IS THE NEGRO DYING OUT?
—In the lull of political agitation over the colored people, the question is being discussed as to their continuance. Are they dying out? What are the ascertained facts?
—A correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, in Jackson, Miss., has taken the pains to collate the deaths of the white and colored people in the various Southern cities. In Washington, during the year 1875, 19.22 died out of every thousand whites and 47.60 out of every thousand blacks. In the succeeding year, the proportion was 26.53 whites and 49.29 blacks. In Baltimore, the rate for 1875 was 19.80 whites to 34.42 blacks. In Knoxville, during 1876, the mortality per thousand whites was 18; per thousand blacks 31.2. In Richmond, for the same year, the rate was 17.36 whites, and 28.13 blacks. In Mobile, during the previous year, the proportion was 12.1 to 23.1. In New Orleans, the rate for the same year was 25.45 whites to 39.69 blacks. In Charleston, during the ten months of the present year, 17.4 out of every thousand whites have died, and 38.7 out of every thousand blacks. In Memphis in 1876, there were 652 deaths among the white population, and 601 among the negroes: in other words, considering the proportion of white and colored inhabitants, the death-rate among the negroes was nearly four times as great as among the whites.
—It has been suggested that these death-rates may not hold throughout the country places in the South, and that the cities whither the freedmen flocked after the close of the war have become peculiarly fatal to the race. In answer, the Charleston News and Courier states that the negroes of the rural parts of South Carolina are dying out even more rapidly than those in Charleston.
—The Scientific American deduces the following results, from the Surgeon-General’s report, as to comparative health and mortality in the army. For the year ending June 30, 1877, the army consisted of 23,284 white men and 2,075 colored men. Total cases of sickness of all kinds, 40,171; deaths, 260. Among colored troops, total sicknesses, 4,348; deaths, 32. The colored men’s sicknesses were 20 per cent. more than those of the whites; while in deaths, we find the proportion reversed, for only 7 per thousand of colored men died of disease, as against 8 per thousand of white men. In cases caused by wounds, accidents, or injuries, 8 per thousand negroes died, against 3 per thousand of white men. It thus appears that the negroes become diseased more easily than white men, and also recover more readily; but when actual bodily injury occurs, the death-rate is more than twice that of white men.
—The United States Census of 1860 showed the increase among the blacks in ten years to have been 25 per cent.; from 1860 to 1870 a little over 10 per cent., though these were years of war and want.
—In view of these statements, General Armstrong, of Hampton, Va., writes in the Southern Workman:
“Many close observers believe that the decrease is general, but equally good authorities assert the contrary. No conclusion is satisfactory; but we incline to the belief that the colored race will at least hold its own, because in the corresponding class of whites in all cities there is great mortality. It would be interesting to know the death-rate among the poor whites of Washington, Richmond and Charleston, whose dying out has never been hinted at. The negro is prolific. The phenomena of a dying race, such as one sees among the decaying Polynesian tribes are not seen among them. Children are abundant and healthy in city and country. The pickaninnies do not seem destined to die young. They are a numerous, frisky, healthy class, of unfailing humor and appetite, as unlike as anything can be the sore-spotted, scarce Hawaiian child, whose race is doomed.”