Why Colored People in Philadelphia Are Excluded from the Street Cars

by Benjamin P. Hunt

FOOTNOTES:

[1] According to the census of 1860, the proportion of the colored to the white population in the cities named below, was as follows:

Boston,	1 colored to	77-2/3 white.
New York,	1 " "	63½ "
Philadelphia,	1 " "	24½ "

In New Bedford, at the same census, the proportion was found to be one colored to 13½ white. The comparatively large number of colored people in that city is said to be due to the special kindness with which runaway slaves were received there, and to the fact that it afforded them a somewhat safe place of refuge, because it was out of the main line of travel.

[2] Our Southern negro English, uncouth as it sounds, is pure compared to that of the British Islands; and in the French West Indies and Hayti, the divergence between the creole patois and French is still wider. The negroes actually impressed the use of their dialect deeply upon the Whites, and to this day it is the colloquial language of all classes, whether educated or not, in these islands. The same negro ascendancy can be traced in their amusements. The Bamboula and the Calenda of the French islands and Hayti, and certain similar dances in Cuba, are, somewhat modified and restrained, still favorites with the white people. They are all African in their origin, and their type is lasciviousness. In the British islands these dances have in a great degree given way before the teachings of the Baptist, Methodist and Moravian missionaries.