PROPORTION OF SLAVE OWNERS AND OF SLAVES IN THE POPULATION OF THE SOUTH, 1850 AND 1860.
| Per Cent. | ||||
| Per Cent. Owners— | Slaves— | Average | ||
| CENSUS YEAR. | Form of | Form of | Number of | |
| Total | White | Total | Slaves per | |
| Population. | Population. | Population. | Owner. | |
| 1860 | 3.2 | 5.1 | 34.5 | 11 |
| 1850 | 3.7 | 5.8 | 34.7 | 9 |
“These figures show that the slaves formed about one-third of the total population of that section, but that the owners of these slaves formed only between 5 and 6 per cent. of the white population and between 3 and 4 per cent. of the total population, the proportion being even lower in 1860 than in 1850.
“In 1900 there were 187,799 farms owned by Negroes, which was 25.2 per cent. of all farms operated by Negroes. In 1900 Negro farmers who owned all of the land they cultivated formed 83.3 per cent. of all Negro owners.
“If an estimate of the probable total farm wealth of the Negro farmers, June 1, 1900, be desired, the value of the live stock on rented farms, of which a large share generally belongs to the tenants, should be added. That value for the colored tenants was $57,167,206. Adding this sum to the preceding total, it appears the value, June 1, 1900, of the farm property belonging to Negroes was approximately $200,000,000, or a little less than $300 for each Negro farmer.
“This estimate, however, takes no account of property owned by Negroes and rented out to either Negroes or whites.... Therefore, we are probably justified in adding 15 per cent. to the above estimated value of property owned by Negro farmers in continental United States, thus bringing the total up to $230,000,000.
“The value of the land in farms of all colored owners in continental United States in 1900—including the value of the supplementary land rented, which, if we assume it to be of the same average value as the rest, amounted to about $7,500,000—was $102,022,601. While some of the land is very good, most of it is poor, being often practically worn out or disadvantageously situated as regards a market.”[32]
Statistics relating to the number of farms, acreage, and value of all farm property, including land, improvements, implements, machinery, and livestock, may be found in the Twelfth Census and in the Census Bulletin No. 8, relating to Negroes in the United States in 1900, table 69, page 308.
In this table it is shown that the total number of farm-property owners including Negro, Indian, and Mongolian farmers is 174,434, owning land and improvements, implements, and machinery valued at $150,557,251, and part owners, 30,501, owning $27,358,225.
Georgia has been not infrequently cited as a State in which the Negro has thriven somewhat exceptionally. It contains more Negroes than does any other State, having, by the census of 1900, 1,034,813 Negroes. In 1860 it contained 465,698, so that the Negroes have since that time increased there at the rate of 142,279 every ten years. The Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 35, July 1901, contains a valuable paper by Prof. Du Bois on the Negro landholder in Georgia, based on a close study of the conditions of the Negro in that State. Among other matters he gives a table containing the assessed value of all property owned by Negroes in Georgia from 1874 to 1900: