The daily gazette., 1877-12-12
|REI,ArIvE MoRrA1TYoF RACES
From the Baltlmores Sun

From the Baltimore Sun. g lIlr
The alarming rate Of morality among
the colored people Of the South has AVA
kened the attention Of men of all section
and Of all parties, and 10 considered, es-
pecially In the South, as q calamity not
only to material interests, but IN some
measures to the social frame which has
been built upon the foundation thus
menaced. While the war has put an end
TO the relation of master and slave, 1t has
not abolished the relation Of protection
dependence and sympathy which have
always existed between the two races,
except when they were interfered with
by the mutual enemies Of both, II the
Southern people were left to their choice
to-day there can be no manner of doub bt
that they would prefer 10 employ their
present class of laborers 70 any other,pr
vided always that interlopers from abroad
should not stir up strife between the
whites and blacks. Hence the results OF
very thorough Investigation which has
recently been made of the rate Of morta-
lily among the Southern blacks will be
unwelcome intelligence 10 their former
masters According toa Statement in
the New York Times, a leading republic
can journal of New York, all the reports
upon the subject point in the same d.
rectiop, and prove conclusively that for
year, past the colored people have been
dying twice-and in someinstances three
and four times fast as their white
neighbors. The same sad story comes
from the leading cities Of Tennessee and
Georgia, from Alabama and the Gull
States generally. Even in Richmond,
so even in the District Of Columbia and
| in Maryland, the difference Is very ,strik-
ing. An official report lately published
in Richmond says: awe estimate our
population at 5000, whites AZ, $50,
colored ITO. Average death rate per
Ithusaud 2l,S9. OF the whites, 1877, oi
the colored 28.13." According to the Of
fetal reports from the district OF Colum-
bia it appears that the annual number
of deaths out of every thousand Of the
white population is only about twenty
while among the colored people about
forty-seven out of every thousand die
annually. In Baltimore the rate OF
deaths out of each Thousand is put BY
the Times at about twenty whites and
thirty-five black. This, however, is ap'
parently based on the total population
of 267 ,354, according 10 the o nited Statei
census OF 1870 and on. the mortality re-
turns for 1879, which Is by no mean
fair, as it would give 4 total average
death rate of about 28per thousand. The
estimated population Of Baltimore II
1876 was 355, 900 which would make The
tgtsl aYfFssgs s aShte and colorsd
tween white and eoIored NOR lality IL
Baltimore therefore must be reduced &C.
cordingly. Yet the difference will b,
found sufficient for the purpose of the il
lustration., Such are The suggestive re-
suits, although In both Washington and
Baltimore the colored people TO verl
large extent live as domestic ,ant
their employers in many instances lool
upon their welfare as identified with thei
own. N. '1 ,'-l.a.. yru.l
1t must not be supposed that it is onl,
In the large cities or the remote agricul
tural regions that this disproportionat,
death rate of colored people prevails. II
Chattanooga, a salubrons city, where th,
average death rate among the white
only average nineteen, and has fallen a
low a. seventeen out of every thousand
the rate among the colored population
for the same period averages thirty-seyeI
and In 1873 rose as high as fifty six ou
of every Thousand. In Knoxville, Tenn.
according to recent published official re
ports, eighteen white people out Of ever,
thousand die annually, while out Of thi
same number of colored thirty-two ever,
year In Mobile, Alabama, the whit
population numbers $1,000 and the color
ed $4,000 bat there is annually an averag
of 278 deaths among the colored to 81
among the whites. In New Orleans ther
ale $4,000 whites and 5000 colored.-
Twenty-six out of every thousand of th
whites and forty out OF every thousan,
of the colored die each year. In Charles
ton the whites humber "a, ESQ anclIthe col
ored Is ,587, butduring the period from
the LIST of June to the 9th of Novembe
In the present year /, ,48l PERSONS died, @
whom ,0@ we're colored and only as
whites. Let 1t be observed that in tn
lpubltc hospitals Of Charleston black ia
tients receive the same care and after
z ton given to the whites, yet they sti
die in the proportion OF two to one. l
looking TO the special causes of this di,
parity of deaths, one of the most discoul
Laying facts mentioned is that in man
parts of the South, as in the black belt Z
Alabama, for instance, the coiored peC
, pie frequently refuse TO allow themseiy
TO be treated by regular medical prac
titioners, preferring to rely upon tn
nOstrums and "charms" of their ow
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