Year: 1865

Probable Extinction of the Negro Race


We have already shown by statistics collect
ed before the civil war began, and by reason
Ings on those statistics completed by the head
Of the census bureau before the Emancipation
proclamation was published that the negro
population Of the United States were likely to
follow (though at a slower pace) in the same
road by which our Indian tribes are advancing
to certain extinction. We are now to show that
emancipation will hasten this result.


A part Of our proof must still depend on the
figures Of the census report. Between the years
1850 and 1860 the free negro population of our
northern cities declined; and the total increase
Of the whole free negro population Of the coun-
try was less than half as great, in proportion,
the increase Of the slaves and this in spite of
the fact that the free negroes were recruited by
large numbers of manumitted and fugitive slaves.
These facts prove that state Of freedom checks
the growth Of the negro population.


There was perhaps never people so favor
ably situated for allowing the provocative prn-
cipe its fullest vigOr as were the negroes in a
state of slavery. In a state Of freedom many
men do not marry at all, and many others defer
marriage till late period from doubts Of their
ability to support a family. Among the slaves,
this prudential check htc no place; or to ex-
press it IN Malthusian ia guage, population new
er pressed upon the means OF subsistence. The
slave population has accordingly multiplied
withoutany interposition of the voluntary check.
But even in this favorable condition, the in
crease Of the slaves WAS less than two-thirds as
great, in proportion, as that of the white popu-
latiOn Of the country; the whites increasing 38
per cent, and the slaves a little more than %
per cent A part of the disparity is due to white
immigration; but the difference is much greater
than immigration accounts for


The chief cause is, undoubtedly, the licen-
tous habits Of ths negroes. Of the colored
population, 364 per cent. are mulattoes. This
progeny of selt-convcted licentiousness proves
by implication, the illegitmacy of at least an
equal proportion of the pure blacks; for it is not
to be supposed that the negresses practice more
virtue toward their own race than toward the
whites. This licentiOusness operates as an im-
mediate check on population by rendering the
females less prolifc and as a remote, but more
efficient check, by reason Of the diminished te-
nacity Of existence Of mulatto stock. 1t has
been shown by researches in the West Indies,
and confirmed by the results of observation ev-
erywhere, that mulattoes seldom propagate be-
yOnd the third generation; and that, even in the
first generation, they are more subject to dis
ease, with larger prOportonate mortality, than
pure-blooded negroes. While, therefore, the
southern slaves were more fayoraby situated
for procreation than any other people that ever
existed, their moral degradation was more
powerful check than the difficulty Of supporting
a family, and consequent postponement of mar
riage, among our white population.


Now that the negroes are Free the check on
their increase which has heretofore existed viii
be reinforced by the prudential check. The
preference given by the employers Of labor to
the more energetic and capable white races, will
keep the negro population constantly pressing
upon the means Of subsistence; and this, the
greatest and most certain Of an checks to pOpu-
latiOn, will begin at once to act on the negroes
with force and steadiness unfelt by any other
class Of the people Of the United States. When
our population becomes dense, and its rapid
progress is arrested by the causes which ope-
rate in old countries, the feebest will fali first;
and the decaying remnants then left Of the ne
groes will easily succumb.


What we have described would take place
even if emancipation had been gradual, aud pre-
pared for by wise precautions. But its sudden
ness, and the general desttuton prevailing in
the South at the time it takes place, will terri
bly, aggravate its evils and accelerate the steps
by which the negroes are doomed to extinction.
Perhaps one-thrd of the emancipated are chill
dren, incapable, under any circumstances, OF ta-
king care of themselves. Thrown loose, with
out protectors, in the very crisis of destitution
amounting in large sections, to dearth they will
be swept away by scores of thousands, their pa
rents, in many cases, perishing with them. This
work of destruction is already proceeding with
great rapidity. The arrangement Of southern
industry is so great that little will be raised
this year, and the next year will also be year
of scarcity, in the South. A people above all
others untitled to struggle with difficulties, com
mence their life Of freedom in a state of abso-
lutte beggary, and in a community which has
wasted all its resources in a long war. A more
unfavorable combination of circumstances can
not be imagined. The figures of the next CEN
sus may, therefore, be expected to tell a fearful
tale of determination.


But even worse evils (if worse be possible)
seem to be in store for this doomed race. The
history Of Europe, up till within the last two or
three centuries, exhibits frequent vsitations of
terrible and wasting forms of pestilence, which
swept off and thinned out its population by
the wholesale Historians and physicians uni
versally agree in accounting for the frequent
visitation of those scourges, in former times, by
the fact that famines were more frequent in ear
ly periods, when industry was less productive.
a prolonged dearth so debilitates the constitu-