Publications of the University of Virginia
Phelps-Stokes Fellowship Papers

The Taxation of Negroes in Virginia

BY
TIPTON RAY SNAVELY,
Phelps-Stokes Fellow, 1915-1917

I91G.

EDITORIAL NOTE.

The Phelps-Stokes Fellowship for the study of the Negro
was founded at the University of Virginia in 1912 through a
gift from the trustees of the Phelps-Stokes Fund. It is the
duty "of the holder of the Fellowship to stimulate and conduct
investigation and to encourage and guide a wider general inter
est among students concerning the character, condition and
possibilities of the Negroes in the Southern States.
With this object in view the successive incumbents have or
ganized classes for study that have been well attended and dil
igent. Special investigations have been carried on by each Fel
low; related topics have been assigned for study by individuals
and groups, and the results presented for class discussion; and
from time to time men distinguished as thoughtful students of
Negro Life have been invited to lecture at the University.

PREFACE.

The present essay is the result of my investigations while I
held the Phelps-Stokes Fellowship at the University of Virginia
during the session of 1915-16. In it I have endeavored to por
tray the attitude of Virginia toward the negro problem as it is
reflected through one phase, taxation, of the state's activities.
As a first consideration, I have sought a strict adherence to
facts, and it has been my purpose in every instance to give an
unbiased interpretation of the data presented. So far as I am
aware, no specialized study of the taxation of negroes has ever
been undertaken for any state or city. This fact alone is a suf
ficient justification for the appearance of the present essay.
T. R. S.
University of Virginia,
November, 19 16.

CONTENTS. Chapter I.
The Capitation Tax  9
Chapter II.
The Real Estate Tax  44
Chapter III.
Personal Property and Income Taxes  80
Chapter IV.
Conclusions  93

PER CENT OF NEGROES IN TOTAL POPULATION OF VIRGINIA, BY COUNTIES: l&lO.i

1 | Less than 12J per cent.
Willi 12J to 25 per cent.
{$%%! 25 to 37J per cent.
H§!| 37$ Id 60 per cent.
Egg 50 to 62) per cent.
HI *2} to 76 per cent.
75 per cent and over.

U. S. Census Report, Statistics for Virginia, 631.

CHAPTER I.
The Capitation Tax.
The revenue in the early days of the Virginia colony was
small and arose for the most part from the need for protection
against the Indians. The poll-tax dates from the year 1623,
when a special tax of "10 pounds of tobacco" was levied upon
every male head above sixteen years of age to meet the public
•debt which had resulted from the recent Indian massacre.1
In the seventeenth century the revenue of the colony was de
rived principally from a general capitation tax, the amount be
ing fixed to meet the exigency of the occasion. Except for oc
casional intermittences a poll-tax was levied to the end of the
colonial period.
The number of free negroes in the colony during the seven
teenth century and until the latter part of the eighteenth cen
tury was very small.2 There are many evidences, however, which

1 Henning's Statutes, Vol. I, 128.
2 For the free negroes in Virginia during the colonial period see
Russell, "The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865," Johns Hopkins
'Historical Studies, XXXI. It seems impossible to obtain an abso
lute estimate of the number of free negroes in the colony prior to
the year 1790, when the first Federal decennial census was made. In
1691 and 1723 the legislature passed an act making it unlawful for ne
groes or mulattoes to be set free "upon any pretense whatsoever,
except for some meritorious services, to be adjudged and allowed by
the governor and council." This clause was reenacted in 1748 and
•obtained until the year 1782 when a law was passed providing for
the manumission of slaves. See Henning's Statutes at Large, Vol.
Ill, 87; Vol. IV, 132; Vol. XI, 39.
In a treatise, "On the State of Slavery in Virginia," published as
an appendix to The 1803 edition of Tucker's Blackstone, Vol. I, Part
II, Note H, 66, St. George Tucker says: "There is reason to be
lieve that great numbers have been emancipated since the passing
of this act." He estimates that there were about 2,800 free negroes
and mulattoes in Virginia when the act took effect. Allowing for a
natural increase between the years 1691 and 1782', Mr. J. H. Russell
estimates that the number of free negroes in the former year was
about 350.

10 PHELPS-STOKES EEIAOWSHIP PAPERS
attest the fact that those who were free were included in the
taxable lists. Thus to meet an appropriation for the expenses
of an Indian campaign the general assembly in the year lo^y
"concluded that there should be five pounds of tobacco per poll
levied throughout the colony" on "every master of a family and
every free man." 3 Again an act was passed in 1642 to the ef
fect, "That all free men who are hired servants shall pay their
own tithes and duties are to be collected per poll for the coun-
trey service." 4 The poll-tax was abolished and a personal prop
erty tax substituted for a period of four years in 1649.5 The
master or owner paid the taxes on servants.6 Free negro
women were also accounted tithable in the year 1668 when it
seems that, according to the early English custom of exempting
women from the payment of capitation taxes, there was some
question as to whether free negro women should not likewise be
exempted. The general assembly declared that, "negro women,
though permitted to enjoy their freedom yet ought not in all re
spects to be admitted to a full fruition of the exemption and im
punities of the English, and are still liable to the payment of
taxes." 7
This statute was reenacted in 1705 and only white women,
and children under sixteen years of age, were exempted from
payment of the capitation tax.8 It seems that in certain cases
prior to 1723 individuals were exempted by special act. Such
acts were invalidated, however, in this year when all free ne
groes, mulattoes, etc., were "accounted tithables; any law, cus
tom, or usage to the contrary, in any wise, notwithstanding." 9
As the need for revenue in the colony increased during the

" Henning's Statutes, Vol. I, 143.
4 Ibid., Vol. I, 305.
0 Ibid., Vol. I, 241.
• Ibid., Vol. I, 143.
7 Ibid., Vol. II, 267.
' Ibid., Vol. Ill, 169.
• Henning, Vol. IV, 133. It may be noted that in this year also
free negroes were disfranchised in toto, "excepting such only as
the county courts, for charitable reasons appearing to them, shall
think fit to excuse." (Ibid., Vol. IV, 133; Vol. VI, 40 and 41.')

THE TAXATION OE NEGROES IN VIRGINIA - 11
eighteenth century a land tax was resorted to from time to time
in addition to capitations. In 1769 the poll-tax which had been
imposed on free negro women was abolished. The repeal of
the act was based on two claims: (1) That it had been found
"very burthensome," and (2) that it was "derogatory of the
rights of free-born subjects." It provided that all "free negro,
mulatto, and Indian women, and all slaves, shall be and are
hereby exempted from being listed as tithables, and from the
payment of any public, county, or parish levies." 10
The provisions which after 1691 had forbidden manumission
except by special act were repealed in 1782 ; and with the aboli
tion of the restrictions on liberating slaves, steps were taken at
the same time to enforce the collection of delinquent taxes.11
The language of this act implies that there was some difficulty
in collecting taxes from male free negroes. It provided : "That
in case any slave so liberated shall neglect in any year to pay all
taxes and levies imposed or to be imposed by law, the court of
the county shall order the sheriff to hire out him or her for so
long a time as will raise the said taxes and levies; provided
sufficient stress cannot be made upon his or her estate." 12 The
number of free negroes increased at a considerable rate during
the eight years between 1782 and 1790, when, according to the
report of the Federal census for Virginia, there were 12,866
free negroes in the state. In the meanwhile, however, capita
tion taxes were abolished in the year 1787, the legislature de
claring that "whereas the tax on young slaves and the tax on
free males above the age of twenty-one years, have been found
very burdensome, and the situation of the public revenues will
justify a revision of the said taxes; Be it therefore enacted,
That so much of the laws of revenue as impose a tax of ten
shillings to be paid by each free male above the age of twenty- '
one years, shall be and the same is hereby repealed, etc." 13
All male persons above sixteen years of age (except those ex-

10 Ibid., Vol. VIII, 393.
11 Ibid., Vol. XI, 39.
u Ibid., Vol. XT, 40.
13 Ibid., Vol. XII, 431.

12 PHEEPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
empted by special act) were again liable to the payment of a
capitation tax in 1792.14 Upon the declaration of war in 1812
the need for increased revenue in the commonwealth arose sud
denly and the legislature in 1813 passed a discriminatory law as
follows : "All free negroes and mulattoes above the age of six
teen years shall be subject to a poll-tax of one dollar and fifty
cents, to be collected in such manner as shall be provided by
law; provided that such free negroes and mulattoes as are
bound out as apprentices, shall be, and are hereby exempted
from the tax hereby imposed." 15 This unprecedented change
of policy in imposing a capitation tax only upon negroes was
due in part perhaps to other causes than the sudden need for
greater revenue. The number of free negroes had increased
constantly since 1782,16 and the problem had assumed such pro
portions by 1800 that a movement for colonization was started
and "new and unusually stringent measures for keeping watch
over and controlling the actions of free negroes were enacted." 17
The free negro had become such a menace that restrictions upon
emancipation were not sufficient to remove the grave aspects
which had already developed. By a discriminatory tax, there
fore, it was possibly hoped that pressure would be brought for
removing free negroes from the state or for forcing them to be
come apprentices in default of paying the tax.
For collecting the taxes it was provided that: "The poll-tax
imposed on free negroes and mulattoes shall be collected by the
sheriffs in the same manner and at the same time that they col
lect taxes on the taxable property of the commonwealth, and
they shall account for and pay the same into the public treasury
at the same time and in the same manner, and under the same
penalties, that they account for and pay the taxes on the several
articles of taxable property herein before mentioned." 18

14 Shepherd's Virginia Statutes at Large, I, 184.
w Acts of Assembly 1812-1813, Part II, 6.
16 According to the Federal census enumeration the number in
1820 was 36,875.
17 Russell, "The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865," 66.
18 Acts 1812-1813, 8. The mode of procedure for the collection
of delinquent poll-taxes consisted in an order from the court of the

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 13
The rate of $1.50 per poll was raised in 1815 to $2.50 but ap
plied only to male free negroes "above the age of sixteen years
and under the age of forty-five." 19 Some free negroes permitted
unpaid assessments to reduce them to temporary servitude, but,
as Mr. J. H. Russell points out, "these capitation taxes were
collected with remarkable success. In 1814, $8,322 was paid in
to the treasury by 5,547 free negroes, or about ninety per cent
of the male free negroes within the taxable age. In 1815, when
the rate was $2.50 instead of $1.50, as in the two preceding
years, and only such as were between the ages of . sixteen and
forty-five were taxable, 4,023 free negroes paid their assess
ments, which amounted to $10,057.50 — or a sum which was
equal to the amount received into the treasury from lawyers' li
censes or from the tax on carriages, and was one and one-half
per cent of the total revenue of the state.20 During the three
years when free negroes were paying a high poll-tax the white
inhabitants were paying none." 21
The capitation tax was abolished in 1816 and the Acts of As
sembly contain no record of a subsequent reenactment of the
law until 1850. In this year free negroes above twenty-one and
under fifty-five years of age were again assessed with a discrim
inatory tax of $1.00. per capita. The amount derived from this
source was to be used exclusively for the colonization of free
negroes in Liberia, and was to supplement an annual appropria
tion of $30,000 for this purpose.22 The act contained a provi
sion making it obligatory for free negroes to report themselves
to the commissioners of revenue for assessment, and the fund
was to be carefully set apart by the auditor and treasurer in

county or corporation authorizing the sheriff or sergeant to hire out
the delinquent for a sufficient time necessary to raise the taxes — dis
tress always being made on any existing property first. (Acts 1815-
1816, 61.) In 1820 the minimum rate at which free negroes and mu
lattoes could be hired out was eight cents a day. (Acts of Assembly,
1820, 26.)
u Acts 1814-1815, 8.
™ Auditor's Report for 1815-1816; Acts 1815-1816, 88.
a Russell, "The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865," 115.
E Acts 1849-1850', 7-8.

14 PHEEPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
their reports. For the subsequent ten years the levy of one dol
lar was unchanged.23 A capitation tax of eighty cents was lev
ied in 1860 upon all male free negroes and all white males who
had attained the age of twenty-one years.24 The tax of $1.00 on
male free negroes which had been continued since 1850 had not
been repealed and it devolved upon the auditor of public ac
counts to make a decision as to which of the taxes should oper
ate. He decided to collect both assessments.25 The collection
for 1860 when both capitation taxes were imposed was
$13,065.22.26 In 1861 the act of 1853 levying a poll-tax and es
tablishing a colonization board was abolished and the levy of
1860 remained in force.27 With the adoption of this act dis
crimination in levying poll-taxes ceased; after 1860 the taxes
were uniform for whites and negroes.

s White males were required to pay a poll-tax in 1852, as follows:
"A capitation tax, equal to the tax assessed on land of the value
of two hundred dollars, shall be levied on every white male who
has attained the age of twenty-one years; and one equal moiety of
the capitation tax upon white persons shall be applied to the pur
poses of education in primary and free schools.'' This tax for white
males in 1852 amounted to thirty-six cents per capita. (Acts 1852,
14 and 331.) It was raised to forty cents in 1853 (Acts 1852-1853,
20), and to eighty cents in 1856. (Acts 1856, 11.)
24 Acts 1859-1860', 59.
25 Code 1860, 242 and 243 note. The auditor gave the following in
structions to the commissioners: "Section 4 of chapter 3, Acts 1859-
1860, imposing taxes for the support of government, levies a tax of
eighty cents on every free negro over the age of twenty-one years.
This section imposes a tax of one dollar on every male free negro
between twenty-one and twenty-five years of age, to be applied to
the removal of free negroes from the commonwealth. The enquiry
is naturally suggested, whether both taxes are to be assessed and
collected for their specific purposes. Both acts may consistently
stand together; and while it is not believed the General Assembly did
intend to impose both taxes, yet such seems to be the only interpre
tation that can be sustained."
* Auditor's Report for 1861; Code 1860, 243. In 1861 representa
tives from a portion of the western counties of Virginia assembled in
convention at Wheeling and effected a division of the state. The
statistics quoted above prior to this year include West Virginia be
fore the separation.
27 Acts 1861, 4.

THE TAXATION OE NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 15
The demand for greater revenue during the Civil War be
came more and more urgent, with a consequent increase in the
capitation tax levy. The rate which in 1862 had been raised to
$1.20 was increased to $2.00 in 1863 .28 The assessment on free
negroes in 1863 was $11,554.29 During the decade from 1850
to 1860 the taxes levied on free negroes appear to have been
collected with fair success. Owing to the financial hardships of
the state during the years immediately subsequent to the war,
the rates levied were small and taxes were necessarily difficult
of collection from the mass of newly emancipated negroes. The
legislature which assembled in 1866 imposed a small tax of
twenty-eight cents per capita "upon every male person, over the
age of twenty-one years, not exempted from taxation for bodily
infirmity." 30 The rate was increased to sixty cents in 1867.31
The so-called Underwood Constitution as adopted in conven
tion in 1867-1868 and ratified by the people in 1869 provided for
equal and uniform taxes, "whether imposed by the state, county,
or corporate bodies." It contained the following clause for a
capitation tax: "The General Assembly may levy a tax, not
exceeding one dollar per annum, on every male citizen who has
attained the age of twenty-one years, which shall be applied ex
clusively in aid of public free schools; and counties and corpo
rations shall have power to impose a capitation tax, not exceed
ing fifty cents per annum, for all purposes." 32
The maximum levy granted for school purposes in the consti
tution was imposed by statute in 1870; the amount assessed in
this year at $1.00 per capita being $146,883 for white males and
$90,183 for negroes. The total delinquency was 36.25 per cent.33
As a large proportion of the negro population possessed com
paratively little wealth and received a scant income the percen
tage of unpaid capitations was much larger for negroes than

Acts 1861-1862, 4; 1863, 4.
Auditor's Report, 1863.
Acts 1865-1866, 61.
Ibid., 1866-1867, 86l!
Constitution of 1867-1868, Art. X, Sections I and 5.
Auditor's Report, 1871; Acts 1870, 335.

16 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
for whites. For the years 1874 and 1875 the relative assessments.
and delinquencies for white and negro males are shown by the
following table :
TABLE I: AMOUNT ASSESSED, AMOUNT DELINQUENT,
AND PER CENT DELINQUENT FOR WHITES AND
NEGROES IN 1874 AND 1875.3*
Assessment Delinquent % Delinquent
Whites Negroes Whites Negroes Whites Negroes
1874  $152,392 $ 98,071 $21,237 $40,287 14.0 41.0
1875  163,020 101,186 24,237 37,751 14.8 37.3

Thus it will be seen that for the above years the percentage
of delinquency for negroes was approximately three times that
of white males.35
In 1875 the white capitation tax assessments amounted to
$163,020 and the assessments on colored males had increased to
$101,186. It is interesting to note that of the number of white
males assessed there were 20,215 living in cities for whom the
percentage of delinquency was 39.7, while the total per cent for
the state was only 14.8. Of the negro males assessed 13,742
were in cities, while the per cent of delinquency in cities was-
72.7 as against 37.3 for the entire state.30 Sentiment for en
forcing payment of the assessments by making it a condition
for voting was growing in popular favor. One explanation for

M Auditor's Report, 1874 and 1875.
35 The annual report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
for 1873 contained the following statement: "At present one man
in every three assessed fails to pay his capitation tax, and there are
probably near 60,000 men not assessed every year. Assessors fail to
make complete lists, owing no doubt to the small amount of the tax,
and the difficulty of collecting it in many cases. The result, as the
matter now stands, is humiliating. About 82,000 of those assessed
fail to pay, and 56,000' are not assessed, so that 138,000 out of 300,000
pay nothing. In other words the state gets $162,000 where she ought "
to get $300,000." (Annual Reports, 1873.)
36 Auditor's Report, 1875; statistics are compiled for counties and
cities from "Rough Settlements" in the State Auditor's Office.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 17
this sentiment was the need for more revenue; another was the
desire to wrest the control of the ballot, especially in the black
sections of the state, from the hands of the negro.
An important source of public school revenue was the capita
tion tax levy of fifty cents which was optional on the part of
counties and cities to impose — popular vote in all cases being
the deciding factor. That the annual fluctuations and unpaid
assessments rendered local school funds necessarily unstable
and precarious is not surprising.37 The State Superintendent
of Public Instruction and virtually all of the division superin
tendents advised in 1871 that "local voting for school expenses
be abolished, except for extraordinary expenditures." About
four-fifths of the counties in this year were imposing the local
capitation tax levy.38'
Because of the pressing need of revenue for school purposes
the State Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1873 recom
mended to the legislature that the poll-tax rate be doubled and
the payment of the tax be made a requirement for voting. He
believed that an anticipated objection to the measure, "that candi
dates for office might buy votes by paying the voter's tax," was

37 The following regulation intended to enforce payment of the
local capitation tax assessments in school districts was passed by
the State Board of Education in 1871: "Be it ordered, That the at
tention of school trustees be directed to the last clause of the 46th
section of the school law which provided that 'no person shall be
allowed to attend any public school whose father, if he be alive and
resident within the school district and not a pauper, shall not have
paid the capitation tax in aid of public free schools last assessed on
him;' but the actual enforcement of this clause shall not begin until
the first of December each year, or until such other date as may be
fixed by law for tax collectors to complete their work and to return
their delinquent lists."
38 "Of course by a certain mode of electioneering,'- said a county
superintendent, "we can secure any tax, as the colored people have
a large majority in our county. If, however, the colored people all
vote one way and that in favor of any tax proposed, this very thing
will drive away the whites from the support of the schools. Hence,
for the present, it seems best for the tax necessary to be imposed
by the legislature." (Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1871,
Supplement to Annual Report.)
—2

18 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
really an argument in its favor since a "vote-buying candidate
would take other and worse means for securing votes if he did
not do this." In. his annual report on the condition of school
revenue in 1875, he again stated to the legislature that, "could
the prepayment of the capitation tax be made a condition of
voting, our school revenues would be materially increased."
In January, 1876, an anomaly in the application of public
school funds was discovered, the result of which had an imme
diate effect in the enactment of a measure applying particularly
to the capitation tax. The Supreme Court in 1872 sustained the
validity of an act passed in 1871 known as the Funding Bill.
This bill provided that the coupons of state bonds should be
"receivable for all taxes, dues, debts and demands due the
state."40 Although a subsequent act in 1872 repealed this
provision the Court upheld the original law and suggested an
increase in the rates of taxation. It declared the obligation to
provide for the interest due on the state bonds to be "as high
as the duty applying the capitation tax and other funds to the
schools." 41 Thus in 1876 it was found that the auditor had
reported only so much of the school funds as had actually been
paid in cash — the amount paid in coupons having been diverted
for payment of the state debt. The need for school funds had
become so imperative that a constitutional amendment impos
ing a capitation tax as a requirement for voting was submitted
to the people at the regular November election in 1876. A few
days prior to the election the Richmond Whig, referring to
this amendment in an editorial, said, "Another, and perhaps the
most important of all the amendments is the one denying the
ballot to those who refuse to pay their capitation tax. This
again will insure to the treasury some $50,000 annually that is
now withheld." 42 It was adopted by a vote of 129,373 to
98,359.43

30 Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for
1875, 124.
40 Acts 1870-1, 379.
41 Antoni v. Wright, 22 Gratton's Reports, 833.
42 Richmond Whig, Nov. 2, 1876.
45 Brenaman, J. N., "History of Virginia Conventions," 122.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 19
It was soon found that the amendment did not prove to be
a panacea for those localities in which the negro vote had be
come most destructive and in which political corruption was
most prevalent, nor did it materially increase the amount of
school revenue. "For the six years from 1879 until 1885 the
negro vote of the state was a powerful factor in its control." i4
State and federal offices were in the hands of unscrupulous
men who held them mainly by amassing negro votes. Here
the capitation tax proved no barrier since political agents took
care that the tax was paid in due time, or, if the day of election
arrived without the assessments having been paid, worse meth
ods were resorted to, and by means of a mere technicality the
negro vote was registered anyway. On the other hand, many
honest white voters procrastinated in the payment of their cap
itation taxes until too late and consequently lost their votes.
So obvious were the abuses that the legislature submitted to
the people the question of deciding at the November election in
1882 whether prepayment of the capitation tax as a require
ment for voting should be continued or repealed. Apropos of
repealing the amendment the Richmond State said: "This we
sincerely hope will be the last election in Virginia in which the
use of money will be an absolute necessity, made so by the
constitution, for any purpose. The requirement of the capi
tation tax as a prerequisite for voting has been the source of
all our ills, and yet when it was adopted we were assured by
the very wise men who were the fathers of the movement that
it was the only thing needed to make our elections pure and
keep the government of the state in the control of our best
people. We doubted this at the time and foresaw the use that
would be made of it by bad, ambitious men. We knew that the
white people would neglect or grow careless of their duty in
this respect, and that they would also reject with scorn any
proposition from others to pay this tax for them, while those
interested in voting them would in some way see that the taxes
of the negroes were paid, or that some sort of fraud would be
resorted to in order to qualify them to vote, and such has been

44 Ibid., 80.

20 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
the actual fact. The party in power not only to-day but on
former occasions, had tax receipts ready made out in blank an
signed by the collectors to be filled up by the name of anyone
offering as a substitute or an original voter to cast his vote m
the interest of the Boss while thousands of our own people
throughout the state had failed to pay the capitation tax or to
allow anyone to pay it for them, and so lost their votes.
"With the repeal of this constitutional provision every voter
in the state is set free, and with a free ballot and a white pre
ponderance of one-third over the black in the state we ought
to be able to carry with ease all future elections. The registra
tion will be the only test then, and under the circumstances by
which we are surrounded is an absolute necessity, though it
needs some amendment to meet the unforeseen emergencies
arid to prevent either false registration or fraudulent vot
ing." 45
It was abolished by a vote of 107,303 to 66,131. Many of
the leading newspapers fought hard to have the amendment
repealed. The Richmond State again urged that, "The free
ballot, made entirely free by the repeal of the poll-tax, will add
at least forty thousand to our white voting strength, and with
this reenforcement we have no apprehensions for the future.
. . . We suppose no one questions the fact that the poll-
tax requirement kept at least one-fourth of our white voters
from the polls, simply because of their neglect to pay the tax
or their refusal to allow anyone to pay it for them; while on
the other hand, the colored voter had somebody to attend to
this small matter for him, and was not at all sensitive about
it." 46
White capitation tax assessments increased from $163,020
in 1875 to $191,226 in 1881, or about 17.3 per cent. The
phenomenal increase may be explained by the fact that fewer
exemptions were made because of bodily infirmity. By an act
approved April 21, 1882, the commissioners were directed to
"ascertain and assess for taxation all male persons of full age

K Richmond State, Nov. 5, 1882.
40 Ibid., Nov. 18, 1882.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 21
and sound mind residing in his district, city, or town, on the
first day of February of each year, unless otherwise directed
by the auditor," etc.47 Negro assessments increased from
$101,186 in the former year to $116,004 in the latter, repre
senting a gain of 14.6 per cent. For the years 1881 to 1883 in
clusive a comparison of assessments and percentages of de
linquency for whites and negroes may be made from Table II.
TABLE II: CAPITATION TAXES ASSESSED AND RETURNED
DELINQUENT FROM 1881-1883.48
Assessment Delinquent % Delinquent
Year Whites Negroes Whites Negroes Whites Negroes
1881  191,226 116,004 32,805 49,672 17.2 42.8
1882  190,582 114,064 35,988 52,947 18.9 46.4
1883  193,118 115,742 35,647 49,373 18.5 42.7

Comparing the percentage of delinquency in 1875, or the year
before prepayment of the capitation tax was made a require
ment for the franchise, with that of 1881, or the year in which
the amendment of 1876 was repealed, there is a ratio of 14.8
to 17.2 for whites, and 37.3 to 42.8 for negroes. Both for
white and negro assessments, therefore, there was an increase
in the percentage of delinquency. As was stated above, this
fact may be explained from the unusual increase in assess
ments — this increase representing in part those who had pre
viously escaped for various reasons. The maximum delin
quency for the three years, 1881 to 1883, occurred in 1882, al
though the election in the latter year was an extremely im
portant one. It might have been expected that there would be
a decrease in the payment of poll-taxes in 1883 ; there was, how
ever, no perceptible deviation from the average either for
whites or negroes.
During the seven years from 1883 to 1889 inclusive the aver
age poll assessments amounted to 202,614 for whites and

47 Acts of Assembly, 1882, 384.
" Assessments taken from Auditor's Reports; delinquent taxes
compiled from "Rough Settlements" in Auditor's office, Richmond.

22 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
115,742 for negroes, while the total increase for white assess
ments was 18,751 or about ten per cent. The average assess
ment for negroes during the same period was 115,742, and
although the number listed by the commissioners of revenue
fluctuated, there was practically no increase. The average
number reported for capitation taxes during this period was
identical with that of 1883 and the assessments for 1890 were
even somewhat lower.49 The virtually stationary character of
negro assessments for so many years resulted in part from an
increasing negro population of a migratory character, due to a
large influx of population in cities, to frequent moving from
county to county, and to the employment of large forces in
the construction of railways, mining operations, etc. Accord
ing to the Federal Census Report for 1890 there were 130,747
negro males of taxable age, or 12.1 per cent in excess of the
number assessed. This number, if slightly diminished by crim
inals and inmates of charitable institutions, still denotes a large
surplus unassessed. An even greater discrepancy occurs, how
ever, for this year in the case of white males, the census report
being 14.6 per cent more than the number enumerated by the
state for capitation taxes. It is a significant fact also- that the
percentage of delinquency for whites increased from 18.5 in 1883
to 24.5 in 1890, representing a rise of six per cent as compared
with four and one-half per cent for negroes. For this period the
percentage of delinquent negroes increased from 42.7 to 47.2
There was a steady and rapid growth in white assessments
throughout the decade from 1890 to 1900. Similarly there was
a constant increase for negroes though the growth was not so
marked as for whites. The proclivity in both races for ignor
ing capitation tax assessments was considered by the legisla
ture in 1896, and inasmuch as the tendency was becoming ag
gravated each year an act was passed making the tax a lien on
real estate.50 The effectiveness of this act, as illustrated by
Table III, was negligible, and it does not appear to have been

40 Ibid., 1883-1890.
" "Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That every
capitation tax for state, county and corporation purposes shall be

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 23
TABLE III: ASSESSMENTS AND DELINQUENCY FOR
WHITES AND NEGROES FOR THE YEARS
1890, 1895, AND 1900.

No. Assessed No. Delinquent' % Delinquent
Year Whites Negroes Whites Negroes Whites Negroes
1890  211,869 114,1947 51,823 54,202 24.5 47.2
1895  ... 234,268 120,152 59,124 57,427 25.2 47.8
1900  257,123 125,033 67,954 59,612 26.4 47.7

attended by any results in the case of either white or negro de
linquencies. Before proceeding further with the discussion of this chap
ter, it will not be irrelevant to notice more particularly the
policy of the state prior to the year 1900 in imposing a capi
tation tax. Attention has been called to the fact that the im
position of a poll-tax on free negroes before the Civil War
was primarily for the purpose of raising revenue, but it also
served to minimize the number who might be given freedom
and to control those who were freed. At the termination of
the Civil War there was an imperative need for revenue. What
with the chaotic condition of the state treasury, an overwhelm
ing state debt, and the establishment in 1870 of public free
schools, it was necessary to provide a system of taxation which
should become practical and certain in its operation. Hence
the retention of the capitation tax. Only temporarily from
1876 to 1882 was an attempt made to use the tax as a means
for controlling the ballot.
A tendency which in the administration of the tax became
accentuated throughout the period from 1866 to 1900, was a
steady growth in the percentages of delinquency. Except for
unimportant variations this holds true both for white and negro

a lien upon the real estate owned by the person against whom such
tax is assessed, from the time of such assessment; and if such tax
be not paid, such real estate may be subjected to sale for the pay
ment thereof and all costs and expenses, at the same time and in
the same manner that such real estate would be subjected to sale for
the payment of taxes assessed thereon." Acts 1896-1896, 402.

24 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
assessments. The law-making body endeavored to counter
act such an objectionable tendency of the tax by making poll
assessments a lien upon real estate, but the purpose of this law
was never realized, owing to the enactment of a law in 1900
providing for a constitutional convention. Indeed, it must
have failed of its purpose since a large majority of delinquents
assessed were not owners of real estate. Before taking up the
change of policy arising from the adoption of the present con
stitution, it will be well to note more fully the actual working
of the poll-tax in 1900 as it affected negroes in the various
portions of the state.
Of a total population which amounted to 1,854,184 at the
beginning of the new century, 660,722, or 35.6 per cent, were
negroes. Negro males of voting age numbered 146,122 and
formed 32.6 per cent of the state's voting population, as against
34.5 per cent in 1890.51 The discrepancy which existed be
tween negroes who were accounted of taxable age and the
number listed for capitation taxes by the state was slightly
greater than in 1890, amounting to 14.4 per cent — as com
pared with 14.7 per cent of taxable white males who escaped
assessment. In cities where the percentage of delinquency for
both races continued since 1875 to be inordinately high, 83.2
per cent, or $19,712 of an assessment which totalled $23,682,
was returned delinquent. It is quite evident therefore that the
capitation tax as it pertained to negroes in cities was a farce
and an almost complete failure. Likewise for white males in
cities the law was scarcely more effective, the number of as
sessments to delinquents standing in 1900 as 47,157 to 27,442
— a percentage of 58.2.
In addition to the migratory character of the urban popula
tion two general causes may be assigned for this indifference
to capitation assessments. There was no effective method by
which enforcement of payment could be made in the first place,
and there was not sufficient interest to insure voluntary pay
ment in the second. The law of 1896 placing a liability on
real estate for delinquent polls would have been, if enforced,

Census Report, 1890 and 1900.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 25
less operative on negroes in cities, than in counties because
fewer negroes in cities were real estate owners. The principle
of the law was bad since the cost of collecting the tax would
ordinarily have been more than the tax itself. Without an ef
fective means of enforcement, attempts at collection were futile.
Capitations reported delinquent usually remained so, a much
smaller proportion being subsequently collected than in the case
of land and property taxes. In 1900 the total amount of delin
quent capitation taxes collected was approximately 6 per cent
of the total assessment for this year. Delinquent real estate
and personal property taxes were collected much more success
fully.52 Table IV contains relative percentages of delinquency for ne
gro capitations, divisions of the state having been made from
the percentages of negro population.
TABLE IV: PERCENTAGES OF DELINQUENCY FOR
NEGROES IN DIVISIONS OF THE STATE
HAVING DIFFERENT PERCENTAGES
OF NEGRO POPULATION.03
Less than 12^ per cent  53.4
12y2 to 25 per cent  45.5
25 to 37% per cent  47.5
37J4 to 50 per cent  61.6
50 to 62Y2 per cent  37.8
62% per cent and over  26.8

Twenty counties and two cities in the southwestern and
mountainous portions of the state had a population of which
negroes composed less than 12^4 per cent. Some of these
counties are among the wealthiest of the state, and it might
have been expected that where the negro population was com-

62 See the following chapters for a discussion of these subjects of
taxation. K Cities and counties are included in the divisions in which their
combined population falls. Percentages of population are based on
Federal Census Reports for 1900.

26 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
paritively small and widely distributed the social and economic
conditions would have been such as to insure a low percentage
of delinquent capitations. That this assumption does not hold
true is due in part to the fact that a large proportion of the
negroes assessed were employed temporarily in various occu
pations — principally mining and railroad construction — and had
no permanent abode. The two groups in which negroes rep
resented from 12^4 to 25 per cent respectively of the state's
population do not deviate materially from the average per
centage for the six groups or from the total percentage of the
state. The fourth division contains eight cities including most
of the largest in the commonwealth — a fact which explains the
unusually high delinquency percentage of 61.6 for this group.
It is a striking fact that the fifth and sixth groups which are
the two divisions in which percentages of negro population are
greatest, have the least percentages of delinquency. In the
sixth division there are ten counties, in each of which negroes
compose more than 62J4 per cent of the population, but only
26.8 per cent of poll assessments for them were returned de
linquent. It will be remembered that the total percentage of
white delinquency for the state was 26.4, a margin of only
four tenths of one per cent less than for the sixth division
above. Inasmuch as the capitation tax in 1900 was applied ex
clusively to public school funds, the small percentage of de
linquency for all counties and cities whose negro population
exceeded fifty per cent is creditable. To sum up, therefore, we
may deduce the following conclusions from Table IV: (1) The
division of negro population in which most of the largest cities
are included has the greatest percentage of delinquency, and (2)
the divisions having the highest percentages of negro population
have the lowest percentages of delinquency.
A radical change of policy in the administration of the cap
itation tax took place in the first three years of the new
century. What had previously been wholly a fiscal tax now be
came mainly a political measure, and the state sacrificed a por
tion of the yield from capitations in order to accomplish through
taxation a purpose which it believed desirable. This change
of policy was effected through the new constitution in 1901-02.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 27
The constitution which was finally adopted in 1868 had con
tained a clause which limited the action of future legislatures
insofar as they might undertake to revise or change the suf
frage article. It was provided, "That no amendment or re
vision shall be made which shall deny or in any way impair the
right of suffrage or any civil or political right as conferred by
this constitution except for causes which apply to all classes
and persons without distinction." B4 This section also provided
that the question of calling a convention to revise and amend
the constitution should not be submitted to popular vote earlier
than the year 1888. In 1889 and again in 1897 proposals for a
convention were defeated by the electorate ; but in the latter year
the majority of votes cast in opposition had greatly diminished
and sentiment was rapidly crystallizing in favor of such a con
vention. When the question was voted on in 1900 it was car
ried by a substantial majority.
One of the impelling desires for constitutional reform arose
from the need for a complete revision of the elective franchise.
No attempts were made to minimize the primary issue before
the convention. In the words of the assistant secretary of the
convention, "While many reforms were wrought in the organic
law of the commonwealth by the convention of 1901-2, the
great issue of the convention was the suffrage and the effort
to restrict it without contravention of the Federal Constitution
and with the least practicable reduction of the number of white
voters." 55 The bitter struggle for political supremacy during
the period when there were no restrictions on voting has been
touched upon briefly in the foregoing pages in connection with
the poll-tax requirement for suffrage which obtained from 1876
to 1882. It was widely thought that questionable methods were

54 Constitution of 1867-8, Article XII, Sec. I.
K J. N. Brenaman, "History of Virginia Conventions," 82. "The
chief purpose of this convention," said the Honorable Carter Glass,
delegate from Lynchburg, "is to amend the suffrage clauses of the
existing Constitution. It does not require much prescience to fore
tell that the alterations which we shall make will not apply to all
persons and classes without distinction." (Debates, Constitutional
Convention of 1901-2, Vol. I, 54.)

28 , PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
resorted to in relegating the negro to the rear in those counties
which had a majority population of negroes. The awakening
of the people to the menace of fraudulent politics gave rise to
the determined demand for a new constitution which would
remove the negro from the electorate as far and as fully as this
could be done by lawful means.56
The duty which had been entrusted to the convention and
the task which confronted it were not easy in the performance.
In speaking of the suffrage legislation which it was incumbent
on the convention to enact, the president of the convention re
ferred to it as a subject of "transcendent interest and impor
tance." 57 Freedom to enact such measures as would not
violate the fifteenth amendment by discriminating against any
class of citizens on account of "race, color, or previous condi
tion of servitude," was of course unquestioned but it was dif
ficult to draw a clause that would in effect disfranchise the bulk
of incompetent votes without violating that amendment. The.
horns of the dilemma which the committee appointed to draft
the suffrage article was obliged to confront were, first, to
place such restrictions on suffrage as would exclude the mass
of the negro vote; second, to affect the white vote as little as
possible. A mere literacy test was impossible of adoption, be
cause the higher percentage of illiteracy was found in the
mountainous portions of the state where there were few ne
groes. Conditions in the western counties, where the negro
population has always been extremely small, were entirely dif
ferent from those of the eastern and southside, or "Black
Belt" counties. It was difficult to obtain an "understanding"
clause or a capable clause based on literacy without at the same
time disfranchising many of the whites. Except for party
affiliations there was no objection offered by the members of
the committee on suffrage from the western part of the state
to the disfranchisement of negroes so long as the white vote
was not interfered with. In giving to the convention the ma
jority report of the committee Mr. Watson thus commented on

" Ibid., Vol. II, 253.
57 Hon. John Goode.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 29
this difficulty: "Political, economic, and social conditions, va
riant as the soil itself in the different sections of the state,
have greatly complicated the undertaking and protracted the
investigation beyond the anticipation of many wise and good
citizens. To strike from the suffrage the alien and the enemy
in eastern Virginia and at the same time leave untouched the
worthy but illiterate Anglo-Saxon of the mountain side and to
the west beyond, was not an easy task for the mind to conceive
nor for the hand to execute." 58 In other words, recognition
of certain distinctive features was necessary in framing Vir
ginia's suffrage article, and for this reason the principles which
had been followed by other Southern states in revising the
suffrage articles of their respective constitutions were not ap
plicable to the needs of Virginia.
It may be stated here that while a large majority of the
members of the convention thought it a wise plan to curtail
the negro vote the method for doing this was not to be one of
any sort of discrimination merely along race lines. Whatever
laws' were passed would be, it was hoped, administered strictly
and justly to whites and negroes alike. For instance, if an
"understanding" clause for registration were passed it would
in purpose apply to all applicants in exactly the same manner.
It may be noted again that there was no fear of a negro ma
jority in the state; but only in the counties of the "Black Belt"
was it felt that relief was needed from the negro vote. Repr
esentatives of the densely populated negro sections, there
fore, advocated more stringent qualifications for the suffrage
amendment than those of the other sections. It was hoped by
all, however, that the laws would be in conformity with the
Federal Constitution, practical of operation, and1 as far as pos
sible free from maladministration.
It is essential that proper significance be attached to the facts
set forth above if a clear understanding be obtained of the cir
cumstances by which prepayment of the capitation tax for
voting was made a fundamental part of the constitution. Be
ginning with the year' 1904 payment of the tax was made a

88 Debates of the Constitutional Convention, Vol. I, 598.

30 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
requirement for registration. This provision was contained in
section 20 of the second article of the constitution :
"After the first day of January, nineteen hundred and four,
every male citizen of the United States, having the qualifica
tions of age and residence required in section Eighteen, shall
be entitled to register, provided: First, That he personally
paid to the proper officer all State poll-taxes assessed or as
sessable against him, under this or the former Constitution,
for the three years next preceding that in which he offers to
register; or, if he come of age at such time that no poll-tax
shall have been assessable against him for the year preceding
the year in which he offers to register, has paid one dollar and
fifty cents, in satisfaction of the first year's poll-tax assessable
against him;" etc.
Section nineteen of the suffrage article provided for a gen
eral registration of voters during the years 1902 and 1903 but
payment of the capitation tax was not made a requirement for
voting until after the first day of January 1904. If all eligible
citizens complied with the general registration clause which
obtained in 1902-3, then section twenty of the suffrage article
would haye been applicable only to citizens of voting age im
migrating from other states and to those who attained the age
of twenty-one years within the state. Persons failing to reg
ister prior to 1904 were forced, in order to be eligible for reg
istration subsequently thereto, to pay the capitation taxes as
sessed against them for the preceding three years. Not only
was prepayment of the capitation tax made a requirement for
registration after 1904 but it was also imposed as a condition
for voting. Section twenty-one provided that "Any person
registered under either of the last two sections, shall have the
right to vote for members of the General Assembly and all
officers elective by the people, subject to the following condi
tions :
"That he, unless exempted by section twenty-two,59 shall,

°° Under section twenty-two "no person who, during the late war
between the States, served in the army or navy of the United States,
or any State of the United States, or of the Confederate States, shall

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 31
as, a prerequisite to the right to vote after the first day of Jan
uary, nineteen hundred and four, personally pay, at least six
months prior to the election, all State poll taxes assessed or
assessable against him, under this Constitution, during the
three years next preceding that in which he offers to vote ; etc."
The reason for inserting the phrase, "That he personally pay
to the proper officer all State poll taxes assessed, etc.," is quite
obvious. It was intended to prevent candidates for office and
politicians from paying the tax for a large class of voters with
a view to securing votes .
All male residents of the state twenty-one years of age were
assessed with the capitation tax except those pensioned for
military services. Levying the tax was not conditioned upon
registration or the exercise of suffrage. Presumably many
citizens who for whatever reason were not voters and who
failed to pay their poll assessments six months prior to the
election would pay the tax at a later date. It was not intended
that the percentage of delinquency in head taxes should be
augmented by imposing the tax as a prerequisite to voting.
Section 173 of chapter XIII of the constitution contained the
general provision levying capitation taxes and provided for
distribution of the revenue collected from this source.60

at any time be require^ to pay a poll-tax as a prerequisite to the
right to register or vote. The collection of the State poll-tax as
sessed against anyone shall not be enforced by legal process until
the same has become three years past due.
60 "The General Assembly shall levy a State capitation tax of, and
not exceeding, one dollar and fifty cents per annum on every male
resident of the State not less than twenty-one years of age, except
those pensioned by this State for military services; one dollar of
which shall be appointed exclusively in aid of the free public schools,
in proportion to the school population, and the residue shall be re
turned and paid by the State into the treasury of the county or city
in which it was collected, to be appropriated by the proper county
or city authorities to such county or city purposes as they shall re
spectively determine; but said State capitation tax shall not be a
lien upon, nor collected by legal process from, the personal prop
erty which may be exempt from levy or distress under the poor
debtor's law. The General Assembly may authorize the board of

32 PHELPS-STOKES fellowship papers
In order to prevent fraud or confusion the General Assembly
passed an act by which duly registered voters whose assess
ment for capitation taxes had been omitted should be allowed,
upon presentation of a certificate from the county clerk or
'clerk of the city court, to pay such taxes to the treasurer and
obtain a receipt therefor.61 To the General Assembly was left
the matter of determining what property should be attached
for unpaid capitation assessments. The law of 1896 making
delinquent polls a lien upon real estate was continued in force
by the acts of 1902-3-462 It contained the additional act how
ever "that no real estate shall be sold for the payment of any
State capitation tax until such tax shall have become three
years past due." 63
While it was optional for counties and cities to impose a capi
tation tax of fifty cents prior to 1902, only one dollar was col
lected by the state. Since 1903 the state collects $1.50, or the
full amount of the assessment and returns one- third of the re
ceipts to the counties and cities. Special tax tickets are pre
pared by the treasurer for persons assessed only with poll-taxes.
Capitations are included, however, in the ticket containing as
sessments of real estate, personal property, etc., when there are
such and a special ticket is made out. When capitations are
paid before the remainder of the taxes in the ticket fall due, the
treasurer gives a receipt and makes a record of such payment
on the tax ticket. The following tables show the annual capita
tion assessments and the amounts returned delinquent in the
counties and cities respectively since 1900:

supervisors of any county, or council of any city or town, to levy an
additional capitation tax not exceeding one dollar per annum on
every such resident within its limits, which shall be applied in a'id
of the public schools of such county, city or town, or for such other
county, city or town purposes as they shall determine."
61 Acts of Assembly 1902-3-4, 559.
M See above, note 50.
83 Acts 1895-96, 402; 1902-3-4, 55; Pollard Code, Vol. I, Sec. 636a.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 33
TABLE V: CAPITATION ASSESSMENTS 1901-1914.«*
Year Counties Cities Total
1901  $313,214 $ 72,590 $385,804
1902  315,581 73,704 389,285
1903  469,779 115,058 584,837
1904  479,659 120,682 600,341
1905  •. . . . 490,575 124,214 614,790
190'6  487,275 125,804 613,080
1907  487,087 140,940 628,027
1908  500,795 148,132 648,928
1909  505,875 157,943 663,818
1910  510,498 152,513 663,011
1911  509,445 161,384 670,829
1912  514,135 162,342 676,478
1913  514,563 166,157 680,720
1914  520,011 169,403 689,414

TABLE VI: CAPITATION TAXES RETURNED DELIN
QUENT 1901-1914.65
Year Counties - Cities Total
1901  $ 80,222 $48,810 $129,032
1902  92,410
1903  141,868
1904  150,107
1906  159,546
1906  160,692
1907  158,670
1908  171,408
1909  168,506
1910  173,353
1911  173,992
1912  179,993
1913  176,069
1914  178,772

49,038

141,448

64,70-8

206,575

69,418

219,525

71,928

231,474

74,406

235,098

76,943

235,612

78,699

250,107

82,741

251,247

88,009

261,363

94,144

268,137

89,404

269,397

93,100

269,170

99,237

278,009

u Report, Auditor of Public Accounts, 1915, 313.
" Figures for 1901 and 1902 are the amounts returned delinquent;
since 1902 for the amounts returned delinquent but not collected.

—3

34 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
A glance at Tables V and VI reveals the fact that capitation
assessments for the state as a whole increased slightly and at a
normal rate during the first three years of the new century. In
1903 the tax imposed by the new constitution became effective
and an additional fifty cents per capita was levied. Conse
quently the state's total capitation assessments for 1903 were
approximately one-third greater than in 1902. By deducting
one-third of $584,837 it will be found that the number of males
entered for poll-taxes in 1903 was but slightly greater than the
previous year. There was a notable increase for the subsequent
year, however, when about 6,520 more males were assessed.
From 1903 to 1914 it will be seen that the state's total assess
ments at $1.50' per capita increased more than $100,000, or
nearly 18%. The total delinquency for 1914 was greater than
for 1903 by $71,433.37 and the percentage of total delinquency
for 1914 was 40.3 as against 35.3 in 1903. For the year 1900
this percentage was only 33.4 — or approximately one-third of
the state's capitation assessments was returned delinquent. By
1914 the fraction had grown to two-fifths. Of the total amounts
returned delinquent from 1903-1914 but $134,226 was collected
afterwards. The above comparisons will give a general idea of
the relation between Virginia's total capitation assessments and
total percentages of delinquency from 1900 to the present time.
A more detailed comparison for whites and negroes during this
period will be afforded by Table VII. (See page 35.)
Assessments for white males increased rapidly during the
first fourteen years of the new century. The sudden leap which
occurred for both whites and negroes in 1903 resulted from the
new tax law imposing an additional fifty cents per capita. Be
ginning with this year it is necessary in order to obtain the
number of males assessed to subtract one-third of the amount
of the annual assessments. This number for whites was, in
1903, 265,671, a slight increase over 1902, but in 1904 when
prepayment of the capitation tax was made a requirement for
suffrage nearly 10,000 more white males were assessed. By
1910 the total number had increased to 311,991 and in 1914 to
330,582. Colored assessments on the other hand remained
practically stationary during the first four years after 1900.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 35
TABLE VII: ASSESSMENTS, DELINQUENCES, AND PER
CENTAGES OF DELINQUENCY FOR WHITES
AND NEGROES.cs

Assessments
Year Whites Negroes
1900  $257,123 $125,033
1901  260,016 125,788
1902  264,752 125,533
1903  398,507 186,330
1904  413,408 186,934
1905  425,210 189,579
1906  424,822 188,257
1907  439,354 188,674
1908  456,557 192,371
1909  469,226 194,592
1910  467,987 195,024
1911  474,449 196,380
1913  482,388 194,090
1913  488,855 191,865
1914  495,817 193,541

There was a small increase in 1905, again in 1908, and in 1911
the maximum was reached when the number assessed was
130,920. The actual gain represented by this figure over the
lowest assessment for the entire period, that of 1900, was but
5,887. Since 1900 the number of negro males assessed has de
clined. • Bearing upon the influx of negroes in cities is the note
worthy fact that poll assessments for counties and towns of the
state remained practically stationary from 1900 to 1910 and
since 1910 have steadily declined.67 The maximum total as
sessments for negroes, as was stated, occurred in 1911 and rep
resented an annual increase of 5,887 over the number in 1900.
In 1911, however, there were 6,794 more negro males assessed

Delir

iquencies

% Del:

inquent

Whites

Negroes

Whites

Negrof

$67,954

$59,612

26.4

47.7

68,663

60,369

26.4

48.0

75,305

66,143

28.4

52.7

99,597

106,401

25.0

57.1

109,865

109,714

26.6

58.7

119,526

112,015

28.1

59.1

119,278

114,162

28.1

60.6

125,050

113,568

28.5

60.2

132,094

117,468

28.9

61.1

132,634

118,613

28.3

60.9

136,791

124,571

29.2

63.9

144,595

123,542

30.5

62.9

146,915

122,482

30.4

63.1

149,481

119,689

30.5

, 62.4

152,893

125,116

30.8

64.6

66 Percentages for years prior to 1909 are based on capitations re
turned delinquent; since 1909 on the amounts uncollected, subsequent
collections being deducted.
,7 For a study of the negro's status in the rural sections of Virginia,
see S. T. Bitting, "Rural Land Ownership among the Negroes of
Virginia."

36 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
in cities than in 1900 — or a decrease of nearly one thousand
males took place in the towns and" counties.
The principal reason for the static condition of negro assess
ments since 1900 is the small growth of the state's negro pop
ulation. For the first decade there was an increase in negro
population of scarcely more than 10,000 persons.68 Less than
2,300 negro males of voting age had been added in 1910 to the
census report of 1900, and the total percentage for the state of
such had decreased from 32.6 to 30.5. A reverse condition was
of course true for the state's white population as well as in the
case of white males of voting age. During the years 1900-1910
the percentage of the latter increased from 67.3 to 69.5. The
divergence between the number assessed by the state for capi-
tations and those who were found of taxable age by the Census
surveys for 1890, 1900, and 1910 is shown in Table VIII.
TABLE VIII: CAPITATION ASSESSMENTS AS COMPARED
WITH THE NUMBER REPORTED OF TAXABLE AGE
BY THE FEDERAL CENSUS FOR THE
YEARS 1890, 1900 AND 1910.
Whites Negroes
Year Cen. Report Assessments Cen. Report Assessments
1890  248,035 211,869 130,747 114,947
1900  301,379 257,123 146,122 125,033
1910  363,659 311,991 159,593 130,016

In 1900 there were 44,256 more white males reported of vot
ing age than were assessed by the state for capitations. Fox
1910 the number increased by 16.7 per cent and amounted to
51,688. The difference for negroes was, in 1900, 21,089 and in
1910, 29,577, an actual increase of 8,488, or 40.2 per cent.
The percentage of white males of assessable age who were not
listed for capitations decreased by one-half of one per cent be
tween 1900 and 1910; for negroes however there was a notable
increase, the percentage rising from 14.4 in 1900 to 18.5 in 1910.
This increase in the percentage of negro males who escaped as-

Census Report 1910.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 37
sessment resulted in part from conditions effected by the new
constitution. The tendency if such it may be called may be ex
plained by (1) the virtual disfranchisement of the negro, (2)
a lack of vigilance on the part of commissioners, and (3) the
rapid growth of city population. In 1910 the General Assembly
-reconstructed the legislative statutes of 1902-3-4 which provided
a means of adjusting omitted capitation assessments and for as
sessing persons coming of age each year.691 Thus the purpose
of the act was not only to facilitate the method by which per
sons who had inadvertently been overlooked by commissioners
might be assessed but also, in spirit at least, it was to encourage
payment of the tax by all — especially those who were otherwise
qualified for voting.
In the matter of delinquency white capitations may be dis
missed in a few words. A very gradual but perceptible rise in
the delinquency percentages occurred from 1900-1914. Although
the increase was not rapid at any specific time, there was for
the whole period a growth of more than four per cent. A study
of Table X shows that the increase occurred in counties — the
rise in cities being negligible. It is also noticeable that the pro
nounced fluctuations in the column for cities are not so appar
ent in that for counties. The total white delinquency in 1914 was
30.8 per cent. Thus a large minority of whites omitted to pay
their capitation taxes. Two reasons may be suggested for the in
crease which has taken place since 1903. In the first place the
tax was raised from $1.00 to $1.50, and in the second, the dom
inating influence of a single party regime in many counties and
congressional districts has lessened the importance of the ballot.
The imperativeness of the ballot diminished with the absence of
close party rivalry.
Certainly lack of compulsion or mode of enforcement has
been an important factor in the enormous rise, since 1903, of
delinquent negro capitations. A glance at the percentage col
umn for negroes in Table VII will suffice to show the rapidity
with which unpaid negro polls, since the enactment of the new
constitution, have been allowed to increase. The graph lines

Acts, 1910, 464.

38 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
on page 39 illustrate this increase to good advantage and afford a
comparison for whites and negroes. From 1900, the year in
which a constitutional convention was provided .for, to 1914 the
percentage of delinquent negro capitations rose from 47.7 to
64.6. In 1914 nearly two-thirds of the negro males assessed al
lowed their poll taxes to go unpaid. Table IX contains the rela-
TABLE IX: PERCENTAGES OF DELINQUENCY FOR 1900
AND 1910 FOR DIVISIONS OF THE STATE BASED
ON NEGRO POPULATION.

Negro Population 1900 1910
Less than 12^4 per cent of total population  53.4 60.1
12^ to 25 per cent of total population  45.5 60.3
25 to ¦ Ziy2 per cent of total population  47.5 73.5
37 y2 to 50 per cent of total population  61.6 68,4
50 to 62^ per cent of total population  37.8 53.3
Above 62^ per cent of total population  26.8 66.9
State  477 63 g

tive percentages of delinquency in 1900 and 1910 for divisions
of the state based1 on population. As might have been expected
the figures for 1900 and 1910 vary considerably in each divi
sion, the percentage in 1910 being larger in every instance than
in 1900.
A comparison of the percentages of delinquency for negroes
since 1900 may be found in Table XI for counties and cities. De
linquency in cities has always been much greater than in coun
ties and in 1900 marked a total of 83.2 per cent. As the in
crease since 1904 has been negligible the assumption is fairly
warranted that a limit has been reached and that a margin of
approximately fifteen per cent of negro males assessed may be
expected to pay the tax in cities. In counties the point where
further rise in the delinquency column may not be expected has
apparently not been reached. A total which amounted to but
39.4% in 1900 advanced to 58% in 1914. Upon delinquent ne
gro polls therefore it is evident that the new constitution has
had almost no effect in cities but has applied almost wholly to
counties.

THE TAXATION .OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA

38M
343Z30 28 2(,
Z4
1890 9Z '94 % 98 1900 'OB '04 0(, '08 '/O '/8 '/4
Year
Percentage of White and Negro Capitation Tax Delinquency in
Successive Years.

40 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
TABLE X: ASSESSMENTS, DELINQUENCIES, AND PER
CENTAGES OF DELINQUENCY FOR WHITE CAPITA
TIONS IN COUNTIES AND CITIES SINCE 1900.70

Year Assess.
1900  $209,996
1901  210,763
1902  213,572
1903  318,273
1904  328,182
1905  335,799
1906  334,302
1907  337,430
1908  347,873
1909  352,830
1910  358,124
1911  358,779
1912  364,977
1913  367,385
1914  372,846

TABLE XI: ASSESSMENTS, DELINQUENCIES, AND PER
CENTAGES OF DELINQUENCY FOR NEGRO CAPITA
TIONS IN COUNTIES AND CITIES SINCE 1900.71
Counties Cities
Year Assess. Delin. % Delin. Assess. Delin. % Delin.
1900  $101,351 $39,900 39.4 $ 23,682 $ 19,712 83.2
1901  102,451 41,033 40.1 23,337 19,336 82.9
1902  103,009 47,297 45.8 22,524 18,846 83.4
1903  151,506 77,034 50.8 34,824 29,367 84.3
1904  151,477 79,350 52.4 35,457 30,364 85.6
1905  154,857 82,290 53.1 34,723 29,726 85.6
1906  152,973 84,132 55.0 35,285 30,030 85.1
1907  149,657 80,764 54.0 39,017 32,804 84.1
1908  152,922 84,515 55.3 39,449 32,954 83.5
1909  153,045 83,927 54.8 41,547 34,685 83.5
1910  152,375 87,918 57.7 42,650 36,654 86.0
1911  150,666 84,128 55.8 45,714 39,414 86.2
1912  149,159 84,066 56.3 44,931 38,426 85.5
1913  147,179 81,700 55.5 44,687 37,988 84.9
1914  147,165 85,311 58.0 46,376 39,805 85.8

Counties

Cities

Delin.

% Delin.

Assess.

Delin.

% Delin.

£39,558

18.8

$ 47,157

$ 27,443

58.2

39,189

18.6

49,253

29,474

59.8

56,167

26.3

51,180

30,192

59.0

64,257

20.2

80,235

35,340

44.0

70,807

21.6

85,226

39,058

45.8

77,314

23.0

89,491

42,211

47.2

74,903

22.4

90,520

44,376

49.0

77,912

23.1

101,924

47,139

46.2

86,348

24.8

108,684

45,746

42.1

84,579

24.0

116,396

48,056

41.3

85,436

23.9

109,863

51,356

46,7

89,864

25.0

115,669

54,731

47.3

95,936

26.3

117,411

50,978

43.4

94,369

25.7

121,470

55,112

45.4

93,461

25.1

123,027

59,432

48.3

Compiled from "Rough Settlements" and Auditor's Reports.
Ibid.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 41
,^ Nominally there has continued to exist a statute for enforc
ing payment of capitations three years past due but, practically,
the law has remained a dead letter. In the knowledge of the
writer no case has ever occurred in which real estate has been
sold to discharge a lien consisting of poll taxes alone. Obvi
ously many negroes are not owners of real estate; quite ob
viously too not a few negroes who are assessed with poll taxes
are not owners of any property whatsoever. If it is a sound
principle of taxation that all should contribute to the expenses
of government in proportion to the ability to pay, it would ap
parently be a good thing for the state to provide a more logical
and feasible means of enforcing collection of the tax.
To this end the General Assembly at its biennial session in
1916 passed an act for enforcing payment of delinquent polls.72
Provision is made for a special delinquent capitation tax collec
tor in each county and city, whose duty it is "to enforce the col
lection by levy, garnishment, or otherwise" of capitation taxes
"as much as three and not exceeding five" years past due. The
clerk of the city or circuit court is required on or before the first
day of October of each year, to compile a list of all persons
with delinquent taxes for the years designated in the act and to
furnish copies to the State Auditor of Public Accounts and to
the special collector. For making out the list of names the clerk
72 Act approved March 22, 1916; Virginia Tax Laws, 185. Sec
tion 3 of the act reads, "On or before the first day of October of
each year the clerk of the court appointing the delinquent capitation
tax collector, shall make out a duplicate list of all persons within
his county or city who shall be as much as three (3) and not ex
ceeding five (5) years delinquent in payment of capitation taxes, one
of said lists shall be sent to the auditor of public accounts and
the other list shall be by said clerk delivered to the delin
quent capitation tax collector and as a compensation for his work in
making out said list shall receive five (5) per centum of all moneys
collected from the said list by him made, which said amount shall
be retained by said clerk out of the money paid over to him by the said
collector, and the clerk shall annually on or before the fifteenth day
of October pay into the State treasury, through the office of the
auditor of public accounts, the amount paid over to him by the said
collector, less the commission authorized by this act to be retained
by the clerk."

42 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
receives a remuneration of five per cent from the total amount
collected. The special collector receives for his services twenty
per cent of the total collections.
The immediate reason for the enactment of this law was a
threatened deficit in the state's revenue. It was not a change
of policy resulting directly from the high percentage of insol
vency for negroes in counties and for both whites and negroes
in cities. The act was one among numerous fiscal measures de
signed to prevent a treasury deficit. It supplants the provision
of 1902-3-4 in which delinquent capitations were a lien on real
estate only, and all property is now liable by "levy, garnishment,
or otherwise" as a means of enforcing payment. Since a col
lector must be appointed for every county and city the law, in
its modus operandi, should be direct and certain. It seems
doubtful, however, whether the percentage of current delin
quency will be greatly reduced or whether suffrage will be aug
mented — a result certainly not intended by the framers of the
law. The attorney-general in a recent ruling limited the tax in
its application to two years, holding as unconstitutional that
portion of the clause which instructs special collectors to take
proceedings against persons "as much as three" years delin
quent.73 Hence in the first year of its enforcement, 1916, the
law is applicable only to delinquent capitations of 1911 and 1912.
It is impossible to say which of the provisions of the suffrage
article have been most effective in disfranchising the negro in
Virginia, and such a discussion is beyond the province of this
paper except in so far as it is related to the capitation tax. Pre
payment of the tax as a requirement for voting has undoubt
edly been a potent factor. The effect of the new suffrage ar
ticle was in a way psychological. The negro learning that his
disfranchisement was one of the purposes of the convention did
not attempt to meet the requirement of registration — especially
when the capitation tax was imposed as a prerequisite also. He
felt that the ballot was not worth the trouble. Realizing that
payment of the capitation tax six months before election was
essential for voting and that the ballot was a privilege not to be

" Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 22, 1916, 12.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 43
enjoyed except by paying it, he, as he did not enjoy the privi
lege, felt no compunction in allowing the tax to become delin
quent. As the state adopted a laissez-faire policy in not enforc
ing collection of delinquent polls, he felt that this was a silent
approval of his action. Or he felt that the state was at least
willing to make a sacrifice to be rid of his vote. With a vig
orous educational policy on the part of the state, and a rapid
decrease in illiteracy, the negro may gradually become more in
dependent economically and raise his standard of citizenship.
As to whether he will then gradually come into possession of
the ballot must be left for future years to determine.

CHAPTER II.
The Real Estate Tax.
In making a study of real estate we shall find that the negro
is at a disadvantage by reason of three forms of inequality that
exist in Virginia. The first is that which exists between large
and small real estate properties, and holds true in both counties
and cities. This affects the negro because he is usually the
owner of a small property. A second inequality arises from sec
tional divergencies of assessment; for the sections where as
sessments in Virginia are highest are just those where the negro
population is densest.1 A third inequality is found in the un
equal assessment of white and negro holdings which will be ex
plained later.
The taxing of negro real estate is of chief importance in the
present study because real estate is the principal source of all taxes
paid by negroes. Indeed, it is of prime importance in the state's
fiscal system as a whole; for, as was said in 1914 by the Joint
Committee on Tax Revision: "In Virginia the tax on land is
now and seems likely long to remain the basic tax of any rev
enue system that rests upon property and not upon income."2
Therefore it is necessary to notice briefly the present conditions
of land ownership in the state.
Virginia falls in the category of those states which are pri
marily agricultural. More than three-fourths of the entire area
— the total acreage is approximately 25,767,680 — is in farms.
There are one hundred counties in the state, and of these, sev
enty-four, or about three-fourths of the total have from 60 to

1 See Tables XXIV and XXV below.
1 Report of the "Joint Committee on Tax Revision," 1914. "In
many respects," said the Committee, "the tax on real estate is the
most important in our system. It yields a large revenue, and we use
it as a measure for adjusting other taxes," 222.
44

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 45
90 per cent of their land in farms. In thirteen counties of the
state, according to the last census report, the average value of
land per acre was less than ten dollars, while in only five was
the average greater than fifty dollars. For the state as a whole
the average was $20.24. Table XII compiled from census re
ports is indicative of the improvement which took place in farm
lands and agriculture from 1870 to 1910.
TABLE XII: GROWTH IN IMPROVED LAND AND AGRI
CULTURES
1870 1880 1890
Population  1,225,163 1,512,565 1,655,980
No. of farms  73,849 118,517 127,600
Land in farms  18,145,911 19,835,785 19,104,951
Imp. land in farms  8,165,040 8,510,113 9,125,545
Acres per farm  245.7 167.4 149.7
Value per farm  $2,666 $2,088 $2,308
Total value farms  $196,906,040 $247,476,536 $294,488,569
Per cent, of farms operated by
owners  70.5 73.1
By tenants  29.5 26.9
Val. land and buildings per acre. $9.39 $10.89 $13.32
Table XII (Continued) Per cent increase
1900 1910 in last decade
Population  1,854,184 2,061,612 11.2
No. of farms  167,886 184,018 9.6
Land in farms  19,907,883 19,495,636 -2.1
Imp. land in farms  10,094,805 9,807,058 -2.2
Acres per farm  118.6 105.9 -10.7
Value per farm  $1,927 $3,397 76
Total val. farms  $323,515,977 $625,065,383 93.2
Per cent, of farms oper
ated by owners  69.3 73.5
By tenants  30.7 26.5
Value of land and build-
' ings per acre  $13.64 $27.29 100

B S. T. Bitting, "Rural Land Ownership Among the Negroes of
Virginia," 16.

46 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
For the first three decades after 1870 the value of farm prop
erty increased, but this increase was small as compared with
that from 1900 to 1910. The increase during the last decade
was nearly ten times as great as during the decade immediately
preceding. In 1910 the total farm property in the state was rep
resented by 85.1 per cent in land and buildings, 12 per cent in
live stock, and 2.9 per cent in implements and machinery. The
total increase in the value of farm property during this decade
was $301,549,000, or 93.2 per cent. The average value of land
and buildings per acre increased from $9.39 in 1870 to $13.64 in
1900 and $27.29 in 1910.
As given by the census the average size of farms in Virginia
was 105.9 acres. This represents a decrease of about 3.5 acres
a year since 1870, when the ante-bellum plantations were still
in existence, so that the average farm contained 245.7 acres.
Many of the plantations have now been cut up and sold, while
some have been divided into several tenant holdings, which are
counted as farms and their operators as farmers. This is
largely accountable for the increase in number and the reduc
tion in size of farms since 1870. The total number of farms, as
given in Table XII, in 1910, was 184,018.4 The average value
of farms was $3,400, of which about $500 represented the value
of live stock and implements and machinery, and about $2,900
the value of land and buildings. Of the 184,018 operators
of farms 133,664 are classed as owners and 48,729 as tenants.
The number of white farmers in 1910 was 135,904; of negro
farmers 48,039.
In Table XIII is shown the tenure of farms for the census
years 1900 and 1910, and the proportion of owners to tenants
and managers for both races.
While figures are not available showing the land acquired by
negroes during the Reconstruction Period it may be said that
the amount was relatively very small. This was likewise true
of the poor white class. It was not until after 1880 that the ne
groes began to secure farms to any extent. "From the testi-

4 The number of farm operators of course is the same as the num
ber of farms.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 47
TABLE XIII: TENURE OF FARMS.5
Per cent Per cent Per cent
All farmers White farmers Negro farmers
1900 1910 1900 1910 1900 1910
Owners  68 72.6 71.2 74.6 59.3 67
Managers  1.3 .9 1.5 1.1 .5 .4
Tenants  30.7 26.5 27.3 24.3 40.2 32.6
mony of people familiar with conditions at that time," says Mr.
S. T. Bitting, "and from a few records derived from county ,
books the tide turned about 1880 after economic conditions had
again become fairly stable." 6
The substantial progress of the negroes in acquiring titles to
farms during the subsequent period is shown by the Federal de
cennial censuses and, since the later years of the nineteenth cen
tury, by the annual reports of the state auditor. The number
of acres of white ownership reported to the auditor for taxa
tion in 1895 was 25,154,781, while the amount owned by ne
groes was 833,147. Thus, in this year approximately 3.2 per
cent of the farming area of the state as assessed for taxes was
of negro ownership. A half decade later the percentage of
ownership for negroes had increased but little, but at the end
of the subsequent five years, or in 1905, negro ownership had
risen to slightly more than five per cent. The re-assessment
of 1910 showed a percentage of 6.6 and that of 1915, 7.4.
These figures are inaccurate, however, as representing the ac
quisition of land from white owners for the reason that the
increase in negro ownership was not commensurate with the
decrease in white ownership, the latter decrease resulting from
a correction of former assessments.
In Tables XIV and XV may be found a comparison of the
real estate owned by whites and negroes since 1895.

5 S. T. Bitting, "Rural Land Ownership Among the Negroes of
Virginia," 16.
• Ibid., 16.

48

PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS

TABLE XIV: REAL ESTATE OWNED BY WHITES AND NEGROES
IN COUNTIES.7

Whites

13 C

w

>

c Ji
O W

¦a -2
> s

Negroes

c
rt

^ C
c -5
p m

"c3 >

> s

$3,450,247

$5,359,401

4,134,886

6,650,576

5,640,239

9,311,772

8,253,048

13,517,807

10,365,377

16,919,866

1895 ... 25,154,781 $113,129,317 $153,537,517 833,147
1900 . . . 25,781,954 119,386,584 163,495,160 990,790
1905 . . . 24,241,928 121,297,400 172,571,459 1,292,697
1910 ... 21,920,481 140,385,897 200,506,298 1,551,435
1915 . . . 21,012,354 161,792,673 233,124,491 1,674,823

TABLE XV: TOWN LOTS OWNED BY WHITES AND NE
GRO ES.s

Whites

Year Value of Lots
1895  63,074,643
1900  66,675,759
1905  78,211,180
1910  115,166,879
1915  123,523,840

Value of Lots
and Buildings
137,771,075
148,952,698179,110,758250,796,497272,932,778

Negroes

Value of Lots
2,142,196
2,233,122 2,697,8074,186,7424,577,797

Value of Lots
and Buildings
5,400,1475,813,8017,287,380
10,851,71811,855,333

As regards the value of land and buildings the assessment
for negroes increased from 3.9 per cent of the total in 1900 to
6.3 per cent in 1910, but only to 6.8 in 1915. Both in acreage
and assessed values discrepancies, although not as considera
ble as a decade ago, have continued to exist between state as
sessments and estimates by the census bureau. In 1900, for
example, the land reported by the Auditor of Public Accounts
of white and negro ownership, was more than 1,000,000 acres

7 Compiled from Annual Reports of the State Auditor of Public Ac
counts. * Ibid.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 49
in excess of the state's total acreage,9 while the combined area
in farms was but 19,907,883. A large fraction of this error
has been corrected by the reassessments since 1900. One of
the most important reasons for the variation lay in the fact
that, owing to poorly defined boundary lines and disputed titles
to portions of land in several counties, many farms were re
ported too large and in some instances assessed twice. On the
other hand, it may be said in this connection that some land
has been added to the state entries because of previous omitted
assessment. "Indeed," stated the Joint Committee on Tax Re
vision, "there is reason to believe that considerable parcels and
tracts are escaping assessment altogether, for in 1910 there
% were put on the books many thousands of acres that had not
previously been taxed, and we have no means of knowing
whether the assessors found all that had been escaping."
The above conditions have been quite as true in the case of
negro ownership as in that of whites. In 1900, 2,229,118 acres
were included by the census under the head of negro farms,
but the amount filed on the state's land books was only 990,790
acres. Nearly half of this deviation had been corrected by the
state in 1910. The state auditor thinks that the difference
arises from the fact that the census report shows the number
of acres of land in possession of negroes; whereas the land
books of the state show only the number of acres deeded to and
actually owned by negroes.
The distribution of farms by size groups between whites and
negroes is given for 1910 in Table XVI. Of the first group,
that is of farms containing less than three acres, the percentage,
one-tenth, was the same in 1910 for whites and negroes. For
both races also there was a marked decrease in the number of
farms in this group between 1900 and 1910. This fact may
have resulted from a different interpretation by the census enu
merators as to what constitutes a small farm, or may represent an
actual decrease in that type of farm. Of the farms operated
by negroes 35.5 per cent contained less than 20 acres; while
the size group from 20 to 49 acres constituted 34.2 per cent.

8 See above, page 44.
—4

50 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
TABLE XVI: DISTRIBUTION OF FARMS BY SIZE GROUPS
FOR WHITES AND NEGROES.io

Whites
Number of
Farms
Under 3 acres  183
3 to 9 acres  10,485
10 to 19 acres  11,976
20 to 49 acres  25,959
50 to 99 acres  29,657
100 to 174 acres  28,831
175 to 259 acres  13,893
260 to 499 acres  10,608
500 to 999 acres  3,338
1000 and over  974

i

Negroes

% of

Number of

% of

Total

Farms

Total

.1

44

.1

7.7

6,979

14.5

8.8

10,079

20.9

19.1

16,431

34.2

21.8

8,685

18.1

21.2

4,166

8.7

10.2

1,070

2.2

7.8

530

1.1

2.5

112

.2

.7

18 Less than .1%

Thus nearly seven-tenths of the farms operated by negroes
were less than 50 acres in size, although the average farm, as
was noticed above, contained 46.5 acres. The farms of white
farmers containing less than 20 acres formed 16.6 per cent of
the total, a much smaller proportion for farms of this size than
in the case of negroes. Percentages for the size groups, 20 to
49 acres, 50 to 99, and 100 to 174, did not vary widely in the
case of white farmers, and constituted respectively, 19.1, 21,8,
and 21.2.
It will be necessary to remember that the average number of
acres in farms of negro ownership is much smaller than that in
farms of white ownership — the former being 46.5 in 1910 and
the latter 127.11 Of improved land also the average farm op
erated by white farmers contained 64.4 acres, while there were
23.1 acres of improved land in the average farm operated by
negroes. Nearly 70 per cent of all farms operated by negroes
contained less than 50 acres as compared with 35.7 per cent
for whites. The average value of land and buildings per acre
for white farmers was $28.21 and for negroes $20.21. These
figures, however, include in all cases, both tenants, owners,

Arranged from Census Report, "Statistics for Virginia,'' 1910, 630.
Census Report, "Statistics for Virginia," 1910, 628.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 51
and managers of farms and, hence, are only partially repre
sentative of land owned exclusively by negroes.
The foregoing preliminary survey will suffice to point out the
progress which negroes have made in the acquisition and man
agement of farms in Virginia and to some extent the character
of those farms. Reference to the preceding chapter and to the
map an page 8 will be found useful as an aid to understand
ing the divisions of the state according to population.
The taxes by which negroes are most affected are those on
real estate, personal property, and polls. In the preceding chap
ter it was seen that the capitation tax which is a standardized
amount assessed on all males (with few exceptions) above
twenty-one years of age, was, prior to the adoption of the pres
ent constitution in 1902 somewhat greater in the percentages
of delinquency for negroes than for whites, and since 1902, the
percentages for negroes have become more than twice as great
as for whites. The question as to whether negroes are con
tributing their proportional share of taxes cannot be deter
mined fairly from the results ascertained in the study of capi
tations. To answer the question, "Are negroes paying their
way in Virginia?" one will need to compare those classes of
taxes which apply equally to both races in proportion to abil
ity. Real estate should be especially productive of results in
this direction since through it more taxes are collected from
negroes than through any other tax; and from a study of real
estate a more accurate judgment is possible concerning the
economic importance which negroes have come to assume as
contributors to the state's annual revenue.
Prior to 1891 the annual reports of the state auditor do not
include separately for whites and negroes the assessed value
of real estate or the amount of tax assessed on it. The gen
eral tax rate imposed by the state in 1871 was $.50 on the hun
dred dollars 12 but was reduced to $.40 in 1881-82.13 This rate
as fixed by the legislature was continued unchanged until the
end of the century.
The constitution of 1867-8 provided for the reassessment of

12 Acts 1870-1871, 274.
13 Ibid., 497.

52 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
real estate once in five years.14 The General Assembly, how
ever, in 1881-2 approved an act requiring commissioners of
the revenue, whose duty it had been to appraise annually all
personal property, to list real estate also,15 but, although it had
become the duty of commissioners of the revenue to list real
estate, it was not in their province to assess it except in case
of new improvements or when land was found to have been
omitted or when tracts were divided. It was their duty to note
the divisions of land which occurred through sale and otherwise
and to apportion the tax assessments in an equitable manner.16
For these reasons fluctuations in assessed values of land took
place in the interim between regular assessment periods, and
land values have on the whole steadily advanced. The quin
quennial assessments should normally show more decided
changes in land values as indicative of a general increase or
decrease, while fluctuations in the years between may mean that
values have rapidly risen in localities where much land has
been divided and where unusual improvements have been made.
Years of excessive prosperity or depression with the attendant
shifting of ownership result to a certain extent in the readjust
ment of assessments. In the case of white and negro owner
ship the acquisition of land by either race from the other af
fects proportionally the annual assessments for both races.
In Tables XVII and XVIII the annual variations of assess
ments may be accounted for by one or more of the above causes.
These tables contain the amount of realty taxes assessed an
nually on whites and negroes for purposes of state revenue —
separate assessments having been made for counties and cities.
The percentage columns show the annual increase or decrease.

14 "The General Assembly shall provide for the reassessment of
the real estate of this state in the year 1869, or as soon thereafter:
provided, in making such assessments no land shall be assessed above
or below its value." Constitution of Virginia, Art. X, Sec. 6.
15 Code of Virginia, 1887, Sec. 456.
" "In case part of a tract or lot of land has become the freehold
of another between quinquennial assessments and a title is recorded
before the commencement of the year for which such taxes or levies
are assessed, the property belonging to the owner of that part shall
not be distrained for more than a due proportion of the said taxes
or levies." Code 1887, Sec. 624.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 53
TABLE XVII: INCREASE IN TAXES IN COUNTIES.it

Whites

Year

1891  $747,534
1892  751,232
1893  757,286
1894  764,917
1895  747,724
1896  720,047
1897  724,206
1898  730,054
1899  731,004
1900  746,724

:s

Negroes

Per Cent

Amount Per Cent

Increase

Increase

$22,788

.5

24,182 6.1

.8

25,437 5.2

1.0

26,755 5.2

-2.2

27,717 3.2

-3.7

29,566 6.7

.6

30,601 3.5

.9

31,361 2.5

.1

32,231 2.8

2.2

33,736 4.7

TABLE XVIII: INCREASE IN TAXES IN CITIES.

Whites

Year

Amount

1891  $396,151
1892  417,593
1893  426,805
1894  437,667
1895  462,164
1896  451,874
1897  454,680
1898  458,470
1899  464,348
•1900  470,934

Per Cent
Increase 5.4 2.2
2.5 5.7
-2.3 .6

1.3 1.4

Negroes

Amount $12,864 13,505 13,892
14,05614,105 14,30114,330
14,400
14,278 14,437

Per Cent
Increase 4.9 2.9
1.2 .4
1.4 .2
.5
-.9 1.1

A slight increase took place, for instance, in white and negro
assessments between 1890 and 1894. The average annual in
crease in counties for whites during this period was $5,794.00,
or less than 1 per cent, while for negroes in counties the av
erage increase was 5.5 per cent — an absolute gain averaging
$1,322. Thus while for negroes the yearly per cent of increase
averaged approximately eight times as much as for whites the
average actual increase for whites was more than three times

17 Compiled from Auditor's Reports.

54 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
as great as for negroes. These results show the necessity of
considering the absolute as well as the relative figures in es
timating the advancement which land values have made for
the two races. Furthermore as negroes have acquired land
rapidly during the past four decades much of the increase in
negro assessments resulted from a change of title from white
to negro ownership — thus diminishing to some extent white as
sessments. In fact it may be doubted whether the assessments
of land owned by negroes made any substantial increase during
these years except that which occurred through this means, for
the financial depression of 1894 had an undoubted effect in
checking the upward trend of assessments.
This effect, however, had its full demonstration in 1895
when there was a general reassessment of land. For this year
there was a falling off in white assessments of 2.2 per cent and
in the subsequent year a further reduction of 3.7. Thereafter
assessments again increased, the greatest gain being between
1899 and 1900. For negroes there was a constant increase
throughout the decade although the percentage of increase was
smaller in the latter half than in the first. The percentage col
umn for negroes in cities shows a decrease in the latter half
of the decade. For whites in cities taxes increased more
rapidly in the first five years, an actual decrease occurring for
the year 1896. If assessments are compared at the beginning
and end of the decade it will be found that the amount in
counties had not, for whites, quite reached in 1900 what it was
in 1891 ; but for negroes the amount in 1900 was greater by
one-half than in 1891. In cities there was an increase of 19 per
cent for whites and 12 per cent for negroes.
Delinquent taxes assessed on real estate became a lien on
the property itself and it was the duty of the treasurer as soon
as practicable after the fifteenth day of June each year to make
out a list of real estate "delinquent for the- nonpayment of
taxes and levies thereon." 18 The clerks of the courts were
then to record and index in a book the list of real estate de
linquent.19. The law provided that: "After five years unless

18 Code 1887, Sec. 605.
19 Ibid., Sec. 611.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 55
the taxes are paid, as much of such real estate shall be sold at
public auction as is necessary for payment of taxes . . .If
no sale takes place such land is to be purchased by the auditor
and is to be vested in him for the benefit of the state and
county, city and town." 20 From 1893 to 1900 inclusive the
annual percentages of delinquency for both races are given in
Table XIX, counties and cities being listed separately.21
TABLE XIX: PERCENTAGES OF DELINQUENT TAXES.
Counties Cities
Whites Negroes Whites Negroes
1893  6.0 15.6
1894  6.6 19.0
1895  6.8 17.0
1896  6.4 19.8
1897  5.0 14.9
1898  4.4 12.7
1899  4.1 11.5
1900  4.0 11.4 4.8 18.7

Delinquent capitation taxes during the decade from 1890 to
1900 were, as will be remembered from the figures cited in the
previous chapter, nearly four times for whites and three times
for negroes, greater than the percentages shown in Table XIX
for delinquent land taxes. Moreover since the enforced col
lection of delinquent capitations was seldom made — notwith
standing the statute of 1896 which rendered such delinquencies
a lien on real estate — only a small amount of the delinquent
taxes was ever paid in. There is no means of ascertaining,
either for whites and negroes or in counties and cities, sepa
rately, the amount of delinquent taxes on real property col
lected by the state. Figures are available showing voluntary
payments made, the amounts collected by land sales, and col
lections from the redemption of lands the titles of which had
become vested in the state, but they make no distinction of

7.3

27.0

11.4

30.5

9.3

31.0

8.6

28.4

4.7

23.3

6.3

20.1

5.7

19.3

20 Ibid., Sections 636, 637, 639, 662, 663.
21 The Rough Settlements of the State Auditor's office do not con
tain complete reports of delinquent land taxes separately for whites
and negroes before 1893.

56 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
race or locality. They indicate, however, that a much greater
percentage of delinquent real estate taxes was collected during
the decade than of delinquent capitation taxes.
The total amount of delinquent real estate taxes reported
for 1895 was $103,352, while in this year the total amount of
delinquent taxes collected for previous years was $57,582. Of
this total $26,300 was collected before and after the sale of
lands to others than the commonwealth, and $31,282 from the
redemption of land acquired by the state. The delinquent real
estate taxes collected in 1900 for previous years were $98,111,
an amount notably greater than in 1895 and very much in ex
cess of the delinquent taxes reported in 1900. It may be as
serted then that during the decade the delinquent taxes annually
collected amounted to a large proportion of those previously
reported, owing to a marked decrease in delinquencies during
the latter part of the period.
Inasmuch as the yearly percentages of delinquency for ne
groes were much in excess of similar percentages reported for
whites the assumption is warranted that, proportionally, more
land of negro ownership was allowed to be sold for the pay
ment of taxes, both to the state and to others, than land of
white ownership. In the case of whites in counties the per
centages of delinquency remained fairly steady from 1893 to
1897, sharply declining for the remainder of the decade. Per
centage's for negroes in counties were from two and one-half to
three times as great as for whites. The financial disturbances
between 1893 and 1896 appear to have caused a direct increase in
the non-payment of real estate taxes by negroes in both coun
ties and cities. There was a noticeable increase in delinquen
cies for whites in cities during the same years, a more normal
condition resulting for both races in 1897. For both races also,
and in the country and city alike, the percentages of delin
quency rapidly decreased in the last three years of the decade.
Although delinquencies in real estate taxes for whites were
'barely greater in cities than in counties it is a striking fact that
fof negroes they were almost twice as great in cities.
There are two reasons for the fact that in counties delin
quencies run much higher for negroes than for whites. The

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 57
first of these is the small value of negro holdings and the con
sequently low assessments, and the second, the difficulty of col
lecting the taxes. In Table XVII of the present chapter it was
seen that according to the census distribution of 1910 there
were in the entire state only 44 farms of negro ownership1
which were under three acres in size. This fact however seems
due to a purely arbitrary classification by the census enumerat
ors. For example, in the Rivanna district of Albemarle county
— in which the percentage of negro population is but 32.4 — the
commissioner of the revenue in the year 1916 listed more than
44 tracts containing less than three acres each.22 Thus in pro
portion to the total number for each race, as has been noted
above, there are more holdings of small value for negroes than
for whites. On many of these the taxes assessed are exceed
ingly small, frequently amounting to less than $1 and some
times to as little as $0.15. •
The cost of collecting an unpaid tax of such small amount
is greater than the tax itself. This will be evident from a fuller
explanation of the procedure which governs the treasurer in
making collections. Taxes may be paid annually on or after
the first day of July for the current year and, prior to Decem
ber first, are payable at any time to the treasurer, whose office
is at the county seat.23 For the sake of convenience, however,
this official either in person or by deputy, visits on appointed
days a convenient place in every district of the county and re
ceives taxes.24 A penalty of five per cent is added to all taxes
which have not been paid by the first of December.25 After
December first the treasurer is required to "call upon each per
son charged with taxes and levies who has not paid the same
prior to that time." 26 A special collector is appointed to find
the owners of properties past due for taxes and if possible to
make collections. Any visible personal property may be levied

22 Land books of the Commissioners of the Revenue in the treas
urer's office of Albemarle county.
23 Acts 1878-9, 323; 1897-8, 25, 671; Pollard Code, 1904, Sec. 603.
24 Pollard Code 1904, Sec. 603.
20 Ibid.
m Ibid.

58 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
on for the amount of the taxes. Although the law requires
the collector to make but one visit to a land holder he is usually
authorized to make two or more trips — especially when there
are taxes of large amount in arrears. All taxes which have not
been paid by June 1st are returned "delinquent." The treas
urer then compiles a list of delinquencies and at the session of
the circuit court of the succeeding January the lands on this
list are put up for sale to the highest bidder — in compliance
with existing laws.27
Theoretically the officer who is deputized as special collector
is obligated in the same degree to collect unpaid taxes from all
persons, regardless of race or the amount of the tax ticket.
Since, however, the percentage of land holdings of small value
is greater in the case of negro ownership than in that of white
ownership the percentage of holdings returned delinquent is
likewise greater for negroes. For example, a negro whose real
estate taxes amount to perhaps fifty cents may live in a remote
part of his magisterial district. The special collector on his
visit finds the owner of the property absent — as is the rule
rather than the exception — employed perhaps as a railway la
borer or miner and with no immediate prospect of return.
There are many negro landlords of small real estate proper
ties who are periodically absent for several months each year.
If found at home the negro cannot pay but promises to have
the amount at a later date. There is no personal property on
which the officer can levy and the tax is returned delinquent.
At the delinquent land sale the negro's property is not pur
chased most likely either because of its undesirability or de
fective title. From year to year the taxes on numerous hold
ings of this sort are returned delinquent — due in large measure
to the fact that the time and cost involved in collection amount
to more than the taxes. To sum up, therefore, the taxes as
sessed on many negro farms of small value, even if collected,
would hardly justify the time and cost expended and hence go
to swell the delinquent percentage column.
In cities the percentage of delinquent taxes on real estate for

27 Pollard Code 1904, Sec. 637.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 59
negroes averages about one and three-fourths times as much as
in counties. The causes which were found explanatory of con
ditions in counties do not, however, explain the excessive
amount of delinquencies in cities. Here one must rather look
for a general reason in the economic complexity of modern city
life. The kinds of urban employment in which negroes are
most generally engaged are peculiarly subject to each rise and
depression in business prosperity. Wages are unstable, and
there is a constant shifting of positions. Thus the marginal
labor line as it moves upward or downward may make or un
make the fortune of a large class of negroes who are struggling
to pay for a home.
The negro's general improvidence is a trait of character
which can not be ignored. It is a strong determinant factor
of his present economic condition and must be recognized by
every student of the race problem. The country condones
shiftlessness and ignorance in the negro to a greater extent
than does the city. In other words the negro has not yet
learned to adjust himself to the conditions of city life. Here
business is conducted more scientifically and methodically than
in the country; transactions are made to a much larger extent
on a cash basis. Suppose, for instance, that a negro runs an
account in a country store. When the time for settlement
comes the merchant will, if the negro is not able to pay the
debt, carry it for an indefinite time on his books. The prac
tise in the city is quite different. Trustworthy negroes may
buy goods on credit for short periods, but when the date of
payment arrives lack of foresight is not tolerated and no pains
are spared to collect the debt. The ability to look ahead, and
to provide for future wants — a quality as yet poorly enough
developed in the negro at best — is thwarted in the city by the
multiform avenues of spending. Gradually no doubt he is ad
justing himself to city business methods, but his inability at
present to fit himself into the scheme of things must be consid
ered as a reason in part for his failure to pay taxes and meet
other obligations.
Only in rare instances do negroes who buy real estate in
cities pay for it except by installments. Various agreements are

60 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
made whereby a stipulated payment is deducted from the la
borer's weekly or monthly wages, or he is himself required to
deduct the amount of the installment. The result is, that with
the intervention of unforeseen circumstances, and through a
miscalculation of his ability to meet various obligations, the
purchaser is unable to discharge his tax bill. Store debts and
the installments on a lot or home which must be discharged to
prevent the loss of previous payments loom up with greater
immediate significance than the tax item.
Note a typical case. A is a negro who drives a delivery
wagon, thereby earning $10 a week. He found that by careful
saving it was possible for him to lay by $1.50 of his weekly
wages, or approximately $72 a year. He started a small sav
ings account and after accumulating a few months' surplus
bought a lot for which he made a small cash payment, leaving
the remainder to be paid weekly or monthly. It was a vacant
lot on which he intended eventually to build a house. He set
himself the difficult task of paying in installments an amount
which required a number of years to be discharged in full.
Meanwhile the real estate dealer held a lien on A.'s property
and when the latter failed to meet the requirements of the
contract he lost what payments he had made and his lot re
verted to the dealer. It is easy to grasp the significance of A's
undertaking and the disastrous results attending it. For va
rious reasons any working man may be temporarily thrown
out of employment, and strenuous times follow when he will
be forced to accept lower wages or seek work in another city.
Having put the installments at a maximum figure when his
wages were good, he finds it impossible to meet all obligations
when his circumstances are worse. Meanwhile his taxes —
though a small item — have been put off from time to time and
returned delinquent. His poll-tax since 1896 has likewise be
come a lien on his real estate and clouded the title.28 More
over, it must be remembered that in cities there is a consid
erable body of negro transients which is continually fluctuat
ing as employment becomes scarce or plentiful. Many a ne-

28 See chapter I, page 22.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 61
gro goes to town, gets a job, thinks he is settled for life, and
begins to pay for a lot, only to move on in a few months. "The
main reason for the non-payment of the tax in question," says
the treasurer of one of the state's largest cities, "is that ne
groes buy a vacant lot, expecting to build- on it, afterwards
find that they can not, and quit paying, move away, etc." 29
It may be said, however, that since 1900 negro real estate tax
delinquency has slightly diminished.
Although the present constitution adopted in 1902 made far-
reaching changes in the capitation tax it left the tax on real
estate practically unaltered except to lower the rate.30 This
was reduced from forty to thirty-five cents on the hundred
dollars with an added proviso making it incumbent on the Gen
eral Assembly to prescribe the rate after the first day of Jan-

28 The list of delinquent properties as first made out is later reported to
the court under four divisions : Redeemed before sale, sold to individuals,
sold to the commonwealth, heretofore sold to the commonwealth. (Pol
lard Code 1904, Sec. 642a.) The reason for delinquency in the first division
according to the treasurer of another of the state's largest cities,
is that, "the title is generally clear and the owner prefers to wait
until the last moment, with some few exceptions where there has
been an oversight or a life tenant. In cases of sales to individuals,
this grows out of carelessness, neglect, ignorance in trusting to oth
ers, or a lack of attention, or perhaps in a few cases an oversight.
In cases of sales to the commonwealth, the title is very often de
fective. The individual buyer is afraid of it and year after year this
same property is reported as delinquent and later as having been
heretofore sold to the commonwealth.
"It is sometimes found that property on the land books dating
back as far as 1873 does not exist and this develops when an indi
vidual purchaser has gone into the title and he at once petitions the
court to refund the purchase money. We also have known that
there is a certain class of negroes who are more or less careless
about making wills and if they die without a will leaving heirs they
will go on enjoying the use of the property, however small, with
out ever thinking of a distribution, never agreeing among them
selves, and so the property goes delinquent."
30 Indirectly it paved the way for radical changes through the
adoption in 1915 of a segregation system of taxation. For a com
plete discussion of the changes recently made see Thomas Walker
Page: "The Movement for Tax Reform in Virginia," published in
the Journal of Political Economy, October, 1916.

62 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
uary 1907.31 The constitution did not specify either a maxi
mum or minimum rate for localities on tangible personal
property and real estate. The state rate was unchanged until
a system of partial tax segregation was adopted in 191 5. S2
Under this system all taxes collected from real estate and per
sonal property were segregated to localities save a tax of 10
mills on the dollar, to be applied exclusively for public school
use.33 TABLE XX: AMOUNT OF STATE TAXES LEVIED ON REAL
ESTATE IN COUNTIES.3*

Whites Negroes

Year Amount
1901  $759,718
1902  763,869
1903  687,018
1904  695,741
1905  707,885
1906  760,961
1907  761,745
1908  779,184
1909  787,499
1910  812,903
1911  969,720
1912  986,522
1913  998,614
1914  1,006,588

Increase

Increase

Per Cent

Amount

Per Cent

3.2

$37,193

10.0

.5

38,463

3.4

-9.9

35,312

-8.2

1.2

37,218

5.4

1.7

38,623

3.8

7.5

44,671

15.7

.1

45,159

1.1

2.3

45,596

.9

1.1

47,433

4.0

3.2

48,824

2.7

19.3

59,494

21.9

1.7

60,668

, .2

1.2

62,104

.2

.7

63,479

.2

31 Constitution of Virginia, Sec. 189.
32 Acts 1908, 19.
33 Extra Session, Acts of Assembly, 1915, 119.
™ It has been thought best to omit Buchanan county from the
column of assessments for whites in counties in order to obtain more
accurate percentages. Concerning this county the Auditor speaks
as follows: "The taxes for 1911 on real estate improperly assessed,
therefore not collectable, were $8,772.84, which is .0047 per cent of
the amount assessed and the amount of taxes for 1911  returned
delinquent on real estate were $92,554.12 which is .05 per cent of the
ampunt assessed. $30,660.66 of this $92,554.12 was delinquent in one
county, viz: Buchanan, where large tracts of land having no actual
existence are assessed, therefore the taxes are returned delinquent."

Negroes

Amount

%

Increase

$14,172

-1.8

14,650

3.4

13,278

-9.4

13,754

3.6
14,362
4.4
15,948
11.0
18,185
14.0
19,419
6.8
20,931
7.8
21,530
2.9
28,489
32.3
29,077
2.1
29,048
0.0
29,766
2.5
THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 63
TABLE XXI: AMOUNT OF STATE TAXES LEVIED ON
REAL ESTATE IN CITIES.
White
Year Amount % Increase
1901  $473,560 .5
1902  483,988 2.2
1903  433,962 -10.3
1904  440,894 1.6
1905  451,529 2.4
1906  504,509 11.7
1907  537,443 6.5
1908  558,173 3.9
1909  575,666 3.3
1910  594,852 3.3
1911  736,311 23.8
1912  769,312 8.1
1913  823,341 3.5
1914  807,128 2.0
Tables XX and XXI carry the annual increase in taxes from
1900 to 1914. With the exception of a single year, 1903, the
columns of percentages show a general increase in counties for
both races. The results for this year, however, form only an
apparent exception since the existing rate of forty cents on the
$100 was reduced to thirty-five. Had the rate not been reduced
12^ per cent there would have been a normal increase for this
year also. The years 1901, 1906, and 1911 — or those immedi
ately following the regular quinquennial assessments — show the
greatest increases, and this fact is also true for cities in 1906
and 1911. It is not true for the latter in 1901 — the amount for
whites in that year remaining practically unchanged and an ac
tual increase occurring for negroes. For whites there is a more
rapid increase in cities than in counties ; similarly for negroes
the rate is greater in cities, but not in as large ratio as for
whites. The changes which occur between quinquennial assess
ments represent an increase of buildings and improvements.
Commissioners of the revenue make assessments on all new im
provements made between quinquennial years; but neither for
the state nor for the races are the variations regular.
64 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
TABLE XXII: PERCENTAGES OF DELINQUENCY.

1901 1902
1903 1904
1905, 1906
1907
1908 1909 1910
1011
19121913 1914

Cou

mties

Cities

Whites

Negroes

Whites

Negroes

2.9

7.8

4.1

15.2

2.8

11.1

4.4

13.6

2.9

12.1

4.2

15.3

3.7

11.9

4.2

15.6

2.6

11.4

2.9

9.5

2.7

11.0

3.1

12.6

3.1

12.6

3.5

14.5

3.0

12.3

3.4

13.4

2.9

12.9

3.0

11.9

2.6

10.7

2.9

12.0

2.6

10.1

2.8

10.7

2.9

9.8

2.9

14.0

2.8

9.1

3.0

14.4

2.9

9.5

3.0

13.3

A glance backward at Table XIX, the calculations of which
are continued in Table XXII, will reveal the fact that for
whites the percentage of taxes annually returned delinquent
has averaged barely half as much since 1900 as in the years
from 1893 to 1897. This is true both of counties and cities. It
is equivalent to saying, moreover, that the increase took place
wholly within the period from 1893 to 1900 and that the delin
quency has shown practically no tendency to decline since 1900
in either division. In other words although the assessments
have increased rapidly, insuring a rise in taxes, there have since
1900 been scarcely any fluctuations in the proportion returned
delinquent. It would seem, therefore, that with no change ei
ther in the ratio of assessments to true value, or in the rate of
taxation, the percentages of delinquency for whites tended to
remain at a fixed level. It might have been expected that the
percentages returned delinquent for whites in cities should have
exceeded similar returns in counties, but since 1904 the figures
have been almost identical.
The above generalizations in the case of white delinquencies
hold true in the main for negroes, although there are some im
portant differences. Thus there was a swift decrease in delin-

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 65
quency for negroes from 1893 to 1900; but unlike those for
whites the figures for negroes have continued to decrease slightly
since 1900. Also, unlike the case with whites there has contin
ued to be since 1900 larger delinquency among negroes in cities
than in counties. There are, finally, more frequent and more
pronounced variations from year to year in the columns for ne
groes than in those for whites.
Once again it must be remembered that the figures given in
Table XXII are not as significant as in the case of capitation
delinquencies. For some of the taxes allowed to be returned
delinquent are paid between the date for making out the lists and
the time appointed for offering the property for sale. This fact
apparently is especially applicable to negroes in some of the
larger cities. The percentages for negroes in Table XXII av
erage from three to four times greater than for whites, and yet,
if annually the taxes returned delinquent for negroes but "re
deemed before sale" are subtracted from the total amount due,
the percentages of delinquency will be notably diminished. If
the amount of delinquent taxes collected each year is compared
with the amount returned delinquent the difference is found to
be of not much importance. In 1910, for example, the total
amount returned delinquent for both races was $50,819, but the
total collected from the amount returned delinquent for the
previous year, which was redeemed before sale, was $22,106.
The delinquency for negroes in this year was $7,825, or 15.4%
of $50,819, the total for whites and negroes. Hence the propor
tional part of $22,106 for negroes was a little more than $3,000,
and by subtracting this from the total amount for negroes —
$7,825 — we find this total reduced by approximately two-fifths.
This is, of course, a mere assumption ; but it is one which we
are justified in accepting, and it reduces the percentages for ne
groes in Table XXII so much as to lend an entirely different
color to negro delinquencies. The negro as a payer of real es
tate taxes — the largest with which he is assessed — returns but
a comparatively small amount permanently delinquent. This is
a fact hardly anticipated from the study of capitations. Nine
teen and ten was by no means an exceptional year and the above
—5

9.3

45.5

60.3

7.5

47.5

73.5

19.6

61.6

68.4

8.6

37.8

53.3

9.4

26.8

66.9

66 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
figures constitute a fair average of delinquent taxes collected
annually before the sale of land takes place.
Table XXIII contains percentages of delinquency for negroes
TABLE XXIII: PERCENTAGES OF DELINQUENCY FOR
NEGROES IN DIVISIONS OF THE STATE GROUPED
ACCORDING TO NEGRO POPULATION.
% Delin. Land % Delin. Capitations
1900 1910 1900 1910
Less than 12^% pop  10.6 9.0 53.4 60.1
i2V2 to 25% pop  9.0
25 to 37^% pop  10.5
37^ to 50% pop  15.9
50 to 62^4% pop  14.9
Above 6Zy2% pop  7.5
State  13.6 11.1 47.7 63.9

in six divisions of the state, grouped according to the distribu
tion of population in 1900 and 1910. The total negro popula
tion was reduced from 35.6 per cent at the beginning of the dec
ade to 32.6 at its close, and consequently there were some
counties and cities which were classified in a lower percentage
division in 1910. For counties in which cities are located the
percentage of combined population was taken as a criterion and
both were placed in the corresponding division. To illustrate,
the combined negro population of Henrico county and Richmond
city was 39.1 per cent in 1900, and they were included in the di
vision "37/2 to 50 per cent." In 1910 this county and city were
brought within the group division "25 to 37j4 per cent" as their
combined negro population had decreased to 35.5 per cent.
Percentages of delinquency in 1900 did not vary greatly for the
three group divisions containing less than 37/4 per cent population
and were less in each group than the state's total delinquency.
The fourth and fifth divisions contain the highest percentages
for this year while the sixth division — that in which the propor
tion of negro population was more than 62^ per cent — had the
least delinquency of all. In 1910 the total delinquency for the state
decreased to 11.1 per cent. In only one division for this year was
this total exceeded, that being for the classification "37!A to 50 per

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 67
cent." Two or three counties in which the delinquencies
amounted to almost half the assessments were responsible for
the unusually large percentage in this division.
There has been a marked contrast since 1900 in the matter of
delinquent capitation and real estate taxes. The tendency to
delinquency in negro capitations has been one of constant in
crease, while the reverse is true for the latter.
In the preceding pages of this study we have been concerned
primarily with the amount of real estate taxes with which ne
groes have been assessed, the rapid growth of these assessments
since 1890, the proportion allowed to become delinquent in both
counties and cities and a comparison of these percentages with
white delinquencies. We have also investigated the reasons un
derlying the percentages of taxes returned delinquent for ne
groes. In seeking to discover whether they are paying real es
tate taxes in porportion to their ability we have found that a
somewhat higher per cent of their taxes are returned delinquent
each year than in the case of whites, and the amount of delin
quencies for negroes themselves is greater in cities than in coun
ties. At the same time a good part of the taxes returned delin
quent is redeemed before sale of the property takes place and
some is collected subsequently for an indefinite number of years.
The percentages worked out in Tables XIX and XXII there
fore cannot be taken as accurately expressive of the taxes on
real estate which continue permanently delinquent.
To determine whether negroes are paying taxes in proportion
to their ability it is necessary to know whether their property -is
assessed in a fair and equitable manner. It is not unusual to
think of the negro, financially, as constituting one of the South's
most staggering burdens. Without undertaking to consider the
elements of this burden, as, e. g., expenditures for education,
costs of maintaining criminal and charitable institutions, etc., is
it possible to ascertain for Virginia whether negroes are sharing
the state's burden of taxation in proportion to their ability? It
is imperative to know, if we may formulate an answer to such
a query, not only the amount of taxes delinquent for negroes as
compared with whites, but also the ratio of assessments to true
property values for negroes as compared with a like ratio for
whites.

68 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
Regardless of what may or may not be the best method of
assessing real estate Virginia has not formally veered from the
policy of estimating both realty and tangible personal property
on a basis of "fair market value." The constitution of 1867-8
was careful to provide that no land should be assessed "above
or below its value." 35 "Except as hereinafter provided," reads
the constitution of 1901-02, "all assessments of real estate and
tangible personal property shall be at their fair market value, to
be ascertained as prescribed by law." 36 Reassessment of land
was provided for every five years.37
Land assessors are appointed every five years, on or before
the first day of January of the year for which they are to make
assessments. They receive appointments by the circuit court in
the counties and by the corporation or hustings court in the
cities. Cities having a population of more than 15,000 have two
assessors — except the city of Richmond which has three. The
number in counties is the same as that of commissioners of the
revenue.38 The latter officials vary in number, from one in
some counties to two, three, or as many as six in others, no
county having more than one for each magisterial district.39
The duties of assessors may be summarized as follows : "The
assessors shall, immediately after their appointment, proceed to
examine all the lands and lots assessable by them, with the im
provements thereon, within their respective counties, districts,
and corporations, and shall, upon examination, ascertain and as
sess the fair market value thereof, and at the same time shall
note whether the owner is white or colored." 40 On all divisions
of land which take place between quinquennial assessment
years, commissioners of the revenue apportion the assessments
among the owners after the division is made. Also, it is the
duty of commissioners to assess all improvements made during
the intervening years.

85 See footnote 15.
s° Constitution of 1901-02, Sec. 169.
57 Ibid., Sec. 171.
38 Acts of Assembly 1884, 113; 1902-3-4, 610.
30 Pollard Code 1904, Sec. 448.
40 Acts 1884, 114.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 69
The latitude for inequalities of assessment under such a sys-
. tem is truly immense and the evils have been familiar enough
throughout the state. Before 1900 much discontent had arisen
because of a widespread feeling that taxes were unequally dis
tributed. Demands became more insistent that the inequalities
existing both among localities and among the various classes of
taxpayers be corrected. The Constitutional Convention of
1901-2, recognizing the need of reform, made it constitutionally
possible, after a lapse of ten years, for the legislature to enact a
segregation system of taxation.*1 As a consequence, at the ex
piration of this period the legislature assumed the problem of
tax adjustments. At the biennial session of 1912 it defeated a
bill creating a permanent state tax commission, and at the fol
lowing session, yielding to a petition from various influences,
postponed all consideration of tax revision until in special ses
sion in 1915. This postponement was effected in order to pro
vide for study of the situation by a special tax commission which
consisted of ten members — three from the senate, four from the
house, and three citizens to be appointed by the governor.42
This joint committee on tax revision completed its report and
presented it to the governor on Nov. 1, 1914. In the chapter on
real estate the committee found the chief defects, as it said, "in
the appraisal of real estate." It characterized undervaluation
as being "practically universal." And yet, said the committee,
"this would not be so serious if the degree of undervaluation
were known and were everywhere the same; but this is notori
ously not true. Real estate in some counties is assessed at more
than fifty per cent of its selling value; in other counties at less
than twenty per cent. . . . And not only does underval
uation vary in degree from county to county and from city to
city, for within the limits of the localities inequalities are even
more gross and unjust. It thus happens that some citizens of
Virginia are paying in taxes many times more than other citi
zens on lands of the same value." 4S Thus facts which the state

41 Constitution of 1901-2, Sec. 169.
42 See Thos. W. Page, "The Movement for Tax Reform in Virginia,"
Journal of Political Economy, October, 1916.
43 "Report of the Joint Committee on Tax Revision," 8.

70 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
had felt for two decades to be true were now verified by care
ful investigation.
In order to ascertain the degree of undervaluation the com
mittee procured a list of all the recorded sales of real estate in
Virginia during the year beginning February 1, 1912, and end
ing January 31, 1913, the year that is midway between the last
preceding and the next approaching assessment. Of the results
obtained from the sales of this year the committee said: "It is
proper for us to say that we do not regard the ratio of assess
ments to selling prices as an infallible indication of the degree
of undervaluation. The appraisal of all real estate cannot be
made merely by a study of sales in any community. The work
of the assessor, as explained below, is by no means so simple.
It should be remembered in studying our tables that many sales
are induced by exceptionally high offers, and would not occur
at all at the 'fair market value.' It is true, on the other hand,
that some sales are made under necessity at prices below the
value of the property, but sales of this class are less numerous
than the others. Therefore, the real degree of undervaluation
of all the real estate in any county or city is without doubt some
what less than the ratios in our tables indicate. For making
comparisons, however, of assessments in one locality with those
of another, we regard the tables as entirely trustworthy, since
the same motives for selling at any price at all would apply
broadly in all our counties and cities.
"For obvious reasons many of the sales threw no light on the
true value of the property. Some were mere trading transac
tions; others were clearly shown on the face of the record to be
arranged among relatives so that other considerations than
money were likely to be involved. Such transactions were elim
inated from our list, as they were apt to be misleading. There
were likewise excluded all sales made by commissioners and
other officers of the court, sales to public service corporations
and sales to the government whether federal, state or local.
Our purpose was to include only fair voluntary transactions,
made after reasonable advertisement, where the seller was un
der no compulsion to sell and the buyer under no compulsion to
buy. We frankly admit that motives not strictly economic may,

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 71
without our knowledge, have affected the price paid in many of
the sales retained in our list, but we are convinced that such
motives would weigh as much on one side as on the other, and
that would not appreciably affect the average for the state as a
whole, or for any county or city. Our final list thus purged of
doubtful transactions, contained 16,362 sales in the counties,
and 4,431 in the cities." 44
By making a comparison of assessments with prices actually
paid in bona fide sales, the committee found that the average
assessment of real estate for the hundred counties of Virginia
is 33.5 per cent of "its fair market value." For the cities the
average assessment is 53 per cent. "In every county and city,"
the committee further said, "we found wide differences in the
the ratio of assessment to selling price among individual own
ers. Some properties were assessed at a very high rate, a few
were above their selling price; others on the contrary, were
sometimes assessed in the same neighborhood at less than ten
per cent of what they sold for." 45
The committee grouped the number of sales obtained for
counties in six divisions, according to the amount of the selling
price, and computed the ratio of total assessment to total selling
price for each division. The results for counties are tabulated
in Table XXIV and in Table XXV for cities.
TABLE XXIV: RATIO OF ASSESSMENT TO SELLING PRICE
ON LARGE AND SMALL PROPERTIES
IN COUNTIES.46
Val. of Prop. No. Sales Tot. Assess. Tot. Sell. Price Ratio
Total  16,362 $7,929,415 $23,666,730 33.5
Under $500  7,683 718,187 1,536,634 46.7
$500-$1,0'00  2,965 776,978 1,992,607 39.0
$l,000-$2,50O  3,219 1,791,904 4,924,387 36.4
$2,50O-$5,00O  1,574 1,714,282 5,241,605 32.7
$5,000-$10,000  635 1,285,946 4,127,999 31.1
Over $10,000  286 1,642,118 5,843,498 28.1

44 "Report of the Joint Committee on Tax Revision," 9.
45 Ibid., 9.
" "Report of the Joint Committee on Tax Revision," 10.

72 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
TABLE XXV: RATIO OF ASSESSMENT TO SELLING PRICE
ON LARGE AND SMALL PROPERTIES
IN CITIES.
Val. of Prop. No. Sales Tot. Assess. Tot. Sell. Price Ratio
Total  4,431 $6,475,430 $12,215,456 53.1
Under $500  921 143,974 241,443 59.8
$500-$1,000  835 335,129 575,904 58.2
Jl,000-$2,500  1,280 1,173,217 2,080,856 56.5
$2,500-$5,000  856 1,555,122 2,776,501 56.0
$5,0'00-$10,000  361 1,263,713 2,383,685 53.0
Over $10,000  178 2,004,275 4,157,067 48.2

Two facts stand out prominently in the foregoing tables.
First, the average small country tract is assessed at nearly half
its true value, while the average country estate of ten thousand
dollars and upward is assessed at a little more than a fourth of
its value. The average owner of the large estate pays in taxes
only about one-half as much in proportion to its worth as the
average owner of the small property. "Out of the widespread
abuse of unequal valuation," declared the Tax Committee,
"many serious evils arise. The most obvious is that some land
owners are making in proportion to their ability much larger
payments to the government than are others. A peculiarly
striking feature of this evil is that the chief sufferers from it
are the smaller land owners. The true value of their small and
little-improved holdings is much easier to ascertain than is that
of the rich man's large estate. The poor man, furthermore, us
ually has for his protection little influence, either personal or
political. Finally, the poor man is ignorant of the means of
correcting an unfair assessment or finds that he cannot afford
it; he is usually ignorant even that the assessment is unfair,
since in this state no way is provided for him to find it out. He
therefore pays the tax the government demands without know
ing that in proportion to the value of his land he is sometimes
paying five or ten times as much as his rich neighbor." 47
The second important fact, which is equally as obvious as the

47 "Report of the Joint Committee on Tax Revision," 10.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 73
first, is the relatively higher assessment — that is, as compared
with the selling price — of real estate in cities than in counties.
In cities the total assessment is 53.1 per cent of the total selling
price; in counties it is 33.5 per cent. One notices that in cities
also there was a greater ratio of assessment to selling price for
small properties than for large, but this difference is less accen
tuated than in counties.
The following paragraph by a member of the Committee on
Tax Revision is an excellent summary of the conditions which
that body found to obtain for the state :
"The combined rate of all taxes was $1.49 on the assessed
value, and only 58 cents on the true value of real estate. On
the whole, therefore, taxes were low, and the majority of the
landowners in the state had no valid cause of complaint. But
there was a minority that labored under a very real grievance;
for, by reason of unequal assessments, a few were paying far
more, while some paid much less, than the average. Fourteen
counties showed an assessment of less than 25 per cent, and
nine of more than 50 per cent, of true value. In the cities as
sessments varied between 45 per cent in Winchester and 76.5
per cent in Fredericksburg. In the country small properties
were assessed on the average 20 per cent higher than large prop
erties in the same locality ; in the cities there was a similar dis
crepancy, though it was not so great. Now, the state tax was
uniform on the assessed value of all taxable property at the rate
of 35 cents on the $100. As a result it was shown that for
every dollar paid to the state by the owner of a small property
in a certain county with a high assessment, there was a payment
of only four cents by the owner of a large estate in another
county with a low assessment. This particular discrimination,
it is true, was more burdensome in appearance than reality, be
cause undervaluation prevailed everywhere, and the amount ac
tually collected by the state was not great even from the most
highly assessed lands. But with local taxes it was harder to
bear, since the rate of these was never less than twice as high,
and was sometimes eight times as high, as the state rate. The
higher the local rate, the greater was the real hardship imposed
by inequalities. Nor was there any provision whatsoever in the

74 - PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
state for adjusting unequal assessments. Even in case of actual
overvaluation the only recourse of an aggrieved owner was a
costly and tedious appeal to the courts." 48 It will be seen that
the inequalities just described affect the real estate owned by
negroes as well as whites.
The final list of recorded sales which the Committee on Tax
Revision procured included transactions made by both white
and colored persons. And while the sales for negroes are in
cluded in the calculations of the report, there was no need for
the committee's purpose, to tabulate the sales for whites and
negroes separately. Consequently, while the report contains
the sales made by both races, it has no comparisons by which it
may be judged whether discriminations are made in the assess
ment of real estate owned by whites and negroes. Fortunately,
however, in collecting the list of sales, the committee required
to be indicated on the cards compiled for each individual trans
action whether the sale was made by a white person or negro.
At the completion of the report the cards thus collected were
deposited in the State Library. It has, therefore, been possible
to ascertain separately for whites and negroes the results which
were combined in the report of the committee.
Of the 16,362 sales obtained for the counties, 2,083 were made
by negroes. There were 4,431 sales made in cities, and negroes
were represented by 332 of these. Table XXIV above contains
for all the counties of the state, the ratio of assessments to sell
ing price on large and small properties. In Table XXVI this is
shown for whites and negroes separately.
The most significant fact immediately apparent in Table
XXVI is the large difference for whites and negroes in the ra
tio of assessment to selling price. In the case of whites the to
tal assessment in counties is 33.1 per cent of the selling price;
for negroes it is 45.3 per cent. The combined total ratio is 33.5
per cent, or only four-tenths of one per cent higher than the ra
tio for whites alone. The total assessment on the sales included
for negroes in counties is much smaller than for whites. Thus

48 Thomas Walker Page, "The Movement for Tax Reform in Vir
ginia," Journal of Political Economy, October, 1916.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 75
TABLE XXVI: RATIO OF ASSESSMENT TO SELLING PRICE
IN COUNTIES."

Selling Price

Ratio

$22,900,715

33.1

1,273,804

44.9

1,815,703

38.1

4,723,881

36.4

5,168,578

32.8

4,075,251

31.2

5,843,498

28.1

$ 766,015

45.3

262,830

54.5

176,904

48.4

200,506

38.3

73,027

34.3

52,748

29.5

0

0

23,666,730

33.5

Whites
Val. of Prop. No. Sales Assessment
Total White  14,279 $7,582,659
Under $500  6,047 574,467
$500-$999  2,688 691,245
$l,000-$2,499  3,083 1,715,237
$2,500-$4,999  1,549 1,689,219
$5,000-$9,999  626 1,270,373
$10,000 and over  286 1,642,118
Negroes
Total for Negroes  2,083 $ 346,756
Under $500  1,636 143,720
$500-$999  277 85,733
$l,000-$2,499  136 76,667
$2,500-$4,999  25 25,063
$5,000-$9,999  9 15,573
$10,000 and over  0 0
Total W. & N  16,362 7,929,415

while $346,756 was the total assessment for property sold by
negroes, that sold by whites was assessed at more than
$7,000,000. Similarly the sales of negro property totalled
$766,015; of white property nearly $23,000,000. Hence, al
though the ratio of assessment to selling price for negroes is
12.2 higher than for whites, the combined total is raised but
four-tenths of one per cent above the total for whites. Not only
is the ratio of assessment to true value for negroes much greater
than that for whites, but the ratio for every property division
except one is likewise greater for negroes. In the case of sales
amounting to less than $500 each it was 10 higher for ne
groes; and for sales of more than. $500 but less than $1,000
the difference was approximately the same. In the remaining
classifications the assessment rate for negroes diminished rap
idly and was less than that for whites in the division of $5,000

48 Compiled from sales recorded and deposited in the State Library
by the Joint Committee on Tax Revision.

76 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
to $10,000. In this division the assessment of negro property
had declined to 29.5 per cent of the market value while that for
whites stood at 31.2. It will be noted that no sales amounting
to $10,000 or more were made for negroes.
The above results for counties are very similar to those in
Table XXVII for cities.
TABLE XXVII: RATIO OF ASSESSMENT TO SELLING
PRICE IN CITIES.so
Whites
Val. of Prop. No. Sales Assessment Selling Price Ratio
Total White  4,099 $6,328,786 $11,965,263 52.9
Under $500  772 120,679 206,235 58.5
$500-$999  730 290,406 508,586 57.8
$l,000-$2,499  1,217 1,123,755 1,989,716 56.5
$2,500-$4,999  842 1,529,908 2,732,974 56.0
$5,000-$9,999  360 1,259,763 2,376,685 53.0
$10,000 and over  178 2,004,275 4,157,067 48.2
Negroes
Total for Negroes  332 $ 146,644 $ 250,193 58.7
Under $500  149 23,295 35,208 66.2
$500-$999  105 44,723 73,318 61.2
$l,00O-$2,499  63 49,462 91,140 54.4
$2,50O-$4,999  14 25,214 43,527 58.0
$5,000-$9,999  1 3,950 7,000 56.4
$10,000 and over  0 0 00
Total W. & N  4,431 6,475,430 12,215,456 53.1
The assessment rates for cities are much higher than, for
counties. Hence, although in all of the sale divisions, except
one, the ratios of assessment to selling price are greater for
negroes than in the corresponding division for whites, the dif
ference in ratios is not so pronounced as in counties. In the
total values of urban property for the two races the ratio is
52.9 for whites and 58.7 for negroes. The combined total
ratio is 53.1. For sales amounting to less than $500 each the

M Compiled from sales recorded and deposited in the State Library
by the Joint Committee on Tax Revision.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 77
ratio for negroes exceeded that for whites by 7.7, and in the
next higher division the difference was 3.4. There is a higher
ratio for whites, on the other hand, in the division which in
cluded sales made between $1,000 and $2,500. This is the
single exception, for in the following groups the ratios were
again higher for negroes. No sales amounting to $10,000 or
more were recorded for the latter.
It is evident that the assessment, as compared with the fair
market value of real estate, averages higher for negroes than
for whites. This is a condition found to be true for both
counties and cities. Furthermore, since real estate of small
value is assessed at a higher rate than tracts of larger size and
value; and since the greatest difference in the ratios for whites
and negroes is found in the case of properties of small value the
latter race fares unequally. As land holdings increase in size
the difference in ratios for the two races diminishes until for
large estates it practically disappears. Obviously then, since
the majority of negro real estate holdings are small, the bulk
of negro property is being assessed at a markedly higher per
centage of its true value than is white property and it becomes
peculiarly important to inquire into the cause of this discrimi
nation. When a negro buys property from a white owner, other
things being equal, he must usually pay more for it than would
a white purchaser.51 This is especially true whenever the
community in which the property lies is inhabited predomi
nantly by white citizens. The purchase by a negro of real es
tate in such a community is apt to cause a general deprecia
tion of values there. Tracts of land, or lots, lying in close
proximity to the parcel of real estate bought by a negro are not
as valuable as they were previously. To some extent, mere
race prejudice, but to a larger extent other factors, cause this
depreciation. Handicapped as he usually is by lack of capital
and scientific training, the negro cannot maintain and improve

51 This proposition of course is applicable only in the case of vol
untary transactions, but it will be remembered that the Committee
on Tax Revision discarded all sales which were not made voluntarily

78 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
his property as he should, and all too frequently it is allowed, to
become dilapidated. This tendency is promoted by his lack
of persistence and nomadic propensities. Real estate of what
ever sort is likely to be less productive in his possession than
in the hands of his white neighbor. Habits of thriftlessness,
ignorance of social responsibilities, and a lack of foresight pre
vent him from utilizing his resources to the best advantage.
And while he does not make the necessary improvements on
his property he also fails to give it the attractive appearance
that he should. As a result, his land either absolutely sinks in
value or at least fails to show the same increment of value that
it would in white possession. Thus, while the negro is not
commonly regarded as a desirable purchaser, on the other hand,
if he desires to sell his lot or farm he is usually unable to ob
tain as much for it as can a white owner, or a price that is
equivalent to its productive capacity. He will seldom find a
negro buyer who can give him a price amounting to the real
value of his property, unless the terms of payment cover a
long period of installments. Because of the undesirable loca
tion, of a hesitancy in succeeding the negro occupant, or for
some other reason, he will not be offered as much by a white
person as a white owner would be. The negro thus appears
to be handicapped in both the purchase and sale of real estate.
The above facts serve to explain the disproportionate ratios
of assessment to selling price on negro property. Assessors
and commissioners of the revenue, in making new assess
ments, are necessarily influenced by the productive capacity of
property. It is difficult for them to take note of the real but
formally unrecognized depreciation which may have occurred
merely from negro ownership. Consequently, a parcel of real
estate owned by a negro is assessed by the same standards as
if owned by a white man. No allowance is made for the de
crease in selling value due to negro ownership. To illustrate,
let us suppose that two parcels of real estate in the same com
munity have, as nearly as is possible to ascertain, the same
productive value. One of them is owned by a negro, the other
by a white person. If put up for fair voluntary sale the ne
gro's land, or lot as the case may be, will not bring as much

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 79
as the white man's, but in appraising the properties for taxation
assessors do not allow for such discrepancy. The result is
that in Tables XXVI and XXVII ratios are higher for negroes'
than whites, especially on small holdings. And we have al
ready seen that a majority of negro taxpayers own small hold
ings. It is true also, that higher assessments on negro property of
small value prevail for city and town lots just as in the case
of farm lands and farms. The conditions described above and
the influences enumerated to show why inequalities of assess
ment occur, have as potent an application to urban real estate
as to rural sections. Assessments are rather better in cities and
the discrepancy between actual and assessed values is not as
large as for country property; but a difference in ratios for
whites and negroes obtains for both counties and cities.
Thus it appears that in proportion to the market value of
their property negroes are paying relatively more taxes in Vir
ginia than are whites. If, however, the taxes are compared
with the income-bringing possibilities of the property instead
of the market value, race discrepancy is not so apparent.

CHAPTER III.
Personal Property and Income Taxes.
Personal property has constituted an important part of Vir
ginia's tax system during her whole history and the state still
derives about ten per cent of its annual revenue from this
source. Under the tax laws which have existed since the adop
tion of the constitution of 1867-8, personal property has been
classified as "Schedules B and C"— "Schedule B" including all
tangible property and "Schedule C" representing choses in ac
tion or intangible personalty. On both classifications a rate of
forty cents on the hundred dollars was levied as the state's
share during the period between 1881-2 and the new constitu
tion of 1901-2.1 The latter constitution fixed the maximum
state rate at thirty-five cents on tangible property, until the year
1907, thus leaving the rate on "Schedule C" to be fixed by the
legislature.2 This body, however, placed a similar rate on
intangible property and did not alter the rate on either class
until 1912.3
The Committee on Tax Revision of 1914 referred to intan
gible property as commonly applying to "monies, credits, and
those rights, claims and privileges that pass into private own
ership and have a commercial value." 4 Little property of this
kind existed when the state's tax laws were in process of
formation. Tangible property, on the other hand, was of much
importance, and the laws passed were more especially applica
ble to "Schedule B." But though nominally a distinction was
made in the two classes of personal property, the same laws
applied to both. Toward the close of the century, however,
there was a rapid increase in intangible property. The report

1 Code 1887, Sec. 577.
2 Constitution of 1901-2, Sec. 189.
8 The present discussion extends only to the enactment of the re
cent tax laws in 1915.
4 Report 1914, 49. 80

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 81
of the State Auditor for the year 1887, the first year in which
a separate report was made for the two classes of personal
property, showed the amount of choses in action assessed to
be $38,476,076. It had thus assumed a place nearly equal in
importance to tangible property, the assessed value of the latter
amounting to $43,397,887 for the same year.
Not until 1891 were the taxes levied on personal property
reported separately for whites and negroes. The report for
this year, however, and for the period between 1891 and 1902,
inclusive, does not divide the taxes on tangible and intangible
property. Table XXVIII contains the taxes levied on both
classes during this period.
TABLE XXVIII: TAXES ON PERSONAL PROPERTY IN
COUNTIES AND CITIES.

Counties Cities
Year Whites Negroes
1891  $251,154 $10,645
1892  247,607 11,489
1893  240,209 11,856
1894  222,744 11,234
1895  209,570 10,945
1896  251,637 11,107
1897  232,616 10,629
1898  248,058 10,920
1899  249,613 11,319
1900  268,939 12,919
1901  297,053 13,297
1902  262,924 22,435 164,369 2,402
From 1891 to 1902 the taxes levied on negro personal prop
erty varied from about 4 to 5 per cent of the amount levied on
white property. During the same period the proportion of
taxes on negro real estate varied from 3 to 5 per cent of the
amount levied on real estate of white ownership.5 Thus it
would seem that in counties the personal property owned by
negroes formed about the same per cent of the amount owned
by whites as did real estate. In cities a like comparison does

Whites

Negroes

$123,292

$1,873

122,892

2,023

121,783

2,114

111,303

1,836

110,699

1,882

113,124

1,988

165,678

1,935

140,013

1,896

148,042

1,989

145,900

2,037

156,806

2,245

' See Table XVII.
—6

82

PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS

not hold. Whereas the taxes on city real estate of negro own
ership approximated 3 per cent of the amount for whites, the
personal property taxes averaged only 1.5 per cent of the levy
for whites.
As in the case of real estate there was no significant growth
in the taxes on white personal property in counties, though the
assessments vary considerably from year to year. There was
a steady falling off between 1891 and 1896, for which the fi
nancial depression and fall in values which occurred during
these years were doubtless largely responsible. During the re
mainder of the period the amounts were irregular. Until 1896
there was a consistent decline in the personalty taxes on whites
in cities, but for the twelve years as a whole there was an im
portant increase. Neither in counties nor cities did the taxes
on negro property show such fluctuations. With the exception
of a single year in counties the taxes on negro personalty re
mained stationary. In this respect personal property of negro
ownership compares rather unfavorably with negro real estate
for the same period.6 In Tables XXIX and XXX may be
found the taxes levied on tangible and intangible property re
spectively from 1903 to 1914.
TABLE XXIX: TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY TAXES.

Counties
Year Whites Negroes
1903  $134,352 $14,054
1904  143,583 15,060
1905  148,598 16,075
1906  160,405 17,957
1907  170,950 18,514
1908  184,665 20,069
1 909  190,746 20,524
1910  203,755 22,294
1911  202,335 22,272
1912  210,614 23,018
1913  245,572 24,845
1914  254,507 25,906

Cities
Whites Negroes

$32,663 33,190
41,63049,064 53,881
61,67763,99870,082
78,65875,112
85,750
94,572

$2,132 2,070
2,1802,5773,2053,2933,6833,822
4,4394,566
4,8445,049

See Tables XX and XXI.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 83
TABLE XXX: INTANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY TAXES.

Year Whites
1903  $112,889
1904  123,183
1905  127,572
1906  135,674
1907  146,135
1908  150.977
1909  156,814
1910  166,005
1911  182,952
1912 ..'  182,508
1913  280,662
1914  228,221

ounties

Cities

; Negroes

Whites

Negroes

$209

$117,032

$ 87

340

113,047

185

310

106,115

146

379

117,114

158

490

142,642

193

482

139,511

206

626

148,979

228

490

160,229

240

543

175,791

343

546

186,368

336

797

216,417

256

366

231,291

263

The notable increase of real estate taxes since 1900 7 has
been paralleled by a similar growth in the personal property
levy. Between 1903 and 1914, it will be seen that for both
races county personal property taxes virtually doubled and
city taxes more than doubled. This increase took place de
spite the fact that in 1903 the rate was reduced from $.40 to
$ 35. A comparison of Tables XXIX and XXX shows that there
was a fairly even increase on tangible and intangible property.
Another significant fact is the importance which taxes on in
tangible property had assumed in 1903, especially in cities. Evi
dently, however, very little intangible property was of negro
ownership. Thus we may account for the preponderance of
negro taxes paid by counties. Although negro real estate taxes
levied in cities formed approximately two-fifths 8 of the county
real estate taxes, the proportion, of all personal property taxes
was but one-fifth of the county levy. By far the greater por
tion of tangible personal property both for whites and negroes
is in counties. While tangible property constitutes almost all
personalty of negro ownership in cities, it represents for whites
7 See Tables XX and XXI.
8 See Table XXII.

84 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
a much smaller part than intangible property. Since 1903 in
tangible personal property taxes for whites have increased
about as rapidly in counties as in cities. During the same pe
riod counties also contributed much the greater part of the taxes
from this classification paid by negroes.
TABLE XXXI: PERCENTAGES OF PERSONAL PROPERTY
TAXES RETURNED DELINQUENT.
Counties Cities
Year Whites Negroes Whites Negroes
1893  2.3 14.7
1895  3.0 20.5
1900  4.3 14.3
1905  5.6 17.0
1908  6.1 16.3
1909  5.7 17.8
1910  5.3 17.3
1911  5.8 17.8
1912  5.4 15.6
1913  4.1 14.0
1914  4.6 12.2

The delinquency shown in Table XXXI includes both tan
gible and intangible property. As in the case of real estate, the
amount returned delinquent of property owned by whites in
counties is relatively less than that for whites in cities and that
for negroes in both counties and cities.9 Delinquency in per
sonalty taxes, however, is somewhat higher than in those on

7.5

63.7

7.8

66.0

9.8

64.5

6.0

54.3

7.5

62.0

8.1

54.0

9.6

59.0

7.3

54.0

8.2

62.0

6.7

60: 1

5.7

58.4

9 "Tangible personal property, under the laws of this State, for
the purposes of taxation, embraces live stock, vehicles, automobiles,
bicycles, books, pictures, tools of mechanics, farming implements,
felled timber, cord wood, watches, clocks, musical instruments, house
hold furniture, gold and silver plate, diamonds, other precious stones
and precious metals, jewelry, boats and' other water craft, firearms,
seines, pound nets, toll bridges, turnpikes, ferries, telephone and tel
egraph poles, wires, switchboards, etc., owned by persons, firms and
associations (not corporations); sewing machines, etc., and grain,
tobacco and other agricultural productions (not the property of the
producers) not used as capital in business." Auditor's Report,
1916, XI.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 85
real estate and this is true for both races. For whites in cities
the personal property tax delinquency is more than twice as
great as the real estate tax delinquency, and for negroes in
cities it is greater by more than four times. If we compare
counties with cities in Table XXXI we find the percentages of
delinquency for whites nearly twice as great in cities as in
counties and for negroes more than three times as great.
Again, however, it must not be forgotten that percentages
are apt to be misleading, and in Table XXXI the exceptionally
large percentages of delinquency for negroes particularly in
cities may cause an erroneous impression. For all of the state's
cities the amount of taxes on negro personal property for
1914 was but $5,312. About $3,100, or 58.4 per cent of this
was delinquent. Thus the actual delinquency is of less impor
tance than one might infer from the percentage calculations.
The fact that delinquency is greater for personal property
taxes than for real estate is in part due to the difference in
character of the two classes of property. Real estate is fixed
in situs and amount, whereas the quantity of personal property
is continually changing; and hence there is an added difficulty
in making collections. The nature of the property itself and
the resulting difficulty in making collections seem to be the real
reasons for the larger percentages of delinquency in personal
property taxes. It is on the same grounds that we may account
for the high per cent of delinquency on city property of negroes.
Taxes on intangible property, of course, once it is declared,
are practically sure of collection, but we have already seen that
negroes own little property of this class. Their personalty
falls mostly under the head of tangible property.10 It consists
among the most prosperous negro farmers of live stock, some
household furniture, and vehicles and agricultural implements.
Among the poorer tenants and day laborers it is confined usu
ally to a scant amount of household goods. In cities the av
erage negro, as was seen in Tables XXIX and XXX, owns little
personal property of any sort. Most of it consists of a watch
or clock perhaps, furniture, and similar household goods.

10 Pollard Code 1904, Sec. 603.

86 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
The laws governing the collection of delinquent taxes on
personal property are sufficiently stringent. It is the duty of
the treasurer to call for payment from all persons within his
jurisdiction who, by the first day of December each year, have
not paid their taxes. "Upon failure or refusal of such person
or agent to pay the same he shall proceed to collect them by
distress or otherwise." xl After the first day of July he is re
quired to make out a list of all property for which taxes can
not be collected.12 The correctness of the list must be certified
to by the court, the commissioners of the revenue, and, in coun
ties, by the board of supervisors. It is then forwarded to the
state auditor. The county or city treasurer may not receive the
taxes afterwards, but they may be paid to the "public treasury"
or to the "clerk of the circuit or corporation or hustings
court." The auditor, within sixty days after receiving the
list, must place it in the hands of any "sheriff, sergeant, con
stable, or collector," who must endeavor to collect the taxes
by levy, distress, etc.13
Thus it would seem that the laws take due precaution to al
low no taxes possible of collection to go unpaid. On the other
hand, the personal property owned by a large number of ne
groes is limited to a few articles of very little value. In cities
as well as in counties there are many negroes whose personalty
is valued at less than $25. At the rate of 35 cents on the hun
dred dollars the tax on such property is less than 10 cents. But
even when the property is of two, three, or four times the
above value the tax ticket is an extremely small item. When
the treasurer attempts to enforce collection of such amounts,
he is at once confronted with many difficulties. One is the
migratory character of the negro population, a condition which
becomes intensified among the negroes of least wealth. This
floating element is employed only in occupations of temporary
importance. In the negro resident sections there is an incessant
moving in and out, so that between the date of assessment and

11 Ibid., Sec. 605.
12 Pollard Code 1904, Sec. 608.
18 Ibid., Sec. 612.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 87
the expiration of the time allowed for payment there is much
shifting in the population. As was said in the discussion of
real estate, there are many absentee heads of families who are
working temporarily away from home.
' In the case of a great many negroes, therefore, the officer
who has the duty of enforcing collection finds his task an im
possible one. His only recourse is to sell such property as he
may be able to find in possession of the debtor. But the diffi
culty of selling separate peices of property, the value of which
is practically negligible to anyone except the possessor, is 'ap
parent. In many cases the real owner of the property is a
matter of question. Furthermore the costs attached to such
a procedure are much in excess of the tax itself. The result is
that in cities more than half of the personal property levy on
negroes cannot be collected and is reported delinquent in June.
Study of the auditor's reports shows also that a very small per
cent of the amount returned delinquent is collected afterwards.
All delinquent personal property taxes collected in 1914 for all
previous years were but 4 per cent of the taxes reported delin
quent; the amount collected in 1915 was 5 per cent.
There remains to be considered but one other important
phase of personal property taxation, viz., the problem of un
derassessment. Intangible property has been the source of
much concern to the state within recent years, due to the fact
that the larger part of this class has not been listed for taxation
at all.14 When it is assessed, taxes are paid on the true value
of the property, and so long as the rate on real estate and both
classes of personal property remained the same, intangible
property was obviously taxed at a much higher rate than tan
gible personalty or real estate. Thus the real difficulty has not
been underassessment but lack of assessment. The difficulty
arises from the very nature of intangible property which may
easily be concealed or transferred from one place to another.
As negroes possess little of this class of property we are more
concerned with Schedule B.
In regard to the assessment of tangible property the Joint
" Report of the Joint Committee on Tax Revision in 1914, 53.

88 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
Committee on Tax Revision spoke as follows: "With the
proper change of terms, nearly all that we have said with re
gard to the defects in our methods of taxing real estate may
be applied to the taxing of tangible property. Excessive in
equalities abound, both among the localities and among indi
viduals within the same locality. There is also a marked under
valuation everywhere, though it is slightly less than in the case
of real estate.
In practical operation, the administration of the tax on per
sonal property is in the hands of the commissioner of the rev
enue. He sends out the interrogatories, he examines the re
turns made by taxpayers, he assesses those who make no re
turns, he certifies the books to the auditor of public accounts,
and to the local treasurer. The difficulties that confront him
are very similar to those of the land assessor and cause a sim
ilar undervaluation, though the degree of undervaluation ap
pears to be somewhat less than for real estate." 15
It was impossible, however, for the Committee to obtain as
accurately as for real estate the actual degree of undervalua
tion. As the best available measure of undervaluation, a compari
son was made between certain classes of property enumerated
in the United States census of 1910, and the same classes in the
property books of 1913. The census report was three years old
in the latter year and to this extent the comparison is defective.
The production of such classes of farm animals as sheep and
hogs, and even of horses and cattle, may be diminished or in
creased from year to year to meet the market conditions. "The
comparison can be taken, therefore, to show only the approxi
mate degree of undervaluation." 16 It was not possible to
make a comparison for all classes of tangible property except
indirectly. The direct comparisons possible included $45,000,000
of the amount assessed, leaving approximately $59,000,000 for
which a direct comparison could not be made. Referring to the
value of the results the Committee said: "We feel justified in
assuming, however, that the ratio of the assessed value to the

Report of the Joint Committee on Tax Revision in 1914, 46.
Report of the Joint Committee on Tax Revision in 1914, 47.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 89
census value of this latter class is the same as the ratio of as
sessed to census value of the classes that can be directly com
pared. If this assumption be granted, then the true value
of all tangible property in the Commonwealth in 1910 was
$220,000,000. In other words, property of this class in 1913
was assessed for taxation at 46.8 per cent of its true value.
We believe that this ratio is substantially correct." The re
sult of the comparison may be found in Table XXXII.
TABLE XXXII: VALUES OF TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROP
ERTY.^

Assessment Census Ratio of As-
1913

1910

sessment to

C

ensus Value

$220,300,380

46.80

(estimated)

124,156,200

47.20

96,144,180

46.20

48,083,529

55.80

22,202,253

54.30

3,340,087

33.30

4,042,428

36.00

18,115,883

16.19

Values of tangible property,
all classes  $102,798,104
Values of tangible property,
classes not reported by census 58,595,348
Values of tangible property,
classes reported by census.. 44,382,755
Horses, mules, etc  26,784,959
Cattle  12,070,666
Sheep and goats  1,011,858
Hogs  1,584,227
Values of farm machinery.... 2,931,036

From the above table the conclusion can be drawn that per
sonal property is somewhat better assessed than is real estate.
The ratio of assessment to census value for all classes of tangible
personal property was 46.8 per cent. This may be compared
with the ratio of assessed to selling value of real estate, which
was 33.5 in counties and 53.1 in cities. The reason for this
fact is apparent, for property of this class which is listed may
be seen by the assessor and is easily appraised. "It is avail
able for appraisal," said the Committee, "in quantities whose
values are fairly well known to the average man. The oppor
tunities for underassessment are rather less than those for the
" Ibid., 48.

yO PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
undervaluation of realty. The main defect of the assessment
of tangible property arises rather from the failure to list the
property at all than from the failure to list it at a reasonable
value." 18
It is to be regretted that the comparisons in Table XXXII
could not be made for whites and negroes separately. Any
statement, therefore, relative to the assessment of negro per
sonal property, as compared with that of whites, must stand the
risk of a certain amount of inaccuracy. Careful observation,
however, would perhaps show that on the whole the personal
property of negroes is assessed at a lower per cent of its real
value than is that of whites. This of course is exactly the re
verse of the facts brought out in the analysis of real estate
values. But it must be kept in mind that a large number of
negroes possess but a small amount of personal property, which
commissioners of the revenue are quite likely to appraise at a
very low per cent of its value.
Personal property owned by the poorest citizens of both races
consists of little beyond what is necessary for the immediate
needs of the household. Table XXXII would indicate that the
ratio of assessment to census value is greater for all classes of
live stock than for farm machinery, and greatest for that class
of live stock which, per unit, is of the highest value. If a com
parison could be made, the ratio of assessment to census value
for household goods would doubtless not be more than that for
farm machinery, and probably less. The smallest ratios would
be found to be those for household goods of least value, and a
large portion of negro personal property would be included in
household goods of this class.
The constitution of 1867-8 made the matter of levying a tax
on incomes provisional with the legislature, placing the mini
mum exemption if such a tax should be levied at six hundred
dollars.19 The legislature in 1869-70 fixed the exemption at
one thousand dollars, allowing only one exemption for each

18 Report of the Joint Committee on Tax Revision, 49.
u Constitution of 1867-8, Art. 10, Sec. 4.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 91
family.20 The rate was one per cent.21 At its regular session
of 1883-4 the legislature reduced the exemption to six hundred
dollars but left the rate unaltered.22 The income tax provision
written in the constitution of 1867-8 was incorporated in the
new constitution of 1901-2 without change.23 In 1908 the ex
emption was raised to one thousand dollars, and to two thou
sand in 1912.24 This clause remained in force until 1915,
when the exemption on individual incomes was fixed at twelve
hundred dollars, that of husband and wife at eighteen hundred,
and an exemption of two hundred was allowed for each un
married natural or legally adopted child under twenty-one years
of age. The rate was left unchanged.25
Table XXXIII shows that at no time has the number of ne
groes whose incomes exceeded the exemption been large, but
a few negroes have paid an income tax for more than three
decades. Because of the frequent increase and decrease of the
exemption during this period it is difficult to ascertain whether
the incomes of negroes have increased since 1890. The in
creased exemptions of 1908 and 1912 obviously eliminated
practically all negroes who were paying taxes on incomes in
counties and reduced very greatly the number in cities. Since
1890, both in counties and cities, the income taxes paid by
whites have increased considerably. The increase did not oc
cur during the decade from 1890 to 1900. After 1900 there is
an irregular but real increase, notwithstanding the fact that the
exemption was raised to one thousand dollars in 1908 and to
two thousand in 1912. If a comparison of the years 1908 and
1915 be made, it will be seen that income taxes paid by whites
in the latter year had doubled.

20 Virginia Code 1873, 306.
21 Ibid., 349.
22 Acts 1883-4, 565; Pollard Code 1914, II, 2195.
23 Constitution of 1901-2, Sec. 170.
24 Acts ISO*, 20; 1912, 573.
25 Acts 1915, 113.

92 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
TABLE XXXIII: INCOME TAXES LEVIED SINCE 1890.26

Counties
Year Whites Negroes
1891  $13,105 $13
1892  12,262 57
1893  14,973 50
1894  11,539 14
1895  9,193 6
1896  10,925 19
1897  8,773 6
1898  9,683 6
1899  17,582 8
1900  13,574 6
1901  18,356 6
1902  15,916 22
1903 ..,  19,622 9
1904  21,727 7
1905  25,541 14
1906  27,934 6
1907  t  38,859 30
1908  30,792 20
1909  30,745 27
1910  35,727 3
1911   37,576 7
1912  28,801 5
1913  53,807 8
1914  65,274 0
1915  68,436 7

Cities

Whites

Negroes

$49,046

$44

41,819

17

36,655

22

29,372

18

31,817

10

31,407

27

28,705

18

33,498

18

36,552

6

40,979

6

45,220

22

48,274

11

51,040

30

48,324

47

59,227

70

75,768

64

98,132

212

78,616

125

82,362

112

102,527

139

107,775

134

73,867

5

110,277

45

128,180

11

144,881

33

Compiled from the State Auditor's Reports.

CHAPTER IV.
Conclusions.
Negroes paid a capitation tax during most of the colonial
period, and during part of the period between 1775-1860. Prior
to 1860 they were frequently assessed with a discriminatory
capitation tax, but since this date the rate has been uniform for
all races. In 1814 the state collected $8,322 from 5,547 free
negroes within the taxable age. The rate in 1863 was $2, and
the total assessment on free negroes for this year was $11,554.
By the constitution of 1867-8 the legislature was given the
power of levying a capitation tax, the maximum rate of which
for state purposes was one dollar. The amount assessed on
negro males at this rate in 1870 was $90,183. The need for
revenue was so pressing in 1876 that prepayment of the poll-
tax was made a requirement for voting. It was hoped that
this amendment would reduce the amount of capitation taxes
annually returned delinquent, but it proved such an easy device
for ballot box corruption that it was repealed. A tendency
which in the administration of the tax became accentuated
throughout the period from 1866 to 1900 was a steady growth
in delinquency. Forty-seven per cent of the assessment for
negroes in 1895 was returned delinquent. In 1896 the legisla
ture endeavored to counteract such an objectionable tendency
of the tax by making it a lien on real estate, but the purpose of
the law was never realized.
With the adoption of the new constitution in 1901-2 a radi
cal change of policy took place in the administration of the
tax. What had previously been wholly a fiscal tax now became
mainly a political measure. Payment of the poll-tax assess
ment six months in advance of election day was made a prereq
uisite for voting and a registration clause was enacted so that
payment of the tax was not the sole requirement for suffrage.
As there has been no effective mode of enforcing collection of
capitation taxes the amount annually returned delinquent has
93

94 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
always been very large, and has increased at a great rate since
1902, especially for negroes. The growth in delinquency is
illustrated by the graph lines on page 39. In 1914 more than
thirty per cent of the capitation tax for whites and above sixty
per cent of it for negroes was returned delinquent. At its
biennial session in 1916 the legislature revised the laws for
enforcing collection of delinquent capitations, which may re
sult in a reduction of the large annual delinquency.
Real estate is the principal source of all taxes paid by ne
groes, and hence the taxation of negro real estate is of chief
importance to the present study. In 1900 the total amount of
negro real property as valued by the state for purposes of tax
ation was $12,464,377; in 1914 it had more than doubled and
amounted to $28,775,199. The total state tax levy oh negro
real estate was $48,173 in 1900 and $93,245 in 1914. Thus of
the total amount of real estate taxes levied in the latter year ap
proximately five per cent was paid by negroes.
The per cent of real estate taxes annually returned delin
quent is much smaller for both races than it is in the case of
capitation taxes. Less than five per cent of the assessment for
whites was returned delinquent in 1900, while for negroes the
delinquency was 11.4 per cent in counties and 18.7 per cent in
cities. In 1914 the amount of delinquency for whites had de
creased to three per cent; for negroes also the amount had de
creased to 9.5 per cent in counties and 13.3 in cities. A con
siderable part of the delinquent real estate taxes is ultimately
collected, but there is no way of ascertaining how much of this
is from either race. From the figures just quoted it is seen
that delinquency is much greater for negroes than for whites
in both counties and cities. There are two reasons for the
higher delinquency for negroes in counties. The first is the
very small value of many negro holdings, the low assessments,
and the consequent carelessness in collection. In proportion to
the total number for each race, there are more holdings of
very small value belonging to negroes than to whites. On many
of these the taxes assessed are minute, frequently amounting to
less than $1 and sometimes to as little as $0.15. A second rea
son is the difficulty of collecting a tax of such small amount.

THE TAXATION OF NEGROES IN VIRGINIA 95
It is obvious that the cost of collection exceeds the value of
the tax itself. From year to year taxes on numerous holdings
of this sort are returned delinquent. In cities the percentage
of delinquent taxes on real estate averages about one and three-
fourths times as much as in counties. The reasons for this ex
cessive delinquency in cities, however, are very different from
those explanatory of conditions in counties. One must here
take into consideration the negro's general improvidence. The
country condones shiftlessness and ignorance in the negro to
a greater extent than does the city. Transactions in the city
are more business like and methodical, and the negro has not
yet adjusted himself to the conditions of city life.
Are negroes in Virginia sharing the state's burden of taxa
tion in proportion to their ability? To answer this question it
is necessary to know the ratio of assessment to true property
value for negroes as compared with a like ratio for whites.
Real estate has been greatly underassessed, the amount of un-
derassment varying widely in different localities and among
various classes of taxpayers. The latitude for inequalities is
thus apparent. It was found by the Joint Committee on Tax
Revision in 1914 that underassessment is greatest on large real es
tate holdings, and decreases as the value of the property decreases.
The negro is thus at a disadvantage as compared with the white
taxpayer because he is usually the owner of a small holding.
Again, the negro real estate taxpayer is at a disadvantage be
cause of sectional divergencies of assessment; for the sections
of the state in which assessments are highest are just those in
which the negro population is densest. A third inequality by
reason of which negroes are at a disadvantage is that which is
found in the unequal assessment of white and negro holdings.
Real estate holdings which under the ownership of whites bear
the same market value as under the ownership of negroes have
a higher assessment for negroes than for whites. Whereas the
ratio of assessment to selling price of real estate in counties was
found in 1914 to be 33.1 for whites, it was 45.3 for negroes;
and in cities 52.9 for whites and 58.7 for negroes. This in
equality, however, is one in appearance rather than in economic
fact. For if the income-bringing possibilities and productive

96 PHELPS-STOKES FELLOWSHIP PAPERS
capacity of the holdings are taken into consideration rather than
the selling price the discrepancy is not so apparent.
Most of the personal property owned by negroes is of the
tangible class. In 1903 negroes were assessed with 8.8 per cent
of all the state's tangible personal property taxes and in 1914
with 8.1 per cent. Delinquency in personal property taxes for
negroes is relatively greater than in the taxes on real estate.
This is especially true in cities but the total amount of person
alty owned by negroes in cities has always been very small.
For instance, in 1914 it amounted to but $5,312. That delin
quency is greater for personal property taxes than for real es
tate is in part due to the difference in character of the two
classes of property. Unlike real estate the former is not fixed
in situs and amount, but the quantity is continually changing.
The difficulty of making collections is greater for it therefore
than for real estate.
Taking the state as a whole, the underassessment of tangi
ble personal property is somewhat less than that of real estate,
but inequalities abound both among the localities and among
individuals within the same localities. In 1914 the ratio of as
sessment to census value for all classes of tangible personal
property was 46.8 per cent. Careful observation would perhaps
show that the personal property of negroes is assessed at a
lower per cent of its real value than is that of whites. Of all
the classes of personalty for which a direct comparison between
the state assessment and census value could be made, farm
machinery has the lowest ratio of assessment. The personal
property of a large number of negroes consists altogether of
household goods and the ratio of assessment to census value
for this class of property doubtless does not exceed that for
farm machinery. A few negroes for the past several decades
have paid a small income tax, but the amount paid by them
from this source is as yet of little significance.
In 1910 negroes composed 32.6 per cent of the state's popu
lation. The total amount of revenue paid into the state treas
ury in 1914 was $7,797,532. The real estate, capitation, per
sonal property and income taxes assessed against negroes in
this year amounted to $318,381, or they were assessed with 5

THE TAXATION OF NF.GROES IN VIRGINIA 97
per cent of all real estate taxes, 3.8 per cent of all personal
property taxes, 28.1 per cent of all capitation taxes, and .00006
per cent of all income taxes. From these sources, therefore,
they paid approximately 4.1 per cent of the state's total revenue.
In addition to this amount they were assessed with a small
amount of merchants' license and other license taxes, and mis
cellaneous taxes, which are not ascertainable.

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