Geographical Distribution of the Negroes. The negro problem would not be so acute in certain sections of the country if negroes were distributed evenly over the country instead of being massed as they are in certain sections. Ninety per cent of the total number of negroes in the country live in the South Atlantic and South Central states. Moreover, over eighty per cent live in the so-called "Black Belt" states,—the "Black Belt" being a chain of counties stretching from Virginia to Texas in which over half of the population are negroes. The following table shows the percentage of negro population in these states of the "Black Belt":
Per cent.
Alabama……………………………………… 45.2
Arkansas…………………………………….. 28.0
Florida……………………………………… 43.6
Georgia……………………………………… 46.7
Louisiana……………………………………. 47.1
Mississippi………………………………….. 58.5
North Carolina……………………………….. 33.0
South Carolina……………………………….. 58.4
Tennessee……………………………………. 23.8
Texas……………………………………….. 20.4
Virginia…………………………………….. 35.7
While in only two of these states there is an absolute preponderance of negroes, yet these statistics give no idea of the massing of negroes in certain localities. In Washington County, Mississippi, for example, the negroes number 44,143, the whites 5002; in Beaufort County, South Carolina, the negroes number 32,137, the whites 3349. In many counties in the "Black Belt" more than three fourths of the population are negroes. It is in these states that the negro population is rapidly increasing.
Increase of Negro in States since 1860. The following table will show the percentage of negroes in the population in former slave-holding states in 1860 and in 1900:
States 1860 1900
Per cent Per cent
Alabama ……………… 45.4 45.2
Arkansas …………….. 25.6 28
Florida ……………… 44.6 43.6
Georgia ……………… 44 40.7
Kentucky …………….. 20.4 13.3
Louisiana ……………. 49.5 47.1
Maryland …………….. 24.9 19.8
Mississippi ………….. 55.3 58.5
Missouri …………….. 10 5.2
North Carolina ……….. 30.4 33
South Carolina ……….. 58.6 58.4
Tennessee ……………. 25.5 23.8
Texas ……………….. 30.3 20.4
Virginia …………….. 42 35.7
It will be noted that the states whose relative negro population has increased since the war are Arkansas, Mississippi, and Georgia, while in South Carolina and Alabama, the relative proportion of negroes has stood stationary.
In the decade from 1890 to 1900, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas of the above states showed a more rapid increase of their negro population than of their white population. In other Southern states, however, the white population increased more rapidly than the negro population, although in Georgia both races increased about equally.
In certain Northern states the census of 1900 shows the negro population to be increasing much more rapidly than the white population. In New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and Massachusetts, for example, the negro population increased about twice as fast as the white population, but the number of negroes in these states was still in 1900 comparatively small, New York having 99,000; Pennsylvania, 156,000, Illinois, 85,000, Indiana, 57,000; and Massachusetts, 31,000. This increase of negro population in certain Northern states is, of course, due to the immigration of the negro into those states, and may be regarded on the whole as a fortunate movement, serving to distribute the negro population more evenly over the whole country, were it not that the negro death rate in these Northern states is so very high that the negroes who go to these states do not as a rule maintain their numbers.