premise: But it had , as was usual in southern cities of this sort , a Black Bottom , a low region near the river where the Negroes lived - servants and laborers huddled together in a region with no sewage save the river , where streets and sidewalks were neglected and where there was much <mask> and crime .
hypothesis: the proper context for <mask> here should be the state of having little or no money and few or no material possessions