48 i,0 85 00 1 20 12 00 55 60 20 25 467 95 29.00 5.08 8.85 | 7.16 2.10 48.81 For washing and ironing Fuel and light Clothes Amusements Sickness Society dues Taxes Savings and unaccounted $959 20 $959 20 100% No. 13. Teacher. Ten Persons Income Expenditure Rent— ) \ . Nursing ( . . Teaching / t. Secretary ( Wages j n .... Rent, i .... Total Amount $240 00 80 00 384 00 60 00 600 00 180 00 $1544 00 Items Clothes Food Taxes Fuel Repair Insurance Amusement ... Sickness Other purposes Savings Total $175 00 432 00 112 00 52 00 8 00 54 00 45 00 70 00 314 00 282 00 $1544 00 Pr. ct. 11.4 27.9 7.2 3 3 31.9 18.3 100% No. 14. Mail Carrier, Nine Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amt. Pr. ct. Man's salary @ 195 per month $1140 00 240 00 180 00 Food supplies @ $35 per $420 00 60 00 35 00 100 00 300 l>0 369 00 169 00 107 00 26 9 J 6 0 6.4 19 2 23.7 10.9 6.9 Daughter's salary @ $20 per month for 1 year Rent for 1 house @ $15 per mo.. Water and gas Coal and fuel Taxes Clothes Incidentals and repairs... Other things Savings Total $1560 00 $1560 00 100% Budgets No. 15. Farmer, Eleven Persons 119 Income Items Food 22 bu. peas @$2 $44 00 8 gal. vinegar @ 40e 3 20 4 turkeys @ $1.25 5 00 400 lbs. butter @ 15c 60 00 150gal.buttermilk@l0c 15 00 105 doz. eggs @ 20c 21 00 225 chickens @ 20c 45 00 Fruit 1500 Watermelons 17 00 175 gal. molasses 85 00 Total $310 20 Live stock 22 pigs @ $2 $44 00 1 cow 28 25 Total $72 25 18 cords of wood @ $2.50 3 tons of cotton seed @ $21 38 bales of cotton @ $52 Amount $310 20 72 25 45 00 63 00 1976 00 Total Expenditure Food 15 bbls. flour $82 50 40 bu. corn 4162 20 gal. syrup 330 lbs. bacon^ 35c. . 11c. 7 00 33 00 Sugar 16 00 \ 5c. Pepper. 20 lbs. soda ( Spice 2 sacks of salt @ 80c. . Lemon extract' 2 gal. vinegar® 40c... 50 lbs. beef @ 10c Lard Ginger Coffee Grits Irish potatoes 3 73 25 100 20 1 60 30 80 5 00 6 25 35 5 75 3 75 Total $209 12 Clothes 5 suits @ $15 $75 00 8 prs. shoes (Sunday) @$2.50 20 00 10 prs.shoes(everyday) @ $2 Dress goods(Sunday) do (everyday) Pins Socks and stockings.. Total $203 90 Rents and taxes Road tax $6 00 State tax 12 50 Interest 85 00 Total $103 50 Horse Food 20 bu. oats @ 65c $13 00 2 bu. rye @ $1.25 2 50 6 sacks bran @ $1.20.... 7 20 Total $22 70 Medicine Doctor's bill (sickness) $35 75 Turpentine 75 Saltpetre 100 15 5 50 5 50 17 50 75 $2466 45 Alum 2 gal. whiskey @ $2.75.. Patent medicine To dentist 3 pkgs. home powder.. Repairs 1 watch $1 00 7 prs. shoes @ 45c 3 15 Shoeing horses 6 00 Mows 5 25 General shop work — 10 75 On house dwellirfg — 5 26 Total $31 40 Total 120 The Negro American Family No. 15 (Continued) Income Items Brought forward. Amount $2466 45 Total $2466 45 Expenditure Items Brought forward Personal service Field labor $50 50 27 hair cuts 20c 5 40 7 shaves @ 10c 70 Total $56 60 Luxuries 60 sacks smoking to¬ bacco $3 00 1 doz. photos 2 25 3^ box cigars 100. Candy 1 50 4 doz. oranges @ 30c... 1 20 Jewelry 11 25 Total $20 20 Farming implements Gear, harness, hoes $7 85 16 baskets @ 75c 12 00 1 disc harrow 24 00 1 mower 75 00 1 two-horse wagon 65 00 2 axes @ 75c 1 50 3 buggy whips 1 50 Plows 11 25 Total $198 10 Household purposes Furniture $16 85 3 lamps • 4 25 Soap 3 25 Matches 40 Lamp oil 6 75 Total $3150 Live animals 2 mules @ $225 $450 00 Seed trees 20 fruit trees $18 25 Garden seeds 45 Watermelon seed 50 Flower seed 65 Total $19 85 Guano, 10 tons @ $20 Improvements Lightning rods $110 00 28 gal. paint @ $1.10 30 80 3 qts. machine oil @ 10c 30 Total $14110 Incidentals Church assessment... $15 00 School funds 5 75 Railroad fare 5 55 Charity 150 Stamps and stationery 2 60 Books 12 75 Newspaper 6 50 Daughter's education. 60 00 Total $109 55 Paid on old debt Total Budgets No. IS (Continued) 121 Income Items Brought forward. Balance Total $2466 85 Amount $2466 45 40 Recapitulation Items Food Clothes Rents and taxes Savings (includ'g amount paid on old debt Other purposes (including horse food, medicine, repairs, personal serv¬ ice, luxuries, farming implements, household purposes, live animals, guano, seed trees, and incidentals) Total Income (yearly) Balance Amt. $209 12 203 90 103 50 <502 43 1347 90 $2466 85 2466 45 40 Pr. ct. 8.5 8.2 4.1 24.5 54.7 Expenditure Items Brought forward Amount $2466 85 Total $2446 85 No. 16. Farmer, Ten Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amt. Pr. ct. Father for one vear Two sons for one vear Income for rent of 600 acres (a, $1.50 per acre $1000 00 500 00 900 00 Food (a) $30 per month Clothes Farm labor (a) .$50 per mo.. Periodicals aTnd papers.... Amusements Railroad travels House insurance Incidentals (house re¬ pairing, new furni¬ ture, etc.) Money spent on wagons.. Taxes (State and county). Life insurance Family savings $360 00 300 00 600 00 5 00 50 00 100 00 75 00 150 00 100 00 200 00 150 00 310 00 15.0 12.5 > 45.0 8.3 | 19.2 $2400 00 Total $2400 00 100% 122 The Negro American Family No. 17. Farmer, Six Persons Income Expenditure Items Amount Items Amt. Pr. ct. Ootton raised on farm, and fertilizer Restaur&nt in town $1837 50 1825 00 For food Restaurant food Fuel and lights Clothes Rent and taxes Unaccounted for Amusements Sickness Helper in restaurant For running house and keeping up rolling stock Societies, church, lodges, and charity, papers, etc Savings $200 00 912 50 50 00 350 00 200 00 1118 75 50 00 50 00 117 00 175 00 60 00 379 25 j 30.37 1.36 9.55 5.46 f- 42.88 10.38 $3662 50 Total $3662 50 100% One indication of the strengthening of family life and sounder eco¬ nomic conditions is found in the proportion of students in a school like Atlanta University who are supported by their families. A search of the University records reveals the following approximate results: atlanta university proportion of students Date Supported by family Self- supported 1887-1888 1897-1898 1907-1908 42.3% 51.4% 68.8% 57.7% 48.6% 31.2% Section 21. Rents. Two heavy items of expense for the poor are rent and food. The following tables show certain typical rents. In the country it is not possible to distinguish the rent from the wages in most cases: Farmville, Va. Families Owning and Renting Homes, by Number of Rooms to a Dwelling families occupying dwellings of Tenure One Room Two Rooms Three Rooms Four Rooms Five Rooms Six Rooms Seven Rooms Eight or Nine Rooms Total Families Owners 3 14 25 109 31 14 22 9 18 1 8 3 4 1 114 148 Renters 17 134 45 31 19 8 3 5 262 Rents 123 Of these 148 tenants, 15 rent from Negroes and 133 from whites. Sev¬ eral of the tenants own land. The rents paid by 83 typical tenants are reported in the following table, and from these the total annual rent charge of this community is estimated at about $5000. Rents paid by Typical Families, by Number of Rooms to a Dwelling families occupying dwellings of Monthly Rent One Room Two Rooms Three Rooms Four Rooms Five or more Rooms Total Families Annual Rent Paid Free 1 $1.00 2 $24 15 72 264 480 33 $1.25 1 3 1 1 4 11 16 r $1.50 $2.00 Y 15 1 38 1 1 $2.50 $2.75 1 $3.50 5 1 ' 8" 43 4 1548 168 Total 7 64 9 3 "83 65 2604 Not reported 7 45 5 6 2 *2268 * Estimated. Philadelphia. The inquiry of 1848 returned quite full statistics of rents paid by the Negroes. In the whole city at that date 4019 Negro families paid $199,665.46 in rent, or an average of $49.68 per family each year. Ten years earlier the average was $44.00 per family. Nothing better indicates the growth of the Negro population in numbers and power when we compare with this the figures of 1896 for one ward; in that year the Negroes of the Seventh Ward paid $25,699.50 each month in rent, or $308,034.00 a year, an average of $126.19 per annum for each family. This ward may have a somewhat higher proportion of rent¬ ers than most other wards. At the lowest estimate, however, the Negroes of Philadelphia pay at least $1,250,000 in rent each year.1 A table of rents is as follows:2 Under $5 per month 490 families, or 21.9 per cent $5 and under $10 per month 643 " or 28.7 " $10 " $15 " 380 " or 17.0 " $15 " $20 " 252 '* or 11.3 " $20 " $30 " 375 " or 17.0 " $30 and over 95 " or 4.1 " l Not taking into account sub-rent repaid by sub-tenants; subtracting this and the sum would be, perhaps, $1,000,000—see infra, p. 291. That paid by single lodgers ought not of course to be subtracted as it has not been added in.—The Philadelphia Negro, ' ' 2 Ibid., p. 290. p. 287. 124 The Negro American Family Families owning or renting their homes and living alone 788, or 31 per cent. Families owning or renting their homes, who take lodgers or sub- renters 937, or 38 per cent. Families sub-renting under other families 766, or 31 per cent. Total individuals 7751 100 per cent. Total families 2441 Individuals lodging with families 1924 Total individuals 9675 Families Owning and Renting Homes, by Number of Rooms to a Dwelling Negroes of Xenia, Ohio Tenure families occupying dwellings of Total Families One Room Two Rooms Three Rooms Four Rooms Five Rooms Six Rooms Seven Rooms Eight Rooms Nine Rooms Ten Rooms Eleven Rooms Twelve Rooms Owners Renters Not reported Total 2 14 16 25 32 57 67 61 2 74 40 3 117 62 17 43 5 24 6 8 3 5 3 4 1 318 178 5 30 11 5 3 1 130 79 48 4 501 Rents Paid by Families, by Size of Dwelling Negroes of Xenia, Ohio Monthly Rent families occupying dwellings of 0> G a o OS Total. o S £ 0 32 &hPH o 2 0 x o fo HOh Eh S in 5 8 2 2 14 1 16 4 35 5 17 2 23 3 7 14 1 11 4 1 1 1 1 178 Rents 125 Washi7igton,T>. C. The block of houses erected by the Washington Sanitary Improvement Company on O street, between North Capitol and First streets northwest, is rented to colored tenants. These houses contain three and fonr- room flats; each flat has a bathroom, with hot and cold water; a back yard with exit to an alley, and a cellar. The monthly rental (for eleven months) averages $3.18 per room. These flats have been continually occupied since their completion in 1902 by a good class of tenants, and losses as a result of vacancy or failure to pay rent have been insignificant.1 If we examine groups 14,15,16, 27, 42,43, and 44, all occupied by colored peo¬ ple of the better class of laborers, except Group 43 occupied by whites, we And that there are 29 such dwellings, 13 of six rooms, 5 of five rooms, and 11 of four room. These houses are unpapered, some have no gas supply, and some have no supply of hot water; 5, Group 43, are in bad repair. The average cost of these dwellings was $1235.70 each ; to which if we add 95 per cent for lot, grad¬ ing, water connection, etc., we arrive at $2409.67 as the total investment. The average rental of these dwellings was $16.60; thus the gross returns on the investment may be set at 8.37 percent, practically identical with the gross returns from the better houses. It would appear, if these figures be approxi¬ mately correct, that since the average rental of $16.60 for a four or five-room house, without gas, and often without hot water, furnishes only the usual return on the investment, to venture below that figure could be attempted in single brick dwellings only with the sacrifice of necessary hygienic space or sanitary equipment. 2 Number of Dwellings Cost per House Sold for or Held at Rent Tenants 2 6 2 5 $2000 2600 2000 2000 $3550 Owned $30.00 $20.00 (4-room) $22.50 (corner) $20.50 (inside) $20.50 $25.00 $20.00 $20 50 $16.50 $16.30 (4-room) $14.00 (4-room) Colored 5 19 1 2 4 7 2 2000 1850 1700 1500 1400 1250 1200 Sternberg, pp. 82-83. Other houses with Negro tenants rented as follows: Number of Houses Cost per House Rooms contained How Heated Rent 6 $2500 4 and bath Latrobe and range. J $20 50 i 21 00 3 2400 5 and bath Latrobe and range. 20 50 4 2000 4 and bath Stove and range 15 50 7 2500 4 and bath Latrobe and range. 15 50 8 2500 4 and hath Latrobe and range. 15 50 5 1600 4 and bath Latrobe and range. 15 50 Sternberg, p. 86. Baltimore. There is no building of new dwellings for colored people in Baltimore • they occupy dwellings abandoned in the march to more fashion- i Sternberg, p. 78. 2 Sternberg, p. 184. 126 The Negro American Family able or newer residence districts. In a section of Baltimore occupied chiefly by Negroes (Druid Hill avenue, and cross streets and alleys opening upon it) the rents were found to be comparatively high. On the larger streets, the 8, 10, or 12-room houses were occupied by very respectable and well-to-do colored people, who paid from $25.00 to $35.00 in rent. The "room to rent" sign was frequently seen, and it was thought there may be overcrowding here. In the minor streets and alleys, giving upon Druid Hill avenue, are very many houses of one type, all occupied by Negroes. These are two and three stories in height, all with basements and all two rooms deep. Occasionally such houses have running water in the kitchen, but usually there is only a hydrant in the yard. An eight-room house of this type (two rooms in the basement) rents for $15.00; a five-room house (one room in basement) rents for $12.00. There is, also, an old type of four and five-room and cellar house to be seen in the alleys, most dark, dismal and unsanitary, which rents by the week at from $1.50 to $2.50; but even these houses seemed better structurally than the old frame houses on our main streets which bring from $12.00 to $15.00. The Baltimore house of this type is, however, so small and situated in such narrow alleys that area congestion must enter into the equation. In general it may be said that in Baltimore, housing of the Negroes is a problem awaiting solution; the homes available for the least resourceful are unfit in many respects, and there is no building of new dwellings for colored people.1 Section 22. Food. Two scientific studies of Negro food have been made by the United States Department of Agriculture, from which the following examples are quoted: Two Weeks' Food of an Alabama Field=hand Family of Four Kind op Food Material Composition Total Cost Weight Used Total Food Material Nutrients Protein Fat Carbo¬ hydrates Protein Fat Carbo¬ hydrates Animal Food Bacon i PerCent 8.0 PerCent 63.2 Percent $3 16 Grams 17,915 Grams 1,433 Grams 11,322 Grams Total animal food $3 16 17,915 1,433 11,322 Vegetable Food, Cereals, Sugar, Etc. Corn Meal 2.. Wheat Flour2 Molasses 2 7.3 9.6 1.3 4.1 .8 .1 66.7 78.3 68.3 $1 26 58 54 21,005 19,050 5,430 1,533 1,829 71 861 152 5 14,010 14,916 3,709 Total vege- $2 38 45,485 3,433 1,018 32,635 $5 54 63,400 4,866 12,340 32,635 l Sternberg, p. 45. 2 Average of analyses of similar Alabama foods. Food 127 Two Weeks' Food of a Negro Carpenter's Family of Six Kind of Food Material, Food Material Nutrients Cost Protein Fats Carbo¬ hydrates For Family, 14 days. Beef, veal, and mutton Grams 2,495 5,655 905 595 990 57,140 Grams 392 269 133 79 12 2,000 Grams 328 4,433 59 55 816 2,400 Grams $0 64 90 10 10 44 5 04 Pork, lard, etc Poultry Eggs Butter Milk 2,971 67,780 Lbs. 5.50 12.50 2.00 1.30 2.20 126.00 2,885 Lbs. 0.90 .60 .30 .20 8,091 Lbs. 0.70 9.80 .10 .10 1.80 5.30 2,971 Lbs. $7 22 Beef, veal, and mutton Pork, lard, etc Poultry Eggs Butter Milk 4.40 6.50 Total animal food 149.50 6.40 17.80 6.50 Cereals, sugars, starches. Fruits Grams 38,050 975 Grams 2,838 12 Grams 619 12 Grams 29,713 235 $2 51 18 Total vegetable food Total food 39,025 2,850 631 29,948 $2 69 106,805 Lbs. 83.60 2.20 5,735 Lbs. 6.30 8,722 Lbs. 1.40 32,919 Lbs. 65.50 .50 Cereals, sugars, starches Fruits Total vegetable food 86.10 6.30 1.40 66.00 Total food 235.60 12.70 19.20 72.50 $9 91 Part 4. The Family Group Section 23. Differentiation of Classes. Few modern groups show a greater internal differentiation of social conditions than the Negro American, and the failure to realize this is the cause of much con¬ fusion. In looking for differentiation from the past in Africa and slavery, few persons realize that this involves extreme differentiation in the present. The forward movement of a social group is not the compact march of an army, where the distance covered is practically the same for all, but is rather the straggling of a crowd, where some of whom hasten, some linger, some turn back; some reach far-off goals before others even start, and yet the crowd moves on. The measure of the advancement of such a throng is a question at once nice and 128 The Negro American Family indefinite. Measured by the rear guard there may be no perceptible advance. Measured by the advance guard the transformation may be miraculous. Yet neither of these are reasonable measurements, but rather the point which one might call the center of gravity of the mass is the true measuring point, and the determination of this point in the absence of exact measurements may be for a long time a matter of opinion rather than proof. So with the Negro American. It is easy to prove the degradation of thousands of Negroes on the back planta¬ tions of Mississippi and the alleys of Washington; it is just as easy to prove the accomplishments of the graduates of Atlanta University, or the members of St. Thomas Church, Philadelphia. The point is where, between these manifest extremes^ lies today the cultural center of gravity of the race. It is begging and obscuring this question to harp on ignorance and crime among Negroes as though these were unex¬ pected; or to laud exceptional accomplishments as though it was typical. The real crucial question is: What point has the mass of the race reached which can be justly looked upon as the average accom¬ plishment of the group ? The exact location of this point is impossible to locate beyond doubt. Yet certain facts about it are certain: it is moving forward rapidly; this is proven by the decrease of illiteracy and the increase of prop¬ erty holding, both on such a scale, covering so long a period of years as to be incontrovertible evidence. To illustrate this differentiation there follow four sections on the Negro country families, the social life of the country, the Negro North¬ ern city home, and a study of thirteen select homes representing mostly the upper class of Negroes. Section 24. The Negro Families of Dougherty County, Georgia. The plantations of Dougherty in slavery days were not so imposing as those of Virginia. The Big House was smaller and one-storied, and the slave cabins set closer to it. Today the laborers' cabins are in form and disposition the same as in slavery (fays. They are sprinkled in little groups all over the land clustering about some dilapidated Big House where the head-tenant or agent lives. Out of fifteen hundred hfcmes of Negroes only fifteen have five or more rooms; the mass live in one or two-room homes. The one-room cabin is painfully frequent— now standing in the shadow of the Big House, now staring at the dusty road, now rising dark and sombre amid the green of the cotton-fields. Rough-boarded, old and bare, it is neither plastered nor ceiled, and light and ventilation comes from the single door and perhaps a square hole in the wall. Within is a fireplace, black and smoky, unsteady with age; a bed or two, high, dark and fat; a table, a wooden chest and chairs or stools. On the wall is a stray showbill or a newspaper for decoration. It is not simply in the tenement abominations of cities like New York that the world's flesh is crowded and jammed together, sometimes Dougherty County, Georgia 129 twenty-two peisons to every ten rooms; here in Dougherty county there are o ten over twenty-five persons to every ten rooms of house accom¬ modation. To be sure, the rooms are large—fifteen to twenty-five feet square. And there is the fresh air and sunshine of all outdoors to take refuge in. Still I met one family of eleven eating and sleeping in one room, and thirty families of eight or more. Why should there be such wretched tenements in the Black Belt? Timber is rotting in the forest, land is running to waste and labor is literally cheaper than dirt. Over nine-tenths of the cabins belong to the landlords yet nearly all of them let the quarters stand and rot in rude carelessness. Why ? First, be¬ cause long custom born in slavery days, has assigned this sort of house to Negroes. If the landlord should hire white men he would not hesi¬ tate to erect cosy three-room cottages such as cluster around the Caro¬ lina cotton-mills. Small wonder that the substitution of white for Negro labor is often profitable, since the white being better paid and better cared for often responds by doing better work. Again, the Ne¬ groes themselves, as a mass, do not demand better homes; those who do, buy land and build their own homes, roomy and neat. But the rest can scarcely demand what they have seldom thought of. As their fathers lived so they live, and the standard of the slave still lowers the standard of the quasi-freeman. In the third place, the landlords fail to see that in an increasingly large number of cases it would be a dis¬ tinctly good investment to raise the standard of living among the black laborers; that a man who demands three rooms and fifty cents a day may in the end be much cheaper than a listless, discouraged toiler herding in one room at thirty cents a day. Lastly, amid such conditions of life there is little to inspire the laborer to become a better farmer. If he is ambitious, he moves to town or tries other kinds of labor; as a tenant-farmer his outlook in the majority of cases is hopeless, and following it as a makeshift or in grim neces¬ sity, he takes its returns in shelter, meat and bread, without query or protest. That we may see more clearly the working out of these social forces, let us look within the home and scan more nearly the family that lives there. The families are large and small: you will find many families with hosts of babies, and many young couples, but few families with half-grown boys and girls. The whole tendency of the labor system is to separate the family group—the house is too small for them, the young people go to town or hire out 'on a neighboring farm. Thus single, lone persons are left here and there. Away down at the edge of the woods will live some grizzle-haired black man, digging wearily in the earth for his last crust; or a swarthy fat auntie, supported in comfort by an absent daughter, or an old couple living half by charity and half by odd jobs. The boys and girls cannot afford to marry early, nor until most of the men are over twenty-five and the girls over twenty. There is little or no actual prostitution among these people and most of the fami¬ lies are honest, decent- people, with a fairly good standard of family 130 The Negro American Family morals. Nevertheless the influence of the past is plain in customs of easy marriage and easy separation. In the old days Sam "took up" with Mary by leave of his master. No ceremony was necessary, and in the busy life of the great plantations of the Black Belt it was usually dispensed with. If the master needed Sam on another plantation, or was minded to sell him, Sam's married life with Mary was unceremo¬ niously ended, and just as unceremoniously begun with Jane or Matilda elsewhere. This widespread custom of two centuries has not disappeared in forty years. Between three apd four per cent of the families are to¬ day separated, others have been and are remarried usually without the trouble of a divorce, while others will separate in the future. Here is the plague spot of the Negro's social relations, and when this inherited low standard of family life happens to be in the keeping of lustful whites, as it sometimes is, the result is bad indeed. Section 25. The Social Life of the Country. A sketch of the social life of Negroes in the rural districts of the South is almost like an essay on the snakes in Ireland: it is the lack of social life that tends to depopulate the rural black belt and does draw off its best blood. There are, however, many occasions of meeting and intercourse which may be set down thus in the order of their importance. 1. The Saturday Visit to Town. Practically throughout the rural South the black laborers and farmers come to town on Saturday. This is more than an occasion of marketing; it is a time of holiday, and is spent in chatting and loafing, with some liquor drinking. To thousands this forms the one glimpse of the larger world, and the merchants of many towns, indeed the towns themselves depend on the weekly pil¬ grimage. It reduces the working week of the rural South practically to five days save in very busy times. 2. The Sunday Church Service. "The Negro Church is the only social institution of the Negroes which started in the African forest and survived slavery; under the leadership of priest or medicine-man, afterward the Christian pastor, the Church preserved in itself the remnants of African tribal life and became after emancipation the center of Negro social life. So that today the Negro population of the United States is virtually divided into church congregations which are the real units of race life."1 The typical Negro country church stands at some cross-roads and holds services once or twice a month. These meetings are great reunions and are the occasions of feasting, country gossip and preaching. The people gather from 9 a. m. to 1 p. m., and remain usually till late in the afternoon. Christenings and baptizing take place at this time. 3. "The Christmas.'''' The week between Christmas and New Year's, including both days, is the great time of social rejoicing among coun¬ try Negroes. Historically it was the time when the master gave his i Atlanta University Publications, No. 3. Social Life of the Country 131 slaves time and license. Today it is the time when the serf receives his annual accounting with his landlord and collects his small bal¬ ance due in cash. This he often spends in carousing and drinking, to pay for the hard year's work. Many honest, hard-working sober men get drunk religiously and regularly every Christmas. There are always many parties, church entertainments and excursions, together with fights and quarrels. Later years have of course brought improvement. A resident of New Orleans writes: "Possibly there is less idleness at Christmas in Louisiana at present than formerly. My impression is that the influ¬ ence of our better ministers and graduates or students from our higher institutions of learning is gradually modifying the character of the festivities and conduct of the people at the Christmas season." 4. The uFrolic." The occasional party given at the cabin is often called "the frolic"; it varies all the way from a pleasant little gather¬ ing with games and feasting as portrayed by Dunbar, to a scene of wild drinking and debauchery as is often the case in lumber camps. 5. The Wedding and the Funeral. The only distinctly family fes¬ tivity is the wedding. This is celebrated with varying emphasis, being a ceremony only a generation old in the country districts. In the newer Southwest it seems to be more of a general occasion of re¬ joicing. A correspondent says: The two things that interrupt our community life more than anything else in the way of home duties are the weddings and funerals, both of which seem to give the people more actual happiness and joy than anything they enter into during the whole year, but I suppose these hardly come under the head of social life. We have in our community a good many of the quiltings which appeal to the hearts of the women and during the winter is our regu¬ lar form of festivities for them. This is an all-day affair with a luncheon served at midday, and sometimes we hear of as many as three or four in a single week. 6. The Revival. Connected with the church services comes the re¬ vival. This is a recruiting of church membership, and usually takes place in the fall after the crops are "laid by." It consists of protracted nightly meetings and brings together large numbers. 7. School-closing. Where the country schools are good and regular, as in Texas, there is considerable social life connected with the closing of schools; often there are examinations on this day with a free spread and an "exhibition" at night which attract large numbers. 8. The Circus, which visits the county-seat once or twice a year, is largely attended. So much so that such exhibitions are taxed as high as $500 for each county. 9. Secret Societies. In parts of Virginia and Georgia and some other States the benevolent societies, with their halls, are fast becoming the chief centers of the rural Negroes' social life. The annual installations of officers are the great social events of the year. 132 The Negro American Family *10. Miscellaneous. Besides the occasions mentioned there are sum¬ mer excursions by train which take those who can get to town, the Methodist Conference and Baptist Convention which attract many to town, and a very few annual holidays like Emancipation Day, Janu¬ ary 1st, which is often celebrated by a speech from some visiting cele¬ brity. There are also some local celebrations, like those due to the influence of the Catholic Mardi Gras in Louisiana. Section 26. The Negro Family in New York. (Miss Mary W. Oving- ton in Charities, October 7, 1905. Reprinted by permission.) The great majority of the Negroes of New York live in poverty. Sixty-two per cent of the men, according to the last census, are in domestic and personal services, and in large stores and factories they do the work of porter or gen¬ eral utility man, not the better paid tasks. Only a few practice a trade. The women have not been able in any numbers to gain entrance to the factory or the shop. The result is a group of people receiving a low wage, and the char¬ acter of their homes must be largely determined by their economic position. Like all the New York poor the Negro lives in a tenement. The lower East side, famed for its overcrowding, does not know him. His quarters are West, but there he finds conditions that are often quite as bad as those among the Italians or the Jews. In the most thickly segregated Negro section, that between West Fifty-ninth and West Sixth-fourth streets and Tenth and West End avenues, the tenements are of the old double-decker and dumb¬ bell types, with no thorough ventilation and with twenty and twenty-two families to a house. The air-shafts in these tenements are so small as to be only "culture tubes" except on the top story, where the rooms gain something of air and light. In the lower part of town, about the thirties, we still find a number of rear tenements occupied by the colored race. The sunlight enters these houses, but they are very old, impossible to keep clean, and dangerous because of their distance from the open street. Again still further south, about Cornelia street, the race lives in dilapidated former dwelling-houses. These West Side districts have little of the picturesqueness of the lower East Side, and have been more or less neglected by those interested in the moral and civil welfare of the community. Rents are high for everyone in New York, but the Negroes pay more and get less for their money than any other tenants. Every week in the warm weather hundreds of them come from the South. They must find shelter, and the places that they may rent are few and those not tenements of the better sort. The many attractive and healthful houses that have been built since the creation of the Tenement House Department are not open to them. They are confined to certain localities, and usually to only a few houses in each block. Forced to crowd into small and uncomfortable rooms, their opportunities for making a home are much restricted. Like the dweller on the East Side, the Negro knows enough to get out of his house and into the fresh air when he can. In the summer the streets, while not so filled with people as in the neighborhood aboutRivington and Delancey streets, are well crowded. The roofs, too, offer breathing-places. Day as well as night many men and women are to be seen about, especially in the vicinity of the Sixties. The presence of men in the daytime gives an appearance of idleness among the population that is riot as great as it seems, as about fifty per cent of the colored men of this city are engaged at jobs that give, them leisure when other people are at their tasks. In New York 133 Study closely the tenants in any of these streets and you will find every gra e o social life. Their difficulty in procuring a place to live compels the colored people to dwell good and bad together. Ten families of pure and upright lives may be forced to rent rooms in a house where there are other ten families who are rough and noisy, often immoral. This is true of all over¬ crowded districts, but it is especially true in the Negro quarters; for the land¬ lord of a colored tenement rarely makes any attempt to discriminate among his applicants, but takes in anyone who will pay his rent. Complaints against objectionable tenants are unheeded, and the mother and father in the respect¬ able home have the difficult problem of rearing children in a few rooms from which there is no escape, save to the stairway and street where undesirable companions are numerous. Lines need to be drawn very sharply by such parents, and factions arise among the children that are the despair of the club worker, who gathers in her boys and girls believing that propinquity makes a harmonious group. It is impossible to give an idea of the home of the Negro in New York without touching upon his relations with the rest of the city's population. He comes to make his home among a people who are foreign to him. He is not, to any appreciable extent, with the descendants of the men who years ago fought for his freedom; he speaks mournfully of wishing that he might take his chances with the American, but he is living among many races, the most of whom have but lately found their way to this country and are without tradition of friendliness. He has to meet the Irish, the German, the Hebrew, the Italian, the Slav. These maintain varying attitudes of animosity and friendliness. The Irish is the most boisterously aggressive, though when once the Irishman really knows the Negro he can be a very good comrade. New York seems to demand that all the laborers who come to her must endure a period of abuse and ridicule; there must be street fights and biting nick¬ names and the refusal to work with the detested race. All this the Negro must endure, as other races have endured before him, but his case is an exag¬ gerated one. There are those who wish to deny him opportunity because they believe in his inherent and eternal inferiority. This minority, for I believe it to be a minority, can prevent his obtaining a position. For where the majority of men and women will consent to have a Negro work with them, a strong caste sentiment on the part of a few will prevail against this friendly feeling which, after all, is little more than indifference. While the Negro is an able and respected member in some of the labor unions, and while his children occasionally have playmates among the boys and girls of other races in the schools, he does not usually see the white work- ingman at his best. Too often white and colored meet only in the saloon of a low type or in the rough jostle of the street. This is a misfortune for a peo¬ ple who are in the process of creating a social life. To see the best among those of the same economic position as themselves would be a help and profit to them. The contact that the colored people have with the monied people of the white race is varied. In the domestic service Negro men and women often have the opportunity to live in good and honorable homes, but it is not always so; and from people whom they are taught to regard as belonging to the ui)per class they learn low standards of married life. Those who are not in domestic service see from their tenement streets much that is base in the t race There must be a world of irony in the heart of the seeing omman -n the papers the lurid descriptions of his own crime, while Negro w rronrierloin district and looks out upon its life. He sees the he lives m the lenutuu 134 The- Negro American Family daily danger attending the attractive women of his own and other races, and he sees temptation offered where he should see high ideals. The Negro is imitative, and all this must and does have an effect upon his own home. Yet, despite these handicaps, there is much of good and honorable living in the homes of the race. Choosing at random fifty families living in the most demoralizing neighborhood of New York, I found that seventy per cent of the mothers are known to be moral by those charitable workers who for many years had been in close touch with them. These people live a life apart from the roughness about them, but close to their church and their children. Such loose unthinking statements are made regarding the Negro and his morality that no better service could be done the race than to show us all of his homes, just as they come. For, where one would be revolting, the next would carry with it so much of worthy relationship between man and wife and parents and children that the first might be forgotten. And yet, I doubt if this would be so; for modesty like charity does not .vaunt itself, and the loud colored woman who parades the streets counts for more in the minds of most of us than a dozen of the quiet women of her race who pass by without our noticing them. But for those who wish to see the whole and not merely the part that calls for censure, the majority of Negro homes, like the majority of homes of all working people, are places where good and honest men and women are striving, often against great odds, to bring up their children to lead moral and useful lives. There is in New York, in proportion to the population, a fairly large class of professional colored men and women; and also a class of business men of some means. The homes of these do not differ essentially from the homes of all good Americans in the city. There is nothing by which to especially char¬ acterize them. Their hospitality is very pleasant and their family life is very harmonious and sweet. The young women are, perhaps, brought up in more sheltered fashion than those of the white race. Very much emphasis is laid upon education, both for the boy and for the girl. The music-loving character of the race is shown in these homes, as indeed it is in all colored households; but here we have much ability, for there are among the race in New York musicians of no mean gifts. These homes are too little known among the people of the city. Occasionally some colored high-school girl or college student will show her classmate her family circle, and thus a few in our population learn something of the wholesome life of a class of Negroes of whom one Southern woman told me that she knew less than she did of the Esquimaux. Perhaps there has never before been a race concerning which so many opinions have been written and yet of whose best life we are so igno¬ rant. If "highest is the measure oi; the man," we know the highest of the New York Negro when we know the homes of the best of his race. And while from the South there comes an idle, criminal class, the industrious and intelli¬ gent come as well, and their homes are increasing and are an honor to the commonwealth. Section 27. A Study of Thirteen Families. To illustrate this emer¬ gence of better classes, a careful description of thirteen Negro families follows. Number one represents one of the lowest type of a country family and number seven a common type of city family. The other eleven are of the higher types of Negro families. The incomes are given by the families themselves and are probably exaggerated in some cases. A Study of Thirteen Families 135 No. 1. A country family living in two rooms, with an income of $700 per year. The whole family is very ignorant and consists of twelve members. None have had the advantage of school. A few of the younger children can write their names. No books or papers can be seen in the house. The parents are religious fanatics; they believe in praying night and morning. The father can be heard praying on a still night for two miles. The elder boys are rough characters. They get drunk and fight, especially at church. The older girls are not wholesome char¬ acters; the two eldest have had illegitimate children, one by a white man and the other by a Negro; both children were given to relatives. The entire family is given to petty thefts, and is especially high-tem¬ pered. They do not get along with the neighbors, but tattle and tell lies and carry news to white people and Negroes. The family consists of father, age 62 years; mother, age 61 years; six sons, ages respectively 28, 26, 22, 20,14 and 11 years; and four daughters, ages respectively 24, 18,16 and 8 years. The entire family work in the field. The mother and one of the daughters leave each day in time to cook dinner. They work from sunrise or earlier until twelve, and from one until dark. The heavy farming work is done by the men and boys, the light work by the girls. The girls work from February to August and from September to De¬ cember. The men and boys work the year round. When there is no work to be done on the farm, they have to report to the landlord for something to do. When it rains the bell taps and all must report at the barns to see what "Cap" wants done. For this kind of service they get no pay. The house is near the pasture and is partly sur¬ rounded with woods. The landlord's house is 300 yards away. The yard is very small, with weeds growing in the summertime into the window on the back side. The water is brought from a spring in the pasture. The house is dirty within. The bed-clothes are dingy and the doors are black with dirt. They have no bathing facilities. All bathe in a washpan, about three-quarts size, once a week. A peculiar odor is prevalent in spring and summer. They dress in gaudy colors. Their clothes are fairly good, but not well made and do not fit properly. In fact, they do not know how to wear what they have and are very hard on clothes. Only a low class of people visit them. Any decent per¬ son visiting there is branded as bad. Four of the family are members of the Baptist church. The two older daughters were members but were expelled on account of conduct. The only property is one buggy, an organ and twenty-five chickens. Both sides are of African descent. They are very black, and it is said that their forefathers were all similarly high-tempered and im¬ moral. Both sides of the family were in slavery, and after the war were held in peonage twenty-two years. They are much different from other colored people around in the structure of head and mouth, and in general appearance. They have three meals: breakfast before sunrise, of biscuits, pork, syrup and coffee; dinner at noon, of cornbread, syrup 136 The Negro American Family and pork; supper after dark, of cornbread or biscuits, and syrup. The table is too small to accommodate the entire family—seven by three feet. Some take their meals in their hands—children especially—and sit in a chair and sometimes in the door. Some of the time the food is served from the table and at other times from the cooking vessels. The dishes are common china, with some tin plates and cups. There is no tablecloth. There are two benches the length of the table on each side of the table. No. 2. A country family living in three rooms, with an income of $625 per year. This family consists of eleven persons: a man and his wife and nine children; six girls and three boys. The man and his wife are both 48 years old. The oldest child is a girl of 19, the next a girl of 17, then a girl of 16, a girl tjf 15, a girl of 13, a boy of 11, a boy of 9, a boy of 6, and the baby, a girl of 3 years old. The people work a farm; they have never done anything else. The father is a man small in stature, about medium height, slender, with a dark brown skin, crinkly black hair and thick black mustache. He is a genial, cheerful man, always full of fun. He is very intelligent and business-like, ambitious and eager for knowledge. He is the main stay of the whole family. The mother is about medium height and corpulent. She is lighter brown than her husband, with soft and once abundant black hair. She is kind and motherly, but rather slow and sleepy; in fact, much given to deep trance-like spells of sleeping. She oversees the housework. The oldest daughter is below the medium height, with dark-brown skin and soft black hair. She is plump and vivacious, and rather restless and fidgety. She does not work much in the field, but sews and helps about the house. The next girl is about medium height, small but solid, a little lighter brown than the first, with crinkly black hair. She is strong and full of life, quick to make friends, kind-hearted, frank and winning. She does harder work in the field than any of the others. The next girl is below the medium height, about the same shade of brown, with very crinkly hair; she is somewhat inclined to be "airish" but she is lively and good-natured. She also works in the field. Next comes her inseparable companion, the girl of 15. She is of medium height and plump. She has the good looks of the family. She is the same shade of brown, with soft black hair. She has a very good opin¬ ion of herself and is somewhat high-tempered. She works in the field at the busiest season, but usually stays in the house. The girl of 13 is the scapegoat of the family. She is far below the medium height, very plump, a lighter brown than any of the others, with very crinkly black hair. She is very quiet and seldom grumbles. When she speaks she usually says something worth while. She does most of the things which the others refuse to do. She is housemaid, nurse and errand- girl. The oldest boy is about the size of the usual eleven-year-old boy. He is dark brown, with crinkly black hair; he is decidedly jolly and boyish. The next boy is his boon companion; he is nearly as large and has the same general appearance and disposition; they are often A Study of Thirteen Families 137 mistaken for twins. The oldest boy is his father's chief dependence in the field. He can plough as well as any man. The other one does lighter field work. The last boy is a fat child of six, dark brown, with soft black hair, and an unusually large and well-shaped head. He is very sly and quiet, but when drawn out shows great intelligence. He romps and plays all day with his baby sister. She is small, dark brown, with crinkly reddish hair. She is very droll and demure, and is well- spoiled by the whole family. The whole family dress very simply. The girls all have calico work¬ ing dresses, and the boys have calico home-made jackets and breeches. Each of the boys has a suit and cap for Sunday wear. The girls have neat, inexpensive dresses for Sunday wear. The older girls keep them¬ selves neat and clean, but the younger members are never clean except 011 Sundays. The mother is not very tidy. Very few colored people live in the part of the country where these people live, and the few who live near are related to them. They often go visiting their peo¬ ple and receive visits from them in turn. They go to church every Sunday, unless the weather is very bad. The father, the mother and the three oldest girls belong to secret orders. There are none of the family absent except a boy who died. He came in between the boy of nine and the boy of six. They own 165 acres of land, the house in which they live, two mules, two cows and four hogs. The family have lived in this place for six¬ teen years. Before that they lived about five miles away. The mother came from a family of twelve children, seven boys and five girls. All the boys are dead except one, who lives out West. Four of the girls are living, all in the same part of the country. The other is dead. The father came from a family of eight children, five boys and three girls. One of the boys is dead; all the others live in the country around. Two of the girls live near by and the other is in Milledgeville in the insane asylum. There is no school near for the children to attend. This family has three meals every day. The food is well cooked, and they have very nice dishes but no silver. During the working season they have breakfast at 6 o'clock, dinner at 12 o'clock and supper at 6:30. During the season of rest and on Sundays they have breakfast at 7 o'clock, dinner between one and two o'clock and supper at 7: 30. They raise nearly all their food. In summer they have for breakfast wheat bread and butter, milk, syrup and salt pork, varied occasion¬ ally by beef, chicken and eggs. For dinner they have vegetables, corn- bread, milk, and sometimes soup and some kind of dessert. For supper they have wheat bread, butter, syrup, milk, and salt pork. In winter the breakfasts are about the same, but they have for dinner such things as peas and sweet potatoes, varied with beef and chicken. Dried fruit also plays an important part. They have tablecloths, but no napkins. They always sit at the table, and the younger ones have to wait until the older ones eat. ... , ^ No 3 -A- country family hving %n 7 rooms with an vncome of $650 per year The family consists of six jjersons: the parents, two boys 138 The Negro American Family and two girls. The father is yellow, of moderate build—five feet four inches—weighs 156 pounds, and is 47 years of age. He has been engaged in farming since he was 19 years of age. He has a common-school edu¬ cation, chews tobacco but uses no intoxicants, and has good health. The mother is light brown in complexion and is rather large in build; she is 45 years of age and was born and reared in the country. She has part of a high-school education, and taught school previous to marriage. The eldest boy is 20 years old; he is five feet four inches in height, of good build, weighs 140 pounds, and has lived in the country all his life; he has a high-school education, and is still in school. The youngest boy is 19 years of age, height five feet and six inches. He is now in school and is a fairly good student; he has a high-school education. The eldest girl is 17 years of age, weighs 140 pounds; height five feet and four and a half inches, and has almost completed a high-school course. The youngest girl is 11 years old, four feet in height, and has almost completed a grammar-school course; she has some ability in instrumental music. The father supervises the farm, prepares the soil, plants the crop in the spring and during the summer superintends the working of the farm, the crop-gathering in the autumn and marketing the crop, and fertilizing the soil during winter. Also he cares for the live stock, markets $2.00 worth of wood a week, and the dairy and the poultry products ($2.00 a week). The mother does about half of the family cooking (that is, the mother and girls do the cooking by turns), sews and makes the working garments of the whole family, and all the garments of herself and girls; she cares for the poultry, cultivates the garden and supervises the garden, dairy and poultry products to be marketed; also she preserves and cans fruits. The boys prepare the fuel for family cooking and the wood for market, and assist in the farm work; also in crop-gathering during September. The girls do half of the family cooking (by turns), all of the family washing, and clean the house; and they assist some in the farm work during summer and autumn, also in gathering. The rising hour is 5: 80 a. m., breakfast at 6: 30. Work period from 7 to 12 o'clock; dinner at 12 m.; work hours 2 to 6 o'clock p. in., supper at 7 p. m. At 7:30 the family, except the girls who remain for dining-room duties, retire to the sitting-room for reading, study, conversation, writ¬ ing, etc.; the girls join the other members of the family in the sitting- room at 8 o'clock. National holidays and family birthdays are the days of special festivity, also the first fifteen days of August, when cropmaking is over—generally called the summer lay-by. There is usually company on Sunday. The Sunday routine for the family is: Breakfast, 8:30 a. m.; bath hour, 9 to 9:30 a. m.; Sunday-school, 9:45 to 11 a. m.; church services, 11 a. m. to 1 p. m. (church three-quarters of a mile distant); dinner, 2 p. m.; company, 3 to 5 p. m.; supper, 7 p. m.; song practice, 8 p. m.; retire at 9:30. The dress of the family is as moderate as possible; the mother being a seamstress reduces the cost to a low figure. Fifty dollars ($50) is the amount which the boys find themselves together provided with in order to be clothed, and the A Study of Thirteen Families 139 amount for the two girls is thirty dollars (30); forty dollars clothes the parents. The family owns $2200 worth of real estate, the estate has only been of present number of acres for six years; the original farm as owned by the father before marriage was thirty acres; six years ago at the death of the father's father he bought his father's farm of sixty acres, which adjoins his own. The land value was not as great then as now, so he profited quite a deal. At the same time, at the death of the moth¬ er's mother, her father's estate of eighty acres was sold and her realiza¬ tions from the land was also used in the aforesaid transaction. The live stock value (one horse and four head of cattle) is $300; vehicles, $125; house furnishings and other incidentals, $350. So the whole value of the farm plant is approximately $3000. The estates of the grand¬ parents were acquired by each about 1880, and was kept intact by each until their death, when they were disposed of at auction and proceeds went to their children. At the meals the following food is used at different times: Break¬ fast, 6:30a. m., bacon, ham, steak, pork, eggs, butter, hash, chicken, rabbit, liver, sausage, squirrel, etc., fish, mutton, bread-pancakes, muffins, eggbreads, rice, hominy, grits, buckwheat cakes and oatmeal. Fruits, preserves, apples, peaches, strawberries, potatoes, pears, ba¬ nanas, syrup, etc. Drink: Postum and milk. Dinner, 12:00 m., Cab¬ bage, collards, salad, peas, turnips, onions, celery, lettuce, radish, beets, soups, spinach, thyme, tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, squashes, ham, fish, beef, pork, rabbit, opossum, potatoes, chicken, partridge, duck, geese, turkey, apples, peaches, berries, lemon pies and drinks, egg custards, jams and jellies, puddings. Supper, 7:30 p. m., Postum, milk, chocolate, tea, etc. Apples, peaches, pumpkins, grapes, straw¬ berries, blackberries, etc. Ham, eggs, chicken, rice, macaroni, cheese. Gelatine, cream, pudding, cakes, candies. Meals are cooked and served by the mother and daughters. No. 4. A country family occupying 9 rooms, with an income of $2500 per year. The eleven members of this family are especially intelligent. They consist of mother and father, ages 50 and 60 years respectively, two daughters, ages 15 and 19 years, and seven boys, ages 29, 27, 25, 23, 21, 11 and 8, respectively. The deceased members of the family are two sons- and two daughters; all died soon after birth. The whole family is peaceful and agreeable. The father is head, and what he says is law. The entire family is subjected to a strict discipline. The boys are allowed to visit, but they must return by sundown; if late, an excuse must be given beforehand. The girls do not leave home unless accompanied by some male member of the family. Every one on Sun¬ day must go to Sunday-school, but there is no family prayer. No swearing is allowed. All the members of the family work on the farm excepting the mother. The boys and father do all the cutting, plow¬ ing, sometimes hoeing, repair work, and ditching, etc. The girls do the light work, such as hoeing, picking cotton, housework in general, and laundering. The mother stays at home, cooks, and looks after 140 The Negro American Family the children. From July 28th to August 24th they do nothing. This is called "laying-by time." From August 24th to December 1st they gather cotton, corn, potatoes, etc. From December 1st to January 15th they do practically nothing except keep fires and hunt. This family is situated in a peaceful community composed of white and colored people. About two hundred yards from the house on one side are woods. The house is built on a high spot with a splendid drainage. The entire yard is filled with flowers and shade trees. The barns are a convenient distance from the main building, and there is an orchard. The best people of the community visit these people, and some white people from town and the neighborhood. Everything about this house is neat and clean. Their clothes are plain and simple and well cared for. The father is a member of the Masonic order. All are members of C. M. E. Church and of all its societies. The property owned consists of 175 acres of land, 5 mules, 5 milk cows, 7 heads of cattle, 25 hogs and pigs, 3 wagons, 2 buggies, 1 syrup mill, 1 disc har¬ row, 1 mower and rake, and other tools; there are also 150 chickens, 8 turkeys and 12 guineas. On the father's mother's side the descent is direct from Africa, with¬ out any mixing of blood; on the father's father's side there has been an intermingling of white blood somewhere which makes the father a shade between black and light brown, or a ginger-cake color. On the mother's side the grandfather was a white man and her father was yellow. The mother's mother had a strain of Indian blood in her, making her dark red. This makes the mother yellow. Both sides were in slavery except the mother's grandfather. Breakfast is usually about or before sunrise, with coffee, milk, butter, syrup, meat, grits or rice, chicken or beef on Sunday mornings and biscuits and eggs. Din¬ ner comes at 12 o'clock, with boiled vegetables, cornbread, pies, syrup, milk, butter, biscuits, potatoes, etc., are served. Supper is a little after sundown, with cornbread syrup, meat, milk, butter, and cold vegetables from dinner. Of course these meals vary on different oc¬ casions, especially when company is present and on Sundays. All the members of the family assemble around one large table and the father and mother serve the food, which is put on the table before the meal. The knives, forks and spoons are made of plated silver. The dishes are china, plain, with glasses for milk and water. No. 5. A country family living in 8 rooms, with an income of §2000 per year. The family which occupies this house consists of four brothers, a wife of the oldest of the brothers and his child, a boy two years of age. The oldest brother is twenty-five years of age, and tends the farm. He is a reddish-hued mulatto. The next brother, a man of twenty-three, is the life of the family. He is short and reddish, with sandy hair. The next brother, a man of twenty, is like his oldest brother. The youngest brother, of seventeen, is darker than the rest, and has straight black hair. The mother and father are both dead; they died some time ago—the mother in Augusta, the old family home, the father after they had moved to the present quarters to better A Study of Thirteen Families 141 family conditions. The whole family now consists of two sisters, married, living in Augusta, one brother, married, in New York city, two brothers in Atlanta, and the four brothers at home. The brother of twenty-three is the center of home life. It is he who sells the cotton, sees after all expenses, and pays the others what they have made. He does not eat at home, he runs the only down-town restaurant in the business district of a near-by town. He and his youngest brother rise about five o'clock on mornings and go to town, two miles distant, to open up and start business. There he looks after the buying of pro¬ visions, and sees that the orders are filled. The youngest brother runs errands; the other two stay at home and supervise the farm, and at¬ tend to all outdoor domestic work—sweeping, cleaning, milking, and the like. The wife cooks at home, churns, makes beds, washes, patches and scrubs. Company from town is entertained with the greatest hospitality, including buggy rides. The whole family goes to church on the second and fourth Sundays of every month. They belong to two secret orders, which meet every second and fourth Tuesday and every second and fourth Thursday nights. The farm is eighty acres in extent and is owned by the family. When dressed-up the woman wears gay-colored dresses, ordinary shoes and fancy country hats, with her hair tied with blue and yellow ribbon. All the brothers wear on Sundays red shoes, striped trousers, black coats, gay socks, and colored shirts with collars attached. The main foods are syrup, potatoes, milk and butter. As much cornbread is eaten as wheat bread, and vege¬ tables in season. Fish comes in whenever they are caught in the near¬ by creek or are brought from town. Cured meat is eaten two meals a day, together with chicken and eggs. There are three meals per day: breakfast at five in the morning, dinner at twelve and supper at five. At breakfast they have corn cakes, biscuit, fried meat, coffee, and perhaps eggs. The food is served in plain semi-porcelain dishes, and sit upon the table which the family surrounds. Knives, forks and spoons are used. The dinner consists of potatoes, baked, some sort of vegetables boiled with cured meat, and cornbread served upon appro¬ priate dishes. Supper consists of coffee, perhaps chicken or eggs, bis¬ cuit and cornbread, together with the staples, that is, syrup, butter and milk, which always have a place on the table at all meals. The table is made of white pine, and is kept well-scrubbed, for no cloth is used. The chairs are plain cane-bottom, and are also kept white with soap and water. I hardly believe that napkins are used at all meals, but they produce, when company comes, some napkins about six inches square ironed as stiff as boards. No. 6. A country family living in 9 rooms with an income of $1500 per year. There are fourteen members in the family: father 58, mother 54, mother's mother 70, five sons, respectively, 85, 33, 31, 24 and 18 years of age; and six daughters, respectively, 29, 28, 26, 22, 20 and 15 years of age. Eight of the older children do not live at home. As a family they are loving and congenial. The father is a man who takes care of his family. The mother will do anything for her children. All the 142 The Negro American Family children do well in school and are quick to learn. The whole family dress well, and especially the girls keep up with the style. The girls have been off to school and have put aside the old-fashioned way of dressing of the community in which they live. There is not much time for dressing during the week, however, owing to household duties, but on Sunday they all appear in white dresses and straw sailor hats, or perhaps in a black skirt, a white waist and a hat trimmed in flowers. Some of the older girls have black and white silk parasols. The father wears a black suit, or sometimes a pair of striped trousers and a black coat. The mother always dresses in a plain white suit or a white waist and a black skirt. Everything is kept clean and tidy. Company call very often, sometimes to stay two or three weeks, and the guests come from neighboring cities. The family goes to church regularly. The property owned consists of 325 acres of land, very fertile, and worth fifty dollars an acre. The family has been living in the present local¬ ity for the past thirty-one years. Neither of the parents have had any education except what they have picked up themselves. All the chil¬ dren have been educated. Two daughters and one son are married. Breakfast is at seven and consists of hot biscuits, cornbread, fried meat, butter and coffee. Dinner is at twelve and consists of cabbage, greens, corn (fried), pepper, fried meat, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, cornbread and squashes. For Sunday dinners there is often macaroni, cheese, chicken, and pudding in addition. Supper is at sundown, and consists of cornbread, biscuits, fried meat and syrup. Dishes and plates are all of porcelain, with steel forks and knives with wooden handles. The table is set in the week with a tablecloth of red and white flowers, on Sunday with a linen cloth. Two benches stand, one on each side of the table, and a chair is at either end. No. 7. A city family living in 3 rooms, with an income of §200 per year. There are three members in this family, a mother and two daughters. The mother is fifty-one years old and wholly illiterate; she is a washerwoman and not at all neat or clean in her dress; she looks like an Indian and is very quick-tempered. The elder daughter is twenty-two years of age, very slow in thought and action. She finished the grammar schools and got as far as the second year in high school. In summer she washes and irons, in winter she cooks for a white faihily. Her dress is sometimes clean and neat, and sometimes just the opposite. The younger daughter is thirteen years of age and goes to grammar school. She has a very even temperament and is usually clean. They own no property except the house and lot where they live. Both daughters belong to the church, but the mother does not. They belong to no societies, and have no social life to speak of. They usually go together, except that the younger girl has some young girl friends. The father is dead. The mother's father was a white farmer and her mother a slave. The father's father and mother were slaves. He had two brothers, one of whom is dead. They know of no other relatives. A Study of Thirteen Families 143 Bieakfast, consisting of coffee, wheat bread, meat, bacon, sometimes beef, is eaten at half past six, and dinner, with cornbread, vegetables, now and then meats, is eaten about eight at night; except on Sunday, when breakfast is eaten at nine o'clock and dinner at half past two or three o'clock. The meals are eaten from miscellaneous dishes. The table upon which the family eats has no tablecloth upon it. The food is taken from the cooking utensils and put on a plate—some of every¬ thing they have is put on a plate—and each member of the family takes her plate and sits to the table in the kitchen and eats. There are only two meals cooked. Between meals they eat what is left from the pre¬ vious meal. No. 8. A city family living in 8 rooms, with an income of $800 per year. This family is seven in number: husband, aged 34; wife, aged 29, their two children, both girls, ages ten and six; the husband's mother, about seventy; husband's brother, aged eighteen, and a nephew of the husband, aged fourteen. The wife before being married was orphaned and reared by her sister. She has a grammar-school education ; she is red brown in color. The husband, a browu man, got a little education and then came to town in search of work. He found employment with the railroad as hostler; he was at this employment until after marriage when, under the influence of his wife, he became a briekmason. The husband's mother lived in the country until her husband died and several children, after which she moved to the city with her youngest son, a boy of eighteen, and her orphaned grandson, a boy of fourteen. The duties of the wife and the mother are to keep the home in order. The children go to school. The boy of fourteen cuts wood, brings up coal and kindling, goes to school, and spends two hours in the service of a small dairy, delivering dairy products to the neighbors, for which be receives fifty cents a week. The boy of eighteen drives a furniture .wagon for a local furniture store, receiving- six dollars per week for his services. The husband works at his trade, averaging about five hundred dollars a year. There have been born into this family since marriage six children, four of whom died in infancy, two of whom were twins. The dress of this family is common city dress with nothing extra. The men's suits average fifteen dollars per suit; the women's clothes, averaging five dollars per suit, being made at home. All belong to the church, although to different ones; all attend very regularly. The husband is a Mason and the wife a True Reformer. The home is now being paid for. The family is very genial in disposition, and receives some company. The staple foods are meat, grits, rice, syrup, butter and jelly. All of this is bought from stores except the jelly, which is made in the sum¬ mer. At breakfast there is rice, grits, coffee, biscuit and some sort of steak sausage or liver, bought from the near-by market. Red damask tablecloth covers the table, with china dishes. The food is served on appropriate dishes. Common napkins are used. The whole family eat at the same time. At dinner they have baked beans, or roast, together with white potatoes, rice, and wheat bread, coffee, and some 144 The Negro American Family sort of cheap dessert, like pie. At supper there is something fried from the market, wheat bread, grits, cheese, coffee and tea. Breakfast is at six in the morning, dinner at twelve, and sapper at six in the evening. No. 9. A city family living in 5 rooms, with an income of $864 per year. The family is composed of five members: mother, father and three sons. The father, fifty-four years of age, a portly man, light yellow, with straight black hair. The mother, fifty years of age, is a heavy-built woman, with a stately and erect form, dark-brown com¬ plexion and coarse hair. The sons, of 22, 27 and 29 years, are very much alike; they have straight black hair and Indian complexion and features. The mother and father belong to the Baptist church; the sons are not church members. The mother and father are well thought of by the neighbors. The sons' habits on the whole are not of the best. The two oldest do not live at home. The mother and father wear plain clothes, the sons dress moderately and keep clean. The house is kept very clean and neat. The windows, floors and fur¬ niture are kept neat; the bedclothes are always clean and comfortable. The rooms are well-ventilated daily, and the yard is kept in good con¬ dition. The father was a country schoolteacher up to twenty-nine years ago, but from that time up to the present he has been employed as a cotton classer. The oldest son has always followed the profession of embalming; the youngest boy is a special delivery messenger at the post-office. The other boy is a common laborer. The mother and father belong to secret societies. The boys live with their parents when they are in the city. They own the house and lot they live on. The principal foods are bread, meat, rice, grits, coffee, tea and vege¬ tables. They cook twice a day, morning and evening, between six and seven o'clock in the morning and five and six in the evening, and serve a light cold lunch at noon. The dishes are of various sets, few in number. Common silver-plated spoons, knives and forks of different kinds are used. The mother does the cooking; at mealtime all the food is put on the table at the beginning. After the meal she clears the table and washes the dishes. No. 10. A city family living in 4 rooms, with an income of $560 per year. This family is composed of nine members: father, 38 years; mother, 35 years; four girls, 16, 13, 11 and 8, respectively, and three boys, 6, 4 and 2 years, respectively. The father's father was a farmer. The man himself is a brickmason. In recent years he has been study¬ ing theology, and is now pastor of three churches. The mother's mother has been, since emancipation, a servant in the house of white families for the most part, and her daughter did the same thing until she was married. The family is thoroughly Christian, and very highly thought of in the community where it is. The dress of this family is very plain and clean. This family has no family gatherings except birthday parties. The usual company are those who belong to the same church, the same society and the school friends of the children. The older members are members of the A. M. E. Church. The four A Study of Thirteen Families 145 oldest children go to Sunday-school regularly, and the father is a regular church goer. The man is an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias also. All the children except the youngest belong to an insurance company that collects the dues every week. This family owns three-eighths of an acre of land; one-quarter is in one place and one-eighth of an acre in another. They have a cow, a hog, chickens and ducks. The house and everything around it is kept fairly clean. The family has lived near where they now live all of their lives. When this couple was first married they rented, then they moved to a home that belonged to the mother of the man. When the family became too large to live in that three-room house, the man bought land and built the house in which the family now lives. For breakfast the family usually has ham or bacon, grits, tea or coffee, sometimes eggs, sweet potatoes in their season, cornbread and biscuits. For dinner they usually have two kinds of vegetables—peas, collard greens, cabbage or bean^—and white potatoes or rice, cornbread or biscuits; either peach, pear, apple or blackberry pie, or bread pud¬ ding for dessert; sweet potatoes for dinner in their season. For supper they have beef stew, or soup sometimes, and at other times they have ham or bacon, and rice, coffee or tea, and milk when the cow is giving milk. Syrup may be had at almost any meal, if any one desires it. This is the regular course of eating, but many times they have fish or pork for breakfast or supper. This family usually has breakfast between 5:30 and 6:30 o'clock. The man has to be at his work at seven o'clock and the children leave for school at seven-thirty o'clock. In the winter the children take their lunch to school with them, but when they get home in the afternoon they usually eat what has been left from the morning cooking, and they have supper about six o'clock when the man comes home from his work. The dishes are all very plain, but there are some silver knives, forks and spoons that are used on special occasions, or when there is special company. As a rule, everything is put on the table at one time and everybody sits down together. When the mother is at the table she usually does the serv¬ ing, and when she is not there the oldest girl does it. The marn serves himself, and as soon as he is through he gets up and begins reading the newspaper or a book. The table is of rectangular shape, made of pine lumber, rather small for nine people. A linen tablecloth is used all the time. No. 11. A city family living in 4, rooms, with an income of $1200 per year. This is a family of three: a man 57 years old, his wife, 41, and an adopted girl 10 years old. The man is a janitor, superintending several flats. The owner furnishes him a house and all of his fuel, be¬ sides his wao-es in money. He was coachman for the same man before he became janitor. The woman is a fine dressmaker, and she sews and keeps house. The man is a little above medium height, slender, with dark brown skin and crinkly black hair, mixed with gray; he has a black mustache. He is jovial, usually cheerful, generous, kind-hearted, prudent and business-like. The woman is of medium height and 146 The Negro American Family heavy build. She might easily pass for a white woman. She has very fair skin and straight chestnut hair. She is industrious and also busi¬ ness like. The little girl is about the size of the average child of ten. She is a very light brown, with closely-waved reddish hair. She is the woman's niece. She goes to school, and when at home runs errands, etc. They all wear good clothes, well-made, of good material. They are very neat and clean. They are very fond of staying at home, but have friends whom they visit and who visit them. They go to church dutifully, and each one belongs to some society, insurance or secret order. There was one child, which died while an infant. Since the owner of the flats furnishes them a house, they rent out their own house, which is a wooden structure of four rooms, with a lot 25 feet by 200 feet'. The woman came from a family of seven girls. The father and four of the girls are dead; the mother lives sometimes with this daughter and sometimes works out and stays where she works. Of the three other girls one—the mother of the little girl—lives in the North. She has one of her children with her, a boy, dnd the third child has been adopted by one of her friends. The other sister is unmarried, and teaches. The man came from a family of five children. His mother and father are dead. His three brothers live near him, and his sister lives in another city. He was reared from a small boy b5r the man for whom he now works and has always worked. This family has three meals a day. The food is well-cooked and well-served. They have nice dishes, silver, and good table linen. They have breakfast at seven o'clock, dinner between two and three o'clock and a cold supper about seven-thirty o'clock. In summer they have for breakfast a cereal, fruit, flour bread, and some kind of meat (beef, fish, chicken, mutton, fresh pork). For dinner they have cornbread, vegetables, or sometimes flour bread and baked meats, rice and toma¬ toes, potatoes, iced tea, and some kind of dessert. For supper they have fruit, iced tea, bread and butter, and sometimes meat. In winter they have for breakfast a cereal, bread, meat, and coffee or cocoa. The din¬ ner is about the same as that of summer, with the exception of the summer vegetables and'the iced tea. They often have soup. For sup¬ per they have bread and butter, cold meats, and sometimes stewed fruit and cocoa. No. 12. A city family living in 9 rooms, ivith an income of $1300 per year. The father's father's birthplace and age is unknown. He was a slave of some wealth when freed. He belonged to a very good task¬ master and had considerable amount of cattle and other property. Some of his money he intrusted to his master for safety, but he died without ever getting it back again. The father's mother's birthplace is unknown. She had about three-fourths Indian blood, and was mar¬ ried three times. She was the mother of six children: five boys and one girl. One boy died while a very small child. The mother died in 1891. The father was born December 24, 1865, and is the oldest of the six children. He has been the main breadwinner for the family since the death of his father, when he was a boy, and has had a very little A Study of Thirteen Families 147 chance for schooling. He had to raise the four remaining children a er lis mother's death. He married at twenty years of age, and has armed fourteen years. He owns a house and a four-acre lot at exas. He moved from to Texas, in 1900, and was porter in a hardware store for three years, with wages at $9.00 per week. Since then he has been a porter at the depot, with wages at $35.00 per month. He has one child, a boy, age 22 years. He is now buying a quarter block at $1500. The wife was born near , Texas, July 13, 1867. Her father died before her birth. Her mother's birthplace was in i Texas, and she is still living. The mother's mother has been married twice. First husband died soon after marriage; the second husband is still living. She is the mother of two children; both are married, and both girls. The mother sells vegetables, chickens and eggs, milk and butter, to neighbors, washes and irons and sometimes cooks. She had very little chance for education, and was married at eighteen years. Neither husband nor wife possessed any property at their marriage. The boy was born at , Texas, and he has been in school ever since he reached school age. Only works during the summer, averaging about $5 per week. Husband belongs to Odd Fel¬ lows Lodge, and has an accident life insurance policy of $1500. No. 13. A city family living in 7 rooms, with an income of $1344 per year. There are eight members in the family; father, 53 years of age; mother, 49 years of age; grandmother on the father's side, 80 years of age; eldest daughter 21, eldest son 19, younger daughter 17, youngest son 15 and the youngest girl 12. The father is a railway mail clerk and has been for years. The mother only carries on the household affairs with the aid of the three girls. The grandmother attends to the cow and sells the milk. The eldest daughter teaches in one of the public schools of the city. The oldest son works in a barber shop. The younger son attends college in the winter and works as messenger boy in one of the factories in summer. The other two girls attend school and also assist in the house work. During vacation three meals are served : breakfast at 7:30 a. in., and dinner at 12:00 p. m. and supper at 6 p. m. But when school begins only two meals are served : breakfast, and late dinner about 4:30 p. m. They raise none of the food, everything is bought. The meals are served by the girls of the family. The dishes used on the dining-room table are china the knives and forks silver, but those used in the kitchen are not so expensive. The table used in this kitchen is comparatively small, being only for family use. But when there is company the larger dining-room is used. For breakfast they always have some kind of cereal, biscuits, tea and coffee- either fried steak, ham, or the like, and home-made butter. For dinner they generally have something boiled, and dessert, either pies or pudding. They always dress well and are always very neat and clean. This family was once accustomed to spending Christmas day with the grandparents—the mother's parents—but since their death they spend the holidays at home. They attend church regu- 148 The Negro American Family larly, and the mother belongs to one of the largest Methodist churches of the city. The mother and father own quite a deal of property ; the mother's was left to her by her parents, the father acquired his by his own labor. Section 20A. Expenditures of Laborers. Just before going to press the following budgets of Negro laboring people of Atlanta have been collected. Logically this section should follow Section 20 which it serves to complete, and represents more nearly the expenditures of the mass of Negroes These budgets were collected by students of Atlanta University during the current year. No. 1. A Wood Chopper. Two adults. Weekly earnings: Head, $2.50; wife, 75 cents; total, $3.25. Rent, $3.00 per month, two rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat, 10 lbs., 40 cents; corn and cornmeal, 2 lbs., 5 cents; potatoes (Irish, etc.), 1 quart, 5 cents; sweet potatoes, yams, etc., 1 quart, 5 cents; green vegetables, 10 cents; meat: beef (fresh), 1 lb., 10 cents; bacon, 10 cents; fish of all kinds, 10 cents; lard, 10 cents; coffee, y2 lb., 10 cents; sugar, 1 lb., 10 cents; molasses and syrup, y2 pt., 5 cents; coke, 1 bu., 10 cents; wood, 25 cents; kero¬ sene, yi gal. 10 cents. Total, $1.75. No. 2. Laborer in Paper Mill. Seven members in family, parents and five children, two boys and three girls; ages, respectively, 19 and 15 and 18,14 and 10 years. Weekly earnings: Head, $22.00; one boy $7.00 and one girl $1.75; total, $30.75. House owned (rent of a similar house, $10.00), four rooms. Weekly expense : Flour, wheat, 50 lbs., $1.80; corn and cornmeal, 10 lbs., 25 cents; macaroni, 2 lbs., 20 cents; rice, 3 lbs., 25 cents; Irish potatoes, 1 peck, 30 cents; sweet potatoes, yams, etc., 1 peck, 30 cents; green vegetables, 35c.; meat (fresh beef), 20 lbs., $1.75; sausage, 3 lbs., 20c.; fish of all kinds, 6 lbs., 50c.; lard, 4 lbs., 50c.; butter, 2 lbs., 40c.; cheese, 2 lbs., 40c.; milk, fresh, 8 quarts, 30c.; milk, condensed, 2 lbs., 20c.; eggs, 1 doz., 25c.; coffee, 2 lbs., 40c.; sugar, 8 lbs., 50c.; molasses and syrup, 2 pts., 20c.; coal, 480 lbs., $1.50; wood, 25c.; kerosene, 2 gal., 30c. Total, $11.20. No. 3. Truckman. Parents and one child. Weekly earnings: Head $6.00, wife $3.00, total $9.00. Rent $5.00 per month, three rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 12 lbs. 50c, corn and cornmeal 10 lbs. 25c, dried peas and beans yA lb. 5c, tomatoes, etc. 25c, meat, beef (fresh and corned) 2 lbs. 25c, pork (fresh and salt) 7% lbs. 75c, bacon, ham, head cheese, etc. 6 lbs. 75c, fish of all kinds 2 lbs. 25c, lard, suet dripping 2% lbs. 25c, cheese 1 lb. 20c, milk (fresh) 1 qt. 20c, tea 2%c, sugar 4 lbs. 25c, coal 50c, wood 50c, kerosene yA gal. 10c. Total, $5.08. No. 4. Brickmason. Parents and six children, four boys and two girls; ages, respectively, 19,13, 4 and 1,9 and 7 years. Weekly earnings: Head, $20.00. Home owned (rent of similar house $8.00), five rooms. Weekly expense: Bread, of wheat, 6 loaves, 30c.; flour: wheat 24 lbs., 90c.; rye, 5 lbs., 35c.; crack¬ ers, 2 lbs., 25c.; macaroni, 1 lb., 10c.; rice, 6 lbs., 25c.; potatoes (Irish, etc.), 3 qts., 15c.; sweet potatoes, yams, etc., 1 pk.. 30c.; dried beans, 1 qt., 15c.; toma¬ toes, 18 lbs., 45c.; meat: beef (fresh), 10 lbs., $1.00; ham, 2 lbs., 40c.; sausage, 1 lb., 10c.; fish of all kinds, 3 lbs., 30c.; lard, 4 lbs., 50c.; butter, 2 lbs., 40c.; cheese, 1 lb., 20c.; milk, fresh, 8 qts., 30c.; milk, condensed, 1 lb., 10c.; eggs, 1 doz., 25c.; tea, % lb., 20c.; coffee, 1 lb., 20c.; sugar, 9 lbs., 50c.; syrup, 1 pt., 10c.; jams, 1 pint, 25c.; coal, 3 bu., 75c.; coke, 2 bu., 20c.; kerosene, 2 gal., 30c. Total, $7.95. Expenditures of Laborers 149 ^ai^roa<^ Employee. Parents and one child, boy three years old. eekly earnings: Head, $25.00. Home owned (rent of similar house, $20.00 per month), seven rooms. Weekly expense: Bread, of wheat, 8 lbs., 25c ; flour: wheat, 6 lbs., 25c.; corn and cornmeal, 6 lbs., 15c.; spaghetti, 1 lb., 10c.; rice, bar¬ ley, sago, etc., 3 lbs., 25c.; oatmeal and breakfast cereals, 2 lbs., 10c.; pota¬ toes (Irish, etc.), % pk., 20c.; sweet potatoes, yams, etc., % pk., 15c.; dried peas and beans, 1 qt., 20c.; sweet corn, 14 lbs., 35c.; green vegetables, salad, toma¬ toes, etc., 35c.; meat: beef (fresh), 4 lbs., 60c.; bacon, ham, head cheese, etc., 10 lbs., $1.50; fish of all kinds, 3 lbs., 45c.; lard, suet dripping, 2}4 lbs., 28c.; butter, 2 lbs., 40c.; olive oil, 1 pt., 30c.; cheese, 1 lb., 20c.; milk, condensed, 2 ibs., 25c.; eggs,6 doz., $1.20; tea, lb., 15c; coffee, y lb., 15c.; sugar, 4 lbs., 25c.; molasses and syrup, 1 pt., 10c.; Ice, 70c.; coal, 6 bu., $1.50; wood, 60c.; kerosene, 1 gal., 15c. Total, $10.88. No. 6. Insurance Collector. Parents and one child, a girl, 18 years. Weekly earnings: Head $17.90, total $17.90. Home owned (rent of similar house $10.60), five rooms. Weekly expense: Bread of wheat, 10 lbs., 55c., flour: wheat, 12 lbs., 45c., corn and cornmeal 7y2'c., spaghetti 1 lb. 10c., rice iy2 lb. 8c., potatoes (Irish), 1 qt. 5c., sweet potatoes, yams, etc., 1 peck 20c., meat: beef (fresh), 3 lbs. 30c., pork (fresh), 2 lbs. 20c., bacon 3 lbs. 25c., lard 2% lbs. 35c., butter 1 lb. 35c., cheese 1 lb. 20c., milk, fresh, 1 quart 5c., milk, condensed, 1 lb. 10c., eggs 1 dozen 22c., coffee % lb. 12%c., sugar lbs., 25c., coal 3 bu. 75c., wood 25c, kerosene 1 gal. 15c. Total, $4.05. No. 7. Brickmason. Parents and two children, ages 10 and 7 years. Weekly earnings: Head $12.00, wife $5.00; total $17.00. House owned (rent of similar house $8.00 per month), three rooms. Weekly expense: Bread of wheat, 2 lbs. 10c, flour: wheat, 12 lb. 45c, corn and cornmeal, 2 lb. 5c, crackers, 1 lb. 10c, mac¬ aroni, 1 lb. 10c, rice, 2 lb. 15c, potatoes (Irish, etc.), 1 qt. 5c, sweet potatoes, yams, etc., 2 qts. 10c, green vegetables, 10c, meat: beef (fresh), 3 lb. 25c, pork (fresh) 2 lb. 30c, ham, 1 lb. 20c., sausage, 1 lb. 10c, fish of all kinds, 3 lb. 25c, lard 21b. 25c, butter 1 lb. 20c, cheese, 1 lb. 20c, milk (fresh) 4 qts. 15c, milk (con¬ densed) 1 lb. 10c, eggs, 1 doz. 25c, coffee, 1 lb. 20c, sugar, 4 lbs. 25c, molasses and syrup, 1 pt. 10c, coke 30c, wood 25c, kerosene, gal. 10c. Total, $4.65. No. 8. City Cart-driver. Two adults and one child, a boy one year old. Weekly earnings: Head $6.00, total $6.00. Rent $3.00 per month, two rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 24 lbs. 90c, corn and cornmeal 2 lbs. 5c, rice 1 lb. 10c, potatoes (Irish) 1 qt. 5c, sweet potatoes, yams, etc., % pk. 15c, dried peas 2 qts. 20c, meat: beef (fresh and corned) 6 lb. 60c, pork (fresh and salt) 1 lb. 15c, bacon 2 lbs. 25c, sausage 1 lb. 10c, lard 1 lb. 15c, butter ^ lb. 10c, coffee J4 lb. 15c, sugar 2 lbs. 15c, molasses and syrup 1 pt. 10c, vinegar, pickles and condiments 5c, nearbeer 4 pts. 20c, coal 1 bu.25c, wood 15c, kerosene y% gal. 10c. Total, $3.35. No. 9. Drayman. Two adults. Weekly earnings: Head $8.00, wife $1.75; total $9.75. Rent $5.00 per month, three rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 12 lbs. 45c," corn and cornmeal 4 lbs. 10c, rice 1 lb. 10c, potatoes (Irish, etc.) 2 quarts 10c sweet potatoes, yams, etc., 3 qts. 15c, dried peas and beans 2 qts. 20c, green vegetables 30c, meat: beef (fresh and corned) 6 lbs. 60c, pork (fresh and salt) 2 lbs 30c, ham 2lbs. 40c, sausage 2lbs. 20c, fish of all kinds 2 lbs. 15c, lard, duet dripping 2 lbs. 25c, butter 1 lb. 20c, eggs 1 doz. 25c, coffee 1 lb. 20c, sugar 3 lbs 20c, vinegar, pickles and condiments 5c, spiiits 2 pts. $1.60, coal 1 bu. 25c, wood 25c, kerosene gai- Total, $6.40. 150 The Negro American Family No. 10. Drayman. Two adults and two children, girls, ages 12 and 6 years Weekly earnings: Head $6.00, wife $1.50; total $7.50. Rent $450 per month, two rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat, 8 lbs., 30c., cornmeal, pk., 15c., dried beans, 1 qt. 10c., green vegetables—salad, tomatoes, etc., 20c., meat: beef (fresh and corned) 2 lbs. 20c., pork (salt) 4 lbs. 50c., sausage \y2 lbs. 15c., lard 15c., tea 5c., coffee 5c., molasses and syrup 2 qts. 15c., sugar 3 lbs. 15c, beer $1.00, wood 50c., kerosene % gal, 10c. Total, $3.85. No. 11. Porter in Store. Two adults and three children, girls, ages 11, 9 and 7 years. Weekly earnings: Head $6.00, wife 75 cents, total $6.75. Rent $2.50 per month, one room. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 24 lbs. 90c., corn- meal 1 pk. 30c., sweet potatoes 1 pk. 20cl, green vegetables, salad, tomatoes, etc., 20c., pork (salt) 8% lbs. $1.00, sausage 1 lb. 10c, fish of all kinds 4 lbs. 25c., lard 35c., butter 34 lb. 15c., coffee % lb. 10c., sugar 4 lb. 25c., wood 50c, kerosene 1 quart 5c. Total, $3.35. No. 12. Carpenter. Three adults and one child, a girl five years old. Weekly earnings: Head $18.00, total $18.00. Rent $8.00 per month, four rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 8 lbs. 30c., cornmeal 2 qts. 10c., macaroni 1 lb. 10c., rice 1 lb. 10c., potatoes (Irish) 3 qts. 15c., sweet potatoes, yams, etc., 2 qts. 10c., dried peas and beans 1 qt. 10c., green vegetables, salad, tomatoes, etc., 40c.; meat: beef (fresh and corned) 4 lbs. 50c., pork (fresh and salt) 2 lbs. 30c., bacon 2 lbs. 25c., sausage 4 lbs. 40c., lard 3 lbs., 30c., butter 1 lb. 35c., cheese 1 lb. 20c., milk (fresh) 2 qts. 20c., milk (condensed) 1 lb. 12c., eggs 1 doz. 25c., tea lb. 15c., coffee y% lb. 15c., sugar 5 lbs. 25c., molasses and syrup 1 pt. 5c., vinegar, pickels and condiments 1 pint 5c., fruits (fresh, dried and canned) and jams 50c., coal 250 lbs. 63c., charcoal 1 bu. 13c., kerosene 1 gal. 15c. Total, $7.68. No. 13. Common Laborer. Two adults and two children, a boy and girl, ages 6 years and 9 months, respectively. Weekly earnings: Head $6.00, wife 40 cents; total $6.40. Rent $2.50 per month, one room. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 24 lbs. 90c., cornmeal 2 qts. 10c., rice 1% lbs. 15c., potatoes (Irish, etc.) 1 qt. 5c., sweet potatoes y2 pk. 15c., green vegetables, salad, tomatoes, etc. 25c.; pork (salt) 8 lb. $1.00, lard 3 lb. 30c. coffee y2 lb. 10c., sugar 3 lbs. 15c., coke 2 bu. 20c., wood 35c., kerosene 1 qt. 5c. Total, $3.75. No. 14. Stableman. Two adults and three girls, ages 9, 4 and 2, respec¬ tively. Weekly earnings: Head $7.00, wife $2.00, total $9.00. Rent $7.60, three rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 12 lbs. 45c., rice 3 lbs. 30c., potatoes (Irish, etc.) 2 qts. 10c., dried peas and beans 2 qts.20c., green vegetables,salad, tomatoes, etc 30c., meat: beef (fresh and corned) 6 lbs. 60c., pork 4 lbs. 50c., butter 1 lb. 25c., coffee % lb. 10c., sugar 3 lbs. 25c., vinegar, pickles and condi¬ ments 1 pint 5c., coal 2 bu. 50c., wood 60c., kerosene 1 gal. 15c. Total, $4.95. No. 15. Drayman. Two adults and four children, two boys and two girls, ages respectively 4 and 1 and 5 and 8 years. Weekly earnings: Head $5.00, wife $1.50; total $6.50. Rent $3.50, two rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 12 lbs. 40c., cornmeal 1 lb. 30c., rice 1 lb. 10c., dried peas and beans 20c., green vegetables, salad, tomatoes, etc., 10c., pork (fresh and salt) 9y lbs. $1.25, fish of all kinds 3% lbs. 25c., lard 3 lbs. 30c., tea 10c., sugar 5 lbs. 25c., fruits (fresh, dried and canned) and jams 1 lb. 10c., coke 3 bu.30c., wood 35c., kerosene 1 qt.5c. Total $4.05. No. 16. Street Siveeper. Two adults and four children, two girls and two boys, ages respectively 14 and 3, and 17 and 10 years. Weekly earnings: Head $6.60, wife 75 cents, 1 boy $4.50; total $11.85. Rent $5.00 per month, two rooms. Expenditures of Laborers 151 Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 24 lbs. 90c, cornmeal 1 pk. 30c, rice 1 lb. 10c, sweet potatoes 1 pk. 25c, beans 2 qts. 20c, green vegetables, salad, tomatoes, etc., 25c, meat, beef (fresh) 2% lbs. 30c, fish of all kinds 3 lbs. 40c, lard 4 lbs. 50c. butter 1 lb. 25c, coffee 3^ lb. 10c, sugar 5 lbs. 25c, syrup 3 pts. 15c, beer 60c, coal' 1 bu. 25c, wood 50c, kerosene K gal. 10c. Total, $5.90. Meals away from home 60 cents. No. 17. Head Porter for Insurance Company. Four adults and two chil¬ dren, one boy and a girl, ages respectively 18 and 20 years. Weekly earnings: Head $15.00, wife $4.00, total $19.00. Rent $12.60 per month, six rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 12 lbs. 55c, buckwheat and other 1 pkg. 10c, cornmeal 2 qts. 10c, macaroni 1 lb. 10c, rice 2% lbs. 25c, oatmeal 2 pkgs. 25c, potatoes (Irish etc.) % bu. 60c, sweet potatoes, yams, etc. 3 qts. 15c, dried pease and beans 1 qt. 10c, green vegetables, salad, tomatoes, etc. 50c, meat, beef (corned) 2 tins 30c, pork (fresh) 6 lbs. 90c, bacon and ham 4 lbs. 60c, poultry 1 chicken 65c, fish of all kinds 2 lbs. 25c, lard 3% lbs. 40c, butter lyA lbs. 45c, cheese 2 lbs. 40c, milk (fresh) 4 qts. 40c, milk (condensed) 1 lb. 12c, eggs 1 doz.25c, tea % lb. 10c, coffee 1 lb. 25c, sugar 5% lbs. 40c, syrup 1 pt. 5c, vinegar, pickles and condiments 1 pt. 5c, fruits (fresh, dried and canned) and jams 1 lb. 10c, coal % ton $1.25, coke 1 bu. 10c, wood 25c, kerosene 1 gal. 15c. Total $9.12. Meals away from home 75c; gas 25c. No. 18. Drayman. Two adults. Weekly earnings: Head $5.00, wife $1.00; total $6.00. Rent $4.00 per month, two rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 5 lbs.25c, cornmeal 4 qts. 20c, rice % lb. 5c, potatoes (Irish,etc.) y pk- 20c, green vegetables, salad, tomatoes, etc. 60c, meat, beef (fresh) 3 lbs. 30c, pork (salt) 2\i lbs. 30c, fish of all kinds 3 lbs. 40c, lard 3 lbs. 30c, butter 1 lb. 25c, coffee 1 lb. 25c, sugar 4 lbs. 20c, wood 40c, kerosene y gal. 10c. Total $3.60. No. 19. Common Laborer. Two adults and three children, one boy and two girls, ages respectively 6 and 5 and 3 years. Weekly earnings: Head $7.50, total $7.50. Rent $6.00 per month, three rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 12 lbs. 40c, cornmeal 1 pk. 30c, sweet potatoes 2 qts. 10c, dried peas and beans 2 qts. 20c, green vegetables, salad, tomatoes, etc. 35c, meat, beef (fresh) 5 lbs. 60c, pork (salt) 4 lbs. 50c, fish of all kinds 2 lbs. 25c, lard 3 lbs. 30c, butter 1 lb. 25c, coffee % lb. 10c, cocoa 1 box 10c, sugar 3 lbs. 15c, fruits (dried) 15c, spirits Yz pt. 25c, kerosene 1 gal. 15c. Total, $4.55. No. 20. • Stonemason. Two adults. Weekly earnings: Head $12.00, total $12.00. Rent $6.50 per month, three rooms. Weekly expense: Flour, wheat 6 lbs. 25c, corn and cornmeal 4 lbs. 10c, sweet potatoes, yams, etc. 15 lbs. 30c, meat, beef (fresh and corned) 2 lbs. 20c, pork (fresh and salt) 1 lb. 15c, bacon, ham, head cheese, etc. 2 lb. 25c, fish of all kinds 3 lbs. 30c, lard, suet dripping 2y lbs. 25c, Butter % lb. 15c, milk (fr.esh) 1 qt. 5c, milk (condensed) 1 lb. 10c, eggs 5,10c, coffee 3^ lb. 10c, sugar \y2 lbs. 10c, vinegar, pickles and condiments 1 pt. 10c, coal 100 lbs. 50c, wood 50c, kerosene y3 gal. 5c. Total, $3.55. Section 28. Conclusion. Judging from family life and other condi¬ tions how far, is it fair to conclude, has the Negro American emerged into twentieth century civilization? The United States had, in 1900, 10 7% "f illiteracy, 46.5% of home ownership, and perhaps 2% of ille¬ gitimate births. The Negro had, in 1900, 44.5% of illiteracy, 20.3% of 152 The Negro American Family home ownership and, probably though not certainly, 25% of illegiti¬ macy. These rough measurements would permit the following assumption: that in the Nation at large four-fifths of the citizens have at least com¬ mon school training, two-thirds have reached a plane of economic independence, and nine-tenths are observing the monogamic sex mores. Among the Negroes probably one-third have at least common-school training, one-third have reached a plane of economic independence, and at least one-half are observing the monogamic sex mores. We may conclude this study by short extracts from the remarks of two of the speakers of the Thirteenth Annual Conference. Miss Jane Addams said, among other things: . . . The thing I feel most strongly as the difficulty among the Italians, among the Greeks and among the Russians (for these are the ones whom I constantly see), is the contrast they find between the life they have led at home and the life they are obliged to live in Chicago. All sorts of customs fit them to walk in the old folk ways,the old ways which their ancestors have had for so many years. Now, as I take it, your difficulties are quite unlike that. The habits which you might have had from your ancestors were all broken into, they were all scattered, and especially the habits connected with family life. There are advantages and disadvantages in the lack of tradition and the lack of habits in those directions. The advantages are that you are much more ready to make your adaptation; you are much more ready to bring the results of education and the rationalistic side of life to bear directly upon the refining of the family. And the disadvantages are that you lack some of the restraints of the traditions which the people I have mentioned bring with them. The Reverend E. L. Henderson, Episcopal Archdeacon of the diocese of Atlanta, said: While the Negro has made a splendid beginning in the acquisition of homes, a beginning it is, and not the end. For, here and there, in country and in city, we find not only types of the ideal home but tenements and shanties which barely afford protection from wind and storm; dwellings where the laws of health are defied, where the most ordinary sanitary arrangements are unknown, and where boards of health fail to penetrate; beds innocent of clothing; human forms, even those of children, piteously clad; hunger written upon careworn faces and despair everywhere triumph¬ ant. What can be expected in such a home as this but that which often exists—an immorality as deep as its poverty; a moral atmosphere as pestilen¬ tial as the physical. Again, there are homes, so-called, in which the holy ties of human affection are greatly warped, if not broken asunder, and where the old motto, "What is home without a father?" which once served as an adornment and certificate of value, is now replaced by the State's certifi¬ cate of divorce. For while the Negro, being imitative, has been strength¬ ened by the examples of the good, he has been weakened by the examples of the bad. Conclusion 153 If the moral, economic and educational advance of the Negro race be nec¬ essary for the well-being o( society; if the unit of society is not the indi¬ vidual, but the family; if nothing can take the place of the early influences of a true home, and the function of education be to "Prepare us for complete living," then, the Christian Church, which underlies and upholds all other institutions, and gives to each an immortal power and an eternal signifi¬ cance, must purify the stream at the fountain head by sending her minister¬ ing angels—her clergy, deaconesses, sisters, teachers, Bible women, and vis¬ itors—into the homes of the Negroes, not only to teach the importance of daily family prayer, but, in the language of one of our learned prelates, to teach,.also, what is good taste in dress; the part soap and water, liberally used, plays in health and strength of mind and character; the fact that clammy bread and bad coffee are not a necessary incident of poverty; that separate and well-ventilated bedrooms, a clean tablecloth and gentle man¬ ners, belong to a polite education; that order and thrift are not a waste of time, but make time for rational enjoyment and brighten life; that nothing is lost by supplanting coarseness, vulgarity, slovenliness, with tidiness, re¬ finement and innocent amusement; that the best elements of the highest civilization in Virginia or Connecticut are wrought in the home, and that the sweetness and delight of home are as possible in a plain Negro cabin as in houses of brick or marble with all modern improvements, and that the flow¬ ers and the fruits of good living are attainable wherever the disposition exists and a determined effort is made to have them. Finally : If there would be a further transition from ignorance, poverty and moral darkness, to enlightenment, thrift, industry, and improvement of the individual and the Negro family, the Church and the Home must unite in a more vigorous warfare to reduce to a minimum the prevailing evil of di¬ vorce. This the^y must do, (1) By teaching young women to appreciate the seriousness of marriage, its solemn import and its sacred responsibilities. (2) By teaching young men to revere womanhood and motherhood, for the sake of their own mothers and the Mother of our Lord, so that their purity may be no mere prudential restraint, but a generous and chivalrous Christian knightliness. (3) By teaching all that marriage and family life are not dependent upon selfish desire, or mere caprice, but are institutions ordained of God, and de¬ signed like other ordinances of God with a view to the education, the forma¬ tion and discipline of character. When the Church and the Home receive a clearer vision and use their full power; when the estate of Holy Matrimony, which has a sacramental char¬ acter, be no longer entered into, as so often now, "unadvisedly or lightly," but "reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God," then the Church and the Home will have served their mission, and be permitted to look with satisfaction upon "Their sons as plants grown up in their youth, and their daughters as corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a palace." Index Addams, Jane — 152 Advertisements for slaves 23, 24 Africa 9,10,42, 97 Africa, East 43 Africa, Family economy of 97. 99 Africa, Law of property 98, 99 Africa, Marriage in 10,18 Africa, Polygamy 17 African clan : 20 African family institutions 19 African homes 42-45, 98 Age and sex 27 Agriculture, U. S. Department of 126 Alley dwellings 58,59 American Economic Association, Report of 106,107 Atlanta 58-60, 64-66,114 Atlanta University 5, 9,122 Auction, Slave 24-25 Authority, Lack of, in slave home 49 Babemba villages 42 Baltimore 125-126 Betrothals 13 Bibliography 6-8 Birth-rate 31-34,37-38 Bongos 43 Brandt, Miss Lillian 60-62 Brazil 21 Buecher on Africa 97-98 Budgets 114-122, 148-151 Cameron 10 Carnegie Institution 5 Chiefs, Wahuma 43 Children : 32-35 Christmas 130-131 Christophe 20 City homes 58 Classes, Differentiation of 127-128 Clothing of slaves 100-104 Coast gold 16 Conferences, Atlanta 5-6, 55 Conjugal condition of Negroes 30 Covington, Ga 56 Crowding 53, 60,127-128 Customs, Hygienic 48 Death°rate of Atlanta Negroes 60 Death-rate of children 34 Death-rate of Negroes in Washington 64 Decrease in children 33 Differentiation of classes 127-128 Dinka 45 Disproportion of sexes 18 Divorce 15 Dwellings, number, situation of, in St. Louis 60-61 Dwellings, size of, in Philadelphia 123-124 Dwellings, Slave 49-50 Economic condition of Negro 104-107 Economics of slavery 99-104 Ellis on Africa 10, 13,15-16 Excursions, picnics, etc 132 Expenditures of laborers 148-151 Family, Economics of Negro 97-127 Family, Government of African 16 Family, Negro, in New York 182-188 Familv relationships 13-15 Family, Size of 31-36, 56-77, 129, 134-145 Index 155 Trnm-i-es' Negro, of Dougherty county,Ga 128-130 es' dumber of, owning and renting houses 124-126 r? and farms, Negro 104-105 Income of Negro 106 pfats1 Excess of Negro 36 E • ■ • • ■ • •' ■' ■' •' •'' •' •' ■' •' •" •'•'' ■' •' •' •' •' •' •'' ■' •' ■ ■ ■' • • • •' •' • ' •' •' •' •' ■' •' •'■'53-54, 100,' io3," 126-127,148-144 Freed men's Bureau si Frolics . . lqi Funerals i qi Furniture '....'.'.'.'.".".I*. 1Y. \\11 59 Georgia 1(w G roup, The family 127 Haytian revolution 20 Havford, on Africa 16-17 Heating ///,'//' '67' 71 75 Henderson, Rev. H. L 152-153 Home, The city ' 53 Home, The village 54-58 Homes 42-49 Homes, African ............ .... 42-45 98 Homes, Better slave 45-5o! 52 Homes, Condition of, after Civil War 62-63 Homes, City, of better class 64 Homes, Country 50-54 Homes, Description of three 65-66 Homes, Description of situation of Freedmen's 54-56 Homes, Method of buying 57 Homes, Negro, in Atlanta 65 Homes of freed slaves 52 Homes, Pictures of 80-96 Homes, Plans of 68-80 Homes, Situation of 50 Hospitality 61 House, Size of 56-57, 59, 60,122-123,128-129 House, The African 98 Houses, Characteristics of 48 Houses, Description of city 73-80 Houses, Description of rented 125-126 Ikondu, Town of 44 Illegitimate birth-rate 37-42 Immorality 41-42 Income and expense 106-111, 112,114,122,135-140,143-144 Kaffirs Kingsley, Miss, on Africa 98 Laborers, Expenditures of Land, Distributioikof, by value ■ • los Land owned by Negroes ■ ill Land, Value of, owned by Georgia Negroes 110 Light, in the home Living, Mode of ; — of Lowndes county, Ala., Wedding in „ . 9-42 Marriage 18afi Marriage In slavery time 10 Material, Building — ^ Meals and clothing of slaves Method and scope of study ^ Morality of Negroes ^9' ldU' Morals, Negro sexual Mulattoes 64 Negro and the plantation .. • 5, 6, 55 Negro Conferences, Atlanta 57 58 Negroes, Effect of village life on » Negroes of Massachusetts 104, 134-145 Occupations of Negroes • Ovington, Miss Mary Parental affection in Africa jgg Philadelphia, income and size of family in .113 pictures of home 156 The Negro American Family Plans of homes 68-80 Poor in New York 132 Population, Distribution of, by conjugal condition 29 Population, Negro, 15 years of age 27 Population, Sex of Negro 19 Professional classes 134 Property, Amount of, owned 139 Property, Amount and value of, owned by Georgia Negroes 107-111 Property in West Africa 98 Property, Town and city 109 Property, Value of 105 Property, Value of total amount of, owned by Georgia Negroes 110 Races, Pastoral 42 Ratzel 10, 15,17, 43 Rent 122-126 Rent, Amount of, paid by families 124,125 Rent in New York 132 Rented houses, Description of 126 Rooms, Number of 56-57, 59, 60,122-123 Revivals 131 Revolution, Economic 99 Revolution, Haytian 20 Sandy Spring 30 Sanitation 53, 59 Saturday visit to town 130 Savannah 102-103 School-closing 131 Secret societies 131-132 Sex 19 Sexes, Disproportion of 18 Share system of farming 51 Slave dwellings 49-50 Slave, Fugitive 23-24 Slave motner >. 49 Slavery 18, 45, 99-104 Slavery of debt ' 51 Slaves, Condition of 99-104 Slaves, Town life of freed 52 Slater Fund 5 Slum-worker 38 Slums of Atlanta 58 Social life of the country 130-132 St. Louis 60-62 Stock, Value of, owned by Georgia Negroes 110 Students, Support of 122 Summing up of economic situation of American Negroes Ill Sweinfurth on Africa 17 Tools, Value of, owned by Georgia Negroes 110 Tshi-speaking peoples 10 Tylor 12 Undesirable localities • ■ 61 Ventilation 63 Waganda 43 Washington 62-64, 125 Wealth of Negroes 106-107 Weddings and funerals 131 Xenia, Ohio 30, 31,112,124 Yards 59, 69, 71, 73-74, 76, 77 Yoruba-speaking peoples 13-15 Zulus 12, 45, 97 STUDIES OF NEGRO PROBLEMS The Atlanta University Publications COPIES FOR SALE No. 1, Mortality among Negroes in Cities ; 51 pp., 1896. Out of print. Mortality among Negroes in Cities; 24 pp.,(2d ed., abridged, 1903). 164 copies, at 25 cents. No. 2, Social and Physical Condition of Negroes in Cities; 86 pp., 1897; 834 copies at 25 cents. No. 3, Some Efforts of Negroes for Social Betterment; 66 pp., .1898. Out of print. No.. 4, The Negro in Business; 78 pp., 1899. Out of print. No. 5, The College-bred Negro; 1 15 pp., 1900. Out of print. The College-bred Negro; 32 pp., (2d edition, abridged). 1,858 copies at 25 cents. No. 8, The Negro Common School; 120 pp., 1901. Out of print. No. 7, The Negro Artisan ; 200 pp., 1902* 622 copies at 75c. No. 8, The Negro Church; 212 pp., 1903. 349 copies at $1.00. No. 9, Notes on Negro Crime; 75 pp., 1904. 1,196 copies at 50c. No. 10, A Select Bibliography of the Negro American; 72 pp., 1905. 1,277 copies at 25 cents. No. 11, Health and Physique of the Negro American; 112 pp., 1906. 306 copies at $1.00. No. 12, Economic Co-operation among Negro Americans, 184 pp., 1907. 1,704 copies at $1.00. No. 13, The Negro American Family; 152 pp., 1908. 2,000 copies at 75 cents. W.KWf. wj &k 44]V$0 mother can love more tenderly or be more deeply beloved than the Negro mother. Robin tells of a slave in Martinique who, with his savings, freed his mother instead of himself. 4 Everywhere in Africa,' writes Mungo Park, 41 have noticed that no greater affront can be offered a Negro than in= suiting his mother. 'Strike me,' cried a Mandingo to his enemy, 4 but revile not my mother!'.... The Herero swears ' By my mother's tears!' . . . . The Angola Negroes have a saying, 4As the mist lingers on the swamps, so lingers the love of father and mother.' " Wilhelm Schneider. - ||||1