Year: 1877

TIE DOOMED RACE.


ace Melancholy Figures Relating 10


ghe Decline Of the Negro Race


ia the AOuth-What the Next


Census ~ III show.


II. V. Redfield writes from Chatta-
nooga to the Cincinnati Commercial;


Mr.. Beadle, of the Gazette, writing
from Memphis, makes the discovery that
the blacks in that city are dying from
two to three times faster than the
whites. This is matter l have given
much attention to for the past five years
and the state of things in this regard Mr..
Beadle finds in Memphis applies to every
city in the south. AT different times |
have collected statistics in Memphis,
Nashville, Charleston, Columbia, Rich
mond, Chattanooga Vicksburg, Atlanta,
and Washington, and always with the
same result. The average ofblack deaths
to white, taking all these cities together,
and one year with another, with relative
population Of course as a basis-is more
than two to one, that IS the black race in
the southern cities is dying off more than
twice rs fast az the white Washington,
under the very nose of the government,
and where there Is A philanthropic effort
to teach the blacks how TO live, the
black death-rste keeps up with that in
Richmond and other southern cities
where the efforts to elevate the negro are
not conspicuous. DO not refer here to
the elevation which comes merely from
common school education-for nearly all
southern cities have made and are making
praiseworthy efforts in this direction
but to the elevation and benefit which
come from learning them how 10 care for
their bodily health.


The average negro has little more idea
Of sanitary rules and the laws OF health
than s horse. And they are almost as
hard to learn as so many horses. Per
haps this Is broad statement, but the
failures l have met in trying 10 teach
/ those of the race who happened to be in
nv employ so simple thing as to keep
/ out OF q cold draughC when heated, il my
! excuse for an observation that may seem
| extreme. Ihad almosta as soon undertake
topersuade a negro to vote the democratic
ticket as TO keep him out of draughts
when heated or from sitting around half
day with wet feet. l have often seen
negroes at work upon the river loading
q boat, and when through and covered
with perspiration, lie down where the
wind would strike them freshest. An
attempt to gently remind them OF the
danger OF this is almost always met with
" Oh, I'm hot, and want 10 cool off" And
cool off they do, and the grave yard
gathers them in rapidly.


In the cities the mass of them live in
novels and in dirt and filth, with no more
sanitary knowledge or care for it than 30
many animals of lower order Cholera,
smallpox, typhoid fever, gallOping con
sumption, and every disease that thrives
from filth, bad air, and bad food, stalk
among them and destroy them like frost
cutting green leaves in autumn. In the
country there is. less Of this, less filth, bad
air, dampness and insufficient food, and
the problem as to the future of the race
simply Is, whether the natural increase in
the country will make up for the averages
Of death in the cities / think 1t will for
time, and the race may hold it's own as
to numbers for generation or two, but
that death will ultimately get the best
OF 1t, and kill more than are born. l also
believe it is doomed race in America,
but the doom is long way OF. OF one
thing you may be sure. the increase under
tbs slave system, amounting to about
twenty-five per cent. every ten years,
viii never be seen again.


The census of 1880 will teach us a num-
Der of things as to this problem, the
main one, in my judgment, being that
the race is not increasing 1t will likely
hold lis own, as compared with the last
census, but the increase viii be very
small, if any. We have a striking evil
dence of what to expect even in the cen
sus of 1870, embracing come four years of
slavery and six of freedom. From 1850
ITO 1860 the increase among the blacks was
twenty-five per cent. From 1860 to 1870
it was only ten per cent, less than one
half The next census will set out the
matter so that there can be no doubt
whether the race is to increase, decrease,
or barely hold its own.


In slavery the master and the white
population generally had a direct pecu-
niarv interest in the physical welfare of
the negro. He represented 50 much cash.
1t was the masters interest to protect
th, health of his slave, and he had the
authority to order as was best for that
interest. The result WIS that the blacks
of the south were actually healthier and
longer lived than the whites, and in
creased more rapidly. This last is abun-
/ dantIv shown is.1he census reports. The
diet of the blacks was simple but nutri-
tious. The vices of fast living end
intemperance were not theirs. Now
they are prey to all vices, without the
restraining influence of knowledge.


Whatever the crimes of slavery, it is
clear that the race does not thrive In
freedom. IF the welfare of race is
marked by its increase, as some contend,
the believers in African slavery as good
thing for the African have an argument
here. I have heard the question put in
this shape Is it better for the negroes
that they increase and flourish in America
as slaves, or that they die out as free
men? Is there more happiness in exist
ence as a slave, or in not existing at all ?


Nobody advocates slavery these days.
The sentiment against it is deep and
strong. even where the institution few
years ago had fiourishing existence. 1t