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Contents

I. Slavery in the Colony of Pennsylvania.  5
II. Abolition of Slavery  13
III. The Free People of Color  26
IV. Negro Population Since the Civil War  52
V. Occupation of Negroes  70
— ^VI. Business Enterprises  82
VII . Ownership of Property  103
VIII. The Church and Secret Societies  110
IX. Education.  123
X. The Negro and Crime.  140
XI. Poverty Among Negroes  159
XII. Inter-Racial Contact and Social Progress.  166
XIII. Conclusions  182
XIV. Appendix  203

The Negro In Pennsylvania

SLAVERY IN THE COLONY OF PENNSYLVANIA

When the Colony of Pennsylvania was founded by
William Penn, Negro slavery was a recognized institution
in the New World. The Dutch and Swedes, who settled
along the Delaware, had slaves. But whence these slaves
came and how many they were, or what was their exact lo
cation, is not positively known. It is known, however, that
as early as 1639, an offender, named Coinclesse, was sen
tenced by the authorities of Manhattan for wounding a sol
dier £(.t Fort Amsterdam, to "serve along with blacks, to be
sent by the first ship to South River" (The Delaware).
And in 1677, o"^ James Sunderlands, is said to have been a
slaveholder in the Delaware neighborhood.
When William Penn secured his charter and framed
the laws for the government of his colony, he intended to
give the greatest personal freedom to all who came to the
new land. To The Free Society of Traders, who purchased
some 20,000 acres of ground, Penn granted extensive privi
leges, and jurisdiction over their own land. In their articles
of settlement is the following: "It (The Free Society of
Traders) is a very unusual society ; for it is an absolutely
free one and in a free country ; a society without oppression,
wherein all may be concerned that will and yet have the
same liberty of private traffic as though there were no so
ciety at all." In this quite liberal description Negroes were,
however, not included; for in the following paragraph, the
-society declared as a further inducement for colonists to
come to the Pennsylvania country, "Black servants to be
S

The Negro In Pennsylvania

free at fourteen years, on giving the society two-thirds of
what they can produce on land allotted to them by the so
ciety, with stocks and tools ; if they agree not to do this, to
be servants until they do." Thus, at the very beginning,
the founders of Pennsylvania sanctioned Negro servitude,
stating in very clear language the handicap under which
Negroes must live and labor.
. The Penn Colony arrived in the country in 1682.
Though there is no record of any of them owning slaves at
this time, it is probable that slaves were early procured by
niany. James Claypoole, of England, on deciding to come
to Pennsylvania in 1682, wrote as follows : "I have a great
drawing on my mind to remove with my family thither, so
that I am given up, if the Lord clears the way, to be gone
by next spring. Advise me in thy next, what I might have
two Negroes for that they might be fit for cutting down
trees, building, plowing or any sort of labor that is requir
ed ili the first planting of a country." In 1684, just two
years after the founding of the colony, one Cornelius Bonn,
is said to have had a Negro whom he "bought." In the
same year, among the goods of William Pomfret, of Bucks
County, which were levied on by Gilbert Wheeler was
"one man" supposed to be a Negro slave. There is
also evidence which seems to show that William Penn him
self approved of slavery, that he used slaves, and probably
owned some. In his cash book, one "Dorcas," a colored
woman, is mentioned by him. In a letter to James Harri
son, his steward, under date of August 25, 1685, he wrote
from England: "I have sent a gardener by this ship, or
he soon follows, with all requisites ; a man of recommended
great skill. Let him have what help he can, not less than
two or three at any time ; he will cast things into a proper
posture. He has his passage paid, thirty pounds at three
years, sixty acres of land and a month in the year to him-

A Study In Economic History

self, nqt hindering my business, and he is to train two men
and a boy in the art. It were better that they were blacks
for then, a man has them while they live." Two months
later, October 4th, 1685, he wrote again: "The blacks of
Captain Allen, I have as good as bought; so part not with
them without my order." There are other evidences that
he had slaves, but none that he ever possessed a large num
ber of them at any one time.
It seems therefore that after the settlers of Pennsyl
vania began the actual work of settlement, they fell some
what from the high ideals of human liberty as set forth by
the Free Society of Traders, while they were still in Lon
don. Negroes were found to be useful in "cutting down
trees, building, plowing, and any sort of labor that is requir
ed in the first planting of a country." Economic necessity
thus forced upon the liberty-loving Pennsylvania commun
ity, human servitude, as it had also upon other colonies.
And about 1700, slavery became a recognized institution in
the Quaker Colony.
The Pennsylvania colonists procured their slaves
chiefly from the West Indies and from the surrounding col
onies on the mainland of America. Very few, however,
came direct from Africa. Slaves were sold for from forty
to a hundred pounds sterling. In 1700 slaves were numer
ous enough to call for special attention from the Philadel
phia Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends. The sub
ject was brought up by no less a personage than William
Penn himself, for "his mind had long been engaged for the
benefit and welfare of the Negroes." Penn, with the con
sent of the Colonial Council, also recommended special leg
islation for Negroes. Slavery seemed to be taken as a mat
ter of course. Nothing is heard of the emancipation after
fourteen years' service, provided for in the plans of the
Free Society of Traders. In 1683, Penn wrote a long let-

8 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ter to the Free Society of Traders, making mention of the
important things relating to the Colony but said nothing
of Negroes. For half a century the trade in slaves increas
ed, not however without evoking some hostility from the
Quakers and other anti-slavery colonists.
Newspapers contained frequent advertisements con
cerning slaves. Indeed, half of the advertising matter of the
American Weekly Mercury, Pennsylvania's first news
paper, consisted of advertisements for the sale of Negroes,
or for the apprehending of Negro slaves or other servants.
Slavery reached its height in Pennsylvania between
1750 and 1763 and from the latter date, began to decline.
There are but few statistics of Negroes in the Colony ; and
in the literature of the early times there are but few ref
erences from which to form a trustworthy estimate of the
number of slaves. But from the legislation of the times, the
increasing number of protests of the abolitionists and other
references, it is probable that slaves must have existed in
the Colony in considerable numbers. In 1775, 2,000 slaves
were held in the beginning by all classes, but became more
and niore characteristic of the English, Welsh and Scotch.
Irish settlements and less of the German and Quaker set
tlements. On the whole it may be said that as compared with
other colonies, the slavery which existed in Pennsylvania
was mild. Yet there was a distinct status ; first, on ac
count of race and religion, and secondly, due to the in
fluence of the general condition of slavery existing in the
Colonies around Pennsylvania. The Constitution of 1682
recognized the status of the black servant as differing from
that of the white servant in that the former was a servant
for at least 14 years, while there was no specified time for
the servitude of the white servant — the time being usually
from four to six years. In the second place, the black ser-

A Study In Economic History

vant might be freed, not however to become an independent
member of the community but to remain under the patron
age of some person , receiving tools, stocks, etc., from him
and returning therefor, two-thirds of his produce. If the
black servant refused this freedom he became a servant for
life. On the contrary, the white servant, on working out
his time, came into possession of a number of acres of land
and became thereafter an independent member of the col
ony. The first special legislative action with regard to Ne
groes in Pennsylvania was a law passed by the City Coun
cil of Philadelphia, in 1693 "against tumultuous gatherings
of Negroes of the old town of Philadelphia on the first day
of the week." By this law, constables or others were au
thorized "to take up Negroes, male or female, whom they
should find gadding abroad, on the first day of the week,
without a ticket from their master or mistress, or not in
their company, to carry them to jail and there to cause
them to remain that night and without meat or drink, or
to cause them to be whipped publicly." In 1700, seven
years later, colonial legislation looking toward separate
treatment of blacks and whites was suggested by William
, Penn himself. This was the beginning of Pennsylvania's
"Black Code." There were three laws proposed, two of
which were enacted. The first and most important was
"An Act for the Trial of Negroes," which was passed
November 27, 1700. This Act stated that "some difficul
ties have arisen within this province and territory about
the manner of trial and punishment of Negroes committing
murder, manslaughter, buggery, burglary, rape, attempted
rape, sodomy." It remained in force until 1705 when it was
repealed by the law of January 12, 1705-6. The new law
provided life imprisonment and thirty-nine lashes every
three months during the first year of such imprisonment

10 The Nf^ro In Pennsylvania
for any Negro convicted of sodomy or buggery; an at
tempt at rape or robbery of more than five pounds, sterling,
made him liable to branding with a letter "R," or "T,"
and exportation. This act remained in force until slavery
was abolished in 1780. In 1765, however, another "Act for
the Trial of Negroes" was passed. This act provided that
the exportation of the Negro convicted of robbe/y or rape,
be at the expense of the master and also that the Negro
convicted should "never return on pain of death."
The other act, suggested by William Penn and which
was enacted by the colonial legislature, was for the "Better
Regulation of Servants in the Province," etc., which was
passed November 27, 1700. A third law was also proposed
by him to regulate marriage among slaves but did not pass.
Afccording to an act passed August 26, 1721, persons
were prohibited from selling liquor to Negroes. The prin
cipal law in Pennsylvania's "Black Code" was that passed
March 26, 1725-26, entitled "An Act for the better regula
tion of Negroes in this Province," which defined the status
of the Negro not only as a slave but as a free man. This
legislation provided for compensating the owner in case a
slave was executed for crime; restricted the free Negroes
and compelled them to work, forbade inter-race marriage,
required slaves away from home to have passes and for
bade the keeping or hiding of slaves without knowledge
and consent of their masters.
The laws of the colonies discriminated very sharply
between a Negro and a white person. The discrimination
originating, perhaps, in an attempt to place the slave at the
same time in two separate categories, that of a rational and
responsible human being and that of property. Although
the Negro slave was property, he was not to be treated as
a horse or a cow, but as a person ; still not as a white per
son. Later there were distinctions made between the slave

A Study In Economic History 1 1
and the free Negro, and between the free Negro and the j
white person. In the latter case, although the free Negro j
was no longer considered property, he was considered dis- /
tinctly different from white persons.
Some of the discriminations were as follows; As to
morals, it seemed to be taken for granted that the Negro
had few and was only punishable for moral offences in
which whites were involved. For adultery, a white person
was imprisoned one year and fined fifty pounds and the in
jured party allowed to divorce, with heavier penalties for
later offences. For adultery or fornication between Ne
groes, even free Negroes, there does not seem to have been
any punishment whatever, but if a Negro and a white per-i
son were involved, the Negro was to be sold as a servant
for seven years. The law against inter-race marriage pro
vided that a white person, who may be convicted of such!
offence, shall be fined thirty pounds or suffer the penalty
of being sold as a servant for seven years. But for a free;
Negro, there was no alternative but to become a slave for,
life. For rape a white man was publicly whipped, not ex
ceeding thirty-one lashes and given seven years imprison
ment. If unmarried, he forfeited all his estate; if married,
he forfeited a third of his estate. For the second offence
he was ostracised and branded with 'R" on his forehead.
For the same crime by a Negro with "any white woman
or maid" the black offender suffered death; and for at
tempted rape, a Negro was castrated. There does not
seem to be any punishment for the rape of a Negro woman,
whether the offender be white or black. Negroes were
punished by death for murder, manslaughter, buggery, bur
glary and rape. Whites were so punished only for murder
in the first degree. For sodomy or buggery a white man
was imprisoned for life and whipped during the first year.
Strict laws were made against Negroes drinking or remain-

12 The Negro In Pennsylvania

ing out later than nine o'clock at night or wandering
through the country or competing with white men, etc.
Whites were tried by a jury of their peers of freeholders,
but Negroes by two justices and six freeholders. For pun
ishment, whites were generally fined or imprisoned; Ne
groes were generally whipped. The law against trafficing
with servants provided for a fine for the white master, a
term of servitude for the white servant, but "if the servant
be black he shall be severely whipped." For firing a gun
or other arms, making or selling fireworks, in Philadelphia,
the fine was five shillings or two days' imprisonment, but
if such offender be a Negro or Indian slave, instead of im
prisonment, he was publicly whipped.
So far as the laws of the colony go, there is evidence
that Pennsylvania took but little legal notice of the fact
that Negroes might be morally improved. There were laws
on the statute books of the colony and state for nearly a
hundred years, which were calculated only to inspire Ne
groes with fear, to discourage individual initiative on their
part, to emphasize the difference between whites and blacks,'
to create a status of inferiority for the Negro, the eiffect
of which was to put even the free Negro beneath the white
servant. Although every protection was thrown around
white women, there was no hint of protection of Negro
women against white men or against men of their own race.
So far as the laws of Pennsylvania were concerned the
Negro woman was not recognized to have any virtue. The
one effort made by William Penn, in 1700, to give moral
standing to the Negroes by regulating marriage among
them, was defeated in the Assembly and there the matter
rested for many years. The beginning of the Negro race in
this State was under a moral handicap as well as an eco
nomic handicap.

A Study In Economic History 13

THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

Notwithstanding the fact that Pennsylvania drew sharp
lines between Negroes and whites, and by her laws laid
the foundation for a black caste and a white caste, yet to
the people of this State is due much credit for instituting
many of the most fruitful efforts against the slave system.
This contradictory position may be accounted for by two
things: first, to the favorable attitude of the British gov
ernment regarding slavery in its colonies, and second, to the
contrary attitude represented chiefly by the Quakers. In
this contradictory position we see in bold relief the struggle
between the economic and moral elements of our early
colonial society. It was presumed economic necessity
which caused slavery to take root and to flourish in the
Colony of Pennsylvania. The moral sense of the colony,
however, was never entirely crushed by its economic needs.
Long before the economic advantage of free as against
slave labor was clearly demonstrated, in this colony, for
purely moral and religious reasons, vigorous protests against
slavery were published. Pennsylvania might well be called
the parent of the movement for the abolition of Negro
slavery. For not only was the first protest against slave
trade in this country made here, but here the underground
railroad was probably started; here the first abolition society
was formed ; here the first anti-slavery society was organ
ized ; here was the first trial of gradual abolition by law, and
here numerous pioneer movements for the emancipation
of the slaves and the betterment of, the condition of the
freedmen found fertile soil and vigorous growth.
There were possibly three distinct factors which
brought about the abolition of slavery in the colony. 'The

14 The Negro In Pennsylvania
first of these was religious sentiment, represented chiefly
by the Quakers, who based their opposition to slavery on
the principle of brotherhood as taught by Jesus. They
made no excuse or allowance for economic needs and oittn
found themselves in direct opposition to the opinion of
the times. The first recorded protest against slavery in
America was that by the German Friends of Germantown,
near Philadelphia, in 1688, six years after the founding of
the Pennsylvania Colony. These Germans, a simple God
fearing, liberty-loving people, were quick to see the. utter
incompatibility of slavery and Christianity. For them, the
economic motive was not the ruling motive of life. The
original document containing the protest was lost and was
not discovered until 1846, when Nathan Kite found and
published it in "The Friend," the organ of the Society of
Friends. These Friends considered the Negroes as men
and brethren with a right of freedom to their bodies. They
concluded their protest with this exhortation, "Now con
sider well this thing, (slavery) if it is good or bad. And
in case you find it to be good to handle these blacks in that
manner, we desire and require you hereby, lovingly, that
you may inform us herein what at this time never was
done, viz: That Christians have such liberty so to do. To
the end, we may be satisfied and satisfy likewise, our good
friends and acquaintances in our native country, that men
should be handled so in Pennsylvania."
This protest was drawn up at a meeting held in Ger
mantown February 18, 1688. The action of this and other
meetings showed that the protest was far in advance of
the times. The Monthly Meeting declared that the matter
was "so weighty" that it was "not expedient" to be handled
there. They referred it to the Quarterly Meeting which
also refused to take a definite ^tand regarding it, de
claring that it was "a thing too great in weight for this

A Study In Economic History 15
meeting to determine." The Yearly Meeting at Philadel
phia found itself in the same predicament and refused to'
take action. At this time, it seems that not even the Friends
as a body were strong enough to take a decided stand
against slavery; for the slaves seemed necessary, to the
majority of them, for the development of the new country.
The next protest was that which George Keith, a Quaker,
made at a meeting of Friends in Philadelphia about 1693.
In 1696, "a minute of advice" was sent by the Yearly Meet
ing cautioning Friends as follows : "Whereas, several pa
pers have been read relating to the keeping and bringing
in of Negroes ; which being duly considered it is the advice
of this meeting that the Friends be careful not to encour
age the bringing of any more Negroes and that such as
have Negroes, be careful to bring them to meetings, have
meetings with them in their families and restrain them from
.loose and lewd living as much as in them lies and from
rambling abroad on first days and other times." William
Penn brought to the attention of the Philadelphia Monthly
Meeting the matter of Negroes and that meeting put it on
record, "That Friends ought to be very careful in discharg
ing good conscience towards them in all respects, but much
more especially for the good of their souls." In 1715, the
Yearly Meeting went on record against the importation of
slaves declaring, "If any Friends are concerned in the im
portation of Negroes let them be dealt with and advised
to avoid that practice." In 1716, the Quarterly Meeting at
Chester tried to commit the Friends against buying and
selling slaves, but without success. Nothing more practi
cal was done until 1729, when the Chester Meeting again
urged against Friends dealing in slaves; this after a year,
was adopted as the advice by the Yearly Meeting of 1730,
and was repeated from time to time. In 1743 a special

16 The Negro In Pennsylvania

query was adopted, "Do Friends observe the advice of the
Yearly Meeting not to encourage the Importation of Ne--
groes, nor to buy them after imported?" In 1754, a very
urgent letter was circulated among the Friends by the
Yearly Meeting advising against trading in slaves. In
1755 another step was made; the disciplinary question
was asked, "Are Friends clear of importing or buying Ne
groes, and do they use those well that they are possessed
of by inheritance or otherwise, endeavoring to train them
up in the principles of the Christian religion?" In 1755,
the Yearly Meeting also decided to disown all members
of the Society who traded in Negroes. In 1766, it was de
cided to disown all those members who did not manumit
their slaves.
This steady development in the attitude of Friends
seems almost ideal, but it is always easier to pass resolu
tions than to act. The resolution to disown slave traders
in 1755 was not followed by a wholesale disowning, though
some Quakers did engage in the trade. After 1758, there
were many who manumitted their slaves, but quite a large
number still retained them, which led to the adoption of
the severe measures in 1776. But even this could not be,
vigorously enforced. Some were holding slaves two years
after the resolution of 1776. In 1777, the Friends Quar
terly Meeting in Bucks County, reported that some of their
number had liberated their slaves, but that others still per
sisted in holding them. The following year several mem
bers in Philadelphia were disowned for holding slaves. In
this year also, Sarah Crowden and Joseph Lovett, members
of the Falls Meeting, Bucks County, were dealt with for
refusing to free their Negroes. As late as the registra
tion of slaves in Bucks County, in 1782, slaves were re
tained by Quakers.

A Study In Economic History 17
Some difficulties in the way of manumission often made
it hard for persons of moderate means to free their slaves.
Because a certain type of slaveholders, in some of the colo
nies mantimitted the old and infirm slaves, who afterward
became a burden upon the colony, several colonies had at
tempted to protect themselves by requiring the former mas
ter to give security for his manumitted slave, in case the
latter should become a public charge. Pennsylvania
adopted such a law in 1726. The difficulty under which
one labored who desired to manumit his tslaves may be
illustrated by the following instance in Bucks County:
"Thomas Lancaster, Sr., a member of the Plymouth
Meeting and the owner of a farm of 200 acres in White-
marsh, having been prevailed upon by the Society, after
several years entreaty, at length consented." The follow
ing were the conditions imposed upon him to carry out
this measure legally, according to the royal requirements:
"At a General Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace, held
for the city and county of Philadelphia, 6th of June, A. D.,
1774, Thomas Lancaster of Whitemarsh township, in this
county, yoeman, acknowledges himself to be held and
firmly bound unto our sovereign lord, the King, in the
sum of thirty pounds lawful money of Pennsylvania, to be
levied on his goods, chattels, lands and tenements, to the
use of our said lord, the King." "That, whereas, the said
Thomas Lancaster hath manumitted and set free from
slavery a certain Negro man named Cato, aged about forty-
six years, and if the said Thomas Lancaster, his executors
and administrators, shall do well and truly hold and keep
harmless and indemnified the Overseers of the Bar, of the
City and County of Philadelphia, respectively from all
costs, charges and incumbrances whatsoever, which shall
or may happen to accrue in case the said Negro man shall

18 The Negro In Pennsylvania
be sick or ofherwise rendered incapable of supporting him
self; then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to be
and remain in full force and virtue, agreeable to an Act of
Assembly in such cases made and provided."
In time, economic necessity which helped to establish
slavery, also helpe'd to destroy it. In the first few years,
while the Negroes were profitable for pioneer work, the
moral and religious arguments such as were advanced
by the German friends, Lay and Sandiford, and others ap
parently fell on deaf ears. Men devoted themselves in reli
gion to other matters not so intimately associated with
their "economic needs. But as years passed economic ne
cessity did not favor an extensive system of slavery in
Pennsylvania such as existed in the South. Economic con
ditions reinforced the religious and moral forces and has
tened the death of slavery, as a system, in Pennsylvania.
The quality of work which the colonists had for slave labor
was such as tended ultimately to discourage the devel
opment of a great slave system. In the early days, there
was great demand for slaves to do the heavy pioneer work
of clearing the forests, but as there was less and less of
this to do, and as the easy terms upon which white ser
vants could be induced to come to the colony, caused the
number of white immigrants to increase, the actual demand
for Negro workers decreased. For white servants were a
better investment than Negro slaves. A white servant
could be secured for four or five years for the cost of his
transportation from Europe, while a Negro cost consider
ably more.
The colonist kept the white servants during these four
or five years, and at the end of this period his responsibility)
ended. But with the Negro slave, his responsibility did
not end until the death of the Negro. For even if he manu-

A Study In Economic History 19
mitted the Negro slave, he must still be responsible for
him in case of sickness or extreme poverty. This, added
to the fact that the white workmen were chiefly voluntary
immigrants, were generally more intelligent than the slave,
often spoke the same language as their employers, were of
their race and religion, and above all, possessed what the
Negro slave because of his servitude, could not possess,
ambition to make their way in the new country — these
things made the indentured servant or the redemptioner,
far more profitable to the Pennsylvania colonists, after the
first years of rough pioneer work were past, than the
Negro slave. As white servants increased, slave labor be
came less and less profitable and the economists were the
more and more in favor of a restriction on slavery.
The opposition of free labor to slave labor took definite
form in the shape of a protest of white mechanics and day
laborers against the practice of masters hiring out their
slaves. The protest stated "That the practice of blacks^
being employed was a great disadvantage to them who
had emigrated from Europe for the purpose of obtaining a
livelihood; that they were poor and honest; they therefore.
hoped a law would be prepared for the prevention of the'
employment of blacks." In accordance with this the Gen
eral Assembly put itself on record against the principle
of masters hiring out their slaves, declaring that the prin
ciple was "dangerous and injurious to the republic and not
to be sanctioned." And four years later, the legislature
forbade masters to permit their Negro slaves from hiring
their time. Up to 1726, the objection from the economic
side was not as fo slavery as a system, but as to the kind
of labor slaves should do. It seems to be conceded that a
slave should do the work of his own master but not, as
in the early days, the work of others. This should be re-

20 The Negro In Pennsylvania
served for free laborers. This restriction was, however, a
blow to the system, for it removed the temptation to in
crease the number of slaves beyond one's personal needs.
It also tended to make slave labor more costly than free
^labor. For the fact that the slave must be kept the whole
year and fed and clothed, without the p'rivilege of being
hired out, made him a burden in dull times.
The nature of the employments of the colony made
slavery even less profitable as a permanent system. The
work of the colony needed intelligence. There were no
occupations, such as extensive cotton or tobacco growing,
in which a large number of ignorant laborers could be used
with profit. What farming was done must be intensive
rather than extensive and could be carried on best by free
labor. One person could not therefore keep a large num
ber of slaves. The chief work which the slaves did was to
help at gardening and in domestic service. Now and then
they helped in skilled mechanical occupations. There is
mention at a very early time of Negro blacksmiths. But the
very nature of these employments which needed only a few
persons, led to the restriction of slavery. It may be also
,that the climate had much to do with the death of slavery
in the state. Though not so cold as New England, the
winter is just cold enough and long enough to differentiate
it from Virginia and other states further South. There is
snow on the ground the greater part of the winter. The
time for growth of agricultural products is comparatively
short. But the climate had, possibly, another important
influence. Although there are no serious complaints as to
the death and sickness of the Negroes, it might be inferred
that their sick and death rates were quite high, making
it difficult for them to rear many healthy children. For
most of the Negroes or their parents came from the west

A Study In Economic History 21
coast of Africa, between Senegal and the Congo, which is
a part of the Torrid Zone, from ten degrees below to fifteen
degrees above the Equator. Here, they had never known
snow or cold climate. Many of those who came to Penn
sylvania were born in Africa, or were the children and
grandchildren of native Africans. In coming to Pennsyl
vania, they came to the North Temperate Zone, a distance
from thirty to forty-five degrees. In making this migra
tion, the Negroes were among the first peoples of the Tor
rid Zone to have done so successfully in historical times.
But it took generations to adapt themselves, and during
these first years, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they
suffered from a very heavy death rate; all of which tended
to make slavery less and less profitable.
Many of the most thoughtful men of the times saw that
slavery was not only morally wrong but economically un
profitable and set themselves against it. Benjamin Frank
lin became a member of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society,
and was its president at one time. Writing of the labor of
slaves, he thus states the case in his characteristically prac
tical way : "It is an ill-grounded opinion; that by the labor
of slaves, America may possibly vie in cheapness with Bri
tain. The labor of slaves can never be so cheap as the labor
of workingmen in Britain. Any one may compute it. In
terest is in the colonies from 6 to lo per cent. Slaves, one
with another, cost thirty pounds sterling per head. Reckon
then the interest on the first purchase of a slave, the insur
ance or risk of his life ; his clothing and diet, expense in his
sickness and loss of time, loss by neglect of business (ne
glect is natural to a man who is not to be benefited by his
own care or diligence), expense of a driver to keep him at
work and his pilfering from time to time, almost every slave
being a natural thief, and compare the whole amount with

22 The Negro In Pennsylvania
the wages of a manufacturer of iron or wool in England,
you will see that labor is much cheaper there than it ever
can be by the Negroes here."
A third obstacle to the development of slavery in Penn
sylvania was the spirit of independence and the enthusiasm
for the equality of all men, a spirit much akin indeed to the
religious sentiment above referred to, which as one of the
foundation stones of the philosophy of the times, came as
a climax to the revival of learning. Toward the end of the
eighteenth century men were taken with a positive and
rather sudden zeal for humanity, for freedom, equality and
fraternity. In France, the practical result of this was the
revolt against monarchy, known as the French Revolution.
In America, the result was a revolt against foreign rule and
an assertion of political independence. The American
Declaration of Independence declared, "all men are created
equal ;" and many of the signers of that document believed
that this freedom and equality ought to extend to black as
well as white men. Then, too, the part that Negroes took
in the Revolutionary War made a profound impression on
the minds of many. In Pennsylvania and in the North,
economic conditions were such that this spirit of liberty
could have its full effect so far as the Negroes' bodily free
dom was concerned.
The legislative attempt to restrict slavery and the slave
trade represents a politico-economic movement in which the
politics was dominated by economic necessity. At first, the
legislative attempt had but little success. One reason for
this was, that the Legislature or General Council of Penn
sylvania had but little power in itself. Its laws had to pass
for review before the English Government and at that time
it was thought to be advantageous to England to push the
slave trade as far as possible. By the treaty of Utrecht, the
Eritish secured privileges which stimulated the trade more

A Study In Economic History 23
than ever before. Up to the time of the Revolutionary ¦
War, we have but one act in Pennsylvania, which was de
signed to prohibit the importation of slaves outright. But
this act, which was entitled, "An act to prevent the impor
tation of Negroes and Indians into this province,'' was in
spired by the fear of Negroes more than the love of free
dom. It was passed June 7, 1712 and was repealed Febru
ary 20, 1713, and was never enforced. In this same year,
1712, William Southbe, an ardent abolitionist, applied to
the Pennsylvania Assembly for a declaration of freedom to
all Negroes. To this, the Assembly resolved that it was
neither practical nor convenient to set them at liberty. A
series of duty acts was enacted between 1700 and 1780
which were designed more for the raising of revenue than
for prohibiting the slave trade. The first of these passed
November 27, 1700, was entitled, "An act for granting an
impost upon wines, rum, beer, ale, cider, etc., imported, re
torted and sold in this province and territories." Section 2,
provided "for every Negro, male or female, imported, if
above sixteen, twenty shillings ; for every Negro under the
age of sixteen, six shillings." Six years later, January 12,
1706, the duty was raised to forty shillings for each slave
except those who had lived two years in this country. In
1 710, Section 28 of another act confirmed the duty of forty
shillings of the act of 1706 and made it general for all im
ported Negroes. Within two months of this last act, came
another act of February 28, 171 1, under the same title, "An-
impost act, laying a duty on Negroes, etc.," which affirmed
the duty of forty shillings on Negroes not imported for the
use of the importer. This duty was in force until February
20, 1713-1714, when it was repealed by a new "act for laying
a duty on Negroes imported into this province," which plac
ed the duty at five pounds, and made the restriction that the

24 The Negro In Pennsylvania
slaves of persons immigrating to the colony must not be
sold for twelve months. This was repealed July 21, 1719-
There were other acts laying duties and confirming previ
ous acts. February 22, 1717-18, an act was passed continu
ing the duty of five pounds, but providing that the slaves
of immigrants should be entered free, if they be not sold
for sixteen months. This act was continued by an act Feb
ruary 24, 1725-26, and that in turn by an act May 12, 1722,
and again on March 5, 1725-1726, this time providing an ad
ditional five pounds to the duty. None of these acts was ever
considered by the Crown, and all were allowed to become
laws merely by the lapse of time. The last of this series
was in 1729, when the duty was fixed at two pounds. After
1729 there were no more "Duty Acts" in Pennsylvania for
thirty-two years until March 14, 1761, when, "An act for
the laying of a duty on Negro and Mulatto slaves, etc." was
passed. A duty of ten pounds was again provided for.
This was supplemented the next month, and continued to
February 20, 1768. The last act of the Colonial Govern
ment was, "An act for making perpetual of the acts en
titled, 'An act for the laying of a duty on Negro and Mulat
to slaves imported into this province, etc' " This act in
creased the duty to twenty pounds and remained in force
until the act of gradual abolition in 1780. That there was
not much change when the English rule ceased is shown
by an act passed by the Legislature September 7, 1778, to
appoint an official to collect the duties accrued since July
4, 1776. At best, the legislative attempt was only feeble
and was more for the purpose of increasing the revenue of
the colony than diminishing the slave trade.
As late as 1775, a bill to prohibit the importation of Ne
gro slaves was vetoed by the Colonial Governor. But the
spirit of equality and independence brought forth by the

A Study In Economic History 25
Revolution showed itself in 1777, one year after the signing
of the Declaration of Independence, when George Bryan, a
representative in the Pennsylvania Assembly, introduced a
bill to manumit all Negro infants. This bill failing to be
passed, the next year, the author, being then Governor of
the State, called attention to the same in his annual mes
sage November 9, 1778. And again, February 5, 1779,
President Reid, of the Assembly, called attention to the
subject in his message to the Pennsylvania House of Rep
resentatives ; and on March i, 1780, the "Act for the grad
ual abolition of slavery" was passed and Pennsylvania be
came forever a free State. It provided that those already
slaves, should remain so to their death but that no chil
dren thereafter born within the State should be held as
slaves for life, but in order that the economic change might
not be too sudden, children born in the State might be held
as servants until twenty-eight years of age. It prohibited
the importation of slaves, with minor exceptions and abol
ished the duty acts of 1761 and 1763. It also abolished the
act "For the trial of Negroes," passed 1705-6, and thus put!
Negro criminals on the same basis as whites.
One cannot read the act of gradual abolition of slavery
without profound respect for those who drafted and passed
it. The preamble shows how great was the influence of the
"spirit of liberty" in combining with the religious and eco
nomic factors in bringing about its passage.
There were possibly not over 5000 Negro slaves in the
State when the act of gradual abolition was passed and they
were but a small proportion of the entire Negro popula
tion of the State. There is not much evidence as to the
immediate effect of emancipation. There was no cataclysm.
In an orderly way, Negro slaves gradually assumed the po
sition of Negro servants, to eventually become free citi-

26 The Negro In Pennsylvania

zens. Some difficulties, however, arose over the interpre
tation of the act of March i, 1760, and March 29, 1788, the
Assembly passed an additional explanatory act, "in or
der to prevent many evils and abuses arising from ill-dis
posed persons availing themselves of certain defects in the
act for the gradual abolition of slavery." This provided
that all slaves brought into the State by persons, intending
to reside therein, should be free ; that slaves or servants for
a term of years must not be removed from the State with
out their written consent, certified by two Justices, under
penalty of seventy-five pounds. It reiterated that all chil
dren born in the State and liable to service for twenty-eight
years must be registered. It provided against the separa
tion of husbands and wives and of children from their par
ents without their consent, under penalty of fifty pounds.
It positively forbade trading in slaves or equipping vessels
for the slave trade under penalty of a thousand pounds. It
forbade kidnapping under penalty of a hundred pounds
and provided that the law abolishing slavery be read twice
at each term of court.
In accordance with these two acts, slavery gradually
disappeared. According to the United States Census of
1790, there were 3737 slaves in Pennsylvania ; in 1800 there
were 1706; in 1810, there were 795; in 1820, there were 211 ;
in 1830, there were 386, and in 1840, slavery had finally dis
appeared from the State.
THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR.

Just when Negroes first became free in Pennsylvania
is not known. If the original design of the Free Society of

A Study In Economic History 21
Traders to liberate Negroes after fourteen years of service,
was carried ouf, there must have been free Negroes in
Pennsylvania as early as 1696. The first case definitely
known, however, was in 1701, when Lydia Wade, the wid
ow of Robert Wade, of Delaware County, manumitted her
slaves by her will dated "30, 4th mo., 1701," probated Au
gust 8, 1701, and in which was stated, "16 ly, my will is that
my Negroes, John, and Jane, his wife, shall be set free one
month after my decease. 17 ly, my will is, that my Negro
child called Jane, shall be set free after it has lived with my
Negro John twelve years and after that with my kinsman,
John Wade, five years." William Penn's will, made during
the same year, provided for the emancipation of his slaves,
but in his last will there is no mention of slaves. It is pos
sible, therefore, that his slaves had been freed or otherwise
disposed of. Janney in his "Life of Penn," says that the
wishes of Penn were not fully carried out and gives as evi
dence a letter written by James Logan, Penn's secretary,
to whom he left the matter of the slaves, to Hannah Penn,
dated nth of 3rd month, 1721.
Manumission by will was the chief method of granting
freedom to Negroes and became more and more popular
and as a result the class of free people increased gradually.
Many, especially among the Quakers, had not reconciled
themselves to perpetual slavery, and after they had had the
service of their slaves for a term of years, set them free.
William Bunson, one of the early settlers of Columbia,
brought a number of slaves with him from Chester in 1727.
When he died in 1746, he manumitted them. The descend
ants of the Barbers, among the first settlers of Columbia,
''gradually quit owning slaves." In 1805, Sally Bell, a
Quaker, manumitted between seventy-five and a hundred
slaves. Now and then, the slaves were given a start in life

28 The Negro In Pennsylvania
by a donation of money or other wealth by their former
masters. For example, in 1742, Jeremiah Longshore, of
Bucks County, who possessed thirty or forty slaves, freed
them by will, giving each of them ten pounds.
There were, however, other sources of freedom for Ne
groes. Many slaves gained their freedom by running away
from their masters. The freedom thus procured, was a
precarious and often temporary kind. Escaped slaves who
were caught were frequently returned to their masters. It
was not until the nineteenth century, when Pennsylvania
had become a free State and considerable anti-slavery senti
ment had developed, that runaway slaves could live within
the State in anything like security. Yet there were many
who ran away and thus secured freedom. The papers of
the early times contained many advertisements for run
away slaves, often giving minute descriptions of them and
offering rewards for their return. On account of the fre
quency of the running away, there soon developed through
out the colonies, special laws for the apprehension of Ne
groes. Any Negro found wandering abroad could be ar
rested. When a Negro was arrested it was his burden to
prove his freedom.
There were also cases of manumission during the life
of the owner, generally after his slaves or slave had ren
dered him long and profitable service. In the pioneer
period, there were but few cases of this sort, owing to the
scarcity of labor. Indeed, those who had promised to free
their slaves after fourteen years' service, have left no record
of living up to the promise.
During the Revolutionary War, freedom was given to
Negroes who bore arms and who escaped from the British.
There were also a few who hired out their extra time and
thus gained their freedom, though hiring out, was early for-

A Study In Economic History 29
bidden by law. There were also those who were brought
into the state and liberated. This was, however, during
the early part of the nineteenth century very largely after
Pennsylvania had become a free State and the surrounding
slave States of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and others,
had laws which were very harsh respecting the manumis
sion of slaves and the residence of manumitted Negroes.
In some of these States it was illegal for free Negroes to re
side. Before the end of the Revolutionary War, a law was
passed by the North Carolina General Assembly to appre
hend and resell freed Negroes, and several years later, a
bill was presented to the Tennessee Legislature to expel
all free Negroes from the State. Especially after the Afri
can colonization agitation began, the presence of the free
Negroes among the slaves in the South became obnoxious,
and often masters were permitted to manumit their slaves
only on condition of sending them out of the State. Thus,
one Israel Bacon, of Henrico County, Virginia, manumitted
fifty-six slaves who were finally brought to Columbia,
Pennsylvania, and settled in 1819. Two years later, about
a hundred manumitted Negroes from Hanover County
were settled in the same place. In Virginia and North
Carolina, manumission societies, fostered chiefly by Quak
ers, were largely interested in sending Negroes out of the
slave States into the free States. As early as 1740, there was
correspondence between the Yearly Meeting of these two
Southern colonies, and in 1776 the Eastern Quarterly
Meeting of North Carolina advised the manumission of
slaves. In 1814 more than forty Negroes were sent to
Pennsylvania by the North Carolina Quakers, and from
year to year, others were sent. Smaller numbers came
from other States and counties and settled in different parts
of Pennsylvania. In 1790 there were 6537 free persons of

30 The Negro In Pennsylvania
color out of a total of 10,274 colored people, and in 1800
there were more than twice as many; 14,564 of the 16,270
Negroes being free.
,- Prior to the year 1780, the free Negro had a distinctly
; lower legal and social status than the white, though not so
low as that of the slave. The movement of the free Negroes
' was restricted, congregating by themselves was limited,
; their rights before the courts were but scantily recognized.
'Few in number and shut out as they were by the common
isociety, it is but reasonable to suppose that they lagged be
hind the rest of their environment. The _ _Qrigiiial_ reason
for their presence inj;he State was to serve. When theii^
servitude was over, they occupied an embarrassing position.
In the preamble to the Third Section to the Act of 1725-26
it was declared that, "Free Negroes are an idle and slothful
people, and often prove burdensome to the neighborhood
Larid afford ill example to other Negroes."
In 1790 the Constitution of the State gave the right of
elective franchise to all male citizens of the State twenty-
one years of age, making no color distinctions. Whether
or not Negroes voted before 1790, cannot be ascertained.
But it is posssible that some of them voted and that the
purpose of the attempt to introduce the word "white" was ,
not only to provide for a probable future contingency, but
to make an end of what some thought a civic evil.
The first attempt at anything like independent eco
nomic organization among the Negroes was the Free Afri
can Society, which was organized in 1787 for the purpose
of looking after the sick and: poor among them. This at
tempt became of great importance in the early, history of
Negroes of this part of the country. The following ex
cerpts from the Constitution and By-Laws will illustrate
its character:

A Study In Economic History 31
Preamble of the Free African Society, "Philadelphia,
I2th, 4th month, 1787. Whereas, Absalom Jones and
Richard Allen, two men of the African race, who for their
religious life and conversation, have obtained a good re
port among men, these persons, from a love to the people
of their complexion, whom they behold with sorrow, be
cause of their irreligious and uncivilized state, often com
muned together upon this painful subject, in order to form
some kind of religious society, but there being too few un
der like concern and those who were, were different in their
religious sentiments; with these circumstances, they labor
ed for some time, till it was proposed, after a serious commu
nication of sentiments, that a society should be formed,
without regard to religious tenets, provided the persons
lived an orderly and sober life, in order to su,pport one an
other in sickness and for the benefit of their widows and
fatherless children.
"Articles. (17th, 5th mo., 1787.) We, the free Afri
cans and their descendants of the City of Philadelphia, in
the State of Pennsylvania or elsewhere, do unanimously
agree, for the benefit of each other, to advance one shilling
in silver, Pennsylvania currency, monthly and after one
year's subscription from the date hereof then to hand forth
to the needy of this society, if it should require, the sum of
three shillings and nine pence per week of said money;
provided, this necessity is not brought on them by their
own imprudence. And it is further agreed that no drunk
ard or disorderly person be admitted as a member, and if
they should prove disorderly after having been received,
the said disorderly person shall be disjoined from us, if
there is not an amendment, by being informed by two of
the members, without having any of his subscription money
returned to him. And if any should neglect paying his

32 The Negro In Pennsylvania
monthly subscription for three months and no sufficient
reason appearing for such neglect, if he do not pay the
whole at the next ensuing meeting, he shall be disjoined
from us by being informed by two of the members as an
offender, without having any of his subscrpition money re
turned. Also if any persons neglect meeting every month,
for every omission he shall pay 3 pence, except in case of
sickness or other complaint that should require the assist
ance of the society, then, and in such a case, he shall be ex
empt from the fines and subscriptions during the said sick
ness. Also, we apprehend it to be just and reasonable, that
the surviving widow of a deceased member should enjoy
the benefits of this society as long as she remains his wid
ow, complying with the rules thereof, excepting the sub
scriptions. And we apprehend it to be necessary that the
children of our deceased members be under the care of the
society so far as to pay their schooling, if they cannot at
tend the free school ; also to put them out as apprentices, to
suitable trades or places, if required. Also that no member
shall convene the society together but it shall be the sole
business of the committee and that only, on special occa
sions and to dispose of the money in hand to the best ad
vantage for the use of the society, after they are granted
the liberty at the Monthly Meeting, and to transact all other
business whatever, except that of Clerk and Treasurer.
And we unanimously agree to choose Joseph Clarke to be
our clerk and treasurer; and whenever another shall suc
ceed him, it is always understood, that one of the people
called Quakers, belonging to one of the three Monthly
Meetings in Philadelphia, is to be chosen to act as clerk
and treasurer of this useful institution. The following per
sons met, viz, Absalom Jones, Richard Allen, Samuel Bar
ton, Joseph Johnson, Cato Freeman, Caesar Cranchell and

A Study In Economic History 33

James Potter, also William White, whose early assistance
and useful remarks, are found truly profitable. This even
ing the articles were read and after some beneficial remarks
were made, they were agreed unto." The society met in the
house of Richard Allen until May, 1788, when it moved be
cause his room was too small. From December 28, 1788,
its meetings were held in the Friends' "free schoolhouse."
January i, 1791, the society began religious worship in an
other room. It seemed to have been at first purely bene
ficiary and included most of the free people regardless of
religious affiliations. The following extracts from its min
utes will give some idea of the work of this early organiza
tion: "The 17th, 7th mo., 1787. At a Monthly Meeting of
Free Africans, Caesar Thomas, William White and Caesar
Cranchell, were appointed to have the oversight of the
members this month." "15th, 12th mo., 1787. At a Month
ly Meeting of Free Africans, held at Philadelphia, Mark
Stevenson, Caesar Thomas, William White, Moses John
son, Absalom Jones and Richard Allen were appointed to
visit the members and give such advice as may appear
necessary." January i, 1788, this committee reported:
"There are daily applications to join." There was also a
call for more funds  "Our stock is small, considering
the numbers of members — at present it is but 12 pounds
and if a few sick members should now be supported from
it, it would not last us six months." At this meeting a reso
lution, having as its purpose raising the morals of its mem
bers, was read and approved : "That no man shall live with
any woman as man and wife, without she is lawfully his
wife and his certificate must be delivered to the clerk to be
put on record."
The committee reported on its first case of discipline,
as follows : "Whereas, Samuel S., one of the members of

34 The' Negro In Pennsylvania

the Free African Society, held in Philadelphia, for the bene
fit of the sick, has so shamefully deviated from our known
rules, hath often unnecessarily left his tender wife and
child, and kept company with a common woman, some
time quarreling, fighting, and swearing, for which he hath
been long and tenderly dealt with, but he not forsaking his
shameful practices, we therefore disown said Samuel S.,
from being a member of our society, till he condemns the
same in life and conversation, which is our desire for him.
Signed this 20th, of the 9th mo., 1788, on behalf of the so
ciety, by the Committee."
ABSALOM JONES,
RICHARD ALLEN,
WILLIAM WHITE,
MARK STEVENSON,
WILLIAM GRAY,
CAESAR CRANCHELL.
CAESAR THOMAS.
In the natural course of things, it laecame necessary
for this society to take the initiative in almost all things rela
tive to the welfare of the free people of color; and we find
it taking under advisement a form of marriage. The mar
riage of slaves and even of free Negroes had been much
neglected and very grave conditions had therefore, develop
ed. Early in the history of the society a committee was ap
pointed to regulate as far as possible the matter of marri
age and met with some success. As to the financial condi
tion, the following excerpts from the minutes of the society
are of value: "On the 15th day of the ist mo., 1790, the
balance in the treasury was 42 pounds 9 shillings and i
pence, and as divers members think a propriety would at
tend a deposit of this balance in the Bank of North Amer
ica, he (the Treasurer) is desired to lodge it therein on be
half of the society as soon as convenient and report his per-

A Study In Economic History 35
formance of the business at the next meeting." Another
step was '¦-O secure a burial place. Even though the Friends
were as a rule, the best friends which the Negroes had, they
did not care to be buried with them. In the record of the
Friends of Middletown, in 1703 is written, "Friends are
not satisfied with having Negroes buried in the Friends'
burying ground, therefore Robert Heaton, and Thomas
Stackhouse are appointed to fence off a portion for such
cases." The same body of Friends declared in 1798 that,
"Negroes are forbidden to be buried within the walls of
the graveyard belonging to this Meeting." Negroes were
buried on the edge of plantations, with unmarked graves.
It therefore became the duty of the Free African Society to
purchase a lot for burying purposes. In their minutes of
March 20, 1790, the following "PETITION TO THE
MAYOR," is recorded: "To the Worshipful Mayor, Al
dermen and Coipmon Councilmen of the City of Philadel
phia, in Common Council: The petition of the Free Afri
can Society for the benefit of the sick, in the City of Phila
delphia, respectfully showeth: That the burial ground
called Potters Field, being in part appropriated for the
benefit of black persons, and chiefly made use of for that
purpose, and your petitioners being informed that the Com
mon Council are about to let the same, are desirous to have
said burial ground under the care of the said society and are
willing to pay same rent that hath been offered by any other
person and a year's advance as soon as ground is enclosed
and they are put in possession thereof. They, therefore,
pray that the said ground may be rented to them for one
or more years on the terms that they propose and under

36 The Negro In Pennsylvania
such regulations as the Common Council shall think prop-
or to make. And your petitioners shall pray."
Signed on behalf of the society by
MOSE JOHNSON,
ABSALOM JONES, Overseers.
CYRUS BUSTI LL,
WILLIAM WHITE,
HENRY STEWART,
TOD FINCH,
ABRAHAM INGLIS,
JAMES CATON, Committee.
The endorsement on the back of the petition was as
follows :
"We, the subscribers, having for some time past, been
acquainted with several of the members of the 'FREE AF
RICAN SOCIETY, ESTABLISHED IN THE CITY OF
PHILADELPHIA FOR THE BENEFIT OF SUCH
AMONG THEM WHO MAY BECOME INFIRM,' do
certify that we have informed ourselves of the rules and or
ders established by said society and approve of their insti
tution and can therefore recommend the members thereof,
as well as their humane design, to the notice and attention
of their fellow-citizens, they being worthy of a degree of
confidence and encouragement."
(Signed) GEO. WILLIAMS. '
WM. ASHBY,
JOSEPH CLARK,
SAME. MAGAW,
TENCH COXE,
BENJAMIN RUSH,
NICHOLAS WALN,
WILLIAM WHITE,
CHAS. WILLIAMS,
JOSEPH JAMES,
WILLIAM SAVERY.

A Study In Economic History 37
Societies similar to the Free African Society of Phila
delphia existed in other cities. In Newport, Rhode Island,
and in Boston, Massachusetts, were such societies among
free people of color, and there is some interesting corre
spondence between them and the Philadelphia society. On
October 17th, 1789, the Philadelphia society read a paper
from the Newport and Boston societies, which was brought
by Henry Stewart, a member of the Philadelphia society,
who visited these two cities. The Newport letter (from
the Union Society) stated its membership as 40, recited the
woes of the Africans and twice expressed a desire that Ne
groes go back to Africa. It was signed by the president
and seven members.
In reply the Philadelphia society wrote : "With re
gard to the emigration to Africa which you mention, we
have at present, but little to communicate on that head, ap
prehending every pious man is a good citizen of the whole
world." Out of the African Society grew the independent Ne
gro church organization. At first this society was opened
and closed without any religious exercises, and not until it
was several months old, did it have any religious or devo
tional opening. When the break came with St. George's
Methodist Church, it was this society which was the cen
ter for the beginning of the real Negro church. The two
leaders, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, became the
heads of the first two distinctively Negro churches in Amer
ica. Richard Allen became the founder of Bethel African
Methodist Episcopal Church, at Sixth, near Lombard
Street, which was founded September, 1787, and afterwards
(1816) formed a union of independent African churches into
the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Absalom Jones became the first rector of St. Thomas'"

38 The Negro In Pennsylvania
African Episcopal Church, now one of the leading Negro
Episcopal Churches of America.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Negro
population was 16,270, of whom 14,564 were free and 1706
were slaves. The free Negro population increased from
14,564 in 1800, to 56,949 at the beginning of the Civil War,
and was 65,294 in 1870. But the increase in this element of
the population was considerably less than that of the white
population of the State.
This period, especially prior to 1852, witnessed a great.
reaction in the attitude of the country at large, toward free
Negroes. Their privileges were reduced almost to a mini-
-mum. Their rights of locomotion was greatly curtailed.
Though some had done valiant service in the Revolution
ary War; the right to bear arms was not given them by
the Constitutions of most of the new States admitted into
the Union during the first quarter of the new century.
Ohio gave the privilege of the militia to the whites only.
Indiana and Illinois did likewise. Although in some States
the Negro could vote in earlier days, the franchise was in ,
the first half of this century taken from the Negroes in
several States. This happened in Pennsylvania in 1838.
One of the chief causes of the treatment of the Negroes
was the agitation among the members of the American
Colonization Society. Many of the members of this body
were an earnest, well-intentioned people, who, however,
knew but little of the real capacity of the Negroes and in
spite of every argument against their own ideas, thought to
benefit the Negroes by removing those who were freed, to
Africa. It was organized in 1817, and included in its mem
bership such men as Bishop White of the Episcopal
Church, Dr. Berijami^^Riish^nd others of their class, whichl
is sufficient proof that the purpose was not wholly againstl

A Study In Economic History 39
the free people of color. The society grew rapidly. State
branches were established in both Northern and Southern
States. A local society was established in Philadelphia,
and the Pennsylvania State branch was organized in 1827.
The National and State Governments were called upon to
aid the purposes of the society and gave liberal support.
For a while it seemed that the North and South had agreed
upon a common programme, at least as to the disposition
of the free Negro. The society was instrumental in secur
ing land in West Africa, where the Colony "Liberia" was
established in 1821. Monrovia (named for President Mon
roe, who was a sympathizer), was made the capital and
chief city. From 1821 to 1835 the society was active in
transporting Negroes to Liberia, where the experiment of
self-government was being tried by them. The Negroes who
were transplanted to Africa to make this experiment con
sisted largely of the blacks manumitted in the South on the
condition that they go to Africa and a few persons already
free, who suffered the prejudice which their class had to
undergo in the South. Few Negroes from the Northern
States went. Only sixty-five were reported as going from
Pennsylvania, from 1820 to 1833.
The Colonization Society was an organized expression
of the sentiment that Negroes could not assimilate with
whites and had no future in this country except that of
slaves; but that they ought to have an opportunity to de
velop along their own lines. Having done duty as slaves
the only hope for them and a great relief for the whites,
was to have the Negroes carried back to Africa. This was
apart from the idea, which no doubt strongly drew many
of the Southern element into the society, namely, that it
would relieve the South of a class of people who were a
constant menace to the slave system and thus, by ridding

40 The Negro In Pennsylvania
the slaves of a bad example — the free Negro — and also by
diverting the attention of the North from abolition of slav
ery, to colonization of free blacks, would make slavery in
the South more secure.
From the first the society was bitterly opposed by the
free blacks of the North. When the first attempt was made
to organize in Pennsylvania, Richard Allen, one of the
founders of the free African Society and the first Bishop of
the A. M. E. Church, and James Forten, a prominent Ne
gro merchant of Philadelphia, most strenuously opposed it.
At no time and no place did the society secure a very strong
following among the Negroes of this State ; and it enrolled
but few of the names of the most prominent Negroes in
other Northern States. The first Annual Convention of
Free Negroes in 1831, adopted a resolution recommended
6y the committee against "the operations and misrepresen
tations of the American Colonization Society in these United
States." One of its direct influences was to make conditions
extremely hard for Negroes. It painted a picture of despair
for them, so long as they remained in this country. It
busied itself in preaching the essential mental and moral
inferiority of the Negro race. It told the whites that the
free Negroes who were about one-tenth of the entire num
ber of Negroes, would degrade them and that therefore,
they must get rid of them. It told the Negroes that their
only hope was in Africa. It preached despair. Legislators
took its word and accordingly, laws were constructed
against Negroes, in most wanton disregard of the spirit of
the generation before.
Illustrating the state of public opinion brought about
by the society, its organ, the African Repository, of March,
1827, printed from the Public Ledger, of Philadelphia, the
following: "In consequence of his own inveterate habits

A Study In Economic History 41
and the no less inveterate prejudices of the whites, it is a
sadly demonstrated truth that the Negro cannot in this
country, become an enlightened and useful citizen. If then,
they are a useless and dangerous species of population, we
would ask, is it generous to our Southern friends to burden
us with them? We think it is a mistaken philanthropy,
which would liberate the slave, unfitted by education and
habit for freedom, and cast him upon a merciless and de
spising world; for the Negroes' condition is not alleviated
and an unkindly act is ,done to the free States" Another
item in the same organ of the society was taken from the
Ohio State Journal, as follows: "Columbus, Ohio, July 12.
We are suffering under many pernicious effects incident to
a slave population, without any of the few benefits which
are derived from slave holding. Immense numbers of mu-
lattoes are constantly flocking by tens and hundreds into
Ohio. Their fecundity is proverbial; they are worse than
drones to society and they already swarm in our land fike
locusts. This State calls loudly for legislative interfer
ence." A correspondent from Maine, a clergyman, wrote
the Repository: "The colored population of this country
can never rise to respectability and happiness here." The
weaknesses of the free Negroes were exaggerated and their
failures were widely advertised, to convince them and the
whites that they had no place in this country.
Pennsylvania did not go quite so far as other States
but the reaction showed itself even here. The first attempt
made in the State to get obnoxious laws in operation, was
in July, 1832, just after the Nat Turner insurrection in Vir
ginia, when a bill was introduced in the Legislature to re
quire all free Negroes to carry passes and to exclude all
others from the State. This bill was defeated. Five years
later, however, the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth

42 The Negro In Pennsylvania

in the case of Hobbs et al., v. Fogg, declared that a Negro
was not a free man in the sense of being a voter. The fol
lowing year, 1838, the Constitutional Convention limited the
franchise to "free white male" citizens; and until 1855, for
a period of seventeen years, the Negroes of the State were
disfranchised. Under these discouragements, it would have been
quite natural for the Negroes to have sunk into even a lower
position than they were. What they needed was encour
agement and inspiration and not discouragement and ostra
cism. They were but an extremely small minority of the
population and at best, they would do but little. They
were lately enslaved and generally ignorant. The Coloni
zation agitation was one of the most unfortunate occur
rences which entered into the life of the Northern Negro.
Contrary to the above opinions, the Negroes of Penn
sylvania were generally progressing, notwithstanding the
fact that the period from 1820 to 1855 was for them, the
darkest in the history of the State. With the aid of Quak
ers and abolitionists, who as a body, were never very en
thusiastic over the colonization scheme, they had establish
ed schools, churches, and other institutions of helpfulness
and uplifts. Between 1820 and 1855, there were established
at least a dozen schools taught by Negroes, largely under
the patronage of Friends.
Philadelphia Negroes organized during this period,
various literary and debating societies. In 1833, the "Phila
delphia Library Company of Colored Persons" was organ
ized and in 1841 had a hundred members notwithstanding
the entrance fee was one dollar and the monthly dues, twen
ty-five cents. The Rush Library Company and Debating
Society of Pennsylvania was organized in 1836. The De-
mosthenean Institute was organized in 1839, and the Gil-

A Study In Economic History 43
bert Lyceum in 1841. Among the women were the Mi
nerva Literary Society and the Edgeworth Literary Asso
ciation. Out of one of these societies grew a Negro news
paper — The Demosthenean Shield, which was started in
1841. This paper had a subscription list of a thousand at
its first appearance.
The Institute for Colored Youth was established for
the special purpose of extending to Negroes "the benefits
of a good education." In this period, Negro minstrels be
gan to attract attention in Philadelphia. This period also
saw the organization of the churches. In 1816, the African
Methodist Episcopal Church denomination was organized
in Philadelphia ; and in 1820 the African Methodist Episco-
' pal Zion Church in New York. These were the first at
tempts of Negroes to secure co-operation in church matters
on a large scale. During this period the African Method
ist Episcopal Church, with headquarters at Philadelphia,
sent its black missionaries as far west as the Mississippi
River and north into Canada to organize the church life of
the blacks of these sections. This period also witnessed
the rise of the independent secret orders among Negroes,
which have become so powerful among them throughout
the country. The strongest of these in early days was the
Odd Fellows, which was introduced from England in 1843
and 1846. During this period we have from time to time,
sketches of Negroes of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.
The chief ones were made in 1837, 1848 and 1856. In 1837
there was made a registry of the trades of Free People of
Color, which gave the names of a large number of Negroes
doing business on their own account. In 1838 there was
published a pamphlet on "The Present State and Condition
of the People of Color of Philadelphia," in which it was re
ported that whereas the taxable real estate of 229 persons

The Negro In Pennsylvania

was $112,464; it was in 1838, $322,532, with encumbrances
amounting to only $12,906. The personal property
amounted to $667,859, making a total of $990,391, for both
real and personal property. It was reported that Negroes
paid $161,008 in house rents, $5491 in ground rents and
$464.50 in water rents.
In 1849 another report was made on the "Condition of
the People of Color of Philadelphia." The value of real es
tate was put at $531,809, and the amount of encumbrance
by mortgage and ground rent at $130,442, rnaking a net real
estate valuation of $401,367. The total number of families
in the city was reported as 4262, and the total number of
property owners as 315, about 7.4 per cent, of the total.
The value of personal estate was estimated as $630,886, of
which all except $194,318 was owned by persons living with
white families. Forty-three persons were said to own prop
erty worth from $1000 to $2000; ten from $2000 to $5000,
and two between $10,000 and $20,000. The property hold
ers were, 78 laborers ; 53 females, of whom 46 were widows ;
49 tradesmen, 41 mechanics, 35 coachmen and hackmen, 28
waiters, 20 hairdressers, and 11 professional men. Be
sides the above, they were reported to have had $200,000 in
banks. In 1849, the report showed that there were 15,532
Negroes in the city, of whom 8900, or 57.5 per cent, were
natives of Pennsylvania, and 6632, or 42.77 per cent, were
immigrants; 1077 were born slaves, of whom 767 were
manumitted by their masters; 275 bought their freedom
themselves, paying $63,034 for the same ; and the freedom
of 256 was purchased by others; the remaining 39 not re
porting. In the "Statistics of Colored People," published
in 1856, there is the following statements: "We (of
Philadelphia) possess $2,685,693 of real and personal es
tate and have paid $9766.42 for taxes during the past year„

A Study In Economic History 45
.  .  ^ 
and $396,782.27 for house and ground rent. We have had
incorporated 108 mutual beneficial societies, having 9762
members, with an annual income of $29,600 and a perma
nent invested fund of $28,366, which is deposited in various
institutions among the whites, who derive large profit there
from. One thousand three hundred and eighty-five fami
lies were assisted by these societies to the amount of $10,-
292.38 during the year 1853. Again as to crimes among us,
by a letter from Judge Kelly, written in answer to certain
questions put to him, it is shown that for the three years
up to 1854, the commitments of colored persons to the
Philadelphia County prison have gradually decreased,
while those of the whites for the same period have mark
edly increased."
This period witnesses the rise of Negro business. As
early as 1810, there was a Negro fire company in Philadel
phia. About this time, the Negro people began to go to
Pittsburg, largely from Virginia and West Virginia. The
Negro engaged in hairdressing and barbers' business. One
of the oldest Negro businesses owned by Negroes in the
State of Pennsylvania is in Pittsburg. During this period,
the Negro caterers were the most prominent in Philadel
phia. Smith & Whipper was one of the largest lum^ber
firms in South Central Pennsylvania. Both men were
among the wealthiest Negroes the State has produced. An
other development was the beneficial society. The Free
African Society was the pioneer among them. This had
become identified mainly with St. Thomas' Episcopal
Church, but other societies had grown out of it. The con
dition of these societies in 1831 is given in the following ad
vertisement in the Public Ledger, March, 1831 : "To the
Public: Whereas, we believe it to be the duty of every

46 The Negro In Pennsylvania
person to contribute as far as is in their power towards al
leviating the miseries and supplying the wants of those of
our fellow-beings who through the many misfortunes and
¦calamities to which human nature is subject, may become
fit objects for charity. And whereas, from the many priva
tions to which we, as people of color are subject and our
limited opportunity of obtaining the necessaries of life,
many of us have been included in the number dependent
on the provisions made by law, for the maintenance of the
poor; therefore, as we constitute a part of the public bur
den, we have deemed it our duty to use such means as was
an our reach to lessen its weight, among which we have
found the forming of institutions for mutual relief, the most
practical and best calculated to effect our object." "Some
have misunderstood the object and the benefit of these so
cieties, therefore, this report is given." To these institu- "
tions, each member pays a sum varying from one to eight
dollars as an initiation fee, and from 12 to 25 cents monthly.
These funds are exclusively appropriated to the relief of
such of its members as through sickness or misfortune are
unable to work ; to the interments of the deceased members
and the relief of their widows, orphans, etc. The records
show a total of $5,819 paid out in the years 1830-31.
Negroes were not without interest in their country,
-notwithstanding the country at that time gave them but
little to inspire patriotism. When the war with England
began in 1812, Pennsylvania Negroes offered their services.
The committee which had charge of the defense of Phila
delphia, declined the services of a "Black Legion" because
of lack of arms ; but Negroes helped in the fortification of
Philadelphia, and later a Negro battalion was recruited in
that city.

A Study In Economic History 47

One of the growing signs of racial self-consciousness
was the conventions of free people of color. It was found
necessary about the middle of this period for the free peo
ple of color to consult one another about their welfare in
this country, and in the North. Accordingly, several con
ventions were called. The first one of them was in Phila
delphia in 1 83 1, when there were forty delegates and honor
ary members from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland.
Pennsylvania had the largest number of representatives,
eighteen in all. The session lasted four days and various
topics were discussed. One of the chief of these was edu
cation. It was proposed to establish a school of manual
labor, where students could go and work their way. New
Haven, Connecticut, was chosen as the place for such a
school. In accord with the spirit of the times, however,
the citizens of New Haven very greatly objected to any
such institution. At a meeting held in New Haven, the
white citizens expressed themselves as greatly opposed to
such schools, and gave notice that the Mayor, Aldermem
Common Council and freedmen of New Haven would re
sist its establishment by every lawful means.
The manual labor school was never established. So
far as the evidence goes, this was the first attempt of Ne
groes to establish an industrial school. The subject of
emigration also received a lengthy discussion before the
convention, and it was recommended that the emigration
to Canada be encouraged as a measure of relief from the
prejudice and persecutions which Negroes suffered in many
places in the North. But "strong resolutions against the
American Colonization Society were adopted."
The second convention was held June 4 to 15, 1832.

48 The Negro In Pennsylvania
There were thirty delegates representing eight States,
Pennsylvania having nine delegates. At this convention,
the American Colonization Society was vigorously con
demned, abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia
urged and a proposition to purchase lands in Canada for an
asylum for Negroes emigrating from the United States was
discussed. It was reported to this convention that eight
hundred acres of land had already been secured, five hun
dred of which were under cultivation, two hundred log
houses had been erected, and two thousand persons had
emigrated there from their native country, despite the hos
tility of the Canadians. The convention appointed an
agent to investigate the whole Canadian situation. At the
third convention, June 7, 1833, there were fifty-eight dele
gates, representing seven States and the District of Colum
bia. This convention condemned the law passed by the
Legislature of Connecticut, designed to prohibit the estab
lishment of any school in that State for colored persons.
William Lloyd Garrison's effort to obtain funds to estab
lish a manual labor school was endorsed; the Colonization
Society's schemes condemned, and a committee on the
Canadian settlement was appointed. An effort was made
to find out the exact status of the free people of color, their
number, churches, Sunday Schools, temperance societies,
benevolent societies, day schools, mechanics and storekeep
ers. It was further recommended that "free labor stores"
be established from which the products of slave labor
should be debarred.
The next convention was held in New York, June 8,
1834, at which there were about forty delegates, represent
ing ten States. The principal action discussed this year
was the foundation of moral reform and total abstinence

A Study In Economic History 49
from intoxicating liquors, which was recommended. It
was further urged that all boarding houses where gambling
was permitted be discontinued.
The next session of the convention was held in Phila
delphia, June I to 5, inclusive, 1835. Forty-four delegates
were present. In 1836 and 1837, a "Convention of the
Moral Reforms" held sessions in Philadelphia, and from
time to time, other conventions were held. Philadelphia
was always the center for these early movements and
Pennsylvania Negroes always took a prominent part in
them. Among the representatives of Pennsylvania in this
convention, were such men as Bishop Richard Allen, of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church; William Whipper,
James Cornish, Frederick Hinton, Richard D. Johnson,
James Forten, Sr., James Forten, Jr., Jacob C. White, Sr.,
Joseph Cassey and Robert Purvis.
The history of the Negro in the movement for the
freedom of the slave has hitherto received all too slight
mention and except in a few rare instances, even the names
of Negroes who gave valuable services have perished.
Without the presence and help of the free Negroes in Penn
sylvania, that great and mysterious system known as the
Underground Railroad, would never have operated so suc
cessfully. The homes of Negroes were the stopping places
of slaves. When whites dared not keep a Negro in their
homes for fear of discovery, Negroes could hide the escap
ing slave among those of his own race. Not only did Ne
groes do work of sheltering, but much of the actual work
of rescuing was largely done by Negroes. Some of them
were able to go into the very heart of slave territory and
bring their brethren out. Thus Harriett Tubman is said
to have led scores of Negroes out of slavery into freedom.

50 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Negroes did much of the hauling from place to place and
the ferrying across rivers, the watching during the night,
and general patrolling so necessary to the safety of the
fugitives. One of the greatest and most active agents of
the Underground Railroad, was a Negro in Gettysburg.
Daniel Ross, colored, was active in Norristown; another
"colored man," in York; a colored man assisted William
White, of Columbia; Cato Johnson, colored, drove a team
which hauled cars over the bridge and brought all "bag
gage" safely across, where the agents had another trusty
colored man to receive it. * * *
The fugitives were then taken through Black's hotel
yard to another portion of the town and concealed over
night, when William Wright, of that place, generally took
them in charge and sent some to Daniel Gibbons and some
direct to Philadelphia, in a false end of a box car, owned by
Stephen Smith and William Whipper, colored men and
lumber merchants of Columbia. "Thomas Bessick, a col
ored man who ran cars in Columbia, was one of the bold
est and most useful agents there." "Robert Loney, colored,
ferried slaves over the Susquehanna to Columbia." "Sam
uel Mifflin, gave an escaped slave named Perry, over to the
care of Robert Loney;" "two slaves from Cecil County,
Maryland," early in the night, they with their sister and
her child, fled to that well known colored man on the Sus
quehanna, Robert Loney, who ferried fugitives across the
river in the night, at various places below Columbia, and
gave them to the care of William Wright, who distributed
them to other agents. Many other cases are cited.
Not only in the actual work of the abolition movement,
were Negroes concerned, but they had part in the planning
of the movement in Pennsylvania. It has been said that

A Study In Economic History 51
the first twenty-five dollars that William Lloyd Garrison
secured for his "Liberator" came from a Negro. It was
true that even before the first issue of the Liberator was
published, a Philadelphia Negro, James Forten, Sr., sent
fifty-four dollars, payment in advance, for twenty-seven
subscriptions. Forten afterward contributed over a thou
sand dollars to Garrison and his cause. Negroes contrib
uted liberally of their scanty means. "In one case, as far
back as 1836, the colored people of Philadelphia raised over
seven thousand dollars in twenty-four hours to purchase a
runaway slave." William Whipper, a lumber merchant,
said that he contributed $13,000 to the anti-slavery cause;
a thousand dollars, each year from 1847 to i860; and gave
$5000 during the war. Robert Purvis and William Still
were two most useful members of the Philadelphia Vigi
lance Committee; the former at one time its president, and
the latter for many years, its secretary. This committee
was composed of the most prominent of the anti-slavery ad
vocates of Philadelphia.
It received the escaping slaves from all parts of til®
country, cared for them, found them work or shipped them
on toward Canada. This committee investigated cases of
Jcidnapping of Negroes and instituted proceedings for their
recovery. It also helped to raise funds to purchase Ne
groes whom the fugitive slave laws had delivered out of
their hands. Much of the clerical work with regards to
these matters was done by a Negro, William Still, the
secretary, who wrote a very interesting and comprehensive
description of its work.

52 The Negro In Pennsylvania
THE NEGRO POPULATION SINCE THE CIVIL
WAR.

The Civil War marks a distinct break in the history of
the Pennsylvania Negro population. This break is noticed
in the character of the population. During the period be
fore the Civil War, though the native Negroes were barely
a majority, they were made of a desirable sort, while the
immigrant Negroes were not altogether of an undesirable
character. In fact this period as compared with later
periods, witnessed the migration of many of the best of the
Southern Negroes to the North. There were several dis
tinctive groups. One of the most important of these, is the
South Carolina group, composed of several score of Ne
groes who came chiefly from Charleston and vicinity.
Most of them were free born; many of them were well
educated and some of them were comparatively wealthy.
Among these were the Purvises, the Adgers, Daniel A.
Payne, afterward, Bishop of the A. M. E. Church. Many of
them were skilled mechanics, such as the Vennings, the
Casseys, the Mains and others. There was another group
not quite so distinguished as the Charleston group, from
Delaware. Most of these were mulattoes, as were many of
the Charlestonians. They formed their own beneficial so
ciety and to a large extent, attended their own church.
Then there were the Maryland and Virginia groups, com
posed largely of ex-slaves, but a selected class, being those
who had been manumitted by their masters, or who had
bought their freedom, and a few who escaped from slavery."
Another important group was the West India group, near
ly all of whom were skilled in some kind of art or craft.

A Study In Economic History 53
Among these, were the LeCounts, of Negro-French extrafc-
tion, the Cuyjets, Rolands, Montiers, the Dutertes, the Dur
trieuilles, the Augustines, the Baptistes, and others who be
came active in the affairs of their people.
With the Civil War there began a less selected kind of
immigration. For, whereas before the war, there was but
small opportunity for self-expression on the part of the in
telligent and skilled Negroes in the South, the end of the
war suddenly left them with opportunities which far ex
celled even their preparation. When the slaves were freed,
this skilled group naturally assumed the leadership in poli
tics, religion, business, and otherwise. Thus was cut short
to a large extent, the migration of the intelligent and skill
ed Negroes to the North. Indeed, many in the North, went
South. On the other hand, many of the exslaves of the
more ignorant type migrated North.
There was also another change which was not how
ever, so sudden as that in the character of the Negro im
migration and that was in the attitude of the whites. The
Negro before the war, had served in the family of the white
Pennsylvanian so far as to gain their respect and largely
their confidence. The Friends especially, felt themselves
much concerned about the Negroes ; for four times at least,
between 1820 and i860, they published statistical sketches
of the Negroes. But after the war, the interest in the Ne
groes in the South far overshadowed that of those at home.
Then, too, an entirely new group began to congregate in
the cities and to overshadow the old group.
Philadelphia and Pittsburg attracted the greatest num
ber of Negroes. The Negro population which increased
but very slowly from 1820 to i860, began after i860, to
grow rapidly and was in 1900, 156,845, an increase of 175

54 The Negro In Pennsylvania
per cent, during forty years. In i860, there were 56,949
Negroes in the State; in 1870, 65,294; in 1880, 85,535: in
1890, 107,596, and in 1950, 156,845. This increase is due al
most solely to the immigration from the South. From 1870
to 1880 it was greatest, being 34.9 per cent. At present
there is a rapid increase of Negro immigrants from the
South, in spite of the fact that the economic conditions in
the North are presumed to be harder than in the South.
The large plantations of the South are being broken
up, and much land is being neglected for the want of labor.
The head of the Department of Agriculture in Virginia
writes : "The farmers are not able to gather crops at the
proper time on account of lack of labor." The head of the
Department of Agriculture in North Carolina writes:
"From all over the State comes the complaint of the scar
city of labor." There can be no doubt of the fact therefore,
that the particular part of the South from which the Penn
sylvania Negro immigrants come, has great need of the
kind of labor furnished by Negroes. Not only is there great
demand for laborers to remain at home but the resources
of the South are quite undeveloped as compared with those
of the North.
The South is, to a large extent, as the West was forty
years ago, a country of opportunity, where land is compara
tively cheap, the cost of living is comparatively low, im
provements are easily made; the climate is not so rigor
ous and the returns from the lands are often better than
in the North; in some places two crops may be made
during a year. On the other hand, the opportunities
of the North, and especially in the cities to which Ne
groes go most rapidly, do not seem so inviting to the small
investor; here the cost of living is high and tends to rise;

A Study In Economic History 55

the land is practically outside the reach of most wage-earn
ers and the taxes and repairs', connected with the unsteadi
ness of employment, are such that it appears of but little
advantage for a wage-earner to own a home. Here compe
tition is keenest and, for the Negroes, a climate different
from that in which their ancestors for thousands of years
lived, as well as the indifference and even hostility, of or
ganized labor toward the Negro. Here is also a higher
standard of efficiency and a more systematic method of
labor. It seems therefore, a priori that for the Negro to
leave the South and come to the North, is to go contrary to
sane economic philosophy. Still, the migration goes on,
and for this reason, its causes must be carefully sought.
In order to find out why the Negroes leave the South,
a personal canvass was made among them. Five hundred
and twelve Negroes filled out blanks answering the ques
tions: "Why did you leave the South?" "Why did you
come to Philadelphia?" etc. The answers are arranged as
nearly as possible in the exact language of the immigrant
in the following table :
CAUSES ASSIGNED BY PHILADELPHIA NEGROES FOR LEAVING
THE SOUTH
Males Females Total

Causes

Number Percent Number Percent Number Percent

Desire for higher wages  120 44.6 96 39.5 216 42.2
Higher wages and travel  12 4.5 10 4.1 22 4.3
Higher wages and protection  14 5,2 6 25 20 3.9
To better conditions  25 93 31 12,8 56 10.9
Tired of the South  g 3,3 15 5.4 22 4.3
Wanted to make change  27 10 29 49 g.6
Came with parent or guardian  29 10.8 40 16.5 69 33.5
OM persons lo be with their cblldren... 3 i.i 6 2.5 9 1.3
Parent died; left home to woric  2 .7 52 7^3
Had position in North  3 i.i 3 1.2 6 1.2
Run away from home  i .4  1 .2
Brought away by soldiers  r .4  i .2
To attend school  3 i.i  3 .6
Not given   20 7-5  11 4-5  3i  6^
Total  269 100 243 100 312 100

56 The Negro In Pennsylvania
According to this table 54.3 per cent, of the males and
46.1 per cent, of the females came chiefly for the higher
wages which they expected. If those who came "to better
their condition" are included among those who came for
higher wages and those who came with parents or guard
ians, and elderly persons who came with their adult chil
dren are excluded from the count, as having come without
any particular choice of their own, it is clear that the great
majority of Negroes who came to the State, came for the
money wages they expected to obtain.
There can be no doubt that the economic motive is the
chief one but just why, it seems hard to understand, since
the economic advantages of the South seem to be so great.
There are secondary causes, which will be discussed be
fore, and preliminary to, the chief economic cause. The
first of these remote causes is the change of the whole
Southern situation. Slavery was abolished, in the 6o's, and
as a system became illegal. But the sentiments of the
whites and the capacity of the Negroes did not thereby be
come much altered. The Negro, indeed, freed from servi
tude had time to follow his own inclinations, and the best
of them had opportunity to cultivate their capabilities along
some new lines. But the whites — even those who were
kind — never believed that Negroes were capable of self-
initiative, or of independently carrying on their own busi
ness. Trained in this belief by the school of actual condi
tions for generations in this country, it is easily explained
why the whites did not readily accept the situation!
Though the Negroes were nominally free, the first attempt
of the white South was to re-enslave the Negroes, by i sys
tem of black laws, contract laws, lien laws, etc.
Although in the main, these laws have been repealed

A Study In Economic History 57

or changed in the Southern States, still the spirit which
called them forth is not entirely dead, so far as a large pro
portion of the whites of the South are concerned, and the
Negro laborer still finds himself hedged about by a multi
tude of laws and customs which bind him practically to
serfdom. It is the attempt to force Negro laborers to work
by outside pressure, rather than appeal to their economic
sense and economic needs, that causes unrest among the
blacks in all parts of the South. For throughout the South
the interests taken seriously into consideration are the in
terests of the white employer and not of the black laborer,
as such. The Southern white man does not seem to have yet
reached the point where he differentiates between racial
and economic problems. He often refuses to listen to the
Negroes' economic demands, because he mistakes them for
demands for racial and social equality.
On the other hand, Negroes are acquiring property,
intelligence, and a larger view of the world, which is not
retarding the growth of their self-respect, nor their desire
for a larger share of the product of their labor. Because
the whites of the South are not realizing this rapidly
enough, the vexing problems of that section are increasing.
The increase of intelligence and wealth is creating
more discontent among a large class of Negroes, as respects
many economic conditions. This discontent is felt most by
those who are most intelligent and who possess the most
wealth. But this class, however, does not emigrate from
the South, chiefly because of their position. Generally,
they are situated socially and economically better than they
might be if they should leave. But the Negro who does not
own property, who has no high position among Negroes

58

The Negro In Pennsylvania

either socially or economically sees but little reason for re
maining, and when opportunity affords, he leaves. The
wages paid in the South to the 512 Negroes above men
tioned were as follows, as compared with wages they now
receive :
NUMBER OF NEGROES RECEIVING SPECIFIED WAGES
PER WEEK IN THE SOUTH AND NORTH.

Weekly Wages.

South.
Males . Females . Tot .

North.
Males . Females . Tot.

Board and clothes only. . 6 4 10
50C. to $1.99  8 26 34
$2.00 to $2.99  1 . . . . 22 48 70
$3.00 to $3.99  26 34 60
$4.00 to $4.99  12 II 23
$5.00 to $5.99  21 14 3S
$6.00 to $6.99  47 6 S3
$7.00 to $8.99  24 I 25
$9.00 to $11.99  5 • • 5
$12.00 to $13.99 ••¦  I •• I
$14.00 to $15.99  I • • I
$16.00 and over  i . . i
Working for self  5 . . S
Not working  19 24 43
Not reported  71 75 146

10 I
23 35 64
23 3
7 55
83

I
II
16
46 31 12 9 7
4

19
19
68

I
II16
564235
44 71
27 3 7
24
24
ISI

Total  269 243 512 269 243 512
More than 50 per cent, said that they left the South be
cause they wanted higher wages, and this comparison
seems to corroborate their statement. The wages general
ly paid the women in the South were $6 per month ($1.50
per week), to $3 per week in the small towns, and from $2
to $4 per week in the cities ; while the men in the South re
ceive $2 to $3.50 per week in the small towns and on the
farm, from $5 to $9 in the cities. These wages are bettered
by from 75 per cent, to 150 per cent, in the North. Domes
tic service pays women in Philadelphia from $3 to $6 per
week, averaging about $4.50, while men receive from $6 to'
$12 per week, averaging $9.

A Study In Economic History 59
According to the "Wages of Farm Labor in the United
States," Bulletin No. 26, of the Department of Agriculture,
Negro labor in ordinary times in Pennsylvania, received in
1902, 92 cents per day with board, or $1.30 per day without
board, while in Virginia the same labor received 56 cents
and 76 cents respectively; in North Carolina, 49 cents and
62 cents. If hired by the year the Negro farm labor in
Pennsylvania received $14.31 with board, or $24.29 with
out board, per month, while in the South the wages are as
low as $7.61 with board and $10.79 vvithout board, less than
half what is paid Negroes in Pennsylvania.
According to the testimony before the Industrial Com
mission, many Negroes have migrated from Prince George
County, Maryland, for shorter hours and larger pay. Many
of these came to Pennsylvania. Many thousands of Ne
groes have been brought to Pennsylvania by the employ
ment agencies.
One Philadelphia agent claimed to have given posi
tions to more than 15,000 Southern girls and women dur
ing the past eighteen years. Some of the new industrial
opportunities have been the asphalt paving in Philadelphia,
Pittsburg and other cities, which is done largely by Ne
groes from the South. The filter plant in Philadelphia, the
Subway in the same city, have employed thousands of Ne
groes, more or less regularly, and at better wages than they
could have gotten at home. Street railways, railroads and
steel works, the coal mines, needing sturdy, rough workers
have brought many. Such companies as the Midvale Steel
Company, the United States Steel Corporation, and other
great industrial plants, employ hundreds of Negroes, most
of whom are immigrants from the South. Domestic ser
vice is the chief inducement for women, and brings not a

60 The Negro In Pennsylvania
few men. The brilliancy of the city, the desire for excite
ment; for fine clothes and unrestrained amusement, un
doubtedly bring many, but there are comparatively few who
are not attracted by the prospect of a better social situation,
and increased earnings, and freer self-expression.
Many Negroes have come away from their homes in
the South because of the fear of mob violence. While this
has not been by any means the chief cause of emigration,
yet a sufficient number have come to warrant attention be
ing paid to this factor. This is especially important be
cause some of the Negroes driven North by this cause, are
rather above than below the average. Perhaps no instance
of race conflict in the South has had more effect upon the
Negroes in Pennsylvania, than the riot at Wilmington,
North Carolina, which occurred during August, 1898. The
occasion for the riot was an editorial or series of editorials
in the Record, a Negro daily paper in Wilmington, ac
cusing white men of greater immorality than Negro men
are guilty of. This was sufficient to stir the anger of the
whites. The editor was seized and beaten and would have
been killed had he not left the city. His property was de
stroyed and the building burned to the ground. His as
sistant editor and business manager, traveling agent, fore
man and general manager were also sent away. As a re-
,sult of this riot which came just at the time when the politi
cal fight against Negro enfranchisement was bitterest in
North Carolina, hundreds of Negroes left the city of Wil
mington and country round about, and scattered themselves
through the North. To Pennsylvania a large number of
them came, and there are possibly a thousand of them in
the State to-day. The editor himself became a janitor in
Philadelphia.

A Study In Economic History 61
As a result of the friction of race, another immigrant
was a former member of Congress from North Carolina.
The Atlanta, Georgia, riot of 1906, caused many Negroes
to come North, some of whom stopped in Philadelphia.
As in the case of the editor from North Carolina, so the
editor of "The Voice of the Negro," then the most widely
circulated Negro magazine in the country, was forced to
leave Atlanta, Georgia, and give up his business. He is
now in Philadelphia, an exile from home, and his magazine
has been crushed.
The major portion of Pennsylvania's Negroes are im
migrants from other States. The census gives the birth
place of Negroes living in the different States ; and from
this it is possible to find the birthplace of the Negroes who
help to make up the Pennsylvania population. The census
also enables us to find the place of residence of the Negroes
who were born in the State of Pennsylvania, thus to show
the immigration and the emigration. According to the
census of 1900, there were 85,014 Negroes living in the
United States who were born in Pennsylvania. Of these,
70-365 still live in the State, while 14,649 had moved out of
the State and lived in other parts of the country. There
were but few Negroes who were born in other Northern
States who had immigrated to Pennsylvania. On the other
hand, there has been considerable emigration to other
Northern States. Pennsylvania has given more liberally
of her Negro population to the New England and Middle
Atlantic States, than she has received from them, although
the excess is small, the largest being only 1297 for New
Jersey. On the other hand, there has been comparatively
little emigration to the South, excepting Maryland and
Delaware.

62 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Virginia has given to Pennsylvania more than ninety
times as many Negroes as it has received from this State;
Pennsylvania received from Virginia 40,870 immigrant Ne
groes and gave 848; from North Carolina, 5206 and gave
137; from South Carolina, 1009 and gave 32. The stream
of migration to-day has kept up steadily. During the year
1906, the Philadelphia Association for the Protection of
Colored Women reported more than 1600 cases of women
met at the docks. Most of them came by boat and were
probably of the poorer class. Perhaps a larger number
came by rail. Of those reported by the association above
referred to, 757 came from Virginia, 598 from Maryland, 30
from the District of Columbia, 46 from Pennsylvania, 2
from New Jersey, 5 from New York, 2 from South Caro
lina, 6 from Jamaica, 2 from Colorado.
The population of Pennsylvania is thus kept up by
immigration chiefly from the South. This is not wholly
abnormal considering the fact that the Negro population
of Pennsylvania is chiefly and increasingly urban; for not
only in the case of Negroes but in the case of the whites as
well, it is a question if our large cities are increasing in
population by natural growth, exclusive of immigration.
The Negro population in Pennsylvania in 1900, was
76.7 per cent, urban and 23.3 per cent, rural ; 120,285 of the
156,845 Negroes of the state lived in cities of at least 100,-
000 inhabitants; 15,004, in cities of between 25,000 and 100,-
000 inhabitants; 10,184 in cities of between 8,000 and 25,-
000; 7,155 in cities of from 4.000 to 8,000; and 4,453 in cities
from 2,500 to 4,000 inhabitants. A much larger percentage
of the Negroes than of the whites live in cities of Penn
sylvania. The following table will show the percentage of
Negro population in cities of different sizes at the last
three censuses:

, A Study In Economic History 63
PER CENT. OF NEGRO POPULATION IN CITIES OF DIF
FERENT SIZES, 1880, 1890, 1900.
Negro Population
Cities of at least 100,000 inhabitants. ' 1880. 1890. 1900.
At least 100,000  418 46.2 53.2
25,000 to 100,000  7-2 6.9 9.6
8,000 to 25,000  6.6 8.0 6.5
4,000 to 8,000  6.3 7.4 4.6
2,500 to 4,000 ... 1  30 2.8
At least 4,000  61.9 68.5 73.9
At least 2,500  7i-S 76-7
Country  38.1 28.5 23.3
The Negro city population has been steadily increas
ing; while the rural population has actually decreased,
there being 10,000 less Negroes in rural districts than in
i860. Forty years ago there were less Negroes in the large
cities, largely because there were fewer large cities. In
i860 five cities in the state had 100,000 or more inhabi
tants : viz. : Allegheny, Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Read
ing, having a total population of 680,011, of whom 25,835
were Negroes. At the same time, only one city had as
many as 10,000 Negroes; two cities having between 1,000
and 10,000 and only eight places in the state contained more
than five hundred Negroes. They were as follows: Alle
gheny, 690 Negroes; Pittsburg, 1,154; West Chester, 561;
Carlisle, 509; Harrisburg, 1,321; Chambersburg, 524; Co
lumbia, 648; and Philadelphia, 22,185. In 1900 there were
forty-three places in the state which had five hundred or
more Negroes.
While the total Negro population of the cities has
grown much more rapidly than the white population in
the past forty years, it has not spread over so many com
munities as the white population. More than half of the

64 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Negroes of the state are in Philadelphia and Pittsburg,
while these cities contain only a fourth of the total popu
lation. Excepting Pittsburg and Philadelphia, the Negro
population is scattered over the state in small aggrega
tions, chiefly in the southern and eastern sections.
Philadelphia increased during the forty years from
22,185 to 62,613 or 182 per cent. ; Pittsburg increased from
1,154 to 17,040, which is mor^ than 1,372 per cent.; Harris
burg increased 211 per cent. ; Allegheny, 379 per cent. ; Ches
ter City had 417 Negroes in i860 and West Chester had
561. In 1900, Chester's Negro population had increased to
4,403, or 950 per cent. ; and that of West Chester to 1,777,
or 247 per cent, during forty years. Some few communities
had made but slight increase. Carlisle, York and Wash
ington just a little more than doubled their Negro popula
tion, while Norristown and Reading lacked a little of
doubling theirs. Chambersburg's Negro population in
creased less than fifty per cent, and that of Columbia actu
ally decreased thirty-five per cent. Some towns which in
i860 had no Negroes whatever or a very few had a con
siderable Negro population in 1900; Scranton had only one
Negro in i860, but 521 in 1900. No Negroes were returned
in i860 for Braddock. Lancaster had 29 in i860, and 777
in 1900. For Homestead, McKeesport, Steelton, Union-
town, Wilkes-Barre or WiUiamsport, no Negroes are re
turned in i860, while in 1900, two of these cities, Williams-
port and Steelton, had more than 1,000 Negroes, and each
of the others more than 500 Negroes.
Within the cities the Negroes are more or less segre
gated. In Philadelphia, the largest groups of Negroes are
in the 7th ahd 30th wards, which contained in 1900- 10,462
and 5,242 Negroes respectively. The segregated commu
nities were formed naturally; the first Negroes who set-

A Study In Economic History 65

tied for themselves settled in the places which they could
secure employment. Others moved near them and so
on, until there was a so-called settlement of Negroes. Race
feeling, common interests, common bearing of racial prej
udice, were among the things which tended to keep the
Negroes together. But the home-owning and the more
prosperous Negroes are, as a rule, moving out of the dis
tinctively Negro neighborhood. In Philadelphia, west of
ISth street and south of Bainbridge, in Elmwood and Ger
mantown, a large number of the better class of Negroes
have settled within the past ten years. The largest num
ber of home-owners is outside of the most densely settled
Negro neighborhoods. All except one of the large churches
have moved from what was once the largest Negro dis
trict, but which is now chiefly inhabited by foreigners. The
only one of the old churches which holds its original posi
tion is Bethel, A. M. E. Church, which is now entirely sur
rounded by Jews.
In the various cities the Negro population is fairly
well distributed. There are wards which have a large pro
portion of Negroes, but in no city is there a ward which
is composed principally of Negroes. Often, however, the
Negro population is cut into by a ward line, and the segre
gation does not appear as much as it really is. In Phila
delphia, the second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh, eighth and
thirtieth wards are contiguous and form the largest Ne
gro settlement. In this district there were 25,317 Negroes
in 1900. This district includes a part of the central busi
ness district of the city. The next largest district includes
contiguous portions of the fourteenth, fifteenth, twentieth
and twenty-ninth wards, which in 1900 had a population of
10,365 Negroes. There are other smaller districts included,
principally within a single ward. It is worthy of notice
5

66 The Negro In Pennsylvania
that in none of these wards do the Negroes comprise a
majority of the population. The seventh ward had 10,462
Negroes in 1900, but also 28,137 whites; the other wards
had a larger proportion of whites.
But one can get a very hazy idea of the segregation
of Negroes if he depends upon the figures given by the
wards as Hoffman does in his treatise on the Negro. For
in wards the distribution of the Negro population is often
very regular. In the eighth ward in Philadelphia, one of
the richest resident wards of the city, the whites are gen
erally in the western part and the Negroes in the eastern.
This eastern section is generally referred to as the Negro
section, yet Negroes are in a minority, and there are only
three of the seventeen voting divisions where the Negro
vote is larger than the white vote. In the seventh ward,
the Negroes are more generally distributed, but by no
means evenly so. In 1906, there were 2,687 Negro voters
in this ward, an average of about one hundred voters to a
political precinct. But in eleven of the twenty-seven divi
sions the number of Negroes who vote was below the aver
age, and in nine of these there were less than fifty Negro
voters. All of which goes to show that althoiigh the
seventh ward has the largest population of Negroes, it is
not necessarily a "Negro ward." '
The extent of the segregation of the Negro population
cannot be shown by wards, but is as , to streets or parts
of streets. For example, the Negro population is densest
in Philadelphia on Lombard and South streets, from
Seventh to Twenty-third, and on the cross streets between
these two; in Pittsburg, on Wylie Avenue, Webster street
and Bedford Avenue, from Washington to Herron Avenue,
and in Harrisburg, the neighborhood of South and Short .
streets. These are rightly called Negro settlements.

A Study In Economic History 67
Throughout the larger cities there are often found from
half a dozen to a score of Negro families in one block, or
on adjacent streets, while there are many blocks in the
neighborhood in which no Negroes live.
This partial segregation of Negroes is not, however, ac
thing peculiar to them. On the one hand, they live in
nearly every ward in the cities above named and in no one
do they constitute a majority, though probably the next
census will give the Negroes a majority in the seventh
ward in Philadelphia.
They are not more segregated than the Jews, and the
Italians in Philadelphia. On the other hand, it seems to
be the tendency for the incoming Negroes to settle in those
parts of the city where the older members of the race have
already settled. This tendency has been aided much by
the real estate and renting agents who find that whites da
not care to live next door to Negroes, as a rule, just as
native Americans do not like to live next door to Italians,
or Jews, or Slavs. There is no evidence that the Negro
will spread over a greater area of the cities, but at the same
time, the Negro districts will continue to grow.
The largest section in which the race is said to he
segregated is, however, more characteristic of poverty than
of race. Negroes and Jews ; Irish and Italians ; and other
classes composing a large proportion of the poor, live more
or less together. In Philadelphia, the real poverty quarter,
so far as the Negroes are concerned, is really from Front
street to i6th street and west; from Pine to Fitz water. But
only the eastern part of this was included in the "Slums'"
in the Seventh Special Report of the Commissioner of La
bor. The slum district of Philadelphia was, according to
this report on the "Slums of the Great Cities," in 1894, aa
follows :

68 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Philadelphia. — (i)
Starting from the corner of Front and South streets,
along South to Fourth, along Fourth to Bainbridge, along
Bainbridge to Front and along South to Ronaldson, along
Ronaldson to Bainbridge, along Bainbridge to Eighth,
along Eighth to Fitzwater, along Fitzwater to Fallon, along
Fallon to Christian, along Christian to Eighth, along Eighth
to Marriott, along Marriott to Fifth, along Fifth to German,
along German to Passyunk Avenue, along Passyunk Ave
nue to Bainbridge, along Bainbridge to Fifth and along
Fifth to South.
In this slum district of Philadelphia were 17,060 per
sons, as follows : 16,612 whites or 97.38 per cent. ; 348 blacks
or 2.04 per cent. ; 84 mulattoes, quadroons and octoroons, or
0.40 per cent. ; and 16 Chinese, or 0.09 per cent. The great
majority of the Negroes of Philadelphia do not live in the
typical slum district, notwithstanding Negroes in a measure
are segregated and many of them do live in the slums. As
a rule in these slums, the Negroes do not live in the worst
sections. Gradually they have moved from the lower east
ern side further toward the banks of the Schuylkill River
and many hundreds of them to-day occupy houses which a
few years back were occupied by well-to-do whites. Many
of these houses are old and old-fashioned but most of them
are better than those in which the Negroes formerly lived.
On the other hand, the houses nearer the Delaware, about
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Spruce, Pine, Lombard,
South and the smaller streets and courts and alleys, in
which the generations of Negroes before the war, and the
first generation after the war lived, have been taken by
the Italians and Jews, who therefore, live in the main, under
worse conditions than the blacks now live. The same is
practically true in Pittsburg.

A Study In Economic History 69
There is also a peculiar kind of segregation in blocks
where the better-to-do classes live. For many years the
Negroes have been a servant class, and have lived in the
houses of the employers or very close to them. So, in Phila
delphia to-day, while on Spruce street and Walnut street,
many of the wealthiest Philadelphians live, just behind
them the Negroes are on Pine, Addison and Lombard
streets in parallel lines. In West Philadelphia, the well-
to-do whites live on Walnut and Chestnut streets, the Ne
groes live on the small streets just behind them. Some
times the Negroes are completely surrounded by the whites
as in the Eighth ward, where the whites live on the wide
outside streets and Negroes on the smaller inside streets.
The Negro rural districts : The rural population of
Pennsylvania in 1900 was 2,315,932 or 36.7 per cent, of the
'whole. The rural population of Negroes was 26.1 per cent.
as against 38.1 per cent, twenty years before. In some of
the counties, especially those where there is no large city,
such as Clarion, Cumberland, Franklin, the Negro popu
lation is falling off.
In more than half the counties of the state, the Negro
population has fallen off in the last twenty years, and
the increase of the. population has been mainly in the cities.
In many places where Negroes were settled on farms be
fore the war, there has either been a large death rate or
heavy immigration to the cities. Columbia county was
one of the counties in which many Negroes were largely
settled before the war. In 1900, there were only 125 Ne
groes in the county. Negroes who formerly owned farms
have given them up to move to the city.
As to sex, there is in this state an excess of Negro
males over Negro females. There were in 1900, 79,384 Ne
gro males and 77,497 Negro females in the state, or a pro-

70 The Negro In Pennsylvania
portion of 977 females to 1000 males. The excess of males
in Pennsylvania is in accord with the condition of the
country at large. In Philadelphia there is an excess of
females ; in Pittsburg of males, due chiefly to the eco
nomic opportunities of the sexes in the two cities.
OCCUPATIONS OF NEGROES.

What is the status of the Negro laborer in the North in
•general, and in Pennsylvania in particular? Upon the answer
to this question depends very largely the view we shall be
forced to take as to whether or not the Negro will be able to
survive the competition of free labor. The North is the
severest testing place for the Negro, not simply because of
its climate but also because of its labor traditions and organ
izations. In the South, the Negroes have had a practical
monopoly of certain forms of labor, but in the North they
find the field already occupied by the world's best and most
aggressive workmen ; they find higher standards in nearly
all lines of work and tremendous organizations for the pur
pose of reducing competition and controlling workmen and
apprentices. Slavery, no matter what its industrial benefits were, did
not demand of its workmen accuracy of detail and quickness
in execution; nor did it cultivate that creative imagination so
necessary in highly organized communities for successful com
petition. It left the laborers illiterate, largely dependent, and
shiftless, except under outside pressure. It was therefore, to
be expected that such a class of laborers would be found among
the least efficient of a country's workingmen. If in the North

A Study In Economic History 71
any of them or their children have been able to rise to skill
and self-direction; to success as business men, professional
men, skilled artisans, organizers and promoters, this, of it
self is a hopeful omen for the industrial future of the race.
The Negroes are truly a working people. Of the en
tire 8,833,994 Negroes in the country, 3,992,337 were engaged
in gainful occupations, in 1900 ; that is, 452 out of every 1,000.
Of the 6,415,581 Negroes ten years of age or more, 622 out
of every 1,000 were gainful workers. On the other hand,
373 of every 1,000 whites in the country, and 486 of every
1,000 whites ten years of age and older, were engaged in
gainful occupations. Though the Negroes compose but 11.4
per cent, of the country's entire population, they are 13.7 per
cent, of its entire working force.
In the countr}' at large a greater percent of Negro males
than white males, are engaged in gainful occupations in every
age period, except from 25 to 44. For the period from 10 to
15 years more than twice as many Negro children are at work
proportionately as whites. Among the females there is a
very striking contrast, proportionately two and a half times
as many Negro females being in gainful occupations as white
females. Of female children more than four times as many
Negroes as whites proportionately are engaged in gainful oc
cupations, and about the same proportion holds good for the
females between 55 and 65 years of age, and for 65 years and
over. Negro workers in Pennsylvania : According to the census
of 1900, there were in the State of Pennsylvania 4,885,429*
persons of ten years of age and over. Of these 2,448,589 or
50.1 per cent, were engaged in gainful occupations. The Ne
groes of Pennsylvania, as the Negroes of the country at large,
furnish a larger proportion of workers than their number
would indicate ; for while they are only 2.5 per cent, of Penn-

72 The Negro In Pennsylvania
sylvania's total population, they were 3.3 per cent, of the total
gainful workers in this State.
According to the census in 1900, 80,429 Negroes who
were engaged in gainful occupations in the State of Pennsyl
vania were distributed by sex as follows:
TABLE FROM THE CENSUS OF 1900.
Males. Females Total.
Occupations. No. % No. % No. %
Agricultural

pursuits . . 3,656

6.6

40

0.2

3,696

4.6

Professional

service . . . 936
1.6
276
I.I
1,212
1-5
Domestic and
personal
service ...33,030
59-2
22,830
92.7
55,860
69.4
Trade & trans
portation . 9,033
16.2
201
.8
9,234
11.6
Mfg. & mech.
pursuits . . 9,150
16.4
1,277
5-2
10,427
12.9
Total ..55,805 loo.o 24,624 loo.o 80,429 loo.o
Ninety-three out of every hundred females, and fifty-nine
out of every hundred Negro males of the State are in domestic
and personal service. Among the occupations most largely
followed by Negro unskilled laborers who comprise 65 per
cent, of this entire group, are servants and waiters, barbers,
and janitors. These four classes of labor comprise more than
96 per cent, of all the Negro domestic and personal service
workers. While most of this service is unskilled an increas
ing amount of skill is being required ; and in some cases, an
apprenticeship must be served, as in the case of barbers,
cooks,' nurses, stewards. Some, however, require capital,
and though the service is personal, often a lucrative busi
ness is conducted, as in the case of barbers, caterers, hotel
and boarding house keepers, restaurant and saloon keepers.
A Study In Economic History 73

The specific occupations chiefly followed by Negro females
are those of servants, waiters, laundresses and house-keep
ers. These comprise more than 93 per cent, of the whole
body of Negro females in domestic and personal service.
Servants and waitresses alone are 78 per cent, of the total.
Domestic service is occupied largely by the newcomers
from the South. What is true of domestic service, common
ly so called, is true of common unskilled labor. There are
more than forty employment agencies in Philadelphia,
which make a specialty of supplying Negro domestic ser
vants, some of them having representatives in the South
ern cities and towns who secure women and men of all
descriptions and send them to the North. These agencies
supply the city and the surrounding country with a large pro
portion of the servants. Most of these agencies agree that
the vast majority of the people whom they supply are immi
grant Negroes; that the native Negroes do not care to work
in domestic service; and also that the average house-holder
prefers a Southern Negro, because she is cheaper and more
docile. The twelve per cent, of native Negroes who are in
domestic service are generally in a higher grade of service than
the immigrant Negro.
There are many kinds of this service in which a high
grade of intelligence is needed. Several Negroes in the State
have invented and patented devices for improving the labor
of the household worker. A young Philadelphian, named
Booker, has taken the lead in this, having invented and patent
ed a dish washer which has an extensive sale; also devices for
cleaning windows and scrubbing floors. He has organized
a cleaning company, which employs from ten to fifteen per
sons regularly cleaning windows, marble fronts, etc. Another
Negro, George Frank Hall, has invented and patented what
he calls the "Kitchen King," combining in a single utensil

74 The Negro In Pennsylvania
the functions of ^he whip and bowl, puree brush, sieve and
potato masher. Among other devices invented by Negroes in
Pennsylvania for domestic service are an apple and potato
parer, and a refrigerator by Alfred Cornell, a caterer; a device
for keeping fumes of a cooking stove from spreading over
the kitchen, by P. C. Slowe.
J There has been but little attempt to train Negro servants.
The oldest institution doing work of any kind in this line is
Avery Institute, of Allegheny, which reaches a very few per
sons. Some sporadic work is done by organizations of women
but there is nothing effective in the State. The Association
for the Protection of Colored Women, in Philadelphia, started
in 1905, and the Home for Working Women, in Pittsburg,
reach a few servants, but because of the very limited resources
they are able to do but httle in the way of effective training
of household workers. They do more on the moral and social
sides than on the educational and economic sides. In moje
skilled grades of domestic or personal service, such as cater
ing, barbering and hair-dressing, there is some training given
to apprentices in shops and private businesses conducted by
members of the race.
Since the Civil War there have been many changes in
the relation of the Negro to domestic service. Time was when
the most lucrative occupations open to Negroes were in domes
tic service, in which were most of the best Negroes in the
State. With enlarging opportunities this is no longer true.
The Negroes of best training and circumstances are going
into this kind of service to a much less extent than formerly.
Many of the sons and daughters of those who held most
prominent places as domestic servants are now in business
or in professions. The native born Negroes of Philadelphia
comprise about 37 per cent, of the total Negro population,
while they are only about 12 per cent, of Negro domestic

A Study In Economic History 75

servants. The first Negro lawyer of Philadelphia is the son
of a successful Negro caterer, and his son is a successful
physician, and one of the largest property holders among
Negroes in the State. The son of another caterer is a suc
cessful physician, and a daughter of a barber has won more
than a local reputation as an artist, having studied several
years in Paris. Her design of the Negro historical group
for the Jamestown Exposition attracted wide attention and
won for her a medal of honor.
The economic changes during the past generation have
brought new opportunities to the Negroes of Pennsylvania,
and have helped to raise many of them from domestic ser
vice, which has caused an apparent loss in this field. In the
barber's trade it is often asserted that the Negro has lost
ground. This is true if it means that they have lost proportion
ately ; for there are proportionately fewer Negro barbers than
formerly. In no large cities do Negroes have a monopoly of
this trade. There has been no absolute loss in nurribers how
ever, but rather a gain. There is now a greater demand for
Negro barbers than existed a generation ago. Shaving and
hair-cutting are now a necessity even to many laborers, as
well as to the business and professional men. That being the
case, a great many more persons are needed in the barbers'
trade which is made a business, that whites as well as Ne
groes have entered. To-day Negroes have a monopoly of the
Negro trade, which alone supports in the State more than one
hundred and fifty ' shops, which is probably larger than the
whole number of shops conducted by Negroes before the
war. Negroes also have a fair proportion of the patronage
of whites. In nearly every large city in the State there are
first-class shops conducted by Negroes exclusively for whites.
In the Pennsylvania Railroad Station, at both Philadelphia
and Pittsburg, there are Negro barbers. The rise in the stan-

76 The Negro In Pennsylvania
dard of the barbers' trade has been great within forty years.
To enter the business now requires more than mere knowledge
of the art of shaving and hair-cutting. Much capital can be
invested in the business. There has also been large improve
ment in the sanitary standards.
What is true of barbers is true of caterers. When cater
ing was merely a species of house service, the competition with
whites was not great. The caterer was the cook and butler to
the fashionables, and largely had the monopoly bf a trade,
which others did not very greatly desire. But to-day, catering
is not house service in the common sense; it is a business
which requires not only skill and capital but business abihty
and connections. The great cook is not the caterer of today,
but he may be hired by the monied man who knows how to
organize and advertise a catering business. Thus Negroes
have lost much of the prestige they once had in Philadelphia,
but they do more catering today than they ever did. There
are more Negro caterers in this city than ever before — over
loo. They now have practically the monopoly of a growing
trade among Negroes (though not as exclusively as the bar
bers), and have been able to hold much of the other trade.
The best caterers have survived the changes in their trade and
have opened business on a large scale, as represented by
Augustine and Baptiste, and John S. Trower, in Philadelphia;
and Spriggs and John T. Writt & Co., in Pittsburg. These
men do a much larger business than any of the ante-bellum
caterers in their best days. But they are less conspicuous
and have less of a monopoly.
If it is true that the Negroes are in domestic service
proportionately less today than formerly, this is not a loss
but a gain and is significant of a wider range of economic
opportunities for the race.
The Professions : The professions may be classed among

A Study In Economic History 77
the new occupations for Negroes. Although there have been
individual Negroes in different professions for many years,
yet, as a class, the Negro professional group in Pennsylvania
is the growth of the present generation.
As to the particular professions there were at the census
of 1900, in Pennsylvania, 91 actors and professional show
men and women; 411 clergymen; 20 dentists; 24 lawyers; 258
musicians and teachers of music; 12 government officers; 60
physicians and surgeons; 222 teachers and professors in
schools and colleges; and 114 miscellaneous professions. To
every 1,000 Negroes in the State there were 6.3 actors and
actresses, 26 clergymen, 1.2 dentists, 1.5 lawyers, 16.4 musi
cians, .8 government officials, 3.8 physicians, 14.2 teachers.
Excluding the preaching and teaching professions, the
North has a larger actual number of Negroes engaged in pro
fessional service than the South, and proportionately there is
a larger number even of teachers and clergymen in the North.
The profession earliest developed was that of the minister.
Ministers of color were always the chief preachers to their
people. The minister goes back to Africa and is the connect
ing link between heathenism and Christianity. A hundred
years ago Richard Allen and Absalom Jones were ordained
ministers in the Methodist and Episcopal Churches respec
tively in Philadelphia.
Some of the most intelligent men of the Negro race are
to be found among its ministers,, who in this State include
men who were trained at the University of Pennsylvania,
Oberlin College, the University of Chicago, Princeton Uni
versity, Newton Theological Seminary, Boston University,
Lincoln University, and other well equipped institutions.
There are among them men who have studied abroad at the
Universities of Berlin, Liepzig, Bonn, Paris, Cambridge and
Rome. The Theological department in one of the largest

78 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Negro institutions, Howard University, Washington, D. C,
was practically founded by a Presbyterian minister, the Rev.
J. B. Reeve, now for nearly fifty years a pastor in Philadelphia.
On the other hand the average intelligence of the ministers
is somewhat lower than the average of any other of the so-
called learned professions. This is due to several things.
In the first place there is no State supervision of the granting
of ministerial licenses as there is in other professions. The
State thus permits religious congregations to call ignorant min
isters, while it prevents to some extent people from employing
ignorant persons who would teach or practice law or medicine.
Thus it is difficult to raise the ministry more rapidly than the
laity. In the second place, outside of a few large churches,
the salaries are smaller than the necessities of life demand.
Other opportunities, offering larger pecuniary returns and as
much social prestige, are being gradually opened and many
men of that best class that first entered the ministry are find
ing places in these new fields. On the whole, however, the
ministry is gaining in intelligence and is said to be consider
ably superior to the ministry of a generation ago.
The Negro^ physicians in the State now number about
seventy and on the whole are an intelligent body, representing
the best elements of Negro life. As earjy^ as^i838jja Negro
physician and dentist^avepe reported_m_the Regdster^f Trades
iu PhiladeT]^hia! Irf 1845]^^^^ physicians wererepQrted by
tne~aulhor oTIthe "^K^jries of (Tolored Society.^' James Dur
ham, a Pennsylvania Negro, was taken SouHi to New Orleans,
where he became very proficient in medicine in the eighteenth
century. In Philadelphia there are thirty-two graduated Ne-
gro physicians^_tEree[gf7whom~ai^e'^6m Among tTieni are
graduates of the Medical Department of Howard-^University,
the University of Pentisflvania, Harvard University, Jeffer
son Medical College, Hahnemann Medical College, the Medico-

A Study In Economic History 79

Chirurgical College Shaw University. Several have taken
post-graduate abursh^ne of whom did so in the University
of London, ifi 1896 tjie highest general average ever made
befpre the Peri^iylv^ia btatS-Board- of Medical Examiners,
wa£^a3eby_aJ^£gfo2IRobert^ Jones ^bele, a native of Phil
adelphia, and a graduate of Hahnemann "HeHicaT College.
PhiladelplnaJirin Pittsburg there are sixteen physicians, six
dendsts and two^ pharmacists, graduated as follows: 5 fronT
the Western University of Pennsylvania, 5 from Howard
University, 2 from Shaw University, i from the Medico-
Chirurgical College, Philadelphia, i from the University of
Pennsylvania, and i from Harvard University. Harrisburg
has 5 physicians. West Chester i, Coatesville i, Steelton i,
Chester 2, Washington i, and West Grove 2. About one-
third of the Negro physicians are college graduates holding
the degree of A.B. or B.S. Among the institutions from
which they graduated are Harvard, Lincoln, Wilberforce,
Howard and Shaw Universities. The oldest physician prac
ticing in Pittsburg is a native of that city and has been prac
ticing more than thirty years; another has practiced twenty
years, and another eighteen years; three from ten to fifteen
years, six from five to ten years, nine under five years, three
of whom have practiced less than two years. Negro physi
cians have not had free^cess to all hospitals," ttiougti there
have IEeiSII3]^^oes— assisling._in Hahnemann, Polyclinic and
Jefferson Hospitals, in Philadelphia. In_ 1895 the" "Frederick
Douglass Hospital... ol PJuIadelphiay^was established. Nathan
F».^ossell, M.D., a native of Canada, and a graduate of Lin-
coln University and.JJi&-Universitv of Pennsylvania, was the
-£^ljPJli^JlLtlie-icuaiding^_that institutiori, and is still the
Medical Director. During the last twelve years the Negro
population has nearly doubled, and the demands for increased
hospital room led to the opening in April, 1906, of the Mercy

80 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Hospital and School for Nurses, in Philadelphia. A hospital
is to be opened in the near future in Pittsburg.
The Negro lawyer does not have the opportunity to suc
ceed that the Negro clergymen and physicians have had.
These latter practically have the practice of their people, but
not so the Negro lawyer. He is still a pioneer and at a dis
advantage, in that his practice is not private, or among his
own people, but he must plead before a white judge often
against a white lawyer and generally, with a white jury. Yet,
there is but little complaint on the part of the Negro lawyers.
The average Negro coming from the South and knowing
how great a handicap the lawyer of his race suffers in that
section, hesitates long before employing a Negro lawyer.
There are not more than a third as many Negro lawyers in
Pennsylvania as physicians. In Philadelphia there are four
teen; in Pittsburg five; in Harrisburg, one.
Negro teachers are increasing rapidly each year. In
1840, there were 36 in the State ; the census of 1900 reported
222. Negro teachers found employment as far back as the
eighteenth century. In 1793, "The Committee for the Improve-
ing the Condition of Free Blacks," suggested the opening of
a new school for Negro children and stated that they had
found a black woman well qualified for a mistress of such a
school. In 1838, there were ten private schools in Philadel
phia, conducted by Negro teachers. From its beginning in
1837, the teachers for The Institute for Colored Youths, have
been principally Negroes. As long as the State recognized
separate Negro public schools, many of the teachers of them
were Negroes, and after the legal abolition of separate schools
in 1881 many Negro teachers were retained. During the past
decade Negro teachers have been rapidly increasing in public
schools. This is due largely to the immigration of Negroes
from the South. Though Negro schools have no legal exist-

A Study In Economic History 81
ence, Negro teachers, as a rule, teach only Negro children.
There are more than sixty Negro public school teachers in
Philadelphia. There are more than a score of journalists in the State,
These, with one or two exceptions are on Negro periodicals.
The first Negro newspaper in Pennsylvania of which there is
any record, was published in 1838, by William Whipper and
others. The next attempt was in Philadelphia in 1841, when
Robert Purvis and others started the "Demosthenian Shield,"
The oldest Negro publication now in existence in America is
published in this State — "The Christian Recorder," the organ
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was start
ed in Philadelphia in 1852. There were in 1908 three mag
azines and about twelve weekly papers, published by Ne
groes in the State, chiefly in Philadelphia. Since the first
attempt, seventy years ago, there have been probably fifty at
tempts at newspapers and periodicals, the most of which have
failed for the lack of patronage. In Pittsburg, the first at
tempt was in 1848 when the Christian Herald was published
and of a dozen ventures since then, none have been able to sur
vive as long as five years. Pittsburg now has an interesting
weekly paper — ^the Courier. The attempts at daily papers have
been all short-lived. The latest was in 1907 when the Phila
delphia Tribune attempted to issue a daily. I«t was soon
discontinued as a daily, but is still running as a weekly as
it has for twenty-five years. Though the illiteracy of the
Negroes of the State is very small and though there are at
least 200,000 Negroes in the State, the combined circulation of
all the Negro newspapers in the State would hardly reach 25,-
000 copies per week. The Negro newspapers have not as yet
devoted much attention to the economic life of the people to
whom they are supposed to cater. They give but slight at
tention to business, to trade, to industrial hfe and industrial

82 The Negro In Pennsylvania
opportunities. In this, they are not leaders of thought, but
rather followers. They are devoted chiefly to church news,
secret society news and personals. Now and then, they dis
cuss politics and "The Negro Question." Their chief handi
cap is lack of capital. Negroes are not employed largely in the
mercantile life of the State outside of menial positions. This
is due chiefly to their race, for as a general rule they do not
have the opportunity. Where civil service is operated, how
ever, Negroes always have better opportunity. In the Post
Office for instance, the Negroes have been able to secure em
ployment. In Philadelphia there were in 1907, 175 Negroes in
the Post Office: — 126 clerks, 31 letter carriers, 16 special de
livery messengers and 2 laborers ; in Pittsburg, 65 were in the
Post Office; in Harrisburg, there were 5 Negroes; in Wilkes-
Barre, 2 ; in Oxford and Coatesville, i each. In the employ of
the city of Philadelphia there were 126 Negroes in Novem
ber 1907 ; in the city of Pittsburg, 5 messengers at $900 per
year ; 26 policemen ; i chemical engine company, of six mem
bers; I city detective; and janitors and laborers. Most of the
larger cities have one or more Negroes holding places under
the civil service.
BUSINESS ENTERPRISES AMONG NEGROES.

The Negro entrepreneur existed as far back as there is any
reliable information. In the registry of trades of Philadelphia
in 1838, 344 Negroes — 133 women and 211 men — were re
ported as being in business for themselves. Most of th^se
were in the humblest kinds of business, such as vending,
dressmaking, boot and shoe repairing, hair-dressing, barbering,

A Study In Economic History 8S
and jobbing in various building trades. In 1849, another ac
count revealed 166 shopkeepers and traders among Negro mere
of 21 years of age and over.
A complete enumeration of the business ventures in the
principal cities of the State has been attempted and thougb
only approximately correct, the results are not without value.
In Philadelphia, the Colored Directory for 1908, gave more
than a thousand Negroes conducting nearly a hundred dif
ferent kinds of business. In Pittsburg, an enumeration dis
closed more than 125 Negroes in more than fifty different
kinds of business. In Harrisburg, an incomplete enumeration:
showed about fifty Negroes in business, the principal busi
nesses being barber, etc. The Colored Directory of Philadel
phia for 1908, by R. R. Wright, Jr., Ernest Smith, gives x
complete list of the businesses conducted by Negroes in that
city. There are probably 2,500 persons in the State who belong-
to the entrepreneur class, most of them being engaged in small
businesses. Doubtless many of them are not able to receive-
from their business any larger amount than they would if they
were regular wage-earners. The only difference between them
and the wage-earner is, that they have more control over their
time. The largest number of persons is in the barbering busi
ness. In Philadelphia alone, there are 116 barbering establish
ments. In nearly every city or town in the State where there
are as many as a hundred Negroes, there is such an establish
ment especially for the patronage of Negroes. The barbers^
and caterers have already been mentioned. While a few Ne
groes run restaurants and cafes for whites exclusively, the
great mass serve their own race principally. The majority of
these establishments are small and many of the restaurante.
are ill-kept. But as in the case of barbers, so with the res
taurant and cafe, the standard of cleanliness in exclusively-

84 The Negro In Pennsylvania
colored establishments has had rapid development in the past
decade. There are ten small hotels in Philadelphia and ten
in Pittsburg. In both West Chester and Johnstown, one
of the largest hotels is conducted by a Negro. In the large
cities the Negro hotel has grown up chiefly for the patronage
of Negroes, whom the ordinary hotel conducted by whites
serve with reluctance. These hotels compare favorably with
hotels of the same size and grade of patronage conducted by
whites. The Negro barber, caterer, the cleaner and hotel keeper,
are the developments from the Negro domestic servant, and
are connected directly with the slave regime. There are other
and newer lines of business in which Negroes had but little
previous training and into which they have been forced largely
by necessity. Real estate is one of these. There as 37 real
estate dealers and 11 building and loan associations in Phila
delphia and Pittsburg. These are chiefly the growth of the
past two decades since the influx of Negro immigrants from
the South. The loan and investment company and the insur
ance company are still later developments requiring larger
capital and a different kind of ability.
With the evolution in the kind of business has gone a
gradual complexity of organization. Most of the first en
terprises were private concerns requiring chiefly skill, such
as the knowledge of shaving, cooking, painting, etc., and but
small capital. Thus an individual conducted a business alone.
When the business grew larger and there was a necessity for
combination, this necessity was met by taking in the wife or
son or brother. This was the first development of the part
nership and is to-day the most prevalent. But with the growth
of the businesses requiring more skill and capital, than one
individual possessed, the company was formed, several persons
coming together with their small capital. The fraternal and

A Study In Economic History 85
beneficial societies are the earlier developments along this
line. With the need for still larger capital and more thorough
organization came the incorporated business, the oldest of
which was the building and loan association. The first of
these in Pennsylvania the Century Building and Loan Asso
ciation, was incorporated in 1886. According to the report of
the Banking and Insurance Commissioners of Pennsylvania
for 1906, ten of these associations were reported as follows:
Year Total Total Homes
Name of Association Orean- Mem- Shares Boueht Receipts
ized bers in 1906
Afro-American, Pitts.
Baker, Pitts.
Banneker, Philadelphia . . .
Berean, Philadelphia
Century, Philadelphia . . . .
Cherry, Philadelphia . .
Colored of North Philadel.
, Sth Ward S'tlment, Philadel.
Pioneer, Philadelphia
. William Still, Philadelphia
Total 9704,380^25 $97,742.51
There were 970 persons members of these societies of
whom 382 were females, owning 4,380^ shares. During the
year 1906, 25 homes were bought, and $97,742.91 received as
dues, interest, fines, etc. The assets of these associations were
reported as $198,587.27.
The largest of these associations, the Berean Building and
Loan Association, has purchased since its inception, more_than
169 homes for its members, at an average cost of $3,000. Dur
ing the year 1906, the association received $37,009.06, as dues,
$18,667.70, on mortgages and loans unpaid, $1,450, from the
sale of real estate, with other miscellaneous items, making a
total of $59,077.52. The assets of the association were reported
at $126,326.80, the undivided profits reported at $21,410.40.

1896 56

128

I

$ 1,690.06

1894 20

49

I

1,99576

¦1905 39

121

0

1,771.78

1888 4262,351%

14

59,077.78

1886 19

66

I

4,659-05

1904 103

431

2

6,842.02

1906 32

106

0

616.72

1906 73

294

0

2,091.48

1888 140

705

4

17,725.18

1905 62

129

2

1,873-34

The Negro In Pennsylvania

Related to the Building and Loan Association is the incorpor
ated real estate company, of which there are six in Philadel-
f>hia and three in Pittsburg, all of which have been incorporated
¦during the past ten years. These associations, owing to a
-wider scope of operation are able to do an even larger bus.i-
mess than the building and loan associations. They sell houses
on the small payment plan, arranging the payments to suit the
purchasers. One of the most successful of these in Philadel
phia has been able to sell houses to parties who make about
the same monthly payments, they would make if they were
Tenting. Next to the incorporated real estate company comes
the incorporated insurance company which grew out of the
sick benefit society. According to the report of the Northern
Aid Society, incorporated December, 1902, during the first three
years of its existence, $266,478 of insurance was written up;
$6,199 of sick claims; and $1,202.36 of death claims paid and
$10,421.53, paid out to employes. Another, the Keystone Aid
Society, also incorporated in 1902, employs 47 persons, has
branch offices in Coatesville, Chester, Bristol and Pittsburg,
and has insured 15,700 persons. Among other incorporated
businesses are, six cemetery companies, four publishing com
panies, two loan companies, two grocery companies, one steam
laundry, one excavating company, one department store, and
one bank. During 1906, there were 18 new business companies in
corporated in Philadelphia. In Pittsburg, a syndicate has es
tablished four drug stores during the past four years.
The test of the business ability is not the launching of an
lenterprise so much as continuing it over, a period of years. A
study therefore of the number of years which Negro busi-
aiesses have endured is highly important. It has not been pos
sible to obtain information concerning every establishment, but

A Study In Economic History 87

a tabulation of 283

enterprises in

Philadelphia

and Pitts-

burg is here given :

Number of years

Phila.

Pitts.

Total

established.

Under i year
29
13
42
I year
23
10
33
2 years
12
6
18
3 years
22
7
29
4 years
15
5
20
5 to 7 years
35
10
45
8 to 10 years
14
6
20
II to 15 years
14
7
2.1
16 to 20 years
19
2
21
21 to 25 years
6
I
7
26 to 30 years
10
2
12
31 to 40 years
5
I
6
40 years and over
8
I
9
Total 212 71 283
Of 283 establishments, 42 had been established less than
one year, and seventy-two less than two years; 18 had been
established two years and 29 for three years, being a total of
122 establishments of three years' standing or less. These may
be said to represent the businesses in the experimental stage.
They comprise about two-fifths of the total number of busi
nesses among Negroes in the State. The 85 establishments
which have continued from four to ten years, comprise about
thirty per cent, of the total, and may be said to have passed
the experimental stage, and to be in the second stage of the
competition for permanency. Of those over ten years old, 76
or thirty per cent., which may be said to be firmly established.
Forty-two of these have been established between ten and
twenty years, while thirty- four had been established over twenty
years. Nine establishments had an existence of over forty
years; eight of them in Philadelphia and one in Pittsburg.
They included, three caterers, three undertakers, one shoe-
88 The Negro In Pennsylvania
maker, one furniture dealer and one hair dresser. In Alle
gheny, there was also a fish dealer whose business had been
in operation for more than forty years. The oldest continuous
business in the State is the catering business of Augustine and
Baptiste on South Fifteenth Street in Philadelphia. In the
early part of the last century, Robert Bogle, opened a catering
establishment at the corner of Eighth and Sansom streets,
Philadelphia, which he conducted very successfully until 1818,
when the place was taken by Peter Augustin, a West Indian
immigrant. Augustin conducted the establishment on an en
larged scale and he soon had one of the most famous catering
establishments in America. Upon his death in 1892, the busi
ness was conducted by his wife, Marie C. Augustin. A part
nership was formed with another West Indian Negro family
and the firm in recent years has been known as Augustin and
Baptiste. They own a handsome property at 255-257 South
Fifteenth Street, the value of which is more than $60,000, and
are among the largest Philadelphia caterers. Almost a hun
dred years ago one Allmond, a cabinet maker, established quite
a reputation in the city for the quality of his work. Among
other things, he made coffins. His son followed him in the
trade and his grandson did the same. During the day of the
latter the undertaking business took definite shape, became dif
ferentiated from that of the cabinet maker and included fu
neral directing, embalming and other things having no con
nection with the trade of the cabinet maker. This latter
Negro, opened an undertaking establishment and two of his
sons took up the business after him. To-day, there are in
Philadelphia, three undertaking establishments conducted un
der their name. In Pittsburg, the oldest Negro business is
that of hair-dressing and wig-making. In 1837, John Peck,
a colored minister, who earned his living chiefly as a hair
dresser, opened an establishment in the down-town district.

A Study In Economic History 89
He was attentive to business and had much of a monopoly of
what was then a kind of personal service. After he died, in
1875, his wife ' conducted the business for twelve years until
her death In 1887. The business had been located in one place
during these fifty years of operation. In 1887, however, it was
removed and the son of Mr. and Mrs. Peck, took charge and
has conducted it for more than twenty years. The establish
ment is located in the business district of Pittsburg, within a
block of the place where the founder started it in 1837, just
across the street from Joseph Home's department store aud
within a hundred yards of four other of Pittsburg's largest
hairdressing and wig-making establishments. It is interesting
to note, that all of the businesses are to-day larger and more
prosperous than they were at any time during the life-time
of their founders. The establishment of Augustin and Bap
tiste is larger than that of the famous Peter Augustin in his
most successful days. The property is valued at more; the
equipment is larger; the number of Negroes to whom employ
ment is given is greater ; moreover, the present manager of the
business, is a business man who plans and conducts the busi
ness side of the establishment against severe competition. He
neither cooks the meals nor waits on the tables, but the famous
Peter was both cook and waiter. Still the present establish
ment has not the reputation which the earlier one had a half
century ago; no one can say that it is the establishment that
makes "Philadelphia catering famous all over the country."
This is because the standard in catering has been raised and
the competition increased, so that the first-class Negro es
tablishment of to-day does not attract the attention which
smaller establishments commanded sixty years ago.
The solidarity of the Negroes as an employed group is
rradually being broken up and many of them are becoming em
ployers of labor. Many of the best class of Negro families
employ domestic help. Negro business men are each year em-

90 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ploying more of their race. In 1909 in Philadelphia, 199
Negro firms employed 888 Negroes ; and in Pittsburg 67 firms
employed 412 Negroes. A fair estimate is that between 9,000
and 10,000 persons, including proprietors, secure their living
from Negro businesses. The barbering business gives em
ployment to the largest number. Forty-seven Negro barber
shops in Philadelphia employed 173 persons. Next come the
caterers and general contractors, some of whom on occasions
employ a hundred persons. The insurance business, real es
tate companies give employment to stenographers, bookkeepers,
solicitors, collectors, etc. Fully ninety-five per cent, of the
bookkeepers, clerks and accountants are in the employ of
Negro firms. Of the members of the Philadelphia colored wo
men's clerks' association only two were employed by whites,
and these received less wages than some Negro firms paid.
In some respects, there are greater difficulties in gaining su
perior proficiency in mechanical trades than in the professions.
For the professional man in many instances has the compe
tition only of his s^roup (as for example the minister), and has
a natural constitutency in his race. The Negro teacher, preacher
and physician, succeed wherever the Negroes congregate in
large numbers. Then, too, there is every facility in the State
for the professional education of the Negroes, while there are
but few opportunities for acquiring a high degree of skill on
the part of the Negro artisan. There are few industrial or
trade schools for them in this State, and they are generally
not admitted as apprentices to the large shops where skilled,
mechanical trades are taught. Most of the Negroes who fol
low skilled trades are immigrants from the South or the West
Indies, and learned their trades outside of Pennsylvania.
Those who control the skilled trades have jealously guarded
their possession and have not given Negroes much opportunity.
In nearly every study made of the Negro population in the
State, the difficulty of pursuing skilled mechanical trades has

A Study In Economic History 91
been noted. In 1838 the reporter on the occupations of Ne
groes in Philadelphia, observed: "We are aware that the
greater part of them are engaged in the most menial services
and the severest labor, they are met (in the higher branches of
labor) with prejudices with which they have to contend, which
renders it difficult for them to find places for their sons as ap
prentices, to learn mechanical trades." In Edward Needles'
report in 1856 thp same sentiment was found still to exist in
Philadelphia; and a generation later Prof W. E. B. Du Bois
described "the practical exclusion of the race from the trades
and industries of the great city of Philadelphia."
The Centennial Souvenir of the city of West Chester
speaks of the "first colored high school graduate ;" of that city
as follows: "after his graduation, he tried at several places
to apprentice himself to learn a trade; though skilled in the
use of tool and willing to work, he found no employment."
The chief cause of the exclusion is the fact that the great
majority of the white workmen refuse to work with Negroes.
It is not necessary to offer evidences of this here, as Dr. Du
Bois in his "Philadelphia Negro" has so fully presented the
case. ;; '•¦^ ¦ '{'•¦
Most of the Negroes who work at the mechanical trades
are either jobbers or work exclusively with Negroes. Some
v/ho worked at trades in the South, on coming to Philadelphia
and hearing of the difficulty which Negroes experience in at
tempting to follow trades in the State give up the attempt
without serious effort. In fact, the prevalent opinion among
Negroes as to the impossibility of pursuing a trade in the
North, in a very large measure accounts for the scarcity of
Negroes now in the trades. This is almost as important a
cause a? the attitude of the white workmen, for it keeps the
Negroes from attempting to embrace the opportunities which
really exist.

92 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Still, there are many Negroes in all parts of the State
following mechanical trades with varying success. According
to the census of 1900, 10,427 Negroes were engaged in manu
facturing and mechanical pursuits. The principal mechanical
trades for males having 100 or more Negroes were as fol
lows: Trades. Number of males in trade.
Blacksmiths  1^0
Boot and Shoemakers  105
Brick and Tile Makers   495
Carpenters and Joiners  192
Charcoal, coke and lime burners  525
Engineers and firemen  436
Iron and steel workers  1,582
Brick and Stone Masons  989
Miners and Quarrymen  1,616
Painters, Glaziers and Varnishers  137
Plasterers  106
Printers, Pressmen, etc  104
Tobacco and Cigar Factory Operators  i£7
Other important occupations reported for Males are:
bakers, 38; book-binders, 12; bottlers, 8; butchers, 55; glass-
workers, 63 ; machinists, 74 ; paperhangers, 88 ; tin plate and tin
ware workers, 72; wire workers, 49. In the list, there are 92
manufacturing and mechanical pursuits of males given by the
census of 1900. Of these there are 13 pursuits, in which Ne
groes do not appear. These as given are, box-makers (wood),
button makers, clock and watch makers and repairers, electro-
platers, lace and embroidery makers, print-work operators,
shirt, collar and cuff makers, silk mill operators, trunk and lea
ther case makers, umbrella and parasol makers and well boi ers.
All of these classes of labor are small, none having as many as
a thousand persons, except watch and clock makers and re
pairers and silk mill operatives. It is a fact, however, tliat
many of the classes of labor reported as having no Negroes in

A Study In Economic History 93
them, in 1900, did have Negroes in 1907. There were in this
latter year Negro boxmakers, clock and watch makers and re
pairers, embroidery makers, piano and organ tuners, shirt, col
lar and cuff makers, umbrella makers and well borers.
In Philadelphia there is one Negro brick-laying contractor,
who has put up more than fifty houses for himself in the last
ten years; another, who has erected some residences in the
suburbs of Holmesburg and another who works under a yearly
contract to keep several stores and apartment houses in re
pair; a firm of plasterers which has plastered over seven hun
dred houses within the past four years. The buildings of the
Downingtown Industrial School, and several Negro churches
were erected entirely by Negroes; the contractor, on the new
Congregational Church in Pittsburg was a Negro; and much
of the work on Rockefeller Hall, Bryn Mawr College, was
done by Negro mechanics. In the steel works there are large
numbers of Negro workmen; all of the puddlers in the Black
Diamond Steel and Iron Company in Pittsburg are Negroes;
in the rolling mills at Reading, Steelton, West Chester, Coates
ville, Columbia and other places there are skilled Negro work
men. In Clark's Mills, Pittsburg, there are three Negro fore
men, having under them as high as twenty men, white, as
well as black. Concerning the Negro workmen in the Steel
industry, Mr. Chas. J. Harrah, president of the Midvale Steel
Company, a successful competitor of the United Steel Corpora
tion for the government's armor- plate contracts, testified be
fore the Industrial Commission in 1900, as follows : "We have
fully 800 or 1,000 colored men. The balance are American,
Irish and Germans. The colored labor we have is excellent.
They are lusty fellows; we have some with shoulders twice as
broad as mine. The men come up here ignorant, totally un
tutored and we teach them the benefits of discipline ; we teach
• the colored men the benefit of thrift, and coax them to open a

94 The Negro In Pennsylvania
bank account, and he generally does it and in a short time
has money in it, and nothing can -stop him from adding money
to that bank account. We have no colored men who drink."
As to friction, Mr. Harrah said, "Not a bit of it. They work
cheek by jowl with Irish, and when the Irishman has a fes
tivity at home, he has the colored men invited. We did it by
trepidation. We introduced one man at first to .-weep \:p
the yard and we noticed the Irish, Germans, and Americans
Jooking at him askance. Then we put in another. Then we
put them in the boiler-room and then we got them in the open
hearth and in the forge and gradually we got them everywhere.
They are intelligent, docile and when they come in as laborers
unskilled, they gradually become skilled and in the course of
time, we will make excellent foremen out of them." And he
added, "there is absolutely no difference between the wages of
the blacks and the whites."
The great mass of Negro laborers are unorganized, and
come in contact but little with the labor union. There are a
few Negroes in Philadelphia who are members of some of the
unions; viz., the carpenters, stone masons, bricklayers, paint
ers, cement layers, asphalt pavers, etc. On the other hand,
there are some unions which do not admit or have not admitted
Negroes, such as the machinist, locomotive engineers, etc. In
the more skilled trades, the Negro union laborers number less
than 200 in Philadelphia, and less than 300 in Pennsylvania.
Of unskilled labor, the most thoroughly organized group is that
of the hod-carriers. Throughout the State there are Negro
hod-carriers. In Philadelphia there is a local union composed
chiefly of Negroes, with a Negro president. This union, the
Light Star Lodge, owns a four story brick hall, valued at about
$20,000. In Pittsburg also the hod-carriers' union is composed
predominately of Negroes, but is not as large as the
Philadelphia lodge. Next to the hod-carriers, come the

A Study In Economic History 95
miners. All of the Negro miners in the State are union
men, and members of the United Mine Workers of America.
These are located chiefly in the western part of the State, hav
ing their district headquarters at Pittsburg. The United Mine
Workers is one of the few unions in which the Negroes ogree
that they receive fair treatment. In some of these miners'
unions, there are Negro officers, and Negroes are always in
attendance at the annual meetings.
Negroes have made some attempts at independent organi
zations. The most successful of these is that among the hoist
ing engineers, steam and gas engineers, started in Pittsburg
in 1900 and incorporated in 1903 under "The National Asso
ciation of Afro-American Steam and Gas Engineers and Skill
ed laborers in America. While the intention it to organize
Negro labor on a racial basis, there is no antagonism to the
general labor movement. It is merely believed by the promot
ers to be better for Negro workmen. This 'mion has been
of slow growth however. There are only three locals 'n the
State ; two at Pittsburg, having 50 members, and one at Read
ing, In Philadelphia there is an organization of hoisting ei-gi-
neers, which as yet is not connected with the Pittsburg
union. There are numerous societies and clubs ?mong Ne
groes which are organized along labor lines; but ^vhich are
more social and beneficial clubs than labor unions. The Ligest
of these is the Hotel Brotherhood, established at Philadelphia
in 1881, and including present or former hotel employes. , It
pays sick and death benefits, and acts as a kind of clearing
house for hotel labor. In 1906, the Brotherhood purchased a
club house at the cost of $15,000. The bell-men, the Pullman
car porters, the janitors, the private waiters, the caterers, the
coachmen and others in domestic and personal service, have
similar but smaller organizations. These organizations serve
largely as aids in securing work, but have made but little at
tempt to regulate wages and apprentices.

96 The Negro In Pennsylvania
In and about Pittsburg, are many whose connection with
the labor unions in the steel industry is interesting and in
structive, as it illustrates one aspect of the labor union's attitude
toward the Negroes. In the early days of the steel industry,
the Sons of Vulcan, which included puddlers in its membership,
was organized but limited its membership to whites. About
1875 there was a strike in one of the Pittsburg mills; Negro
non-union puddlers were brought from Richmond, Virginia,
to break the strike. The next year, in 1876, the Amalgamated
¦Association of Iron and Steel Workers was formed. In the
preamble to its Constitution it declared: "In union there is
strength, and in the formation of a National Amalgamated As
sociation, embracing every iron and steel worker in the coun
try, a union founded upon a basis broad as the land in which
we live, lies our only hope." Still no Negroes were organized,
A few years later, however, the Negroes were organized both
in Pittsburg and in the South. Their connection with the
union, which was at one time, the strongest in the country, has
not, however, been very satisfactory.
The general opinion of the Negro workers in the Pitts
burg steel mills who were interviewed by the writer, is that the
unions are a hindrance rather than a help to the Negro. Sev
eral have been members and one had been president of a South
ern union and a delegate to the National Convention of Steel
Workers; some had gone out on strikes for the union. Their
testimony is summarized as follows:
I. The organizations out of which the Amalgamated As
sociation of Steel and Iron Workers was formed did not admit
Negroes. 2. After the Amalgamated Association was formed,
white union men refused to work with Negro union men or
to help protect Negro workmen, thus making union member
ship of no industrial value to the Negro workers.

A Study In Economic History 97
3. All the new opportunities secured by Negroes have
been gotten in spite of the union, not with its aid.
4. Membership was offered to Negroes only after
they had successfully won their places agains.t unions, and the
pledges of membership generally broken by the white members.
In support of the first point, they say no Negro is known
ever to have been a member of the Sons of Vulcan, the As
sociated Brotherhood of Iron and Steel Heaters, or the Iron
and Steel Roll Hands' Union; and that one of these imions
had a clause in its constitution which prohibited Negroes from
membership. Amalgamating these bodies did not lesson
prejudice. Although the constitution of the amalgamated : s-
sociation, did not put in the "for whites only" clause, but de
clared that the union ought to embrace everv iron ?nd steel
worker in the country, it in spirit ignored the Negro. The
most intelligent leaders may have meant to include Negro
workers in this, but it was not so understood by the masses.
In support of the second, several instances are given in which
union men refused to work with their Negro brethren. One
of the principal instances of this was the case at Beaver Falls.
Some Negro workmen, who at their union's request had struck
in Pittsburg, heard of the need of puddlers, at Beaver Falls,
and were taken by the white secretary of the union, who tried
to get work for them there, but the white workmen would not
work with Negroes despite the pleadings of the secretary, and
the need of workmen.
In support of the third statement it is asserted that Negroes
now work only in non-union mills; that they secured their op
portunity in the Black Diamond mills after they had been ig
nored by the union at Beaver Falls, by taking the places of
strikers; that they secured their place in Clark's Mills in 1888,
and in Homestead in 1892, and in most other places by going
to work after white union men had quit. And they say that

98 The Negro In Pennsylvania
only after they had gotten in the Park Bros.' Mill, were they
offered membership in the union. The Negroes in Pittsburg
were organized to insure against them acting as strike breakers,
i. e, to protect the white unionists, but not particularly to ad
vance the cause of the Negroes. The last attempt to organize
the Negroes was in 1901, when many of them struck at Clark's
Mill, in order to help maintain the union. The strike failed, and
since then the union has been very weak. Overtures, however,
are being made to the Negroes to join again.
The whole history of the labor union situation among iron
and steel workers has been an attempt of white workmen to
use Negroes to their advantage without giving corresponding
advantages. As late as 1905, at a general meeting of the
Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers in
Cleveland, Ohio, it was resolved that Negroes not be organized,
or encouraged to learn the trade, as it might inspire Negroes
from the South to come North and compete with white men.
At the meeting in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1907, however, there
seemed to be a change of sentiment, and it was resolved to
organize Negroes wherever possible. But in 1908 no advance
along this line had been made in Pennsylvania.
The hostile or indifferent treatment of Negroes by the
unions, though quite opposite to that of the United Mine
Workers, is to a large extent, the basis of opinion among
Negroes that the unions are opposed to them. And of late
years this opinion has grown to a very considerable extent.
When Professor Du Bois wrote his "Philadelphia Negro," he
was able to give a large number of instances of Negroes who
had been refused by unions. But when the present investiga
tion was made, ten years later, very few Negroes could he
found who had recently applied to the unions for admission.
As Professor Du Bois found, however, the present inves
tigator also found a very pronounced opinion prevalent among

A Study In Economic History 99
the Negroes that they were not welcome in the unions. Now,
instead of applying for admission to the unions, the Negroes
take for granted that the unions are hostile and they do not
seek to join.
This attitude has the effect of preventing many Negroes
from attempting to follow their trade. The newcomer who
has probably worked at the trade of a carpenter in the South
is informed as soon as he reaches the State, that he cannot
work at his trade because of the hostility of the labor unions.
Having probably heard this also before he left the South, after
a desultory search, he gives up under the impression that the
union is the cause of his inability to get work at his trade. The
fact, however, is that it is not always the union as much as
the increased competition and higher standard of efficiency
of the more complex community into which he has come.
The leaders of the labor movement both in Pittsburg and
in Philadelphia are agreed that there is in theory no hostility on
the part of the union against the Negro. Most of them see
clearly what a disadvantage to the labor movement it would
be to have Negroes hostile to the movement or the movement
hostile to the Negroes. They complain that the Negroes have
been used in many instances to injure their cause and they
know that, with increasing intelligence and skill, Negroes will
be more capable of retarding the movement for the uplift of
labor. Most labor leaders have to contend very largely with
mediocre intelligence, and often gross ignorance among whi.te
men; with greed and selfishness, with human nature as it is.
They claim that as the ordinary white man who joins the
Christian church is not revolutionized in his idea about the
Negro, so the one who joins the union probably has undergone
but little change in regard to the Negro. They point out also
that non-union white men are as averse to working with Ne
groes as union white men. At any rate, as the situation now

100 The Negro In Pennsylvania
is, the majority of Negroes are non-union, and will probably
so remain until they develop enough strength independently
so that they can be of more definite help or hindrance to the
union cause. By keeping Negroes out of the trades, compe
tition is lessened for the men in the union. As long as Ne
groes wait to be invited in by the unions they will remain out
side. Only by succeeding in spite of the indifference of the
union and even its occasional hostility, can Negroes hope to
be recognized. The Negroes who immigrated to the State before the Civil
War, came principally from the rural districts of the South,
and settled largely in the rural districts of Pennsylvania.
Friends of the race in the South who sent manumitted Negroes
North, rightly believed that these Negroes could better suc
ceed as laborers on the farm, to which they were accustomed,
than as workers in the city. Many escaped slaves settled also
in the rural districts and some conducted successful farms un
til frightened away by slave hunters and the passage of the
Fugitive Slave law.
In the Southern and E astern counties of the State, particu
larly Delaware, Chester, Lancaster, York, Cumberland, Frank
lin, Fayette and Washington, there were some well conducted
farms. But the era of the great industrial expansion occa
sioned by improved means of transportation and communica
tion and improved machinery, has almost depleted the country
districts, so far as the Negro is concerned. The same motives
which caused the white boy and girl to leave the farm to go
to the city, also impelled the Negro boy: higher wages, more
excitement, greater opportunity for self-expression and ad
venture. Good farms which were cultivated for years by the
fathers were deserted by the sons and daughters. And now
the Negro farmer in the State forms but a small proportion-'
of Negro workers.

A Study In Economic History 101
In 1900, according to the Census, there were 3,696 Ne
groes in agricultural pursuits, about 4.6% of the total number
of Negro workers; 3,037 of these persons, about five-sixths
of the total were agricultural laborers, 518 were farmers, plant
ers, and overseers. There are three dairymen; 89 gardeners,
florists and nurserymen; 21 lumbermen and raftsmen; 11
stock raisers, herders and drovers and 16 wood choppers.
There were in 1900, 585 farms operated by owners, 26
by part owners, i by owner and tenants; 145 by cash tenants,
and 72 by share tenants. As to the size, 21 of these farms were
less than three acres ; 149 from three to ten acres ; 91 from ten
to twenty acres; 130 from twenty to fifty acres; 109 from fifty-
one to one hundred acres; 62 from one hundred to one hun
dred and seventy-five acres ; 2 from two hundred and sixty
acres to five hundred ; and none over five hundred acres. The
principal sources of income on the farms were as follows :
For 78 farms, hay and grain; for 3, tobacco; for 145, live
stock; while 256 had various other crops. On the 585 farms,
562 reported the value of domestic animals at $154,118. On
386 farms, there were 2,514 head of neat cattle; on 362 farms,
there were 1,571 dairy cows; and on 43 other farms, 900 head
of other neat cattle. On 507 farms there were 1,220 horses,
and on 37, there were 85 mules. There were reported 172
lambs, and 993 sheep, one year and over; 1,781 head of swine;
2 goats ; $9,476 worth of poultry and $200 worth of bees. 25
farms reported bees and 458 reported chickens. 490 farms
of 2,938 acres produced 108,258 bushels of corn ,and 262
farms of 1,988 acres produced 25,742 bushels of wheat; 237
farms of 1,484 acres, produced 45,007 bushels of oats. One
farm used four acres, producing 100 bushels of barley; 60
farms employed 244 acres, producing 3,120 bushels of rye;
(^5 farms produced 3,557 bushels of buckwheat on 277 acres.
There are more than 75,000 Negroes hving within this

102 The Negro In Pennsylvania
State, who were born outside of its borders and who inimi-
grated here between the ages of fifteen and fifty years. They
are, therefore, principally able-bodied workers. Although the
State expended nothing for their care during infancy and
little for their education, it reaps the benefit of their toil. Un
like most foreigners who come to the State, the Negroes do
not have to learn the language, or become used to the na
tional customs; but they are able to adapt themselves quickly
to our environment. Moreover, as a rule, they are a class of
contented laborers and seldom disturb the industrial equi
librium. There are no Negro anarchists in Pennsylvania and
as far as our knowledge goes, there never have been any.
There are no violent antagonists to the social order. The
Negroes are essentially a race of peace and patience. Their
long suffering during the days of slavery, their religious tem
perament, childlike faithfulness and their wonderful adapta
bility, are calculated to make them a valuable asset to any com
munity in which they may be settled, if they are given rea
sonably fair treatment. They are cheap workers because of
circumstances. Much that they ought to receive in wages goes
to society as a part of its surplus. They have laid most of the
asphalt pavements in the , State, helped to construct many of.
the principal sewers, the Philadelphia subway and the filter
plant. If they have been underpaid in these matters it has
benefited the taxpayers. At any rate many of the public im
provements in the State have been made by these Negro la
borers whom the State did not train, but who as .able-bodied
workmen immigrated from the South. Again, the Negro im
migrants unlike much of the foreign labor, cpme to make this
State their permanent home. Their savings are invested in
the property and banks of the State, and what they spend is
spent within the State. But a very small proportion of the
money they earn is sent out of the State and practically none

A Study In Economic History 103
is sent out of the country. Negroes have shown despite their
meagre opportunity, capacity for improvement in labor and
the management of business. The best of them are able to
rise above mediocrity and the majority of them are useful
workers. Economically considered, from the point of view
of the State, the Negro worker has been a very profitable ac
quisition.
OWNERSHIP OF PROPERTY.

The acquisition of property presupposes industry,
thrift and self-sacrifice. The study of the wealth which
Negroes have been able to amass is a study of the race's
industry and self-sacrifice, and shows something of its
higher strivings. For, as has been shown, the men of the
group are largely engaged in unskilled labor, which barely
yields enough to maintain even the lowest standard of de
cent living. To save, out of their meagre earnings, suffi
cient monfey with which to secure real property is, there
fore, a sacrifice which only the best and most thoughtful
undergo. The first mention of a Negro in connection with prop
erty-owning in Pennsylvania is in the will which William
Penn made in 1701 in which he gave to one of his Negro
slaves, "Old Sam," "and to his children's children forever,''
one hundred acres of land. Whether this property was
turned over to "Old Sam" or not, is uncertain, for this will
was invalidated by a later one, in which no mention is
made of "Old Sam" or any slaves, or of any property to
be transferred to Negroes. When the first property was
actually acquired by Negroes is, therefore, unknown. Ac-

104 The Negro In Pennsylvania
cording to the report of the Pennsylvania Abolition So
ciety, in 1796 there were 89 Negroes who were proprietors
of houses, the average value of which was about $200. In
1821, the amount of real estate owned by Negroes in Phila
delphia was $281,162, assessed at $112,464. In 1832, the
Negroes sent a memorial to the Legislature in which they
claimed to pay $2,500 taxes on property, the market value
of which was about $300,000. In 1838, it was estimated
that the value of real estate owned by Negroes was $322,-
532, on which $3,252.83 taxes were paid and the personal
property $667,859. In 1849, Edward Needles reported 315
Negro property owners, having real estate in Philadelphia
with personal property valued at $630,886. In 1856, the
real and personal property of Negroes was valued at $2,-
685,693, on which they paid $9,766.42 taxes.
Dr. DuBois estimated the value of real estate and per
sonal property owned by the Negroes of Philadelphia as
$5,000,000, in 1898. According to the census of 1900, there ¦
were in the state 3,978 homes owned by their Negro occu
pants, while 25,221 were hired and the ownership of 1,850
was unknown. The large majority of the houses which are
owned by Negroes are located in the smaller towns where
the cost of property is not as high as in the large cities.
The difficulty of estimating the value of property own
ed by Negroes is due to the fact that on the tax books no
account is taken of the color of the taxpayer, and one has
to rely on the recollection of the tax assessors and is de
pendent on the word of various individuals. The personal
registration law for cities of the first class provided for
registration of all voters by color, age, occupation and
whether they are lodgers, lessees or owners of the houses
in which they live. This is however, unsatisfactory, as it
gives nothing of those men who do not register or of the

A Study In Economic History 105
women who own homes or of men owning property else
where. Nor does it give anything as to the amount of
property owned. One is left almost entirely to private
sources of information which may be inaccurate.
The following is based upon estimates made by old
citizens, reports of tax assessors, records of personal regis
tration, lists of taxpayers given by clergymen, newspaper
editors, doctors, lawyers, charity workers and others and
verified by the tax assessor's books.
In every case, the estimate is possibly lower than the
actual amount of property. In 1907 there were 712 Negro
taxpayers having 802 pieces of property in Philadelphia,
paying taxes on $2,438,675. Eighteen of -these properties
were assessed at less than $500 each, a total valuation of
$4,725: 52 between $500 and $1,000, a total of $412,500;
529 between $1,000 and $3,000, a total of $948,200; 116
pieces assessed between $3,000 and $5,000, a total of $4?6,-
150; 64 pieces assessed between $5,000 and $7,500, a total
of $388,100; II pieces assessed between $7,500 and $10,000,
a total of $89,500; 12 pieces assessed between $10,000 and
over, a total value of $169,500. This represents an invest
ment of about $5,000,000. In Harrisburg, the first ward,
8 persons are reported as owning 11 pieces of property as
sessed at $12,200; in the tenth ward, the assessor writes
me, "We are glad to say that so far as we know, not one
foot of real estate in our ward is owned by Negroes ;" in
the fifth ward, 9 persons are given, owning 9 pieces of
property assessed at $9,660; a total of twenty-five persons
owning $27,900. In Chester, 102 property holders, 76 males
and 26 females, were reported having property valued at
$160,000. Valuation of property of Negroes in various other
cities is estimated by reliable correspondents to be $50,000
for York; $150,000 for Coatesville; $100,000 for Wilkes-

106 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Barre ; $9,000 for Doylestown ; $75,000 for Altoona ; $2,000,-
000 for Pittsburg and Allegheny; $150,000 for Washingtoti;
$50,000 for Media; and $400,000 for West Chester. In
Philadelphia there are several estates of Negroes said to
be worth a quarter of a million dollars. The estate of the
late John McKee was said to be worth upwards of a
million dollars; that of Mrs. Henry Jones, widow of ca
terer Henry Jones, came very near a quarter of a million
dollars. Near Altoona, three families owned more than
$10,000 worth of property. Three Negroes in Johnstown
own property which is valued at $10,000; several in West
Chester and Carlisle have property valued at $10,000 or
more. In the smaller places where there are but few Ne
groes, they often pay taxes on $3,000 to $25,000 worth of
property. It is difficult to estimate the total value of the property
owned by Negroes in the state. The average assessed value
of 802 pieces of property in Philadelphia was $3,041. In
1900, Philadelphia County had about one-tenth of the
property owned by Negroes in the state. To-day, Phila
delphia property is assessed at $2,438,675. If the same
proportion holds, the assessed value of the property of
Negroes in the State is between $20,000,000 and $25,000,000.
From the registration books" in Philadelphia, it is possible
to secure the occupations of the men who are voters and
property holders. The following table shows the occu
pations of the 485 men who registered as owning homes:
Occupation of home owners. Number.
Laborers  68
Caterers  38
Teamsters and drivers  34
Waiters  32

A Study In Economic History 107
Porters (in stores and on R. R.)  27
Clerks  27
Dealers and merchants  25
Janitors  17
Butlers  • •  17
Clergyman  15
Barbers  14
Coachmen  13
Gardeners and farmers  10
Physicians and dentists  9
Messengers  7
Policemen  - -  6
Stewards  6
Retired persons  6
Upholsterers  5
Insurance agents  4
Contractors  4
Teachers  4
Watchmen  .-  4
Packers  4
Cooksi  4
Firemen  4
Foremen, lawyers, shoemakers, musicians and livery
men, 3 each; 15 hotelkeepers, undertakers, butchers, super
intendents, cigarmakers, tailors, bricklayers, plasterers, bar
tenders, stonecutters, carpenters, engineers, lettercarriers,
artists, hucksters, bookkeepers, stable bosses, stockkeepers,
2 each; 36 expressmen, restaurant keepers, menders, wire
insulator, pilot, salesman, dyer, masseur, florist, operator,
bellman, journalist, elevator man, jeweler, blacksmith, pho
tographer, manufacturer, longshoreman, agent, laundryman,
I each. 21.
^ These tables show that the large majority of Negro

108 The Negro In Pennsylvania
home-owners are in domestic and personal service. In Phil
adelphia alone, laborers, caterers, teamsters, porters, jani
tors, butlers, coachmen, messengers, stewards, watchmen,
bellmen, cooks, firemen, elevator operators, barbers, com
prise nearly three hundred of the four hundred and eighty-
five home owners returned. In Chester, a large proportion
of the home owners are laborers.
The same record shows that the 485 Negroes in Phila
delphia, above referred to, were natives of the different
states in about the same proportion as the general majority
of Negroes. The largest number of Negro property hold
ers were born in Pennsylvania, while Virginia, Maryland
and North Carolina follow in the order given.
Ages and length of residence of property holders : The
following tables are compiled from the registration books
and show the age periods of property-holding voters, and
the period of years that they have lived in the state :
:rs. Percentage. 6.6
25-936-7 17.9 8.7 2.7 -5
i.o
100.00
Length of residence in Pennsylvania :
Immigrant Native
(Negroes) (Negroes)
born outside Pa. born in Pa. Total
From I to 5 yfears, 8 8
From 6 to 10 years, 38 (a) 38
From II to 15 years, 65 (b) 65
From 16 to 20 years, 56 (c) 56

Age Periods.

No. 0

f Hold

From 21 to 30 years.

32

From 31 to 40 years.

l'26

From 41 to 50 years.

177

From 51 to 60 years.

87
From 61 to 70 years.
42
From 71 to 80 years.
13
Eighty years or over.
2
Age unknown or not given.
5
Total,
485
A Study In Economic History 109

Born outside Pa.

Born in Pa.

Total

39

3

42

42

12

54

26

14

40

30

18

48

14

22

36

318

69

387

7

20

27

I

14

15

I

18

19

2

14

16

I

3

4

13

4

17

From 21 to 25 years.
From 26 to 30 years,
From 31 to 35 years.
From 36 to 40 years.
From 41 to 45 years.
Total up to 45 years.
From 46 to 50 years.
From 51 to 55 years.
From 56 to 60 years.
From 61 to 70 years.
From 71 years and over,
Residence not given.
Total, 343 (d) 142 (d) 485
The largest number of owners is between the ages of
41 and 50 years; the second largest between 31 and 40 years
of age j 336 owners are fifty years of age or younger, that
is, practically seventy per cent, of those who own prop
erty were born since the beginning of the Civil War, and
therefore belong to the generation of the free men.
These facts are deserving of more than passing notice,
in view of the frequent assertion, that the younger genera- j.
tion of Negroes, born since Abraham Lincoln's Proclama
tion of Emancipation and especially those who have migrated
North, are not equal to their fathers in the matter of acquir
ing property. These facts seem to point to an opposite
conclusion. It is impossible to get any accurate statistics of the
savings of Negroes. Some idea may be given by reports re
ceived from two of Philadelphia's Savings Fund Societies.
The result of a record kept of the colored depositors in the
Western Savings Fund is summarized as follows: (From
October, 1906, to March, 1907) "In 2,785 open accounts,
72 accounts were opened by colored persons. The books
would show, approximately, 1,333 accounts with Negroes.

110 The Negro In Pennsylvania
The percentage of money deposited is .1162. If this applies
to $20,072,417, our total deposit in line to date, would show
$268,101 to be the aggregate amount of deposits by Ne
groes. The Philadelphia Savings Fund, which is the oldest
in the state, reported that 2,021 Negroes opened new ac
counts in 1905, and 2,000 in the year 1906, which were 4.2
per cent, of the total deposits for these two years. This
bank had a total deposit on January ist, 1907, of $95,966,-
863.34. If the per cent, of depositors holds good for the
percentage of deposits, the share of the Negroes would be
4.2 per cent, or $3,610,608.26. In the Starr Savings Bank,
of the 15,142 open accounts in 1906, about thirty per cent.
were of Negroes. In these banks, the majority of Negro
depositors are women and. 99 per cent, can read and write.
The majority are domestic and unskilled workers. There
are other banks in Philadelphia and all over the state which
have savings of Negroes and it is impossible to estimate
the total. An increasing number of Negroes are investing their
savings in stocks and bonds, in business enterprises, etc.
Several Negroes own Pennsylvania Railroad stock and
some own stock in the United States Steel Corporation.
Many own real estate in the South and in other Northern
states.
THE CHURCH AND SECRET SOCIETIES

Because of the place occupied by religion in the life, of
the African Negro and of the American slaves, it is not
surprising that the church should be the first independent
organization developed among them. The first separate

A Study In Economic History 111
Negro church, with a Negro pastor, was established in
Philadelphia in the latter part of the eighteenth century.
The first organization of several distinct Negro churches
into an independent denomination of Negro Christians was
also formed in Philadelphia in 1816.
The census of 1890 was incomplete regarding the sta
tistics of Negro churches from the fact that many Negro
churches were under the supervision of bodies which made
in their returns no distinction as to color. Thus for Penn
sylvania, no colored Baptist Churches were reported as such
and no separation is made of the Negroes who are mem
bers of the Episcopal, Presbyterian and Catholic churches.
The whole number of colored church organizations given
in Pennsylvania was 282. These had 234 church edifices,
with seating capacity of 77,865, also 25 halls with a seating
capacity of 3,025. The membership was 26,753 persons
and their church property was valued at $1,156,408. The
census gave the membership of Methodist bodies in Penn
sylvania as 22,166, the number of church organizations
among them as 179, having 189 church edifices and 20 halls
with a combined seating capacity of 66,200 persons. The
Baptists of Pennsylvania were, however, as large as the
Methodists in 1890, if not larger. But allowing that the
Baptists were in 1890 equal to the Methodists, there were
in all probability then in the state at least 400 churches,
having about 40,000 colored communicants, with 450 church
edifices and halls valued at not less than $2,000,000. The
census of churches now being taken ought to correct this
error, and properly separate the Negro churches.
In the whole state of Pennsylvania there were in 1890,
14726,640 communicants out of a population of 5,258,113 or
32.8 per cent. ; while by the evidently incorrect count, 23.9
per cent, of the Negro population were members of some

112 The Negro In Pennsylvania
religious organization. By the corrected estimate of Negro
church members, at least 37.2 per cent, of the race in the
state are members of the church.
The principal denominations represented in the state
are: Regular Baptist (colored) ; African Methodist Episco
pal ; African Methodist Episcopal Zion ; American Union
Protestant Methodist; Colored Methodist Episcopal
(North); Protestant Episcopal; Presbyterian; Congrega
tional; Roman Catholic, and the Church of God. The first
five are entirely under Negro supervision, and represent the
largest percentage of the membership.
The Baptist denomination has the largest number of
members. The first church of this denomination was estab
lished in 1809 at Philadelphia. For three-quarters of a cen
tury the Baptists as a rule had the less influential and intel-
Jigent class of Negroes in its membership and held rather
an insignificant place among the churches of the state. Dur
ing the present generation, however, the Baptist denomina
tion has taken the front rank among Pennsylvania's Negro
churches, both as to number of churches and influence.
The increase of the influence of the Baptist church has been
due chiefly to the influx of Negroes from Virginia, where
the Baptist denomination was probably the first established
among Negroes and where it is to-day stronger than any
other denomination. Many of the ministers of this church
are Virginians. The Baptist church may truly be called
the church of the people. There are in the state at least
six Baptist churches with a thousand or more members,
and two with more than two thousand members.
In 1813, there were six Negro churches in Philadelphia;
one Episcopal church, the largest, ;with 560 piembers;
three Methodist Churches, with 1,426 members; one Pres
byterian Church, 300 members ; and one Baptist Church

A Study In Economic History 113

with 80 members. In 1838, there were 16 churches in Phil
adelphia, of which eight were Methodist, having 2,860 mem
bers ; four were Baptist, with 700 members ; two were Pres
byterian, with 325 members; one was a Lutheran Church
with 10 members, and an Episcopal Church with 100 mem
bers. The total value of the property in 1838 was $114,000,
of which the Methodists owned $50,000 worth; the Episco
palians, $36,000 worth ; the Presbyterians, $20,000 worth ;
the Baptists, $4,200 and the Lutherans, $3,000 worth.
In 1907, there were in Philadelphia 31 Baptist Churches,
a third of which were established during the past ten years;
in Pittsburg there are about 20 Baptist Churches, the ma
jority of which were established during the past decade.
The Methodists are the oldest distinctively Negro de
nomination in the state and country. The African Metho
dist Episcopal Church was established in Philadelphia
in 1816, being constituted by 16 delegates representing
churches at Philadelphia, Baltimore, Salem and Attleboro,
New Jersey. Richard Allen, of Bethel Church, Philadel
phia, was chosen Bishop and Philadelphia was selected as
the headquarters of the church. Since that time the A. M. E.
Church has grown to about 600,000 members, with organi
zations in nearly every State in the United States, Canada
and the West Indies and West and South Africa. It had
in 1908 seventeen living Bishops, all of whom are Negroes.
This church has been very intimately connected with the
development of Negroes of Pennsylvania. During the early
years of its existence, it planted preaching stations in nearly
every community where there were any considerable nuni
ber of Negroes. During the period prior to the Civil War
it was the chief church to minister to the fugitive slaves
and manumitted slaves from the South. It started the
first Negro college in the North, even before slavery was

114 The Negro In Pennsylvania
abolished and it founded in 1852 what is now the oldest
Negro newspaper in the country, and in 1884 the A. M. E.
Church Review, now the oldest and largest Negro maga
zine. During the period before the war, its ministers were
among the most aggressive and influential Negroes in the
state, interested in most movements for the uplift of the
race and consulted frequently by the whites who were in
terested in the people of color. Since the Civil War, and
the incoming of large numbers .of immigrants from the
South, the A. M. E. Church, though increasing in actual
numbers, has gradually surrendered its leadership to the
Baptist Church. There are at present organizations of the
A. M. E. Church in more than a hundred cities and towns
with an aggregate membership of approximately 15,000
persons. The A. M. E. Zion Church began a distinctive denomina
tion in New York, New Haven, Connecticut and Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia church, which helped to form this denomi
nation, was established in 1813. In Philadelphia and Har
risburg, where two of its oldest churches are, this denomi
nation, like the A. M. E. Church, exercised considerable in
fluence upon the Negroes in the early days. The denomina
tion now had in 1908 eight living Bishops, all Negroes, and
about 500,000 members in the United States. The headquar
ters of its Financial, Missionary and Church Extension De
partments, are located in Philadelphia. There are churches
in about fifty cities and towns in Pennsylvania, and the
membership in the State is about 5000.
The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church is the third
independent organization. This denomination was founded
in Georgia in 1870, by the Methodist Episcopal Church
South, which set apart its Negro members into a separate
independent organisation. This church has a very small

A Study In Economic History 115
representation in Pennsylvania. In 1890 there were six or
ganizations having 247 members, 2 worshipping in church
edifices and 4 in halls. The church at large is located in
the South and has 7 Bishops and about 300,000 members.
The Church of God has a strong organization in Phila
delphia, having possibly a thousand members. The Bishop
of this church is a Negro. It is popularly known as the
foot washers, because the practice of washing feet. A sys
tem of church stores has been organized, and receives lib
eral patronage from the members, who hold some things
in common and are supposed to give one-tenth of their in
come. Besides these there are other churches, which are
under the general government of whites. These are the
Episcopal, Congregational, Presbyterian and Roman Catho
lic Churches. They have separate church organizations for
Negroes but no separate general organizations. The his
tory of these churches extends far back, the first Episcopal
Church being established in 1794 and the first Presbyterian
in 1806. These denominations, like the Methodists, played
a very large part in the early history of the Negroes.
They appealed especially to the more intelligent class of Ne
groes. But with the exception of the Catholics, they are
of proportionately less influence than formerly, for they
have not been able to hold a large portion of the immigrant
Negroes who, as has been said, have gone largely to the
Baptist Church. There are 18 Negro clergymen, who were
in 1908, members of the Presbyteries in Pennsylvania, 14
of whom have charges and 4 have not. In 1908 there were
14 Presbyterian Churches in the State, 4 of which were in
Philadelphia, and i each in Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Read
ing, Cariisle, Chester, West Chester, Oxford, York, Cham
bersburg and Welsh Mountains. The total membership of the
Negro Presbyterian Churches was 1843 in 1908, more than

116 The Negro In Pennsylvania
half of which was in Philadelphia. The total valuation of
property is $190,000, $112,000 of which is in Philadelphia,
The Protestant Episcopal Church has in the State eight
churches, six being in Philadelphia, one in Allegheny and
one in Chester. The total membership at the last meeting
of Episcopalians was 1104.
The church is an important economic organization
among Negroes. It owns in Pennsylvania more than three
million dollars worth of property, and its income is not less
than a quarter of a million dollars a year. In Philadelphia
alone, within a year, there have been two purchases of
church buildings, at from $20,000 to $75,000, and a new Ne
gro church erected at a cost of $90,000. The Negro minis
ter in Pennsylvania, though to a less degree than formerly,
is still an important personage in the upward economic
movement of Negroes in the State. The largest building
and loan association among Negroes was organized by a
Presbyterian minister, and a minister is on the board of
nearly every incorporated business in the State. The first
industrial school in the State was organized by a minister,
and the two that are now operated by Negroes are support
ed largely by the Church. Most of the other private schools
in the State are the direct outgrowth of activity in the
churches. Most of the benevolent societies have connec
tion with the Church ; and all of the insurance societies save
perhaps one or two, grew out of church activity. There is
hardly an activity which is uplifting in its purpose, which
does not originate in or later find some connection with the
Church. Still most of the churches are in debt and find it
difficult to engage in many social activities which do not in
crease their income. Thus a large field of effective social
work is quite neglected chiefly because of lack of money.
On the social side, the Church is still the chief institu-

A Study In Economic History 117
tion. Here strangers come and are introduced and find
ready welcome. In a large city like Philadelphia or Pitts
burg, where men are busy and time is valuable, the incom
ing immigrant from the South would be at a great loss had
he not the church to which to go, at first, at least. These
institutions have sociables nearly every night in the week,
either in the church house or in the homes of the members.
Concerts, tableaux and light operas are given in Negro
churches, which introduces all kinds of talent to the Negro
public. Negro lecturers, elocutionists and other entertain
ers find the easiest way to reach the people is through the
Church. The Church is used for public meetings of vari
ous kinds. If the Business Men's League, or the Mechan
ics' Association want to reach the people they go to the
church. Nor is politics barred. Some of the largest politi
cal meetings are held in churches — though the practice is
growing less prevalent — and clergymen are among the most
influential Negro political leaders. The only Negro mem
ber of the State Republican Committee is a Baptist clergy
man, who has one of the largest churches in Philadelphia.
In all social movements it is the Church which is expect
ed to take a leading part, and it generally does. Any move
ment concerning the interests of humanity and the inter
ests of the Negro in particular, finds audience in the Negro
church. Some churches are attempting special systematic so
cial work. One of the most successful of these, is the
Berean Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, of which Rev.
Matthew Anderson, a graduate of Oberlin and Princeton,
is pastor. The church was founded in 1880, and located in
a part of the city where but few Negroes lived. In 1884
the Berean Kindergarten was started. It has enrolled over
800 pupils since its beginning. In 1888 the Berean Build-

1 1 8 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ing and Loan Association, whose work has already been
mentioned, was formed. In 1894, the Berean Seaside
Home was opened at Point Pleasant, New Jersey, provid
ing a quiet resort, where Negroes of refinement will not
come in contact with the unpleasant prejudices which pre
vail at many seaside places. The Home accoinmodates
about fifty persons. In 1897, the Berean Bureau of Mutual
Help was started, and in ten years has given employment
to over seven hundred persons.
In 1899 the Berean Manual Training and Industrial
School was started. In 1906 the Berean Educational Con
ference was established, under whose auspices such leaders
as ex-President Cleveland, Hon. W. N. Ashman, J. William
Martin, Robert E. Pattison have spoken. In 1904 the pas
tor of the church started the Berean Seaside Conference,
and in 1906, the Berean Trades Association, and in 1908,
the Berean Social and Economical Conference. Many other
churches are doing similar work, but in a less extensive
way. In Philadelphia, Calvary M. E. Church, Bethel A.
M. E. Church, Zion Baptist, First Baptist, Central Baptist,
and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Crucifixion
have institutional features more or less developed. The
last named church has gone farther than most Negro
churches in its dealing with the amusement question. It
has gone against the general view of Negro Christians in
establishing a poolroom and evenings for dancing. The
First Baptist, has through its Minute Men's Association,
purchased a building especially for work among men, and
through its Charity Aid Society, purchased property for a
home for aged persons.
The purely religious work of the church consists chiefly
of preaching and prayer meeting and an annual or semi
annual "revival." In both preaching and prayer, emphasis

A Study In Economic History 119
is put upon the emotional, though to much less extent than
formerly; the average Christian thinks that he fulfills his
religious duty by "feeling good." The Negroes' religion
is largely personal ; they seek chiefly for communion with
God; they like to "talk with God," "to feel His spirit;"
their prayers consist largely of confessions of sin in gen
eral and expressions of humility, emphasizing God's judg
ment and His wrath and begging His forgiveness. They
nearly always end with fervent expressions anticipatory of
the glories of heaven and the joys of the after-life. When
the religion of the Negro leaves the subjective and per
sonal, arid takes on the objective and social, it expresses it
self chiefly in giving to the church and to the poor and un
fortunate, and visiting the sick, and helping to bury the
dead. It is quite difficult for anyone who has not kept in
very close touch with the Negro church to realize the
amount of casual charity done by Negro church members.
Many times they give a part of their last dollar to the
church and to the poor. "Give till you feel it," is an expres
sion often heard from the Negro pulpit, and not seldom
obeyed by the faithful Negro Christian. Nor is it an un
common thing for the hard worked Negro cook, or washer
woman, or housewife, after doing service from ten to four
teen hours a day, to visit the sick and sit up nearly all night
with the distressed. With organized charity, however, the
average Negro Christian, not unlike the average white
Christian, has not yet harmonized his religion. That sponta
neous and indiscriminate giving is the only real charity, is
the belief of the majority. Yet the beneficial society is a very
frequent attachment to the large Negro church and tends
more or less to systematize its benevolence, while also a
few churches have old age pensioners who are given regu
lar allowances per week.

120 The Negro In Pennsylvania
As to moral character, the church is still the insti
tution of respectability, as well as piety. Generally speak
ing, the average of morality in the Negro church is much
higher than the average outside of the church. Though
the church cannot rigidly enforce all of its laws, yet its re
straining influence in the grosser evils, and among the
greater portion of its members is daily evident. Time was
when the churches protested chiefly against dancing, thea-
tregoing and card playing. Most of the churches still
protest against these things, but have also increased their
protest against greater evils. In the character of Negro
ministers, there has been a notable improvement both in
education and morality, although there is still a great deal
lacking. The standards of piety known to the ignorant Ne
gro, those of loud and long prayers, frequent shouting and
constant church attendance, while still prevalent, are be
coming less generally accepted than formerly. When it is
remembered that the church takes all who come to it on
their own word, on "profession of faith," that is on good
intention and not on a certificate of past good character,
but on their "conversion," it is easy to see how its progress
in morality must of necessity be slow. Nor could it be ex
pected that the Negro's religion would develop out of pro
portion to his intelligence, or his economic condition. Prog
ress in religion and in morals, like progress in education
and industry, is slow, notwithstanding the highly super
natural element in the religion.
But with those churches which have not been able to
hold the masses, but have appealed to the more cultured
classes of Negroes, there has been, as is to be expected, a
more rapid progress, especially in the conduct of religious
service. Regarding one of this group of churches Mr. Ar
thur Shadwell, an Englishman, visitirig Philadelphia, writes

A Study In Economic History 121

in his book, "Industrial Efficiency": "I have no informa
tion on the subject but it appears to me that Philadelphia
is the home of the colored aristocracy. There are eighteen
African Methodist Episcopal Churches. I attended service
at one of them on a Sunday, and found a striking contrast
with others I had attended in the South. The service was
practically indistinguishable from a high church (not ritual
istic), Anglican, one in England, except the surpliced choir
was formed by women. The sermon, the tone and manner
of the whole service and the demeanor of the congregation
* reminded me of St. Mary Abbotts, or any church of that
moderately high order which is now so general in England. -
The signs of refinement, taste and culture were striking.
Every Sunday I spent in the States, I made it a point of
going to as many churches of different kinds as I could get
in, and my experience ranges from a pure specimen of Ne
gro fervor in Columbia, S. C, to St. Patrick's Cathedral in
New York, and Trinity Church, Boston, which corresponds
(say) with St. Margaret's, Westminster, and is the resort
of the intellectual aristocracy. The African service in
Philadelphia was no whit less refined."
The secret orders come next to the church in social im
portance, and they, too, have an African foundation. But
their chief hold on the people is not so much their secrecy
as their sick benefit and life insurance features. The prin
cipal orders represented are the Odd Fellows, Masons, True
Reformers, Knights of Pythias, Elks, Knights of Tabor
and Gallilean Fishermen.
The Grand United Order of Odd Fellows is the largest
secret organization in the State. It was introduced into
this country from England in March, 1843, when the Philo-
mathean Lodge, No. 646, was established in New York
City. The first lodge in Pennsylvania and the third in the

122 The Negro In Pennsylvania
United States, was Unity Lodge, No. 711, established in
Philadelphia, May 14, 1844. According to the Journal of
Proceedings of the biennial session of the Grand United
Order of Odd Fellows, which met in October, 1906, there
were 4643 lodges of Odd Fellows in the country, with a
membership of 186,108. The complete statistics of the or
der were as follows, in 1906:
Name. Lodges. Members.
Active Lodges  4,643 186,108
Active Households  21,636 79,343
P. G. M. Councils  274 5,210
Juvenile Societies  395 12,245
Patriarchies  142 142
D. G. Lodges  39
District Households  « 26
Total number of lodges  8,155 285,931
Increase since 1904  1,641 66,190
The headquarters of the Odd Fellows are in Philadel
phia, where they have erected a six-story building, at a cost
of $125,000. The Odd Fellows' "Journal," the national or
gan of the order, is published here. In the State in 1906,
there were 105 lodges.
The Grand United Order of True Reformers was es
tablished in 1882, in Richmond, Virginia,- by a Methodist
preacher. It is not merely a secret order, but it has as its
chief object the economic elevation of the Negro race in
America. To that end it has established an insurance de
partment, a bank, hotels, mercantile establishments, a news
paper, an old folks' home, and other institutions of uplift.
According to the yearly report in 1903, the receipts of the
financial department of the order were $173,440.70; of the
record department, $47,851.26; of the supply department.

A Study In Economic History 123
$21,403.75; from rents of real estate, $27,219.86; from sales
of regalia, $25,269.55. The receipts of the bank for this year
were $853,591.53. The value of the real estate owned by
the society was given at $367,050. The growth of the True
Reformers in Pennsylvania is due chiefly to the heavy mi
gration of Negroes from Virginia. The headquarters for
the State are in Philadelphia. In 1903 there were reported
161 lodges in the State, in fifteen counties. Since then,
however, the True Reformers have more than doubled their
membership in this State.
The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Free and Ac
cepted Masons of the State of Pennsylvania, according to
the ninety-second annual communication in 1906, compris
ed 68 lodges, having 239 members, and were represented in
thirty-seven places in the State. Their headquarters are in
Philadelphia, where they own a four-story hall.
EDUCATION.

In most of the colonies but little effort was made to
train the Negroes. As late as the middle of the eighteenth
century, when they numbered at least a quarter of a mil
lion, more than half of whom were free, there is no record
of a school for Negroes. As in other efforts for the eleva
tion of the Negro, so in education, Pennsylvania was the
leader. The Quakers were among the first to give atten
tion to them. In 1750 Anthony Benezet, a French Quaker,
opened the first school for Negroes, in Philadelphia, and
for more than thirty years, was the ardent supporter of the
cause of Negro education. When he died in 1784 he left

124 The Negro In Pennsylvania
possibly the first bequest for the education of the Negroes.
The next step was taken by the Friends' Monthly Meeting
of Philadelphia, in January, 1770, when it was decided to
establish a school for "giving to the children of free Ne
groes and mulattoes the preference and the opportunity of
being taught clear of expense to their parents." Accord
ingly the school was opened June, 1770, with twenty-three
colored children and became the foundation of the system
of private "charity schools" conducted by the Quakers.
With the bequests from Benezet and others, the original
school was enabled to accommodate more pupils and to of
fer night courses. In 1784 the Raspberry Alley School,
which continues its existence to this day, was established
and became one of the most useful of these Quaker schools.
In 1827 the Infant School was established at Clifton and
South Streets, and was in, existence in 1836. In 1837 the
Institute for Colored Youths was established; in 1838 the
Adelphia School was established on Wager Street; in 1848
the School for the Destitute on Lombard, above Seventh
Street, and in 1850, the Sheppard School, on Randolph,
above Parrish Street. Besides the schools directly under
the Quakers, there were semi-public schools and schools
connected with the benevolent and reformatory institu
tions. Among these the earliest was the Orphans' Shelter,
established in 1822, on Thirteenth Street, above Callowhill.
In 1850 the school at the House of Refuge was started, and
in 1855 the Home for Colored Children on Girard, above
Ridge Avenue. Among the early institutions, there were
also private schools, which were taught by Negroes. These
were among the very earliest schools and show a healthy
interest of the better class of Negroes in their own educa
tion. Absalom Jones taught a school in Philadelphia be
fore 1800. Most cf the Negro churches were used also for

A Study In Economic History 125
school purposes; indeed, the Negro church-school was the
forerunner of the public school. In 1838, there were re
ported thirteen private pay schools, of which ten were
taught by Negro teachers. In 1856 thirteen of them were
reported as still in existence. These schools averaged about
twenty-five pupils each. The oldest of them was that of
Sarah M. Douglass, which was established in 1833, and had
thirty pupils. The next was established in 1836 and was
conducted by Diana Smith, in Prosperous Alley. The other
eight Negro private schools which existed in 1838 had dis
appeared in 1856.
The public schools for Negroes were started fully sev
enty years after the first private schools. In 1822, the first
public school was started at Sixth, above Lombard Street.
This school still exists and is known as the James Forten
School. To-day, however, it is chiefly attended by Jews.
In 1830, the Roberts Vaux Public School was started on
what was then called Coates Street, near Fifth; in 1839 an
ungraded public school was organized in Frankford ; in
1841, the Bannaker Public School was started in Paschall-
ville. The same year a primary school at Sixth and Lom
bard Streets; in 1849, the Corn Street Ungraded School. In
these public schools there were doubtless many colored
teachers. In 1856 it was reported that the public schools
were improving though they were not as efficient as the pri
vate charity schools.
With the abolition of slavery in the United States and
the large immigration of Negroes to the State, the facilities
furnished by private sources becarae less and less adequate,
and the necessity for greater public interest in the educa
tion of Negroes more apparent. Education became less a
matter of charity than of recognized public necessity. In
the last forty years the private schools have gradually tak-

126 The Negro In Pennsylvania
en a less prominent place, having all dissappeared except the
higher and special schools. The only efforts at their own
education now in existence by Negroes, is that undertaken
by churches. The unendowed charity institutions conduct
ed by Quakers, which did such a great service in primary
education before the Civil War, have also passed away.
Those which have endowment have found that the public
schools have been much better prepared than they to do the
work. Several of them have changed their courses and
those which have not done so, are inefficient as compared
with the public schools.
The public schools existed from the beginning as dis
tinctively Negro schools supported by public funds. There
is no evidence to show that any great interest was taken
in these schools as long as they Avere separate. They did
not have the best teachers nor did the better class of Ne
groes always send their children to them. In 1881, how
ever, an act was passed abolishing the Negro public schools
as such, and giving the Negro children the right to attend
any public school to which they were eligible without re
gard to their color. This act opened newer opportunities
to Negro children all over the State and stimulated an im
provement of the schools which Negroes attended. It did
not, however, break up the already existing Negro schools,
nor was it intended to do so. It merely made it illegal to
exclude a Negro child from a public school because of its
color. In 1900 there were 43,349 Negroes of school age in
Pennsylvania, of whom 20,408 were males and 22,988 were
females. During the census year 1900, 19,235 of these per
sons, or 44.7 per cent, attended school. The total school at
tendance for the year 1909 was 19,573 — 9307 males and 10,-
265 females, distributed as to age as follows : Ninety-seven

A Study In Economic History 127
under 5 years of age, 6898 from 5 to 9 years, 9227 from 10
to 14 years, 2610 from 15 to 20 years, and 241, 21 years and
over. Less than half of those of school age go to school be
cause of the large number of boys and girls who stop to go to work
after they reach the age of 14 years. Of the 19,573 Negroes
attending school in 1900, 18,185, or 92-7 per cent, attended
school six months or more; 118 (58 boys and 60 girls), one
month or less; 254 boys and 250 girls from two to three
months; 816 (318 boys and 418 girls) from four to five
months. Our statistics of illiteracy must not be taken for the
population at large, as showing anything as to capacity for
reading and writing. They show rather, the relative op
portunity for learning. When, for instance, it is said that
the Negroes of Pennsylvania have an illiteracy less than
that of the Negroes of Mississippi, it does not mean that
they are any better or brighter than the Negroes of the
Southern States but merely that Pennsylvania gives educa
tional advantages which Mississippi does not give.
With the improving of school opportunities the illiter
acy of Negroes is steadily being cut down. In 1856 nearly
half of the adults of Philadelphia could not read or write;
in 1890 the percentage was reduced to 18 per cent., and in
1900 was about 11.8 per cent. The illiteracy of Pennsyl
vania is affected by the migration of adult Negroes from the
South. The illiteracy of the younger persons is quite
small ; that of those from 10 to 16 years of age being only
2.5 per cent., and from 15 to 20 years of age, about 6.5 per
cent. Moreover the illiteracy of the Negroes compares
more than favorably with that of our foreign population.
The illiteracy of the foreign population of Pennsylvania is
increasing; that of the Negro is decreasing. In 1880 the
illiteracy of Pennsylvania's foreign population was 15.1 per

128 The Negro In Pennsylvania
cent.; of, Pennsylvania's Negroes, 27.1 per cent.; in 1890,
the illiteracy of the foreign-born was 17.8 per cent. ; and
that of the Negro 17.8 per cent.; in, 1900, the illiteracy of
Pennsylvania's foreign-born population was 19.9 per cent,
while that of the Negroes of the State was 15.1 per cent.
The Negro and foreign population are compared as to illit
eracy in the following table taken from the United States
Census of 1900 :
ILLITERACY OF NEGROES AND FOREIGN WHITES IN PENNSYLVANIA
BY AGE PERIODS. 1900
Negroes Foreign Whites
Age Periods Population Illiterates Percent Population Illiterates Percent
IO to 74 years  iZi^a? 299 2.5 31.393 2,643 84
15 to 24 years  35.619 2,648 7.4 l.S7,4io 30,969 19.6
25 to 34 years  35,262 4,074 11. 8 242,982 56,740 23.3
35 to 44 years  22,787 4,290 1S.8 207,148 42,997 20.8
10 to 44 years and over 105,787 ii.iii 10.7 638,933 133, W 20.9
truknown  786 269 34,2 2,538 8.1 31.6
45 years aud over  .22,444 7.953 35.4 321,118 57,556 17.9
Total over 10 years  128,945 19,532 15. t 962,589 191,706 19.9
The illiteracy of the foreign immigrants is higher than
that of the Negroes at every age period. Negro children
from 10 to 14 years of age, have among them only 2.5 per
cent, of illiterates^ while foreign children of the same age
have more than three times as large a percentage of illiter
ates, 8.4 per cent. From 15 to 24 years of age the illiteracy
of the foreigner is more than twice as great as that of the
Negro, being 19.9 per cent., as against 7.4 per cent. From
25 to 34, the per cent, of the illiteracy of the foreigner is
23.3 per cent., just twice the percentage of the Negro at
that age period, 11.8 per cent.; from 35 to 44 years of age,
the illiteracy of the Negroes is 18.8 per cent., and that of
the foreign-born is 20.8 per cent. The younger generation
of Negroes who were born since the close of the Civil War,
varying in age from 10 to 44 years, inclusive, have among
them about one-half the percentage of the illiterates as have
the foreign immigrants of the same age. But among the

A Study In Economic History 129
older generation of Negroes, born prior to the Civil War,
there are proportionately more illiterates than among the
foreigners of the same age. In the State there were in 1900
191,706 foreigners and 19,532 Negroes who could not read
and write their names ; there were 133,349 illiterate for
eigners and 11,311 illiterate Negroes under 45 years of age.
In all there were ten illiterate foreigners to one illiterate
Negro ; and twelve illiterate foreigners between the ages of
10 and 45, to one illiterate Negro of that age. The rapid
decrease of the illiteracy of the Negroes is due to the su
perior educational advantages which they have in the State
of Pennsylvania as compared with the South. A very im
portant factor also is the compulsory educational law, which,
though not rigidly enough enforced in the large cities, is a
great advantage to the child whose parents are indifferent
as to education.
Inquiry was instituted am.ong forty-four colleges in the
State to find out just to what extent they had been of in
fluence upon the life of the Pennsylvania Negroes. One
of these, Lincoln University was established especially for
Negroes. Of the remaining forty-three, Negroes had at
tended but few, mainly the University of Pennsylvania, the
Western University of Pennsylvania, Temple College, Al
legheny College at Meadville, Dickinson College at Car-
isle, Washington and Jefferson College at Washington.
Sixteen of the colleges which answered inquiries said that
they had never had any Negro students whatever. Two
religious institutions replied that they would not receive
Negro students, one saying: "The Moravian Seminary is
exclusively for white young ladies;" the other, St. Vincent's
College, Beatty, Pennsylvania: "We would not take any
Negro students now." The secretary of the Westminster
College, New Wilmington, after stating that no Negro had
9

130 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ever entered, adds : "It has been the policy of our church to
make Knoxville (Tennessee) College our denominational
center for Negro education." Of those which had had Ne
gro students, the following replies were received: From
Beaver College, "We have never had any Negroes in our
college with the exception of a very few in the music de
partment, who were always good students ; none ever grad
uated here." From the Moravian College and Theological
Seminary, Bethlehem, "We once had a mulatto, J. C.
Moore, son of a missionary from Demarara, South America,
who came to us from the college at Georgetown, Demarara ;
he spent four years here (1896-1900), taking a two years'
theological course, and showing fair ability." Susquehanna
University, Selinsgrove, had one Negro from Africa about
twenty-two years ago. Nothing more is said of him.
Juniata College, Huntingdon, has enrolled only two Ne
groes — "a young man in the preparatory work, about ten
years ago ; and a young lady in the preparatory work, about
three years ago." Nothing more is said of them. The sec
retary of Washington and Jefferson College, Washington,
writes : "John C. Asbury, through Freshman year, the best
of all our colored students, studied law and practiced in
Norfolk, Virginia, elected District Attomey ; of Class of 1885."
(Mr. Asbury is now editor of the Odd Fellows' Journal, with
headquarters at Philadelphia. ) Graduates : ( i ) F. J. LeMoyne
Johnson, '94; M. D. University of Pennsylvania '97; died
about 1900. (2) Frederick Douglass Johnson, 1901, M.D. (3)
Welcome T. Jones, M.D., now practicing at Newport News,
Va, A few others have been in college for a while."
Only one Negro has ever been a student of Lehigh,
and he died about a year after entering. One student at
tended Lebanon Valley College, at Annville, graduating in
1902. He is Charles Alfred Tennyson Sumner, now a teach-

A Study In Economic History 131
er in the Albert Academy, Freetown, West Africa, a mis
sion school under the United Brethren in Christ. One Ne
gro has graduated from Allegheny College, Meadville, in;
1880. He is William Charles Jason, now president of the
Delaware State College; he has since had the degrees of
A.M. and D. D. conferred upon him. From Dickinson Col
lege, the following comes : "I know of but one Negro grad
uate, namely, Mr. J. R. P. Brock, 1901, who was of the Phi
Beta Kappa rank, and a very excellent man; now teaching
in Baltimore, Md." The dean of the College Department
of Temple College, writes: "There have been Negro stu
dents in the school ever since it has been opened. We had
one very bright student graduate from the Medical School
last year. He passed successfully his State Board examina
tion, and is now practicing in this city. His name is Jo
seph Paul Hudgins. G. Edward Dickerson, this city, grad
uated in 1901 from the Law School, and is, I believe, very
successful. Miss Elaine Triggs will graduate from the Do
mestic Art Course in June, 1907 ; and Mr. J. T. Winder will
complete the College Preparatory course, expecting to en
ter Harvard next fall. We have had a number of Negro
students in our Theological School, but they have all, or
nearly all, dropped by the wayside. There is a very excep
tional student, a West Indian, taking the course at the pres
ent time. These that I have mentioned have all held their
own with the very best white students." Geneva College,
Beaver Falls, reports Negro students, stating, "We have
Negro women every year. When in school we find that
they do as well as whites." The Pennsylvania State Col
lege reported two students, but no graduates. No Negro
women have ever applied for admission at Bryn Mawr. A
graduate of the Central High School — Alain LeRoy Locke,
of Philadelphia, won the Cecil Rhodes Scholarship to Ox-

132 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ford University, England, in 1907. Mr. Locke graduated
from Harvard in the Class of 1907, winning the Bowdoin
prize. From the College and Engineering School of the
Western University of Pennsylvarlia, of Pittsburg, there
have been eight graduates. Two with the degree of A.B.,
B.S. ; three with C.E. ;iand two with E.E. All of these stu
dents were beneficiaries of the Avery Scholarship Fund, es
tablished by Charles Avery. These scholarships were
twelve in number and provided for the payment of $100
upon the term bill of the beneficiaries (who must be color
ed males) in the College, or Engineering School. Of the
above graduates the Registrar writes : "Of the A.B.'s, one
is studying law, the other is editor of a newspaper, Charles
ton, W. Va. Of the engineers, I have no extended personal
knowledge. I believe, however, that they are all in posi
tions of a character corresponding to the special nature of
their preparation. One of them has, I understand, done
some original work in the lines of perfecting railway sig
nals. This is Mr. W. H. Damond, C.E., 1893, who at last
accounts was with the Michigan Central Railroad." At
present ten of the Avery scholarships are taken. Besides
these, there is one young woman in the College Depart-,
ment. From the professional schools, especially Medicine,
there have been a dozen or more graduates. The enroll
ment November, 1907, was 26, 11 in the College and Engin
eering School, 9 in the Medical School, 4 in the Pharma
ceutical, and 2 in the Law School.
In 1907 Negroes were enrolled only in the following
Colleges : Allegheny College, Meadeville, which has two
Negro students; Geneva College, Beaver Falls; Pennsyl
vania State College, Temple College, the University of
Pennsy vania, and the Western University of Pennsyl
vania. The colleges of the State evidently have had but

A Study In Economic History 133
small influence upon the Pennsylvania Negroes. Indeed,
quite as many Negroes have attended and graduated from
colleges outside of Pennsylvania, as from the colleges of
their native State. Harvard University has had several Ne
gro students from Pennsylvania, and three graduates ; so
had Oberlin College, and several smaller colleges.
More Negroes have graduated from the professional
schools than from the colleges. Twenty-six have gradu
ated from the Medical Department of the University of
Pennsylvania. As a rule, these men have been successful.
One Dr. S. P. Lloyd, of Savannah, Georgia, was appointed
city physician of his native town, and was the first Negro
in the South to hold such a position. Another, Dr. N. F.
Mossell, established the Frederick Douglass Hospital in
Philadelphia. There are at present five medical students,
two from Pennsylvania; the others from the South. There-
have been five Negroes to graduate from the Legal Depart
ment, who are practicing in Philadelphia. Five Negroes
are members of the Department of Veterinary Medicine,
from which one Negro graduated in 1897. Two Negroes
have been granted the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ; one
of whom is L. B. Moore, Dean of the Teachers' College of
Howard University, of Washington, D. C, and the other.
Rev. Pezavia O'ConneU, District Superintendent of the M.
E. Church in Maryland. Negroes have also graduated from
the Jefferson Medical College, Hahnemann, and the Medico-
Chirurgical College, Drexel Institute, the Pennsylvania
School of Industrial Art, and have studied at the Academy
of the Fine Arts. Henry O. Tanner, the Negro Artist, of
Paris, France, studied at both the last named institutions,
and is one of the most distinguished of the former students.
Another of the former art students is Miss Vaux Warrick,
the creator of a set of models of 150 characters represent-

134 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ing the history of the Negro race in America, for which,
she was awarded a gold medal at the Jamestown Exposi
tion. Although the private primary schools have generally
disappeared because of the public schools, there exists a
half dozen private institutions for technical and secondary
education, such as is given by the State only to a limited de
gree. The oldest and most prominent of these are: The
Institute for Colored Youths, Cheyney>^incoln University,
Chester County; the Avery Institute, Pittsburg; the Berean
Manual Training and Industrial School, Philadelphia;
Downingtown Industrial School, and the Paoli School,
Paoli. The Institute for Colored Youths has held a unique
place in the history of Pennsylvania Negroes, and especially
those of Philadelphia. Richard Humphreys, who made his
wealth from slaves, made the following provision in his
will, dated February i8, 1829: "I give and bequeath unto
my friends * * * the sum of ten thousand dollars
* * * having for its object the benevolent design of in
structing the descendants of the African race in school
learning, in the various branches of the mechanic arts and
trades, and in agriculture, in order to prepare, fit and qualify
them to act as teachers." He died in 1832. This $10,000
was the nucleus for the Institute for Colored Youths. In
1837, the institute was founded and located in Philadel
phia ; in 1842 it was chartered by the State. In 1844, Jono-
than Zane gave another large sum to the institute. From
1846 to 1851 not much was done except the conducting of a
night school. In 1851 buildings were erected on Lombard
Street, and from that time the influence of the institute be
gan to be felt all over the city. Mr. Charles L. Reason, of
New York, one of the best educated Negroes of his day.

A Study In Economic History 135
was made principal in 1852, but only remained till 1854,
when he was succeeded by Professor Ebenezer Don Carlos
Bassett, another Negro and a graduate of the New Britain,
Connecticut, State Normal School. In 1868, Professor Bas
sett was succeeded by Miss Fanny M. Jackson, a graduate
of the Rhode Island State Normal School, and also a Bache
lor of Arts and Master of Arts of Oberlin College, Ohio.
Miss Jackson, who became Mrs. L. J. Coppin in 1882, was
the principal until 1902, a term of thirty-four years. Dur
ing this period the chief work of the institution was literary j
and it attained a very creditable reputation throughout the j
North. All of the teachers were Negroes and included grad- 1
uates from Oberlin College, Harvard College, Lincoln Uni-r
versity, Wilberforce University, Yale College and other in-l
stitutions. From 1856 to 1902, there were 412 graduates,*
of whom 71 are known to be deceased. Many cannot be locat- \
ed. The occupation of 156 of them are as follows: Teachers, '
104 ; physicians, 1 1 ; dentists, 3 ; lawyers, 7 ; clergymen,
5; Government clerks (Washington), 6; Post Office clerks,
(Philadelphia), 8; other clerical service, 5; real estate,
2 ; editors, 2 ; bookkeepers, 2 ; electrician, i ; architect
1; tailor, i; undertaker, i. The institute furnished a
large number of Negro teachers to the South after the
Civil War, and to-day many of the most prominent posi
tions in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania are held by
jts graduates and former students. It has furnished seven
principals of Philadelphia public schools ; three of whom are
now serving, one of whom has taught more than forty
years in the city. It has furnished eight principals in New
Jersey, six of whom are now serving; one in Delaware, one
in Washington, D. C, and several in smaller cities of Penn
sylvania. Twenty-five of its graduates have taken higher
courses at Lincoln University, Howard University, Univer-

136 The Negro In Pennsylvania
in the country. It was very possibly inspired by the efforts of
several Negroes, who desired to have higher training to fit
themselves for the ministry. The actual organizer of the
school, however, was the Rev. John W. Dickey, a Presby
terian clergyman, who had been giving a Mr. James R. Amos
private lessons. In 1853, the New Castle Presbytery took
steps to establish a school for the Christian education of the
Negroes; and in 1854, Ashmun Institute secured its charter
from the State of Pennsylvania. The school opened formally
January i, 1857. In 1866, the name of the Institution was
•changed from Ashmun Institute, to Lincoln University, Ches
ter County, Pennsylvania. The departments are the College
and the Theological Seminary, the latter alone being under
the control of the Presbyterian Church of America. The
property consists of one hundred and thirty-two acres of
land in lower Oxford Township, Chester County; 12 build
ings, endowments and apparatus. The heating plant alone
cost about $30,000. There are eleven "officers of instruction
and government," all of whom are white. There are three
additional instructors in the college department, who are also
students. These are Negroes. During the year 1907-8 there
were 94 students coming from twenty-three different States.
The largest number from a single State was thirty-four, from
Pennsylvania. The aims of the institution are thus set forth
in the catalogue and announcement:
"The design of Lincoln University, as embodied in its
character, is to provide intelligent Christian helpers for our
Negro population, for Africans in their ancestral continent
or scattered throughout the world. Every thousand laborers
and mechanics and farmers need a pious, well educated de
voted minister. Of the 10,000 educated ministers of the Gos
pel required to meet this necessity, not as many as 2,000 have
been thus qualified by all the Churchfes to fulfill in part their
duty toward the Negroes. Every fifty children need a com-

A Study In Economic History 137
sity of Pennsylvania, Wilberforce University, Yale Univer
sity and Hahnemann Medical College. One of its students
studied very acceptably in Edinburgh University, Scotland.
With a more liberal attitude toward the Negroes and better
opportunities in the public schools the special work of the In
stitute in the city was thought by the Board of Management
to have been complete and in 1903 the school was reorgan
ized and removed to Cheyney, about twenty miles from Phil
adelphia. Here on a tract of 117 acres, several buildings
were erected and instruction is given in normal school work,
domestic science, mechanical arts, including cooking, sew
ing, dressmaking, millinery, raffia work, carpentry and wood
work, forging and blacksmithing, together with mechanical
drawing necessary to these operations.
Rev. Charles Avery, a merchant minister, of New York and
Pittsburg, was one of the most practical friends of the Ne
groes before the war. Besides contributing generously to the
poor, he left large endowments to their churches, and for their
churches, and for their uplift, both in Africa and America.
He gave $25,000 as an endowment for a school for Negroes,
which was established in 1849, and known as Avery Col
lege. Its charter gives the right to confer degrees. The
school held a prominent place in the early history of Alle
gheny County but with the development of the free public
school system of later years, it has been of less influence in
purely literary work and devoted its attention more to indus
trial work. The course includesi ordinary Enghsh branches,
dressmaking, millinery, cooking, laundering, table waiting,
bookkeeping for girls and tailoring for boys. Carpentering,
bricklaying and other mechanical trades were taught but
have been suspended. The enrollment rarely reaches 100 pu
pils. The principal is a Negro, and the teachers are of both
races. Lincoln University is one of the largest Negro colleges

138 The Negro In Pennsylvania
petent, conscientious teacher. The highest skill in trades
and other manual industries will not alone qualify and one
to be a preacher to a congregation of sinners, or to be the
pastor of a flock of believers, or to be a teacher of a com
munity of youth in the moralities of life. Lincoln Univer
sity is pledged by its charter and by the trusts which it has
accepted, to apply all its resources hitherto received to pro
mote this higher education of the man in the mechanic, of
the family in the community and of the immortal in this pres
ent life." "The higher Christian education of the Negro is one of
his highest necessities. He must have the higher education be
cause he is a man having the high dignity of being made
in the image of God. His higher wants and their supply
cannot be deferred to his physical needs without peril to his
spiritual nature. Manual industry is not in itself a prelude to
religion. Skilled workmen are not thereby Christians. In
dustry is God's law ; but it must be sanctified to be a blessing.
We are reconciled to work because it is God's ordinance, and
He makes it a blessing to all who keep His law of six days'
wgrk, and Sabbath change from manual labor to religious
work. The only way to make education Christian is to teach
the Christian religion to the student. This is the natural duty
of the parents. But when the parents are incompetent through
ignorance, or are prevented by the necessity of protracted
and exhausting toil, it is the province and duty of the Church
to lend a helping and guiding hand."
Lincoln University has sent its students into nearly every
State in the Union where they have done and are doing ef
fective service largely as ministers, teachers and physicians.
In Philadelphia more than a score of professional men were
graduates from this institution.
The Berean Manual Training and Industrial School,
Philadelphia, grew out of the work of the Rev. Matthew An-

A Study In Economic History 139
derson, as pastor of the Berean Presbyterian Church. It was
organized in 1899, opened in February, 1900, and has been
operated principally as a night school. It was incorporated in
1904, and since then has been a distinct institution from the
church. Beginning with less than fifty pupils, its enrollment
was more than two hundred during the past year. The
branches taught are English, mathematics, penmanship, short
hand and typewriting, bookkeeping, dressmaking, cooking,
millinery, housekeeping, carpentry, bricklaying, architectural
and mechanical drawing, practical work in electricity and
printing. The teachers are mainly Negroes. The pupils are
generally young men and women, who during the day earn
their own living at manual work. The last legislature made
an appropriation to this school. Its chief support is from vol
untary contributions.
The Downingtown Industrial School, Downingtown
a new institution, started in 1905, and grew out of the work
of the Rev. Dr. William A. Creditt, pastor of the First African
(Cherry Memorial) Baptist Church, and its purpose is to
meet the increasing need of Negro youth for industrial as well
as literary training. It also acts as a preparatory school for
Lincoln University. The enrollment for the year 1906-7 wa;
65. Its largest building, Pennsylvania Hall, was erected en
tirely by Negro mechanics. A full industrial course is to
offered. The teachers are all Negroes. The chief source
income is voluntary contributions. There is no endowment
The state legislature has made appropriations to aid this insti
tution.

, isi
ork/

i

140 The Negro In Pennsylvania

CRIME AMONG NEGROES.

It is important that a careful and somewhat detailed study
of the subject of crime among Negroes be made. A consid
eration of some of the fundamental facts of criminalogy may
serve for a proper introduction to the subject; for the sarne
principles which enter into crime in general, must be active in
crimes of Negroes.
A crime is an infraction of any legal enactment whose pur
pose is to preserve peace, common order and decency, as in
terpreted by the social group. There is no absolute uniformity
as to what constitutes a crime in all countries, or all parts of
the country. It is a crime in Georgia punishable by a heavy
fine and imprisonment, for Negroes and whites to marry; but
it is no crime in Pennsylvania and New York. It is a crime
in Pennsylvania to employ a child under the age of fourteen
years but it is not in Mississippi. Furthermore, as it is true
what constitutes a crime is not uniform, it is also apparent that
the mere number of crimes committed, does not represent with
any accuracy the moral status, or even the criminality of a
people. For in a complex community it is harder to escape
crime, than in a simple community. In judging criminality,
the environment must be considered as to complexity. The
criminality of one community, other things being equal, is to
the criminality of another about as the proportion between the
possible crimes and actual crimes.
In popular writings, concerning the crimes of Negroes,
the number of arrests has often been taken as the measure
of crime. But arrests do not give an accurate picture of crime
and especially for comparing one group with another. Hun
dreds of persons are annualy arrested who have not committed
any crime whatsoever, and hundreds escape who have com-

A Study In Economic History 141
mitted crimes. It is better to compare convictions, although
absolute accuracy cannot be obtained even by this method ; for
since a large number of criminals are never arrested, they
cannot be convicted; also some guilty persons, who are ar
rested, escape conviction. Even here, another serious error is
possible. For it is conceivable that one place may be much
more criminal than another though the latter has proportion
ately more convictions. In the first place, each arrest and con
viction lessens the criminality. For example, when Philadel
phia's "Tenderloin" was "wide open," it was conceded that
there was much crime; liquor was sold freely on Sunday, and
without license, bawdy houses flourished and prostitutes openly
pHed their trade in the streets; pick-pockets, sneak thieves,
hold-up men and petty gamblers were practically undisturbed,
and policy shops did a large business among the ignorant poor.
There were fewer arrests and fewer convictions than at a later
time when the laws were more rigidly enforced. But there
may have been more, rather than less crime. When the city
tried in the popular phrase to "close up" the resorts the actual
amount of crime in the community was diminished, but the
arrests and convictions for awhile increased. The real change
va". in the enforcing of the law against crime and not in the
increase of crime; crime was really on the decrease. Only,
therefore, when there is uniformity in the administration of
executive and judicial machinery, both as to arrests and con-
vicitions. can either of these be taken as guides for comparison
with any degree of accuracy.
But when there is uniform enforcement, the mere number
of convictions would not mean much. An analysis of the of
fenses must be made. For general convenience, the division
into petty offenses or misdemeanors and gross offenses or
felonies, is used. It may be that a dozen petty offenses may
not be as far reaching as one gross offense. If forty men

142 The Negro In Pennsylvania
are taken in a crap game, and sentenced to five days corffine-
ment in the county prison, there are forty arrested and forty
convictions ; but the amount of criminality represented is com
paratively small. Crap shooting is not a very great crime.
It affects few, if any more people than those engaged in it.
Few fortunes are lost at it ; few families suffer because of it
and society is but little affected. On the other hand, a bank
official may misuse the funds of his institution and be arrested
and convicted. But he counts for only one. It is therefore
clear that mere statistics of arrests and convictions, will here
be misleading; for this last named criminal many have op
erated systematically for years, ruining many people, debauch
ing society, as well as corrupting finance, causing public con
fidence to be shaken, with harm to himself, his own family
and many other families. The actual bad moral influence
of the forty crap shooters is not to be compared with that
of the bank defalcator, but in statistics, it appears forty times
as great, which of course is absurd. And of course if the
banker is never arrested or escapes on a technicality, the
absurdity is increased.
When it comes to comparison of crime among the
Negroes with that of the larger community, there are even
greater difficulties. First, there is the historical difficulty.
Historically, Negroes have had to prove their innocence and
not their prosecutors prove their guilt. Under the Laws of
Slavery, T. R. R. Cobb, an eminent Southern jurist, wrote:
"Reasons of policy and. necessity, so long as two races of
men live together, the one as masters and the other as de
pendents and slaves, demand that to a certain extent, all of
ihe superior race shall exercise a controlling power over the
inferior. Hence, have arisen in the states, the various police
and patrol regulations, giving to white persons other than

A Study In Economic History 143

the master, under certain circumstances, the right of con
trolling, and in some cases, correcting slaves."
Thus, in most of the Southern states, the police system
was primarily for Negroes and not for whites. Another
historical factor relates to the crimes for which Negroes can
be arrested. Historically, any word of protest against a white
man by a Negro was insolence or disorderly conduct; and it
was a serious crime for a Negro to strike or "presume to
strike" a white person; but a white man was simply exer
cising his right as a member of the "superior" caste in abus
ing the Negro, and could strike him with impunity, only
some laws prohibited maiming and killing. A box of the ears
was no crime when given by a white to a black, but the reverse
was punishable by flogging. This was true by law or custom
of every Southern state, and by law in many Northern States.
A further and most important historical factor is the
credibility of witnesses. By law in most Southern States,
and some Northern States, a Negro could not testify against
a white man even for himself. In some cases several Negroes
would not, to the contrary, be strong enough according to
the law, to outweigh the testimony of one white person. It
cannot be doubted that these historical factors have a very de
cided influence in the cases of Negroes in our courts to-day,
even in the North, while the best observers agree that there is
but Tittle possibility of obtaining justice for a lone Negro
against a white man in the South, except in rare cases. Then
there is the condition of poverty. The crimes of the poor
are generally their vices, which affect them more than the
community; but the vices of the well-to-do are seldom termed
criminal, unless they become of great social concern. A
fashionable set may give a euchre or a bridge party and
hundreds of dollars may change hands and women earn their

144 The Negro In Pennsylvania
"pin" money thereby; but no one disturbs them, unless they
become too bold. The "drunks" of a fashionable club, or a
student "lark" are sent home in cabs, undisturbed, while the
poor man, who has to walk home, is often arrested. The
shop-lifter of means, is too often merely a "kleptomaniac,"
while the poor woman is a thief. These facts should be con
sidered when it is remembered that "drunks" and "disorder
lies" and petty larcenies are chief causes for running up the
statistics of arrests and convictions among the poor. Negroes
of the cities, being largely among the poor, must be affected
by the differences which poverty makes in these matters. Then
there is the matter of the trial after arrests. Even before
justice, poverty suffers.
Coming to the subject of criminality of Negroes in Penn
sylvania, it is clear that nothing more than mere tendencies
can be pointed out. For the available data are too meagre
for anything else. There are no separate statistics of ar
rests, or convictions for Negroes in the state as a whole. The
only statistics published for the state are those of prisoners
in jails and penitentiaries. The city of Philadelphia published
the number of Negroes arrested, but this is of little value,
as no hint is given of the causes for the arrests. The city
of Pittsburg publishes no statistics, not even the number of
arrests of Negroes. With the data available it is impossible
to reach any but tentative conclusions. The increase of ar
rests in Philadelphia may, however, be compared with the
ratio of the increase in population, and if it is found that the
arrests have increased more rapidly than the population, this
may represent an increased tendency to criminality. On the
other hand, if arrests have not increased as rapidly as the
population, the opposite tendency may be noted. For this
comparison, the number of arrests in Philadelphia from 1864

A Study In Economic History

145

to 1907 is available from the report of the police department,
and the increase of population is shown by the census. The
following table exhibits the comparison:

¦ Year.i8601864i86s1869 1870
1873 1874187s1877
1879 1880
1881 18821883

1885
1887

1890 1891
1892
1893 1894 189s1896
1897 1898
1899 19001901 1902
19031904

Population. 22,18s

22,147

31,699

39,371

62,613

Number of
Arrests. 3,422 2,7223,907
2,070 1,3801,257 1,539
2,5242,360 2,204 2,3272,183
2,0222,134 2,6223,256 2,9103,167 3,544
3,4314,0784,90s 5,137
5,302
5,893 S,8o6
6,052 6,5316,519 6,7118,1407,811

Per Cent, of P.C. of Inc.
Population Arrests.

1.7*

43-1

395

6.6

24.2

59-0

43-7

106.2

(* Decrease.)
These figures do not show any regular increase from year
to year. For instance, the arrests for 1864 were more than
those for 1865, or any one of the years from 1870 to 1890. In
41 years from 1864 to 1904 inclusive, the increase in arrests
10

146 The Negro In Pennsylvania
was 128.2 per cent.; from 1879 to 1904 inclusive, 277.3 P^r
cent. ; from 1880 to 1904, 254.4 per cent. In other words, the
percentage of increase is more or less, according to the years
taken. From 1864 to 1870, both arrests and population de
creased; but arrests decreased 40 per cent, and population
1.7 per cent. From 1870 to 1880, the arrests increased 6.5 per
cent.; but in the same time the Negro population increased
43.7 per cent, and the total population 24.2 per cent., while
from 1890 to 1900 the arrests increased 106.2 per cent, and
the population 59.0 per cent. These percentages, so far as
arrests are concerned, are entirely due to accident. If the
figures of one year are taken they are more ; if another, less ;
from 1864 to 1869, arrests increased 14 per cent, but if we
take the next year, it decreased 40 per cent.; or from 1900
to 1903, there was an increase of 23.1 per cent., while if
we take the increase from 1900 to 1904, close scrutiny of
these figures leads to the conclusion as far as there can be
any conclusion, that the increase of crime among Negroes has
not been as great as compared with the increase of the Negro
population. Only when crime increases more rapidly than
population, can it be said that the group or community is in
creasing in criminality.
In 1849, Edward Needles, reporting on the condition of
Negi'oes as to crime. in Philadelphia, published the following
table showing the Negro prisoners received in the Eastern
Penitentiary from 1829 to 1849, in periods of five years :

Years Total received

Average

; per year

1829-1835 124

24.8

1835-1840 321

64.2

1 840- 1 845 209

41.8

1845-1849 116

31-5
1849-1849X 115
26.75
A Study In Economic History 147
The total number of Negroes received in the Eastern
Penitentiary during 21 years reported by Mr. Needles, was 780,
an average of 37.1 prisoners per year. For the past twenty-
eight years from 1880 to 1907, the number of Negro prisoners
admitted to the Eastern Penitentiary has been as follows :
Negro prisoners admitted to Eastern Penitentiary, 1880
to 1907: Year Total admitted Year Total admitted
1880 70 1895 109
1881 55 1896 126
1882 32 1897 69
1883 76 1898 80
1884 75 1899 103
1885 78 1900 84
1886 72 1901 83
1887 71 1902 128
1888 71 1903 99
1889 85 1904 134
1891 161 1905 87
^ 1891 68 1906 120
1893 117 , ],
1894 127

Total admitted  2,517
The above figures of prisoners admitted to the Eastern
Penitentiary, like the figures of arrests, cannot show con
clusively the amount of criminality yet they do reflect a
tendency. But as in the case of the statistics of arrests, so
those of prisoners show no regular increase from year to
year, but considerable fluctuation. There were fewer prisoners
admitted to the Eastern Penitentiary during the year 1907,
just closed, than the year 1897, ten years previous. There
were fewer in 1906 than in 1896 ; fewer in 1905 than in 1895.
There are twice as many in 1904 as in 1897, yet the very

148 The Negro In Pennsylvania
next year, 1905, the number admitted falls off nearly 40 per
cent., only to rise again in 1906, and fall again in 1907, thus
showing how difficult it is to make a comparison. We may,
however, make a fair comparison by contrasting periods of
greater or less length. For this purpose, these figures of the
Eastern Penitentiary given above, may be compared with
those of the earlier period, given by Mr. Needles, on the
preceding page. During the period from 1829 to 1849, in
clusive, according to Mr. Needles' report, 780 Negro prisoij-
ers were admitted to the Eastern Penitentiary, an average
of 37.1 per year. During the latter period, from 1880 to
1907 inclusive, 2,517 were admitted, an average of 89.9 per
year. The increase, therefore, of Negro prisoners admitted
to the Eastern Penitentiary during the latter period was
141.8 per cent., as compared with the earlier period. The
average population of Negroes of the state during the earlier
period was 46,626 (i. e., the population in 1830 was 38,333;
in 1840, 47,918 ; in 1850, 53,626) and during the latter period
was 116,659, (i- c-' i" 1880, 85,535; in 1890, 107,596; and in
1900, 156,845). The increase of the average Negro popula
tion in the later over the earlier period was 150.2 per cent.
By this test it appears that the number of prisoners increased
less rapidly than the population of Negroes.
The above comparison of arrests and prisoners admitted
to the penitentiary may justify the conclusion that the ac
tual amount of crime among Negroes has increased more
rapidly than the Negro population. A fair and conservative
conclusion from the data present would be that crime among
Negroes as compared with the growth of the Negro popula
tion has relatively decreased.
Since no official statistics of the nature of crimes com
mitted by Negroes are published in this state, a detailed study
of the police records of one section of Philadelphia is here

A Study In Economic History 149
presented. The section chosen was the Nineteenth Police
District of Philadelphia. This includes the Seventh Ward,
which is the largest ward in the city so far as Negro popula
tion is concerned. It also includes more of the poorest and
least efficient Negroes than any other ward in the city. Al
though only one-sixth of the Negroes live in this ward, nearly
a third of the arrests are made within its bounds. The dis-
trictr therefore, is not the most favorable to the Negro and
will in no sense exaggerate the better side. During the year
1906, there were 2237 Negroes arrested in the Ninteenth Dis
trict. More than half of these arrests were on the five charges
of disorderly conduct, breach of the peace, drunkenness, drunk
and disorderly conduct, and shooting crap, for which ar
rests were as follows: Disorderly conduct, 428; breach of
the peace, 275; drunk, 204; drunk and disorderly, 157; shoot
ing crap, 86; making a total of 1150. Other arrests for of
fenses of a trivial nature were : 10 for acting suspiciously ; 53
for corner lounging, and 8 for blocking cars, trespassing, and
impersonating officers. Seventeen were arrested to be held
as witnesses; nineteen for mahcious mischief; while eighty-
eight were arrested on suspicions of various kinds and one
hundred and eight were arrested for being inmates of dis_-
orderly houses. The more serious causes of arrests were:
140 for larceny and i for murder ; i for accessory to murder ;
5 for burglary; 13 for highway robbery; 154 for assault and
battery; 46 for aggravated assault and battery; 5 for rape; 1
for robbery; i for shooting man; i for immorality and ne
glect of children ; 6 for fornication and bastardy ; 40 for non-
support; 58 were held for violating the Hquor license law and
84 for keeping disorderly houses. About one-third of those
arrested were held on serious charges.
A method of arrest practiced commonly among the poorer

150 The Negro In Pennsylvania
districts known as the raid, is employed very effectively in the
19th District, for the suppression of liquor selling on Sun
day, or without license, gambling juid bawdy houses. The
parties who are caught in the house are generally taken to
the police station and entered, the paraphernalia seized, the
owner bound over to the grand jury and the inmates either
discharged or given light sentences. The first thing ' is for
the place suspected of violating the law, to be watched and
if possible, entered in order to get evidence. This is done
chiefly by the detectives of the Law an,d Order Society.
Having evidence, a warrant is sworn out for the owner or
operator. Not only is the operator taken, but all who are
found in the place. The number of arrests ranges from two
to more than thirty. This, of course, runs up the criminal
statistics of Negroes. For example, July 14, 1906, in the terri
tory of the 19th District, eight raids were made, one result
ing in the arrest of 46 persons. On the next Sunday in one
raid 34 persons were taken. The following is the record in
the poHce station:
I. July, 14, 1906, house at No.  S. Camac Street,
raided; 5 men and two women taken; charge, selling liquor
on Sunday, and without license ; the four "inmates" dis
charged, the keeper bound over to grand jury.
2. Same date, same charge. No.  Jessup Street, ,5
arrested, all women; sentence, 10 days imprisonment for
each. 3. Same date, same charge, No.  S. Eleventh Street,
6 arrested, 4 women; sentence, all discharged except pro
prietor, who was held under bond.
4. Same date, same charge. No.  Lombard Street,
15 arrested; all men, given 10 days in county prison.
5. Same date, same charge. No.  Panama Street, 3
arrested, all women, all discharged except proprietor.

A Study In Economic History 151
6. Same date, same charge. No.  Pine Street, 3 ar
rested, all women, all discharged except proprietor.
7. Same date, charge, keeping bawdy house. No.

Panama Street, 4 arrested; 3 women, all discharged except
the proprietor. 8. Same date, charge, keeping house. No.  S.
Eleventh Street; 5 persons arrested, 3 women; all discharged
except proprietor.
9. July 22, 1906, 1.45 A. M., No.  Lombard Street,
charge, shooting crap; 34 arrested, all men; given 10 days ir»
county prison.
Of the 2237 Negroes arrested during 1906, in the 19th
District, at least 779, or 34.82 per cent., received no punish
ment whatever but were discharged after a preliminary hear
ing as shown in the table given. In the main, the cases were
heard by the magistrate of the distirict and a large majority
settled by him. Persons who were drunk were kept until
they were sobered up, usually over night, and then dis
charged. Of the 204 drunks, 169 were discharged and only
35 were held. Some were sent for a few days to the county
prison and others to the hospital rather than to jail. Next
to drunkenness comes disorderly conduct in the matter of
light punishment; of the 428 who were arrjested on this
charge, 249 were discharged; most of the remaining 179 who
were not discharged at the magistrates' hearing were senten
ced to 5, 10, 15 or 30 days in the county prison; 3 months,
6 months and as high as i year in the house of correction.
For disorderly conduct, women as a rule were more harshly
dealt with than men. Of the 275 arrested for "breach of
peace," 131 were discharged. Some were bound over under
$500 bond to keep the peace, and others were incarcerated
for from 10 days to i year. Many of the cases of breach of

152 The Negro In Pennsylvania
peace were husbands and wives, who presumably had some
trouble among themselves. They were sometimes discharged,
sometimes one sentenced and the other discharged, often both
sentenced. "Idle and disorderly characters" and vagrants,
the first chiefly women, and the second men, received senten
ces frora lo days to 2 years in the county prison or house of
correction. The keepers of gambling houses, bawdy houses
and houses of ill fame, were bound over under bond of from
$600 to $800. Of the 117 inmates of these places, 36 were
discharged and most of the others were given from 5 to 30
days or 3 months in the county prison or house of correction.
Street loungers received generally from 10 to 20 days im
prisonment; crap shooters, 10 days and other minor offen
ces about the same.
More than three-fourths of the cases were settled by the
magistrate in the district. Most of the serious crimes which
were not settled by the magistrate went to the grand jury.
It has been impracticable to follow them through the higher
courts. But many of those arrested on serious charges were
released on preliminary hearing; 12 out of 140 arrests for
larceny were discharged; 3 out of 13 for highway robbery;
29 out of 154 for assault and battery ; 2 out of 46 for aggra
vated assault and battery; i out of 20 for receiving stolen
goods. What proportion of the remainder were convicted it
is impossible to ascertain. It is certain, however, that only
a small proportion of them were sent to the penitentiary; for
only 33 colored persons were received at the Eastern Peni
tentiary from the whole of Philadelphia County during the
year 1906 and only 36 during the year 1907.
The table given above shows that in the Nineteenth Dis
•trict of Philadelphia of a total of 2237 persons arrested, 691
or 30.8 per cent, were females. Of the eighty-five charges, on

A Study In Economic History 153

which there were arrests, females were arrested on seventy-
five charges. The chief charges on which women were arrest
ed were as follows: Disorderly conduct, 152 arrests; breach
of peace, 102; idle and disorderly characters, 70; drunk, 49;
inmates of disorderly house, 45; drunk and disorderly, 41. On
these six charges, 459, or about 66.4 per cent, of the arrests
of females were made. Upon preliminary hearing, the major
portion of these were dismissed or given a.hght sentence of
thirty days or less. The more serious charges were: Selling
liquor on Sundays without license, 35 arrests; assault and
battery, 34 arrests; larceny, 31 arrests; keeping disorderly
houses, 26 arrests; aggravated assault and battery, 8 arrests;
I arrest for murder; 22 on suspicion of larceny; 8 for
threatening; 10 for witnesses; 6 for street walking.
During the year 1907, no Negro females were admitted
to the Eastern Penitentiary, but 9 were discharged, leaving 8
Negro females in the institution January i, 1908. The
number of Negro females admitted from 1880 to 1889 in
clusive, was 55 ; from 1890 to 1899 inclusive, 60 ; from 1900 to
1907, inclusive, 35, a total of 150 Negro females in 28
years, an average of less than half a dozen per year.
In the reformatories of the state there were in September,
1904, 1,372 juvenile delinquents, of whom 1,137 were boys
and 237 girls. During the year from September, 1903, to
September loth, 1904, 699 were admitted, of whom 428 were
in the House of Refuge, at Glen Mills and Philadelphia, and
271 were at the Pennsylvania Reform School at Morganza,
Washington County. In the latter institution were 42 colored
children, 31 boys and 11 girls. In the former there were 12
colored girls and the number of colored boys is not given.
The average for the year was 58 girls in both institutions
and 78 boys in the Reform School.

154 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Of the 136 Negro children reported during 1904, 26 had
been in the reformatories before. About one-fifth of those
re-admitted were absent less than three months; 29, from
three to six months; 27, from six to twelve months; i from
one to two years; 15, from two to three years and 5 from
three to four years and over.
Of the 568 children committed, five were nine years of
age; 23 between nine and eleven years; 81 between eleven
and twelve; 221 between thirteen and fifteen years; 235 be
tween fifteen and twenty years and three over twenty years
of age. Of the eight Negro girls committed to the House of
Refuge, only one had both parents living; of thirteen boys
committed to the Reform School, the parents of four were
living, while of seven girls three had both parents living ; while
of the 48 white girls in the same House of Refuge, 24 had
parents living and of the 37 to the Reform School, 30 had
parents living and of the 109 boys in the latter institution,
55 had both parents living. Hence, it appears that the lack
of parental oversight must be a great factor since it is not
the children with the homes as much as those without homes
who fall into crime.
The percentage of illiterates is much larger for the
Negro children who go to the reformatories than for the
white children. Sixty out of 540, ii.i per cent, of the white
boys and girls were illiterate; while six out of 28, or 21.4
per cent, of the colored were wholly illiterate.
The offenses for which Negro children are committed
are simple as compared with those of the white children. In
corrigibility is the chief charge against the Negro children,
and larceny the second. Other charges against Negro children
were : assault and battery, delinquency and vagrancy. Half of
the Negro girls entered in the House of Refuge were entered

A Study In Economic History 155

for larceny, while only about one-fourth of the white girls
were entered on this charge. Forty per cent, of the Negro
children entered in the Reform School were entered for
larceny, while less than 34 per cent, of the whites were en
tered on this charge ; all of which reflects not a racial but the
low economic position of the Negro family and the neglected
condition of many Negro children.
The lack of parental oversight over Negro children is
a most potent cause of juvenile delinquency and crime and is
but faintly reflected in the cases which come before the
juvenile courts. Many children are left with friends and rela
tives, many do not have any care-taker whatever. In the
slums of Philadelphia one may daily meet children who do
not know their parents. Next to having no parents comes the
work of women, as a cause of juvenile delinquency. It can
not be denied that the presence of the mother in the home
when the child comes home from school, is a deterrent from
temptation. Yet as has been shown, a large porportion of the
women must work. And when they have a family, they must
still keep at it. Thus it often happens that children are left
in idleness and temptation. In one of the schools of the
Seventh Ward, 41 out of 210 children in the first and second
grades averaging in age between seven and eight years, or
19.5 per cent, of the total were reported as having mothers
but no fathers ; 24 children, or 1 1 .4 per cent., as having fathers
but no mothers. Only 133 children or less than two-thirds of
the whole number had both parents living. Of the 174
children who had mothers, 114 or 65 per cent, were left by
their mothers early in the morning, and on their return home
found them away, as they were working out. In other words,
in this school, 150 children out of 210 had no motherly care
during the day, and all these children are under nine years,

156 The Negro In Pennsylvania
of age. Of the children in the higher grades, 3rd and 4th, a
still larger proportion had neither fathers or mothers and
were without parental care after school hours. In a German-
town school a count was made of 108 pupils in all grades.
Nineteen had no mother; 22 had no father. Of the 89 who
had mothers,, 46 of the mothers were working out, having to
leave home before school hours and return after school dis
missed to find their children in the streets; that is, in this
school 64 out of 108 children, or 59 per cent., had no ma
ternal oversight during the day.
It is extremely difficult to compare the crime of Negroes
with that of whites, because of the considerations previously
given. If the statistics of arrests alone were taken, it appears
that the Negroes furnish twice as large a number of arrests
as they ought in proportion to the population. The Negroes
are about 5 per cent, of the population and furnished during
the past eight years, 1900-1907, 10.4 per cent, of the arrests.
But it has been seen that arrests alone mean very little in
comparing criminality of different groups. The following
table shows arrests in the city of Philadelphia from i860 to
1907 inclusive:
TOTAL ARRESTS, AND ARRESTS OF NEGROES COMPARED
WITH GROWTH OF POPULATION. Nejro
Population. Arrests Popu- Per cent.
Year. Total. Negro. Total. Negro. lation. Arrests.
i860 525,329 22,185   '3.9
1864   34,221 3,114 ... 9.1
1865  ^  43,226 2,722 ... 6.3
1870 674,022 22,147 31,717 2,070 3.3 6.5
1875   34,553 1,539 •¦• 4-5
1880 847,170 31,699 44,097 2,204 3,7 S-O
1885   51,418 2,662 ... S.I'
1890 1,046,964 39,371 49,148 3,167 3-8 6.4
1895   60,347 5,137 ... 8.5
1896   50,072 5,302 ... 9.1
1897   62,628 5,893
1898   62,907 s,8o6

A Study In Economic History 157

Negro.

Population.
Arrests.
Popu- Percent.
Year.
Total. Negro.
Total. Negro.
lation. Arrests.
1899
62,07s 6,052
1900
1,293,697 62,613
65,360 6,531
4.8 9-9
1901
61,189 6,519
1902
65,468 6,7 n
1903
75,699 8,140
1904
73,061 7,811
190s
80,87s 8,404
1906
83,325 8,733
1907
85.863 8,904
While the number of arrests of Negroes is far greater in
proportion to the population than the arrests of whites, it
is no greater than it was forty years ago. Immediately after
the Civil War there was a comparative decrease in Negro ar
rests, but during the past three decades, there has been an
increase so that now, the proportion between Negro arrests
and white arrests as compared with the population is about
the same as it was at the beginning of the Civil War.
In the foregoing discussion it has been pointed out that,
in proportion to the growth of population, crime is not greatly
increasing among Negroes, if increasing at all. In compari
son with the white population so far as the proportion between
the increase of crime and the increase of the population is
concerned, the blacks hardly show any greater tendency to
crime than they have always shown. But although there is
no greater increase than is evident among the white portion
of our population, there is about twice as large a proportion
of Negro arrests and imprisonments as of whites. But this
condition is not new ; it has existed for a century, not only
in Pennsylvania, but in the country generally, the Negroes
appear to have a larger proportion of arrests and prisoners
than whites. The question therefore naturally arises, "Why
is there a larger proportion of the Negroes than whites ar
rested and imprisoned?" Some light may be thrown upon
158 The Negro In Pennsylvania
this by the comparison of arrests in the Nineteenth District.
Here there was but little difference between the number of
arrests of Negroes and whites, who lived in close touch with
one another and under somewhat similar circumstances. There
does not seem to be anything of a special racial characteris
tic which makes for excessive criminality among Negroes.
The excess of criminality merely indicates what the excess of
illiteracy indicates, namely, a lower social efficiency. Com
pared with the whites of their economic group, there is but
little difference.
The Negroes of the higher economic group very rarely
are among the criminals or have to appear in court because
of criminal prosecution directed against them. They are not
the college and high school graduates, the professional and
business men who are among the Negroes arrested. These are,
with very rare exceptions, peaceable, law-abiding citizens. The
criminal Negroes come from a very different group altogether.
The most numerous and serious crimes committed by
Negroes are stealing, fighting and disorderly conduct, which
are characteristic of those of low intelligence and of low
economic status. Those who steal, do so largely because they
want things and have not the abihty or the opportunity to
satisfy these wants by honest labor. Many are honest, but
being shut out by the lack of opportunity or efficiency, they
acquire habits of dishonesty and disinclination to work. Those
who keep "speak easies" do so for the money they get, which
in many cases they are unable to earn. They frequently have
the protection and active aid of the political boss, who is gen
erally a white man. Fighting is everywhere the unintelligent
man's way of settling a dispute and is resorted to quite fre
quently by the Negro who has not yet learned the lesson
of self-control or the value of arbitration.

A Study In Economic History 159
The sudden congregating of many Negroes in the large
cities like Pittsburg and Philadelphia, where they cannot be
easily detected and where they can frequently secure protec
tion from the police, tends also to the increase of crime
among them. In the large cities opportunities for crime are
often many times greater than in the small towns and rural
districts from which most of the Negroes come, while lack of
home, church and other social restraints, doubtless cause
some to fall into crime who might have lived normal, self-
respecting lives had they remained in the smaller, simpler en
vironments.
POVERTY AMONG NEGROES.

There are but few property holders among Negroes and
the amount of property owned is small in comparison with
the total valuation of property in the state. Judged from
the standard of luxury, 90 per cent, of the Negroes would be
in a condition of poverty; but if the standard be lowered to
the necessities for the maintenance of a normal standard of
living — allowing just enough to prevent physical deterioration,
because of the lack of good food and sufficient clothing and
other things absolutely necessary for economic efficiency —
fully forty per cent, of the Negroes would be classed as poor.
According to Prof. DuBois' study of Philadelphia, 8.9 per
cent, of the persons of the Seventh Ward were in the class of
the "very poor;" 9.6 per cent, were "poor" and 47.8 per cent'.
were "fair."
Among the poor, women are the chief workers, because
there is more steady demand, and a smaller supply of house-

160 The Negro In Pennsylvania
hold workers, washer-women, cleaners, etc., than there is
of the kind of unskilled labor generally done by the men.
Moreover, women who are employed chiefly within doors,
work in bad weather as well as in good, while men work
largely out of doors and must be "laid off" in unfavorable
weather. As has been seen the Negro men are concentrated
in the occupations which pay the least. They are almost en
tirely shut out of the skilled trades and the higher branches
of labor. A cessation of labor for two weeks or a month
often means that outside charity must help or that crime must
be resorted to, in order to make up the deficit, or the family
sinks into almost hopeless poverty.
Then there is the other economic handicap; poverty
causes its own perpetuation. The Negroes were slaves and
as such, owned but little, and had no large experience in self-
direction or in independent initiative. When they were freed,
they were left poor. Like the poor everywhere, they have
to pay higher prices than the well-to-do pay for what they
get. It is no common thing for Negroes to pay $2 and
$2.50 per week for an unclean, poorly lighted, poorly ven
tilated and otherwise unsanitary room and $3 to $3.50 per
week for two rooms of this same description. In such cases
the annual rental is from 20 to 40 per cent, of the assessed
value of the property. In Philadelphia, for instance, among
the many examples of the excessive rents paid by the poor,
i.s a house in a narrow twelve foot alley in which the better
circumstanced people put their garbage, which is assessed
at $1,000. It is a dilapidated brick building, with no modern
conveniences and has six rooms. This house is rented to
from three to six families and brings as high as $32 per
month, a yearly rontal of $384. It is occupied by poor
Negroes who seek out a living by unskilled labor and domestic

A Study In Economic History 161
service. Every three years, they pay more than the assessed
value of the house. The rent which the poor pay seldom
decreases. As their number increases, their rent goes up.
As these old buildings are torn down for newer ones for
business purposes, the demand for the remaining shacks is
greater and the rent is raised — and rent must be paid.
Next to rent, comes the price of food and fuel. In pro
portion to what they get, the poor pay enormously high prices
for these necessities, and are thus kept poor. They buy their
coal in most cases by the bucket, and they pay one hundred
per cent, more than the better circumstanced person who
buys by the ton. They buy five cents worth of flour or meat ;
three cents worth of sugar ; they take their lamps to the shop
and have them filled for a few pennies at the time, but paying
an exorbitant price for the same. Not only do they pay
proportionately high prices for what they purchase, but they
are ignorant of how to use to the best advantage what they
get. When they are temporarily prosperous, they are apt to
be unduly extravagant, to v/aste their money on unnecessary
and often unwholesome luxuries, only thenceforth to plunge
themselves into deeper poverty. This often happens to those
who buy furniture, clothes or pictures on the installment
plan, always paying very high rates for what they receive.
Thus with the Negro poor, as with the poor in general,
poverty tends to perpetuate itself.
Sickness is another fruitful cause of poverty. But it
is also often a result as well as a cause of poverty. Twenty-
four and five -tenths per cent, of the applicants to the charity
organization above referred to, gave sickness as the imme
diate cause of their having to ask for rehef Professor Du
Bois' family budgets show that the poorest people pay the
highest doctor's bill in proportion to their income. He gives
11

162 The Negro In Pennsylvania
a family whose yearly expenditure was $121.50 and whose
bill for sickness in proportion was $10 or 8 per cent, of the
entire income; a family of two spent $206 for all purposes,
$15 of which was for sickness; a family of four spent $338
and $40 for sickness; another family of four spent $520, but
only $10 for sickness; a family of seven spent $683 of which
$50 was for sickness and "one of the best families" consisting
of five persons, spent only $5 for sickness. A conservative
estimate places the number of Negroes who are sick during
the year at 20,000 in Philadelphia, or about one-fourth of the
entire population.
Not only does sickness mean the paying of doctor's bill,
but also the loss of time from work and consequently o^
wages. An attempt has been made to estimate the Negroes'
economic loss on account of sickness, using for the purpose
the records of the University and the Frederick Douglass
Hospital. From January to March 30, 1906, there were 85
Negro patients in the University Hospital who remained from
2 days, the shortest, to 64 the longest. The total length of
confinement was 1,817 days, or about 21 days for each pa
tient. There were thirty males and thirty-five females —
persons whose average weekly wages was about $4.50 for
women and about $9 for men, which means about $18.24 V^^
person for the time lost.
In the Frederick Douglass Hospital (conducted by Ne
groes) the record for a longer time was taken and the average
of confinement was longer.
Occupation, days confined and wages of patients in the
Frederick Douglass Hospital, Philadelphia:
Females :

Occupation

No.

Days

Wecltly

Total

patients

confined

wages

wages

Nurse

3

104

$4.50

$67.00

Domestic

41

1112

4-50

779-33

Maid

5

135

4.00

77-15

Housekeeper

11

315

3.00

135-0Q

A Study In Economic History

Total

78

2255

163

Occupation

No. patients

Days

Weekly

Total

confined

wages

wages

Chiropodist

I

39

7.00

39.00

Cook

3

142

5.00

101.45

Laborer

I

41

6.00

35-M

Laundress

2

46

S-oo

32.85

Matron

I

14

5-0O

lo.ocr

Singer

I

18

7.00

18.00

Waitress

2

30

3-50

15.00

Atd. school

5

103

Not given

2

56

3-00

24.00

$134.22

Males ;

Occupation No.

patients

Days

Weekly

Total

confined
wages
wages
Laborer
24
661
9.00
$850.50
Caterer
2
29
10.00
41.00
Waiter
6
129
10.00
184.30
Cook
2
36
10.00
51.40
Steward
2
99
12.00
169.68
Porter
6
192
10.00
174-30
Coachman
2
72
10.00
102.90
Elevator opr.
7
9.00
9.00
Newsboy
7
5.00
5.00
Marble dresser
7
12.00
12.00
Janitor
14
10.00
?o.oo
Barber
14
10.00
20.00
School
I
22
Dentist
11
15.00
23-55
Not given
52
130
43
1343
3598
6.00
36.00
Total males
$1800.13
Total patients
$3144-35
164 ^ The Negro In Pennsylvania
According to this table, of the 130 persons confined in
the hospital, 124 are workers. There were 78 females and
52 males. The total confinement of females was 2,255 days,
of males 1,343 days. Calculating the wages according to cur
rent rates, the total loss in wages was $1,344.22 for females
and $1,800.13 foi" males, a total of $3,144.35 and an average of
$24.19 per person.
None of the cases reported in the hospitals was a con
sumptive who loses more time than the average sick person.
On account of the prevalence of tuberculosis among the
Negroes, it is safe to say that $500,000 is a low estimate of
the loss of annual wages of Philadelphia Negroes on account
of sickness and this tends to keep them poor.
The average age at death of whites of fifteen years or
over was 53.4 years and of colored for the same time was
'44.1, a difference of 9.3 years. This latter record is of much'
significance, as showing the length of possible economic ac
tivity of the races.
The census gave no complete record for Pennsylvania,
the state as such not being in the registration area. But our
calculations may not be far wrong if the average longevity
of the Negro for the country is applied to the state. It is
clear then, that if the average loss of the Negroes per person
is 9.3 years and if the economic value of each year is, say
$100, the average economic loss of each Negro is $930. If
2,000 Negroes die in a year in Pennsylvania, the annual
economic loss is $1,860,000, which is equal to the annual in
terest at 5 per cent, on $37,200,000.
Notwithstanding the large amount of poverty among
Negroes, they are by no means the chief contributors to
the pauper class of the comrnunity. Long jexperience in
stinting and in hereditary poverty, has taught the race "how

A Study In Economic History 165
to get along" on a httld, and though this is too often inju
rious both to themselves and to the society which makes it
necessary, it is the resort of the vast majority of the Negro
poor. Besides, there are also numerous benefit societies and
fraternal organizations, churches, clubs and friends who as
sist their needy fellows when necessity arises. Hence, aft
compared with the foreign population, for instance, the Ne
groes show but a small amount of pauperism in the country
at large and in the state of Pennsylvania.
According to the report of the United States Census on
"Paupers in Almshouses" on December 31, 1903, there were
6,910 colored paupers, who comprised 12. i per cent, of the
81,764 paupers of the entire country. In Pennsylvania there
were 361 colored paupers out of a total of 8,693 or 3.99 per
cent. There were 4,089 foreign born paupers, or 45.16 per
cent. There were 41.6 foreign white paupers in the Pennsyl
vania almshouses to every 10,000 white foreigners; while
there were 22.5 colored paupers to every 10,000 of the colored
population of the state. During 1904, there were 9,738
paupers admitted to almshouses in Pennsylvania of whom
583 were colored, 4,225 foreign whites; 4,877 native whites,
53 of unknown nativity.
During the same year, 8,550 paupers were discharged
from almshouses, of whom 515 were colored, and Jan
uary I, 1905, there were present in Pennsylvania alms
houses, 9,513 white and 429 colored paupers, a total of 9942
paupers. As compared with conditions before the Civil War,
there is much evidence that the proportion of pauperism
among Negroes has decreased.

166 The Negro In PennsylPania

INTER-RACIAL CONTACT AND SOCIAL PROGRESS

The earliest relations of Negroes and whites in this state
were as slaves and masters. Black servants were a distinct
group from whites from the beginning, and public sentiment
and law both tend to emphasize this separation. In 1706,
laws were brought before the General Assembly looking
toward separate criminal proceedings for the two races.
Negroes early awakened suspicion and were deprived
of the privilege of carrying fire-arms, of congregating and
of free movement on the Sabbath days. As early as 1714, a
group of Quakers, who as a class, were always the best
friends of the Negroes, ;passed a resolution to give the
Negroes a burial place separate from the whites. Indeed,
^11 through the period of their long and courageous activity
on behalf of the Negroes, the Quakers always encouraged in
dependent action among them, believing that such action,
though separate from the whites, gave Negroes self-confi
dence and opportunity. Hence, they aided them in establish
ing separate places of worship, separate schools, separate
beneficial societies, separate burying grounds, etc.
Negroes are almost entirely separate from whites in the
church. They have been so for a century. The first separate
Negro church was organized in Philadelphia in the eigh
teenth century, because the white Christians would not per
mit their black brethren to sit on the same floor with them,
or to kneel at the same altar. Negroes had to sit in the
gallery, or in some part of the church set apart for them,
and were separated even at the communion altar. They
naturally rebelled against this as being un-Christian and thus
began separate Negro churches.

A Study In Economic History 167
It is quite significant that perhaps there is no part of
our social life where the races are so distinct as they are in
the church, which in theory, at least, is the strongest advo
cate for fellowship and brotherhood. To-day the great mass
of Negroes never enter a church where whites worship. Two-
thirds of the Negro church members are Methodists and Bap
tists and have their own conferences and conventions, bishops
and executive general officers, as well as their own pastors.
They are therefore, outside of the influence of the whites.
Only a few Episcopalians, Catholics, Presbyterians, and one
group of Methodists have white supervision. The separation
has done much to develop leadership among Negroes; it
has also robbed both the Negro and the white church of a
great deal of sympathy for one another, and consequent
spiritual development.
Not only are the clergy of the common Christ in but
little touch with one another but still less, the laity, so far
as church affairs are concerned. The Episcopalian Church
has an association which is supposed to bring together Ne
groes and whites, but so far as the local influence is con
cerned, it is but small. A few Negroes attend the churches
of the whites, but the number is decreasing. Where they
attend in large numbers, they are often advised to withdraw
and form a separate church; where there are large numbers
of children in the Sunday School, they are in separate classes
or a separate school is formed. In Philadelphia several
hundred Negroes are connected with one of the largest Epis
copal Churches, as members of the church and pupils in
the Sabbath School. In the church report of 1906, however,
a separate Negro school building was recommended. Very
few of the churches have white pastors. The Negroes pre
fer to have ministers of their own race and in no case does

168 The Negro In Pennsylvania
the white clergyman minister to a large Negro congrega
tion. Negro Methodist clergymen are further removed from the
white clergy except in one branch. In the Methodist Epis
copal Church, there is a separate conference, but the pre
siding bishop is white, and most of the general officers are
also white. The annual conference is a part of the general
conference which is composed of both whites and Negroes.
The Baptists were, up to but a few years ago, members of the
Baptist Association, which makes no distinction in color. But
with the great increase of Negro Baptists, they have estab^
lished separate bodies of their own. There is now a colored
Baptist Association in Pennsylvania which is not associated
Avith' white Baptists. Both the Methodists and Baptists main
tain in the larger places, Pittsburg and Philadelphia, separate
ministers' meetings for the discussion of local topics.
The Episcopal churches are organized in the main, along
racial lines, yet they are not supervised by Negroes.- Some
of the vestrymen in Episcopal churches are white and some
Negro churches have White pastors. The church convoca
tions include Negroes as well as whites. In the publication
of the minutes of the General Assembly, the Negro ministers
and churches are not named according to color. There is, how
ever, among the Negro clergy of the state almost entirely
unanimity with regard to the advisability of appointing sep
arate Negro bishops for Negro dioceses in the South. In
the Presbyterian Church, the Negroes as a rule, are separated
from the whites in individual churches. The clergymen, how
ever, are members of the same Presbyteries and Synods
without distinction of color. Unlike the Episcopalians, the
Presbyterian clergy opposed separate Presbyteries when the
General Assembly several years ago sent the suggestion down

A Study In Economic History 169
to the various Presbyteries to be voted upon. In the Cathohc
Churches there are no Negro clergymen in this state. The
ministers of the Congregational Churches are all Negroes.
The contact of the races is closer in the schools than in
the churches. While a large percentage of the colored
children are segregated in the public schools, they are largely
taught by the white teachers and go to schools attended by
Negroes and whites alike. In many of the high schools and
colleges of the state, the races go side by side and there the
Negro boys and girls have the opportunity to compare them
selves with their fairer schoolmates. In the schools, how
ever, there have been two forces at work tending toward
separation. On the one hand, there is the positive desire of
a larger number of Negroes chiefly immigrants from the
South, for separate schools, such as they have been ac
customed to in that section. More often this demand is
brought forth more forcibly because of the desire to have
Negro teachers. Of late years this spirit has had considerable
growth because of the increase of race prejudice in the
country causing many Negroes to doubt whether white
teachers can efficiently teach their children. On the other
hand there is the increasing unwillingness on the part of the
white parents to have their children go to the same school
with Negroes. This has increased almost in proportion to
the growth of population. It is also seen in the attitude of
the pupils. One very rarely sees Negro and white girls play
ing together at school, or coming together in the same group
from school. Though they may have the same recess, and
may be engaged in the same kind of play, they are generally
separated of their own accord. I am informed that there
are but few friendships between the Negro and the white

170 The Negro In Pennsylvania
children in the schools as compared with former times. The
awakening of the Negro's racial self-consciousness also keeps
Negroes from forcing themselves upon whites, even among
children, where there is the slightest hint that they are not
wanted. Equality in the privileges of common comforts and com
mon carriers was at one time denied Negroes throughout the
State. Indeed as late as 1865, Negroes were not permitted to
ride in the street cars of Philadelphia and were often assault
ed for attempting to board cars. A pamphlet entitled "Why
Colored People are Excluded from Street Cars" published in
1866 gives a full account of these outrages. On one occa
sion a Negro was ejected by a policeman; the matter was
complained of to the Mayor (Henry), who is reported to
have said concerning the ejectment, "it was not by my order,
but with my knowledge and approbation. I do not wish the
ladies of my family to ride in cars with colored people." A
bill to prevent this discrimination was passed by the State
Senate, but never came to a vote in the House. Courts were
importuned, but to no avail. A committee appointed to help
obtain the privileges of the cars for Negroes in 1865, reported
that it had "attempted to bring suits for assault in seven dif-
rent cases of ejectment, all of which had been ignored by
various grand juries." In one case, a white man, a (highly re
spected physician, who interposed, by remonstrance only, to
prevent the ejectment of a colored man, was himself ejected.
He brought action for assault and his complaint was ignored.
The last case of ejection, was that of a young woman, so light
of color that she was mistaken for white and invited into a
car of the Union Line by its conductor. When he found she
was colored, he ejected her with violence and somewhat to
her personal injury. This state of affairs did not last long.
March 22, 1867, a bill was passed designed to give Negroes
the same rights on railways as whites. Later, a bill to pro-

A Study In Economic History 171
vide "Civil Rights for all People Regardless of Race or Col
or," was passed by the legislature to prevent any discrimina
tion against Negroes in cars, hotels, restaurants, theatres and
other public places of convenience and amusement. The law,
however, did not cause discrimination to entirely disappear,
for it still exists. In the street cars, on the railroads, and in
some hotels and restaurants, Negroes have the same treat
ment as whites, but in most hotels and restaurants they do
not. In the large cities, there are restaurants and hotels
where it is known that Negroes will not be served. There
are also theatres where Negroes have been refused seats i'n
parts of the house in which they wished to sit. In this kind
of discrimination, Pittsburg is worse than Philadelphia. As a
rule, however, Negroes do not go to the places where they
are not desired.
By common consent of both races, it appears that sepa
rate barber shops for Negroes and whites exist even in the
smallest tovyns, no matter whether the proprietor is white or
black. Negroes conduct barber shops for whites only, and in
Pittsburg, a white man conducts a barber shop for Negroes
only. Under the law prohibiting discrimination on account of
color, the numerous cases which have been brought, have
usually turned out unsatisfactorily to the Negro complainant.
There are two possible modes of procedure under the law
for the offended Negro against the party discriminating. One
is to sue for damages in the civil court and the other is to have
the offender arrested for misdemeanor and tried before the
criminal courts. The act provides for a fine of not less than
$50, or more than $100. But neither of these have accom-
phshed the purpose of the law. Where the proprietor is bent
on violating the intent of the law, he is generally able to do so.
For example, in some restaurants in Philadelphia, the Negro
is merely ignored and when he complains the proprietor sim-

172 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ply begs pardon and declares the matter an oversight. He
may then be served, but to save his own feelings he seldom
returns to that restaurant. In Pittsburg, however, the means
are often different. In the Pittsburg Dairy Lunch Room,
and other cheap restaurants and lunch places, where people
of moderate means go the waiters put a tablespoonful of salt
in the coffee, or a teaspoonful of pepper in the milk sold to a
Negro; or charge him 25c for a cup of coffee or a sandwich
which is usually sold for five cents. In some ice cream parlors
of the city, the same method is pursued. Still it has been very
difficult for Negroes to have the proprietors convicted. This
disposition to discriminate against Negroes has greatly in
creased within the last decade.
In lines of labor, as has been seen, with the exception of
the miners and hod-carriers, the great mass of Negroes are
without direct connection with the labor union movement and
most of them look upon the movement as antagonistic to their
best interests. Biit not only in labor union circles, is there
indifference toward Negro labor, but elsewhere. In very few
lines of work, do Negroes and whites work together, side by
side. In a department store all of the salesmen and sales
women are white, while the elevator men and caretakers
may be colored. On a building, the bricklayers are generally
white, the hod-carriers may be Negroes. Even where there
is unskilled labor there is generally a separation, one gang
is composed of Itahans, another of Negroes, as was the case
on the Philadelphia subway and other pubhc works. Often,
to put a Negro, no matter how efficient he is, to work in a
group of whites, will mean violent protest or a strike. In as
phalt laying and unskilled railroad work, however, it is com
mon to see Negroes and whites working together, sometimes
under a Negro foreman.
Even in domestic service where there are two or more
employes, they are generally all white or all Negroes. In ho-

A Study In Economic History 173
tels and resturants, waiters and bellmen are all white or all
black, except where there is a white head waiter, or white
head bellman or elevator starter, who has been placed as su
pervisor over Negroes. In a few private establishments an
individual Negro here and there has worked himself up into
a place of responsibility and sometimes authority, where his
working associates are not of the race to which he belongs'.
In one of the leading architectural establishments in Phila
delphia, an exceptionally bright Negro is head draughtsman,
and in the office of the Vice President of a Steel Company in
Pittsburg, a Negro is private secretary, but cases like these
are rare. The great majority of Negroes work among men
of their owYi race or they are occupying menial positions.
They are, as a rule, shut out of competition by reasons of their
race. Just as the Christian Brotherhood does not seriously
include Negroes, so the labor fraternity does not include them.
As a rule, the business of Negroes is done by whites.
In this the 'Jews have a very large share. They live among
the Negroes, often until they can get a start, under worse
conditions than the Negroes, and sell to them. Negroes buy
groceries, shoes, clothing of all kinds chiefly from whites.
They rent chiefly from whites; they buy their land from
whites and have white men build their houses. But Negroes
are gradually getting control of a small proportion of the
business of their race and indications are that in some lines
a much larger proportion will be secured by them.
In philanthropic work for the Negro, many whites are
directly engaged. In Philadelphia, there are three social set
tlements: Starr Centre, on Lombard Street, founded in
1892 ; The Eighth Ward Settlement, on Locust Street, found
ed 1897 ; and the Spring Street Mission Settlement, on Spring
Street, founded in 1906; all of which are supported and
managed by white people and are doing valuable social work.
At the largest of these settlements, the Starr Centre, there

174 The Negro In Pennsylvania
are many Jews and Italians, as well as Negroes, among the
beneficiaries. In the Kindergarten at the Eighth Ward So
cial Settlement, there are Negro, Italian, Jewish, American
white and Chinese children. Several other institutions for
Negroes : day nurseries, Sunday Schools, missions, private
schools, homes for children are supported entirely by whites.
In Philadelphia, such helpful institutions as the House of the
Holy Child, the Wissahickon Boys' Club, are conducted per
sonally by whites. But all of these institutions have as their
purpose the amelioration of conditions among Negroes and
the contact is of benefactor and beneficiary and not of social
equals. Although the law against inter-marriage in Pennsylva
nia was repealed more than a century ago, there has been but
little marriage between blacks and whites. According to the
records of the city of Philadelphia, there were during the
years, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904 only 21 marriages of this kind.
In 1900 there were six cases of inter-marriage out of 633
marriages. Three Negro men, aged 26, 35 and 40, respect
ively, married three white women, aged 26, 23 and 28, re
spectively ; and three white men aged 26, 29 and 34 years, re
spectively, married three Negro women, aged 28, 33 years,
and of unknown age, respectively. There were more inter
marriages when there were fewer Negroes than there are
to-day. Of three white women above mentioned, one was
born in the South (Virginia), one in Philadelphia, and one
in Ireland; the white men were from Philadelphia, New Jer
sey and Wales. Professor Du Bois found 38 cases of inter
marriages in the Seventh Ward of Philadelphia and esti
mated 150 for the city. ' In Pittsburg the number is estimated
at 50. In other places in the State where the Negro popula
tion is smaller, the actual counting is possible, there is an ag
gregate of less than sixty cases. The number of known cases
is small. The so-called mixed marriages are not approved

A Study In Economic History 175
by either the white or Negro group. Negro women especially
object. When, however, such. marriages are consummated in
spite of Negro public opinion, the couple is almost always os
tracized by the Negroes. Perhaps there is no more pathetic
injustice inflicted by Negroes than the cruel scorn and con
tempt which they show toward those who have chosen to
marry "outside the race." In church, or society, there is very
little opportunity for such persons and though no law pre
vents, there are very few persons who dare disregard this
public opinion.
Though there is but little contact between the races at
the top, there is but little to keep them apart in the lower world.
In the lowest stratum, the blacks and whites meet in prosti
tution and vice. There are in the slums both of Pittsburg and
Philadelphia, and to an extent, in the smaller cities, frequent
cases of cohabitation chiefly of white women and Negro
men, less frequently of white men and Negro women. It is
impossible to give the number of cases. Now and then, they
come up in the Police Court, such as the following cases
copied from the records of the Nineteenth District Police
Station ;
I. August 6, 1906, for keeping disorderly house 
Rodman Street, John H.  , James H  , both colored,
aged 26 and 29 years, given 30 days in prison, and Mary
 , white, born in the United States, aged 39, married (not,
to either of the men above mentioned), six months in the
House of Correction, and  colored girl, aged 13, sent
to House of Detention. One of the men was afterward tried
for rape on the colored girl.
2. August 20, Mary W.  , aged 27, colored, and
Mary D.  , aged 25, white, 12  Pine Street; colored
woman discharged, white woman given 15 months in House
of Correction as "idle and disorderly character."
3. August 26, 3 A. M., at 15th and Pine Streets, Mary

176 The Negro In Pennsylvania
B.  , aged 25 years, colored, residence 16  Lombard
Street, and L. P. T.  , white, residence 8  N. 42nd
Street, charged with disorderly conduct; discharged 7:30 A.
M. 4. September 13, Mary S. ;  , colored, aged 36, re
sisting officer, and selling liquor without license; Bessie W,
 Mamie  , Annie  , colored, aged 21, 34, 34, all
single, inmates, 5 days in House of Correction, and Joseph
 , aged 21, white, inmate, sentenced io days in County
Prison. One of the most interesting studies of the American
Race Problem is that of the Mulatto. This paragraph will
deal only with one phase of the mulatto question, which may
throw light on the economic aspects of the problem. There
are in both Pittsburg and Philadelphia a number of persons
with Negro blood in them, fair enough to pass as white per
sons. These are, as a rule, the sons and daughters of South
ern white men and mulatto women, and in some cases of mu
latto men and mulatto women. In their homes in another
part of the country they were known as Negroes. When they
migrated to the city, where they were entirely unknown and
where their racial identity would not be easily discovered,
they found themselves for the first time able to enter free
economic competition. In both of the large cities there are
Negroes of this class, who hold responsible positions, which
they would probably lose were it known that they were not
members of the white race. Every well informed Negro
knows of such cases, but there is but little disposition on the
part of any one to expose them, for nothing but harm can
come of it and most Negroes take the position that these per
sons are more white than colored anyway.
Now and then some one of these Negroes is discovered
and his race identity revealed. The result is, that he gen
erally loses his position and is often therafter at an economic

A Study In Economic History 177
disadvantage. Occasionally the conscience of these persons
force them to reveal their race. It may be a dark colored
mother, or wife or child, because of whom one fears to in
vite his white friends to visit his home, or it may be some
other fear. But often the conscience of a Negro who is
"passing for white" troubles him and he reveals his identity.
Mr. Ray Stannard Baker mentions one such Philadelphia
case, in his book, "Following the Color Line."
The Negro as a Negro is the victim of race prejudice.
But we cannot take the time to add to the evidence of the
existence of prejudice, but rather to point out some of the
consequences. Race prejudice, wherever it manifests itself
in any strong form, tends to lower the economic efficiency of
the community. In Pennsylvania, as in Georgia, the Negroes
being the weaker element in population, suffer more from
it than the whites, although the whites suffer some, as does
the body politic.
Pennsylvania has had her full quota of race riots. Fre
quent reference is made during the early colonial days to "tu
multuous gatherings of Negroes." But there is no record dur
ing these times for any very serious outbreak among Negroes
iu the State, such for instance, as occurred in New York in
1712. The riotings in which Negroes have been involved, have
been chiefly instigated by whites. These riots have had
largely an economic basis. During the first half of the past
century, while the free Negro population was increasing quite
rapidly, it came into sharp competition with the foreign ele
ment. Both these groups competed for the unskilled work of
the community and became natural enemies. The unrest
among Negroes throughout the country and the organized at
tempt on the part of the American Colonization Society to
discredit them, together with their poverty and the compara
tive paucity of their numbers, put them almost at the mercy
of their assailants.
12

178 The Negro In Pennsylvania
From 1829, until after the Civil War, these riots occur
red at frequent intervals. The first of the more important of
these, was during June and July, 1829, occasioned by a series
of public addresses given in favor of the cause of abolition
by a Scotch woman, Mrs. Fannie Wright Dartmont. During
one of the last of these, in 1871, Octavius V. Catto, a very
highly respected school teacher, was murdered by those who
differed from him and the Negro politically.
Shut out from the society of whites, the Negroes are de
veloping their own society, and without doubt the great mass
of them prefer the society of their own group to the society
of an outside group. In the cities, one can easily see the so
cial divisions of Negroes. Their groupings are chiefly along
the lines of culture and wealth. One finds a group of well
educated men, largely in the professions and business, who
are the recognized leaders of their people in social affairs.
Then there is a group of skilled artisans, not so well educated
but often as well off financially as the better schooled group;
and next to them, the domestic servant group, the unskilled
laborers and lowest of all, the 'casual worker and semi-
criminal. Between the lowest and highest of these group
ings, there is but little social contact. Business and pro
fession alone, carry the men of the highest to the men of the
lowest ; the women never meet except as benefactor and bene
ficiary in charity. And only of late years has it been possible
to interest the best class of Negro women in active philan
thropic work which took them among the lower element, be
cause they feared they might be considered by the outside
white world as members of the group they went to help.'
Still, these groups shade almost imperceptibly into one another.
Perhaps there is no better illustration of the differenti
ation which has taken place in Negro society, than the posi
tion of the coachman's ball, of Philadelphia. Thirty-five
years ago, the chief function among Negroes was this ball.

A Study In Economic History 179
To gain admission one had to be especially invited and to
pay five dollars. To-day, the coachman's ball is public, and
the admission fee is twenty-five cents, which indicates its de
cline in social importance.
The development of social organizations has gone on very
rapidly during the past ten years. The chief organizations
were formerly along the lines of vocations. Caterer's So
cial Club, Bellman's Social, Coachman's Social, etc. These
still exist, but have less prominence than formerly. The
larger clubs are along the line of higher thought. In Pitts
burg, the Loendi Club is composed of men of different occu
pations. It is established as a center of friendly intercourse
among men of some intellectual aspiration. The club owns
a house costing $15,000. In Philadelphia, the Citizen's Club
is a social political club which has recently bought property at
$16,500. There are in Philadelphia more than fifty social
elubs. Some of these are both social and beneficial. The chief
ones of those and those having their own club rooms are the
Citizen's Club, Hotel Brotherhood, Corinthian Qub, Bell
man's Club, Waiters' Club. There are also several literary
and musical associations. Of these, the principal ones are
the Philadelphia Concert Orchestra, consisting of forty-five
pieces ; the Mandolin Qub ; the Treble Clef Club ; St. Peter
Clavier's Orchestra; Hobb's Band and Wilmore's Band. The
Philadelphia Concert Orchestra is the largest of these, and
gives six concerts per season, always to large audiences. The
chief literary association is the American Negro Historical
Society, which has a large and valuable collection of books,
pamphlets, papers, pictures, manuscripts and other records of
the. history of the Negro race. Other literary societies are
the Aurora Reading Circle of Pittsburg, composed chiefly
of ladies; the PhilHs Wheatiey Literary; the Paul Lawrence
Dunbar and the J. C. Price Literary Societies of Philadel
phia. There are several private circles for the study of ht-
erature and for the study of modern languages.

180 The Negro In Pennsylvania
The Negroes have also developed something of a litera
ture of their own. As early as 1808, a Pennsylvania Negro
published a pamphlet. Between that time and the Civil War
many pamphlets were published by men and women of the
race. The most ambitious piece of work done before the
Emancipation, was that of Rector William Douglass, entitled,
"The Annals of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church," published in
1862. There have been about fifty books and pamphlets pub
lished by Negroes of the State, the most important of which
liave been poems by Mrs. F. E. W. Harper and James E. Mc-
Girt, the historical and theological works of Bishop B. T. Tan
ner and Bishop Levi J. Coppin.
The Negro race has been looked upon as objects of char
ity largely since the early settlement of Pennsylvania, but dur
ing this time the more fortunate have always assisted the less
fortunate. In recent years there has been considerable devel
opment in charitable efforts. The Home for the Aged and In
firm Colored People, which was founded in 1864 largely
through the beneficence of Stephen Smith, a Negro lumber
merchant and minister, now has property worth a quarter of
a million dollars. More than a score of Negroes have con
tributed to this work. The Board of Managers are both whites
and Negroes. William Still, a Negro coal dealer, was once its
president. The institution now accommodates one hundred
and forty inmates, and is one of the largest of its kind in the
country. All of its officers and employees are Negroes. In
Philadelphia is the PrisciUa Home for Aged Colored Men and
Women, which was started in 1897 by women connected with
the Zion Baptist Church. This institution is small yet and
without any endowment. In Pittsburg is the Home for Aged
and Infirm Colored Women, which was started by Negro wom
en in 1880; in 1890, a home was built which, with furnishings,
cost $52,900. It has twenty-eight rooms, including six bath;
rooms and a large hospital room. The Board of Managers, as

A Study In Economic History 18t
well as the salaried officials and employees are Negroes. In
1907, it received aid from the Pennsylvania Legislature. At
Ruffsdale, an "Aged Minister's and Laymen's Home'' was-
founded in 1902, principally through the efforts of Rev. R. C.
Fox, a Baptist minister in Pittsburg. This is supported chiefly
by the Baptists of Central and Western Pennsylvania. The-
Pennsylvania Grand Lodge of Masons have also purchased
land for the erection of a home to be located near Harrisburg,.
for the aged of their race.
Next to the aged and infirm, come several institutions for
young women, many of whom immigrate from the South to
the State and are often without any family ties in the places to
which they have come. The Young Women's Christian Asso
ciation, a small institution, was established in 1902 in Philadel
phia. The same year the Industrial School for Colored Girls
was begun in Pittsburg. Like the Y. W. C. A., it still rents its-
house and is able to reach only a few, accommodating with-
room and board only eight or ten at the time but keeping in
touch with a larger number who work at domestic service.-
The Association for the Protection of Colored Women was es
tablished in 1905, in Philadelphia. It furnishes a home for
working women, having classes in domestic art, a working
women's club, and an officer at the docks to meet the young
women who come in from the South on the boats. This asso
ciation is now buying its new home. There is a chain of these
associations; one in Norfolk, one in Washington, one in New
York, one in Boston, and one in Philadelphia, which is the na
tional headquarters.
In Philadelphia, the Woman's Union Day Nursery, 707
South Nineteenth Street, is supported by colored women who>
are purchasing a house. The nursery has about thirty-five
children a day. In Pittsburg a movement is now on foot
among Negroes for a day nursery for Negro children, since
no Negro children are admitted into the existing day nur-

182 The Negro In Pennsylvania
series. The Federation of Colored Women's Clubs of the
State also is making an effort to establish an Orphan Home
for Negro Girls. The above institutions are the most impor
tant efforts of the Negroes to assist one another.
CONCLUSIONS.

It was not my intention at first to write any word of per
sonal conclusion ; but merely to describe the economic condi
tion of Negroes in this State. But because the Negro has been
looked upon so long as a "problem," and is to-day largely
treated as such, it seems well to append a few practical con
clusions. For after all, one who has taken special pains to
study a situation, ought to be able to present some conclusions
at least interesting, and not entirely without value.
A survey of the history of the Negro is a most fruitful
study, in that it shows the various changes in the problem of
the Negro and the difference in the attitudes of the various
people or groups of people approaching the problem at differ
ent times. Only after one has obtained knowledge of the his
tory, is he fully competent to deal with present problems, and
then he is less certain than ever that any of the ordinary prob
lems of life are particularly Negro problems.
There is always great difficulty in discussing any social
problem, and especially a race problem. The whole system of
education of every race is generally such as to inspire its chil
dren with belief in its superiority. The Greeks divided the
world into Greeks and barbarians ; the Romans into Romans
and plebians; the Hebrews into Israelites — God's chosen peo
ple — and gentiles. Ask a German boy what is the greatest na
tion, and he says Germany, and the American boy, America.

A Study In Economic History 1 83

Of course all cannot be absolutely correct. But each is correct
from his own standpoint, for the superiority of his race has al
ways been impressed upon him.
Trained to believe one thing, it is very difficult for men to
be fair when they deal with racial and national differences.
This is especially difficult in the case of the judgments of a
stronger people with regard to a weaker.
In dealing with the Negro it is difficult for the community
as a whole to do the race justice. The old instinct in all of us
which prompts us to magnify the evil and minimize the good
of a group, different from ours, affects the Negro in all walks
of life. White men do not associate with the best Negroes;
they rarely enter their homes ; they are excluded from their
social circles ; they cannot become members of their secret so
cieties ; they do not become members of ¦ their churches ; they
are seldom business partners and they cannot know the inside
life of the higher group of Negroes. On the other hand, they
are often benefactors of the poorer Negroes; they meet the
criminal Negro in the 'court, the pauper at the poorhouse ; they
have the servant in their kitchen, and they read the newspapers
in which are sensational reports of Negro crimes, written by
reporters, most of them who never saw the inside of the homes
of the well-to-do Negro.
It is not an exaggeration to state that the community as
a whole, is ignorant of the real life of Negroes. It is a very
rare thing to find a white man who rightly interprets the facts
which have come to him regarding Negro life. It is difficult
for trained investigators to secure accurate information, espe
cially, if these investigators be white. Time was when a Ne
gro would, for the mere asking, or in order to secure sym
pathy, reveal his life to the Northern white man ; but that time
has passed in Pennsylvania at least, and they are few and for
tunate indeed to whom the Negro, intelligent or ignorant, will
reveal his soul.

184 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Yet, in spite of this difficulty in securing reliable informa
tion, and the greater difficulty in interpreting the same, it is
quite common to find men and women with decided views as
to the Negro's capacity, his rights, his limitations, his suffrage
and all questions bearing on the race. The basis of their con
clusions is often some isolated incident. One man believes Ne
groes all ought to be chiefly domestics, because he has a good
Negro domestic; another says Negro domestics are degenerat
ing, because he has one or two incompetent servants. An
other says Negroes are corrupting politics because he has
bought some few Negro votes, or knows some white men who
have done so. Another says the Negroes are mentally deficient,
because he has happened to come across two or three feeble
minded Negro children. A very interesting case was brought
to the writer's attention by a highly honored citizen of Phila
delphia. A Negro boy who had been very backward in his
studies, was brought to his attention. He had the boy ex
amined by one of the leading psychological specialists in the
country. This eminent gentleman said that the deficiency was
entirely racial. Not being satisfied, my friend sent the boy to
another special school presided over by another specialist. The
latter said that the boy's mind was entirely normal; but that
he was kept backward because of poor nutrition. Better food
was given, and now the boy is all right. The case was not
racial at all.
So common is this error among intelligent and honorable
white persons, that it is the usual thing to hear one Negro say
to another, who is going to work with some influential white
person : "Be careful, for the whole race depends upon you.
Vv'^hatever you do, if it be wrong, he (i. e., the white employer)
will think we all do," or, "if you do well, you will make friends
for the race." One of the most cultured Negro ministers of
Philadelphia speaking to an intelligent congregation recently,
with regard to the Negro servant class, made his plea as foi-

A Study In Economic History 185

lows : "You all ought to be interested in them for every one
of them is a missionary to the white people. The whites will
not judge the race by you, or by me; they do not know our
homes, our business, or our society; but they will judge by
these servants." Continuing, he said: "You may look down
upon them, but in a way, they have more weight in in
fluencing the country than you and I have, and for that rea
son, if no other, we must help them. Our people are peculiar.
We are judged by our lower class, while others are judged by
their upper class."
Many confuse the problem of the N-^^^ro with problems
of ignorance, or crime, inefficiency and other pathological con
ditions. This arises from a lack of careful analysis of every as
pect of the so-called problem. The Negro problem in Penn
sylvania certainly is not a problem of ignorance ; for ignorance
as indicated by illiteracy is neither peculiar to the Negroes or
common to them, or characteristic of them. In Pennsylvania,
there were in 1900, 191,706 illiterate persons over 10 years of
age, of whom only 19,532 were Negroes, a small proportion of
the whole. Thus illiteracy, representing ignorance, is not pe
culiar to the Negroes. Nor is illiteracy common to them, for
there were 109,403 literate Negroes and only 19,532 illiterate
Negroes, or nearly six times as many literate as illiterate over
10 years of age in the State. Nor is the Negro race more il
literate than other groups, for it has been shown that the il
literacy of the foreign group in Pennsylvania is much larger
than that of the Negro group in this State.
The preceding discussion has shown also that the Negro
problem is not one of crime. In Pennsylvania there were 2215
whites and 606 Negroes in the penitentiaries on December 31.
1908, and in Philadelphia the same year nine whites were ar
rested to one Negro. Although there is very much of a prob
lem of crime among Negroes, there certainly is no reason to
think that the "Negro Problem" is a problem of crime. Nor

186 The Negro In Pennsylvania
is it a problem of inefficiency. There are no accurate statistics
of inefficiency, but the statistics of pauperism may be used to
show certain tendencies as regards inefficiency; for pauperism
represents the lowest industrial efficiency. In January, 1905
there were 85,290 paupers in the almshouse, of whom 77,855
were white and 7435 colored. In the State there were 9942
paupers in all almshouses," of whom 9513 were white and 429
were colored. In Pennsylvania there were twenty-two white
paupers to one Negro pauper. If pauperism indicates any
tendency toward inefficiency, then inefficiency is certainly not
the "Negro Problem." For inefficiency is neither common to
all Negroes, or peculiar to them.
The "Negro Problem" — that condition which is peculiar
to Negroes, and common to them — is rather found in the atti
tude of the white race toward the Negro ; an attitude of a ma
jority which seeks to shut out a minority from the enjoyment
of the whole social and economic life. It is an 'attitude which
will not permit a Negro, no matter how efficient, to compete
in certain, lines of work, for example, to become a railway en
gineer, or a public high school teacher, or take even the less
highly esteemed position of motorman or street car conductor.
It is this attitude, which does not give Negroes a fair chance
in labor unions and which causes Negroes to be unwelcome as
members in some Christian churches. A Negro girl wins high
honors in our High School, wins a scholarship to Cornell Uni
versity, graduates with honors and returns to her native city,
but finds the doors of our High School shut. This is the "Ne
gro Problem." This attitude only complicates the general prob
lems of crime, of ignorance, of poverty, etc., among Negroes,
which some mistake for the "Negro Problem."
Not only is the "Negro Problem," not a problem of inef
ficiency but quite to the contrary, the conditions which' make
the problem are most keenly realized by the efficient Negroes
of the community. The discriminations against Negroes in-

A Study In Economic History 187
crease with increasing intelligence, benefit and efficiency, on the
part of the Negroes, and increased competition. In the eco
nomically and intellectually lowest stratum — that of the pauper
and criminal — there is but little race problem. The white pau
per and criminal and the Negro pauper and criminal are found
in the same institutions and often in close association. In the
lowest stratum of independent occupation, that of the unskill
ed laborer, Negroes and whites are frequently found working
together. In the higher vocations of skilled service, they are
rarely found together, notwithstanding the efficiency of the
Negro. But while the Negro problem is not a problem of ineffici
ency, poverty or crime, these conditions are exaggerated in the
Negro race because of the exclusion of the race from the or
dinary competition of men; and there therefore arise very
serious problems of labor. Crime, poverty and so forth which
are different from the ordinary problem of the same kind in
that the element of racial antipathy enters to complicate them.
The most serious of these problems is that of industrial im
provement. This relates both to the opening of the new ave
nues of labor, and the improvement in those already opened.
For a century, indeed, ever since the Negro became a free
man, there has been complaint about his low efficiency. This
complaint has been more at some times than at others. A
careful study of the circumstances accompanying more or less
complaints will convince one that the complaints as to the Ne
groes' low efficiency are contemporaneous with increased
prejudice against the race.
The Negroes' industrial standard cannot be raised from
without, but must be from within. In the first place there
must be an open competition. The community must insist
that all men have a fair chance in order that the best man
might have greatest success and society thus secure all that is
its dues. At present, no such open competition exists. Ne-

188 The Negro In Pennsylvania
groes who compete only with themselves, cannot but have a low
standard. This was well illustrated by a Negro bricklayer,
who in a meeting of members of his trade, was giving reasons
why he thought that colored men could not do a certain piece
of work. He said that he would be afraid to have to be re
sponsible for a certain number of first-class bricklayers, for it
would be hard to secure them. "Take myself, for example,"
he said, "when I came here from Virginia, I was a good brick
layer. I could not get work on large jobs or fine ones, I mere
ly did small jobs and patchwork for people who could not pay
for a good job." He concluded, "and gentlemen, I have de
generated, I would not take a large first-class job if you would
give it to me.'' This may not be the true status of the case in
all of its bearings but it is true with regard to efficiency in
many instances. The efficiency of the Negro cannot be raised
unless Negroes are permitted to enter competition on their
merits. The theory of Negroes for Negroes only means low
efficiency always, and society therefore loses in the end.
Another means by which Negroes will raise their indus
trial efficiency will be by the breaking up of their comparative
solidarity as a serving class. As long as the race occupies
menial or small paying positions, there is but little incentive to
a standard of high efficiency; for all of them will be on the
same social level and able to command about the same amount
of the social products. So long as the Negroes of ability are
not permitted to exercise their talents merely on account of
their color or race, there is no opportunity for the superior
ones to rise above the inferior, and therefore, no inducement
to increased efficiency. There must be both social and eco
nomical rewards for efficiency, if high efficiency is ever to be
obtained. And a community has but little right to complain
of the low efficiency of a struggling group of Negroes, or
others, when by its custom and its public opinion, it shuts the
door to high efficiency against them.

A Study In Economic History 189
On the other hand, it must not be forgotten, by the Ne
gro group, that the economic opportunities are seldom ever
"given" by one group to another as a gratuitous favor. The
struggle between groups is such that even in a country pro
fessing to be a democracy, a sharply differentiated minority
group is generally at a disadvantage, both politically and eco
nomically, as for example, the Jews in Russia, the Japanese
in California, and the Negroes in the Southern United States.
And that group is able to rise economically to the extent that
its risd becomes of economic advantage to the larger group.
So the Negroes of this State have a large part to play in in
creasing their own industrial opportunities. They cannot ex
pect those opportunities to be given them except they prepare
and strive for them as best they can. They can expect but lit
tle from the larger group except as they can be of service to
them. When the Negro uses superior skill, or gives the same
skill for a smaller return, he becomes an advantage to those
who engage him and makes an opportunity. This is already
seen in domestic service and unskilled labor where Negroes
are most generally employed because they give as good ser
vice at a lower rate than whites. Still, while this is apparent
ly economic law, it is not moral law, or is it the ideal of tlie in
telligent, social and political leader.
The problem of the Negro children presents several seri
ous" aspects. In the first place it has been pointed out that
many Negro parents, because of certain industrial conditions,
which make it necessary for both of them to be absent from
their homes during the day, cannot give the attention to their
children which they should give. This means that a large por
tion of the education of their children comes from the streets ;
that the discipline of the morning and early afternoon hours
at school is largely counteracted by the lack of discipline in the
later afternoon and early evening. In the second place, the
training given in most of the schools is inadequate. The public

190 7'he Negro In Pennsylvania
school course, leads as a rule, to a commercial life; it also
points to the ideal of brain work chiefly and manual work sec
ondarily. The Negro boy or girl who goes through the eighth
grade, can do nothing well. A^ery few of them go to the High '
School because by that time they find that they are circum
scribed by race prejudice which keeps them from open compe
tition, and they do not- see that the four years' course in the
High School would be of any special economic benefit tO them.
It is a well known fact that a Negro girl finishing the eighth
grade at present, has about as much chance economically, as
her sister from the High School. It is also a fact that the
chief opening outside of teaching for the educated Negro girl
is a clerkship in a Negro business establishment, and that the
vast majority of these pay no more than the partially edu
cated Negro cooks earn. With Negro young men who finish
High School courses, there is often a larger amount of dis
couragement. The reason is, that the Negro boy is not per
mitted to enter competition for clerical or other positions with
bis white classmates, though they be no better intellectually or
economically than he is. He is not even half prepared for any
other work and he must turn to domestic service, where he is
often held up by the Negroes as sufficient proof for other boys
and their parents, that a High School course is useless for Ne
groes. The Negro child needs much of inspiration but gets but
little. The average Negro parent does not appreciate the eco
nomic value of higher education and is unwilling to make
sacrifices for it. Those who have finished the ordinary High
School course, because they are the only ones in their immedi
ate group who have done so, frequently think that they should
have greater recognition than they receive. When they ' see
their white schoolmates going into positions of opportunity and
responsibility, they are apt to become discouraged and pessi
mistic. They have not been led to understand some of the eco-

A Study In Economic History 191
nomic reasons why a father who himself is educated and who
has business and social connections can possibly give his boy a
start in life, whereas the Negro who has none of these, must
make the start himself from the bottom. Therefore, instead of
being inspired to create, the Negro too often becomes discour
aged and embittered. Furthermore, the schools give the Ne
gro children very little which is calculated to make them con
tented with being physically Negroes. Unfortunately, as a
noted historian wrote to a Negro teacher, "Historians have not
searched history with an eye to the deeds of Negroes." Much
that the Negro child learns about his race is calculated to make
him ashamed of it. He knows that they were slaves and he
thinks they were the only race that had been enslaved. In
stead of trying to develop what he has, he too often bewails his
fate. The Negro child needs to be taught something useful in
school. At present the most useful things that Negro children
are taught, are to be had in reformatory and special schools.
The need of the Negro boy and girl to know some particular
thing is also emphasized by the present low economic status of
the race in the State. As has been seen, more than three-fifths
of the Negro males are engaged in domestic, personal and un
skilled service, in which they earn the lowest wages. This ne
cessitates the working of women in order to make up the fam
ily income. On this account four times as large a percentage
of married Negro women work as of married white women in
Pennsylvania. Ninety per cent, of these women are in domes
tic service. The Negroes must be raised out of this condition.
The men must be elevated into higher grades of labor, into
trades, into business and so forth. This can only be done by
helping the Negro boy to some definite training which leads
to some useful vocation.
I have not meant the above as a basis for separate schools
in Pennsylvania. Such would be an unfortunate retrogression.

192 The Negro In Pennsylvania
The law of 1881, which made it illegal to discriminate against
Negroes was a step toward democracy. The schools ought to
be the training places for democracy. No law should force one
normal child to one school, and another to another either be
cause of race, religion or politics. Whatever may be the justi
fication for separate schools in other parts of the country, there
is not justification here. In the first place, separate schools
would be an economic burden, and the minority . generally suf
fer by not having adequate equipment. In the second place,
separate schools generally put the Negroes at a disadvantage
in the matter of school supplies and equipment, and often in
ferior teachers. The problem of the colored child in the
schools, is not a problem of legal separation. According to the
school census of Philadelphia in 1904, there were Negro chil
dren between six and thirteen years in every ward in the city
except the Eleventh and Thirty-first. But there were only four
Negro children in the Sixth Ward; twelve in the Sixteenth;
fifteen in the Seventeenth ; three in the Eighteenth ; twenty in
the Nineteenth, and so on. Considering that these children
may live miles apart, may be in different grades, it is impracti
cable in a large and busy city like Philadelphia to require Ne
gro children to go to a special school. In the next place, all
Negro children are not all alike and do not need the same train
ing. It has been shown that Negroes are developing social and
economic grades. And, although this discussion is for the aver
age child and for those below it, it would not apply to all Negrc
children. The son of the Negro physician who has both eco
nomic opportunity and a good home life, does not need all that
the son of the illiterate Negro laborer needs. The daughter ol
the Negro of three generations of culture does not need the
same as the daughter of the recent immigrant from a Southern
cotton field. The boy whose father has succeeded in his busi
ness and who will send his boy to college and turn over to his
son his business, does not need the exact kind of training as

A Study In Economic History 193
the boy whose father and mother together do not earn enough
to keep their son in school past the age of fourteen. The cases
are very different, and although they all happen to be Negroes,
they are not the same. For economic reasons, to say nothing
of constitutional and political reasons, there is no necessity to
force Negroes into separate schools. What is needed is the
adaptation of the schools to the needs of the community which
it serves. In doing this, one of the most important factors is
the teacher. Negro children suffer largely from the lack of
teachers, who are both competent and interested in them, and
who can point them to opportunities and inspire them. This
does not necessarily mean Negro teachers ; yet, other things
being equal, a Negro teacher is to be preferred as the instruc
tor of a Negro child. In fact this seems to be almost a neces
sity, if the Negro child is to be guided into a wholesome re
spect for himself and be inspired to aspire. But teachers
should not be selected merely because they are Negroes apd
have finished a normal course, or at the expense of efficiency.
They should be experienced persons and should be carefully
selected and their methods and results should be closely watch
ed. Moreover, the atmosphere of democracy should always be
around them. They should not be under the stigma of teach
ing in "Negro schools," but if possible they should be made to
feel as we make our "special school" teachers feel, that to them
is committed one of the most important problems of our edu
cational life, and that success in this field will bring the recog
nition it deserves. But the whole matter of teachers is a sub
ject for school administration, and not legislation.
The Negro has been the object of philanthropy in the
State of Pennsylvania since the very beginning. And although
much of this philanthropy has been of the most beneficial sort,
and contributed helpfully toward the advancement of the Ne
groes of the State, much of it has been of positive harm.
When it comes to philanthropy as expressed in schools, in re-
13

194 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ligious instruction, in pleading for the freedom of the slave,
Pennsylvania is possibly the foremost State of the Union. But
as relates to the economic side of Negro life, which is most
fundamental, Pennsylvania has not always done the best by the
Negro. In the colonial days, the slave system by its very nature
encouraged laziness, as Benjamin Franklin was quick to note.
\¥hen a Negro had served his probation of slavery and was
given his freedom, Pennsylvania instead of putting him on his
merit and compelling him to compete for his living, followed
the example of other colonies in making the master who manu
mitted the Negro, forever responsible for him. This was, of
course, not calculated to raise the economic standard or self-
confidence of the Negro. In fact, it is doubtful, whether the
purpose was primarily to help the Negro, or to relieve the Gov
ernment. But possibly the greatest instance of misplaced phil
anthropy was that of the American Colonization Society, to
which reference has been made in a previous chapter. This
could hardly be called philanthropy as far as the Pennsylvania
Negroes are concerned. '
There are to-day, many philanthropies for Negroes in
the State; but there are few which aim at creating an atmos
phere of democracy for Negroes. There are practically none
which aim at the Negroes' real economic problem — the man's
chance among men. The greatest thing which the Negroes
need to-day is to be allowed to enter as a full-fledged competi
tor, to insist that they be men, citizens, with the duties and re
sponsibilities of the same. But many philanthropists proceed
on the theory of an antiquated ethnology that the Negro is dis
tinctly different from the white man and must not be treated as
such. "Social equality" is a bugbear which has deprived the Ne
groes of many economic opportunities. Within ten years, pub
lic opinion has changed greatly. Negroes are denied, in viola-

A Study In Economic History 195
tion of the law, many of the common comforts, and public
opinion has remained silent, largely because the white public
does not believe in "social equality." But it is not social equal
ity which Negroes seek ; it is economic opportunity. Dr. Selig-
man, of Columbia University, in his treatise on the "Principles
of Economics," says: "The real equality which is important
for economic purposes, is threefold; first, legal equality, or
the certainty that one man is as good as another before the law
and that his economic rights will be equally protected ; second
ly, equality of opportunity, in the sense that no man is shut
out by legislation or social prejudice from free access to any
vocation or employment for which he deems himself fitted ;
thirdly, such a relative equality at least in the conditions of
bargaining, as not to put one party to a contract at the virtual
mercy of the other. Without such a threefold equality, free
dom becomes illusory."
Illustrating the economic disadvantage of certain preju
dices and local discriminations, a young Philadelphia Negro
business man relates the following experiences : "I was in a
Southern State on a business trip, but had planned to return to
Philadelphia on a certain day. A few days before I returned, I
wrote making three engagements. T looked at the schedule
and found the train would arrive in Philadelphia about lo A.
M., so I set my first engagement for 12 o'clock noon; my other
two for 2 and 4 o'clock respectively. All engagements were
important and that at 2 o'clock could not be deferred. All en
gagements were with white men on whom for purely business
reasons, I was anxious to make a good impression. The noon
engagement was with a man with very wide and influential
business connections. I purchased a ticket from a small town
to Atlanta, Ga., thence I expected to secure a ticket to Phila
delphia. I had two changes to make, one at Atlanta and one
at Washington, D. C. I left the small town in which I was,
early in the morning, reaching Atlanta before ten o'clock, ex-

196 The Negro In Pennsylvania
pecting to leave on the 12 o'clock train. When I went to the
ticket office in Atlanta to get a ticket for Philadelphia I was
told that I could not ride on the train leaving Atlanta at noon,
because it carried only Pullman coaches and that it was illegal
for a Negro to ride in Pullman coaches in the State of Geor
gia. I explained and pleaded with the ticket agent but to no
avail. He became angry and ordered me away under threat
of arrest. 'You'll have-to go on the 2.15 (a slow train), or not
at all,' he said and that was final. I took the 2.15 train, the
only one a Negro could take and got to Philadelphia too late
for any one of my three engagements. Now, what was I to
do? I do not care especially to sleep or ride with white peo
ple. All I want is a chance to compete for business. I lost
these opportunities, not because of inefficiency but because of
prejudice. Yet, I am told that I must not complain. Still, if
the white man excels me, I am told that I am inefficient. 'That
is my dilemma.' " Another incident is told by a young Negro,
thus :
"I was called across the river from Philadelphia to Cam
den on business one day about 11 o'clock. After I had attend
ed to my business I returned to Philadelphia by the Market
Street Ferry. It was then i o'clock, and living about two
miles away, I found I could not go home to lunch as my usual
custom was. I decided, therefore, to stop at the first restaurant
in my route. I saw one just opposite the ferry which I en
tered. I remained there ten or fifteen minutes ; men on every
side of me were served, but I was unnoticed. I appealed to
the head waiter, who became so violent in his expressions
against me that several of the men who were eating protested.
After their protests he consented to serve me. I ordered roast
beef. When the waiter who brought it to me received it,
plainly within my sight, he poured cold water over the beef
and gave me a glass of dish water to drink. When I protested,
a policeman was called, I was threatened with arrest. I, of

A Study In Economic History 197
course, was excited and before I knew it, it was half past one.
I hurried to my engagement hungry and excited and, I con
fess, angry. I got there late but not too late to talk business.
The transaction involved about $300 cash and a large oppor
tunity for further business, but I lost it. I attribute that fact
almost entirely to my physical and mental condition at the time.
I did not want to eat with white men, I only wanted to refresh
myself so as to bring my best physical self to my business."
These incidents are but examples of hundreds that have
been brought to the writer's notice. They lead one to ask,
"How can the community ask the Negro to compete when it
will not let him eat or sleep ?" It is not social equality but it is
economic privilege. A public restaurant ought not to discrimi
nate against Negroes because such discriminations add to in
efficiency. How can a hungry Negro compete with a well-fed
white man in the downtown district? How can a half angry
Negro, threatened with unjust arrest, because he wants to eat
a meal in a decent place, compete with the man who has all his
powers in complete composure? Shall we ask the Negro to
spend ten cents and an hour and a half to go home and get his
lunch, or to ride to a restaurant in the Negro district? If so,
how can he compete with the white man who saves that time
and money each day ? Yet this is only a part of what the com
munity does and still it complains of Negro inefficiency. There
is another phase of the matter which the community ought to
understand better. The Negroes who complain against this
treatment are generally the best and most ambitious Negroes.
They do not want favors and they despise conventional char
ity. Many whites because they have heard so much talk about
"social equality" and do not understand these Negroes' eco
nomic strivings, think that the well-to-do Negroes desire to eat
and drink with them and their kind without an invitation. This
is far from being the case. The complaint which comes from
Negroes is almost entirely for economic reasons and has but

198 The Negro In Pennsylvania
little to do with the purely social. It is not heard by the masses
of Negroes, merely because the masses are not in as keen com
petition as the so-called upper classes. The more intelligent
•Negro wants the best and cleanest place he can get, for it helps
him to compete in his business. He wants to get to his ap
pointments as quickly and in as good condition as the white
man. That is why he complains when he is discriminated
.against in a hotel, a sleeping car or other public convenience.
That Negroes are not desiring "social equality" may be
seen by the fact that Negroes rarely invite whites to their
tables. Indeed, it is probable that Negroes are invited more
.often than they invite, and they only invite their friends.
Ayhen some very white Negroes "pass for white" they are im-
ffnediately ostracised by the Negroes. But the most convinc
ing argument against the Negroes being especially anxious for
"social equality" with whites, in the sense of association with
whites on terms of intimacy, is seen in the small proportion of
mixed marriages and race mixture occurring in the State. Al
though the law against mixed marriages was repealed over one
hundred and thirty-five years ago, there is less mixing to-day
in the free State of Pennsylvania than in the State of Mississ
ippi, where Negroes and whites are not permitted to marry.
Social classes among Negroes are a conspicuous develop
ment. Notwithstanding the general complaint among native-
born Negroes concerning the immigration of Southern Ne
groes, it is this very immigration of large numbers of Negroes
to the cities that has been the basis upon which social classes
among Negroes are gradually being formed. Were it not for
these Negroes, the Negro professional group, which is forcing
its way upward to both social position and comparative wealth,
could never have been developed; the Negro business man
- would have had no field ; and the great mass of intelligent Ne-
¦ groes, with a few exceptions, would have been domestic ser-
,yants, as the Negroes of the North have generally been. Im-

A Study In Economic History 199
migration of Negroes is beginning to do for the development
of Negroes what the immigration of foreigners did for the
Germans, Irish, Itahans and others. The older groups, with
more experience, more money and more education, are rising
upon the newer ones.
As long as there are very few Negroes in a community,
there is generally but little prejudice and the Negroes enjoy a
reasonable degree of security. , But at the same time, only a
few of them rise above the position of a menial. They may be
respected by the community, but they are respected as good
servants. Now and then, some exceptionally bright Negro or
the protege of some philanthropic person is allowed to rise,
but this is very seldom. When, however, heavy Southern Ne
gro immigration sets in, the conditions of security and tran
quility are often upset; the old inhabitants, both black and
white, complain of the "incoming Negroes from the South"
and the evils they have brought, and they deplore the changed
conditions. Yet it is upon these incoming 'Negroes and these
alone, that the Negroes begin to rise and to diversify their oc
cupations. They increase the competition among the Negroes
themselves and among whites and they therefore, raise them
selves in efficiency. And although they increase prejudice on
the part of their competitors, they lay a foundation on' which
other Negroes can rise in business and professions.
The two hundred thousand Negroes in the State make it
possible for the Negroes to differentiate into classes based on
wealth, culture and character. The differentiation of the Ne
gro group will be slower than that of the immigrant white
group, since the Negro's field of operation, because of public
opinion, is limited. Public sentiment requires Negroes to work
among their own, as it does not require the Irishman or Italian.
If one of the latter succeeds he is looked upon as a citizen
and not as an Irishman. But it is not so with the Negro. If a
Negro girl graduates with honors in our High School, wins

200 The Negro In Pennsylvania
thereby a scholarship to a leading university, and graduates
there with honor, she cannot come back to her native city and
teach in her Alma Mater, as white girls who stood lower than
she have done. She must be content to teach in the graded
schools or go South to teach. If a bright young Negro wins a
Cecil Rhodes' Scholarship, and represents his State at Oxford,
England, his best friends are at a loss to find for him an op
portunity in his native city and State, whereas there are large
opportunities for white boys with such scholastic honors, in
the service of the State in which they have striven and shown
their superiority.
Crime among Negroes, to-day in proportion to fifty
years ago, has decreased. That is, it has not increased as
rapidly as the Negro population in the State. All the evidence
at hand, however, although meager and hard to interpret, tends
to show that the Negroes still commit twice as many crimes as
whites do. But this is better than it was a half century ago.
There are not facts to show that Negroes are naturally more
criminal than whites. But facts do seem to show that there is
close connection between the crimes of Negroes and the lack
of economic opportunity. Negro criminals are rarely efficient
or regular workers. It is only by giving Negroes the equal op
portunity in all lines of industry that the crimes of Negroes
will be diminished. Work, regular work, and the incentive
which the hope of promotion inspires, will do for the decrease
of crime what preaching, lecturing, and abusing and even pun
ishment have not yet accomplished.
The aim of our nation is the common weal; is equal op
portunity as far as possible. Race, nationality or religion
should not interfere with American economic progress. The
greatest need of the Negro is economic freedom, economic jus
tice. This is all the best Negroes of this State ask. And it is
indeed a high platform upon which to stand. It is not a bid
for charity ; it is not a bid for hostility. It is only to be per-

A Study In Economic History 201

mitted to enter American rivalry, to go down if incompetent,
to die out if weak, to go up if capable. It is the request that
the same rules by which whites, with all their generations of
culture, are judged, be the rules applied to the Negro. It is for
an opportunity to be a part of an industrial democracy that
Negroes plead; an opportunity to make the best living possi
ble. To give them this is most difficult indeed ; it requires the
most profound economic foresight and the highest religious
devotion. It is the common ground of political economy and
the teaching of Jesus. For indeed, it is easier to "give one's
body to be burned ;" to give alms to the poor, to speak wisdom
and write learnedly, than to give simple Pauline charity, which
is an attitude of mind and not particularly a material gift.
What the Negroes want most and need most, and what ulti
mately is best for our State and nation, is economic charity,
i. e., economic justice, a state of public opinion that will give
a fair field to struggling individuals identified with a submerg
ed minority. Certainly, Pennsylvania which could pass the Abolition
Act, establish the Abolition Society, the Anti-Slaverv Society,
various associations for the promotion of religion and reform,
the foremost of philanthropic States of the Union, so far as
the Negro is concerned, can give the Negro that simplest of
all things, the right to earn his bread, and as much of it as he
is capable of earning for the support of his family and to main
tain a respectable place in the community; and will not deny
him what Professor Seligman says is absolutely necessary foe
the best economic development of the State itself — that "equal
ity of opportunity in the sense that no man is shut out by leg
islation or social prejudice from free access to any vocation or
employment for which he deems himself fitted."

Appendix

LAWS OF PENNA., 1810, CH. 870, P, 492-497.
"AN ACT FOR THE GRADUAL ABOLITION OF SLAV
ERY," passed March i, 1780:
"When we contemplate our abhorence of that condition, to which
the arms and tyranny of Great Britain were exerted to reduce us,
when we look back on the variety of dangers to which we have been
exposed, and how miraculously our wants in many instances have
been supplied, when even hope and human fortitude have become un
equal to the conflict we are unavoidably led to a serious and grateful
sense of the manifold blessings, which we have undeservedly received
from the hand of that Being, from whom every good and perfect
gift cometh. Impressed with these ideas,' we conceive that it is our
duty and we rejoice that it is in our power to extend a portion of
that freedom to others, which hath been extended to us, and release
from that state of thraldom, to which we ourselves were tyrannically
doomed, and from which we have now every prospect of being de
livered. It is not for us to inquire why, in the creation of man
kind, the inhabitants of the several parts of the earth were distin
guished by a difference in feature or complexion. It is sufficient to
know, that all are the work of an Almighty hand. We find, in the
distribution of the human species, that the most fertile as well as the
most barren parts of the earth are inhabited by men of complexions
.different from ours, and from each other; from whence we may rea
sonably, as well as religiously, infer, that He who placed them in
-their various situations, hath extended equally His care and pro
tection to all, and that it becometh not us to counteract His mer
cies. We esteem it a peculiar blessing granted to us, that we are en
abled this day to add one more step to universal civilization, by re
moving, as much as possible, the sorrows of those who have lived in
undeserved bondage, and from which, by the assumed authority of
the Kings of Great Britain, no effectual, legal relief could be obtained.
Wearied, by a long course of experience, from those narrow prejudices
and partialities we had imbibed, we find our hearts enlarged with
kindness and benevolence towards men of all conditions and nations;
and we conceive ourselves at this particular period extraordinarily
called upon, by the blessings which we have received, to manifest the
sincerity of our profession, and to give a substantial proof of our
gratitude. 203

204 The Negro In Pennsylvania

II. And whereas the conditions of those persons, who have here
tofore been denominated Negro and Mulatto slaves, has been at
tended with circumstances, which not only deprived them of the com
mon blessings that they were by nature entitled to, but has cast
them into the deepest affliction, by an unnatural separation and sale
of husband and wife from each other and from their children, an in
jury, the greatness of which can only be conceived by supposing that
we were in the same unhappy case. In justice, therefore, to persons
so unhappily circumstanced, and who, having no prospect before them
whereon they may rest their sorrows and their hopes, we have no
reasonable inducement to render their service to society, which they
otherwise might, and also in grateful commemoration of our own
happy deliverance from that state of unconditional submission, to
which we were doomed by the tyranny of Britain.,
III. Be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted. That all persons as
well Negroes and Mulattoes as others, who shall be born within this
State from and after the passing of this act, shall not be deemed and
considered as servants for life, or slaves; and that all servitude for life,
or slavery of children, in consequence of the slavery of their mothers,
in the case of all children born within this State from and after the
passing of this act as aforesaid, shall be and hereby is, utterly taken
away, extinguished, and forever abolished.
IV. Provided always, and be it further enacted. That every Ne
gro and Mulatto child, born within this State after the passing of the
act as aforesaid (who would, in case this act had not been raade,
have been born a servant for years, or life, or a slave) shall be
deemed, and shall be, by virtue of this act, the servant of such per
son, or his or her assigns, who would in such case have been enti
tled to the service of such child, until such child shall attain unto the
age of twenty-eight years, in the manner, and on the conditions,
whereon servants bound by indenture for four years are or may be
retained by his or her master or mistress, and to like freedom dues
and other privileges, as servants bound by indenture for four years
are or may be entitled, unless the person, to whom the service of
any such child shall belong, shall abandon his or her claims to the
same ; in which case the Overseers of the poor of the city, township
or district, respectively, where such child shall be so abandoned, as
an apprentice, for a time not exceeding the age herein before limited
for the service of such children.
V. And be it further enacted. That every person, who is or shall
be the owner of any Negro or Mulatto slave or servant for life or till
the age of thirty-one years, now within this State, or his lawful attor
ney, shall, on or before the said first day of November next, deliver
or cause to be delivered, in writing, to the Clerk of the Peace of the
county, or to the Clerk of the Court of Record in the City of Phila
delphia, in which he or she shall respectively inhabit, the name and
surname, and occupation or profession of such owner, and the name
of the county and township, district or ward, wherein he or she

A Study In Economic History 205

resideth; and also the name and names of any such slave and slaves,
and servant and servants for life, or till the age of thirty-one years,
together with their ages and sexes severally and respectively set
forth and annexed, by such person owned or statedly employed, and
then being within this State, in order to ascertain and distinguish
the slaves and servants for life, and till the age of thirty-one years,
within this State, who shall be such on the said first day of Novem
ber next, from all other persons; which particulars shall, by said Clerk
of the Sessions and Clerk of the said City Court, be entered in books
to be provided for that purpose by the said Clerks, and that no
Negro or Mulatto, now within this State, shall, from and after the said
first day of November, be deemed a slave or servant for life, or till
the age of thirty-one years, unless his or her name shall be en
tered as aforesaid on such record, except such Negro and Mulatto
slaves and servants as are hereinafter excepted; the said Clerk to be
entitled to a fee of two dollars for each slave or servant so entered as
aforesaid, from the Treasury of the county, to be allowed to him in
his accounts.VI. Provided always, That any person, in whom the ownership
or rights to the service of any Negro or Mulatto shall be vested at
the passing of this act, other than such as are herein before excepted,
his or her heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, and all and
every one of them, severally, shall be liable to the Overseers of the
Poor of the city, township or district, to which any such Negro or
Mulatto shall become chargeable, for such necessary expense, with
costs of suit thereon, as such Overseers may be put to, through the
neglect of the owner, master or mistress of such Negro or Mulatto,
notwithstanding the name and other descriptions of such Negro or
Mulatto shall not be entered and recorded as aforesaid, unless his or
her master or owner shall, before. such slave or servant attain his or
her twenty-eighth year, execute and record in the proper county a
deed or instrument, securing to such slave or servant his or her free
dom. VII. And be it further enacted. That the offenses and crimes ot
Negroes and Mulattoes, as well as slaves and servants as freemen,
shall be inquired of, adjudged, corrected and punished, in like man
ner as the offenses and crimes of the other inhabitants of this State,
are and shall be inquired of, adjudged, corrected and punished, and
not otherwise, except that a slave shall not be admitted to bear wit
ness against a freeman.
VIII. And be it further enacted. That in all cases, wherein sen
tence of death shall be pronounced against a slave, the jury, before
whom he or she shall be tried, shall appraise and declare the value
of such slave; and in case such sentence be executed, the Court shall
make an order on the State Treasurer, payable to the owner, for the
same, and for the costs of prosecution, but in case of remission or
migration, for 'the costs only.

206 The Negro In Pennsylvania

IX. And be it further enacted. That the reward for taking up
runaway and absconding Negro and Mulatto slaves and servants, and
the penalties for enticing away, dealing with or harboring, concealing
or employing Negro and Mulatto slaves and servants, shall be the
same, and shall be recovered in like manner, as in case of servants-
bound for four years.
X. And be it further enacted. That no man or woman of any
nation or color, except the Negroes and Mulattoes who shall be
registered as aforesaid, shall at any time hereafter be deemed, ad
judged or holden, within the territories of this Commonwealth, as
slaves or servants for life, but as free men and free women; except
the domestic slaves attending upon Delegates in Congress from the
other American States, foreign Ministers and Consuls, and persons
passing through or sojourning in this State, and not becoming resi
dent therein, and seamen employed in ships not belonging to any in
habitant of this State, nor employed in any ship owned by any such
inhabitant; provided such domestic slaves be not alienated or sold.
to any inhabitant, nor (except in the case of Members of Congress,
Foreign Ministers and Consuls) retained in this State longer than'
six months. XI. Provided always, and be it further enacted. That this act,.
or anything in it contained, shall not give any relief or shelter to any
absconding or runaway Negro or Mulatto slave or servant, who has
absented himself, or shall absent himself, from his or her owner,,
master or mistress, residing in any other State or county, but such
owner, master or mistress shall have like right to aid, to demand,
claim and take away his slave or servant, as he might have had in
case this act had not been made; and that all Negro and Mulatto
slaves nov/ owned and heretofore resident in this State, who have
absented themselves, or been clandestinely carried away, or who may
be employed abroad as seamen, and have not returned or been
brought back to their, owners, masters or mistresses, before the pass
ing of this act, may, within five years, be registered, .as effectually as-
is ordered by this act concerning those who are now within the State,
on producing such slave before any two Justices of the Peace, and
satisfying the said Justices, by proof of the former residence, abscond
ing, taking away, or absence of such slaves, as aforesaid, who there
upon shall direct and order the said slave to be entered on the record
as aforesaid. XII. And whereas attempts may be made to evade this act, by
introducing into this State Negroes and Mulattoes bound by cove
nant to serve for long and unreasonable terms of years, if the same
be not prevented.
XIII. Be it therefore enacted. That no covenant of personal
servitude or apprenticeship whatsoever shall be rated or binding upon
a Negro or Mulatto for a longer time than seven years, unless such

A Study In Economic History 207

servant or apprentice were, at the commencement of such servitude
or apprenticeship, under the age of twenty-one years; in which case
such Negro or Mulatto may be holden as a servant or apprentice, re
spectively, according to the covenant as the case shall be, until he
or she shall attain the age of twenty-eight years, but no longer.
XIV. And be it further enacted, That an act of Assembly of the
Province of Pennsylvania, passed in the year one thousand seven hun
dred five, entitled, "An Act for the Trial of Negroes;" and another
act of the Assembly of the said Province, passed in the year one thou
sand seven hundred twenty-five, entitled, "An Act for the Better
Regulating of Negroes in this Province;" and another act- of Assem
bly of the said Province, passed in the year one thousand seven hun
dred sixty-one, entitled, "An Act for Laying a Duty on Negro and
Mulatto Slaves Imported into This Province;" and also another act
of Assembly of said Province, passed in the year one thousand seven
hundred seventy-three, entitled, "An Act for Making Perpetual an
Act for Laying a Duty on Negro and Mulatto Slaves Imported into
This Province," and for laying an additional duty on said slaves, shall
be and are hereby repealed, annuled and made void."
Passed March i, 1780. Recorded in Law Books, Volume No. i,
Page No. 339.

ADVERTISEMENT FOR RUNAWAY NEGRO SLAVE.
"American Weekly Mercury, Philadelphia. Printed and Sold by
Andrew Bradford. Dec. 29, 1719. Second Issue. Advertisement:
"Run away from his master, Phillip Ludwell, of Green Spring, in Vir
ginia, on Saturday, the fourth of July, 1719, a mulatto man named
Johnny, but of a very white complexion, aged about tw9nfy-two years.
He is tall and well limb'd, he has a little lump on the small of his left
leg, and small holes punched in the upper part of each ear, short dark
hair and broad teeth (he is my coach-man). Whoever shall take up
such mulatto slave and bring him to his said master in Virginia, or
to Henry Evans at Philadelphia, or give notice thereof so that he may
be. had again, shall have five pounds as reward, with all reasonable
charges paid by Phillip or Henry Evans.''

FIRST PROTEST AGAINST SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA,
GERMANTOWN, FEB. 18, 1688.
"This is to the Monthly Meeting held at Richard Worrell's.
These are the reasons why we are against the traffic of men-body as
followeth. Is there any that would be done or handled at this man
ner? Viz: To be sold or made a slave for all the time of his life?
How fearful and faint-hearted are many on sea, when they see a

208 The Negro In Pennsylvania

strange vessel, being afraid it should be a Turk, and they should be
taken and sold for slaves ih Turkey. Now what is better done than
Turks do? Yea, rather worse for them, which say they are Chris
tians; for we hear that the most part of such Negroes are brought
hither against their will and consent, and that many of them are stolen.
Now, though they are black, we cannot conceive there is more liberty
to have them slaves (than) it is to have other white ones. There
is a saying that we shall do to all men hke as we will be done our
selves, making no difference of which generation, descent, or color
they are. And those who steal and rob men, and those who buy or
purchase them, are not they all alike? Here is liberty of conscience,
which is right and reasonable; here ought to be likewise liberty of
the body, except of evildoers, which is another case. But to bring
them hither, or to rob and sell them against their will, we stand
against. In Europe there are many oppressed for conscience sake;
and here are those oppressed who are of a black colour. And we
know that men must not commit adultery, some do commit adultery
in others, separating wives from their husbands and giving them to
others; and some sell the children of these poor creatures to other
men. Ah! do consider well this thing, you who do it; if you would
be done at this manner? And if it is done according to Christianity?
You surpass Holland or Germany in this thing. This makes an ill-
report in all those countries in Europe when they hear of (it), that
the Quakers do here handle men as they handle their cattle, and for
that reason some have no mind or inclination to come hither. And
who shall maintain this your cause, or plead for it? Truly we cannot
do so, except you shall inform us better thereof. Viz: That Christians
have liberty to practice these things. Pray, what thing in the world
can be done worse towards us, than if men should rob or steal us
away, and sell us for slaves to strange countries; separating hus
bands from their wives and children. Being now this is not done in the
manner we should be done (by), therefore we contradict, and are
against this traffic of men-body, and we who profess that it is not
lawful to steal, must likewise, avoid to purchase such things as are
stolen, but rather help to stop this robbing and stealing if possible.
And such men ought to be delivered out of the hands of robbers',
and set free as in Europe. Then in Pennsylvania to have a- good
report, it hath now a bad one for this sake in other countries. Espe
cially whereas the Europeans are desirous to know in what manner
the Quakers do rule in their province: and most of them do look upon
us with an envious eye. But if this is done well, what shall we say is
done evil?
"If once these slaves (which they say are so wicked and stub
born men) should join themselves, fight for their freedom and handle
their masters and mistresses as they did handle them before, will
these masters and mistresses take the sword at hand and war against
these poor slaves, like, we are able to believe, some will not refuse
to do? Or have these Negroes not much right to fight for their free
dom, as you have to keep them slaves?
"Now consider well this thing, if it is good or bad? And in case

A Study In Economic History 209

you find it to be good to handle these blacks in that manner, we
desire and require you hereby lovingly, that you may inform Us here
in what at this time never was done, Viz: That Christians have such a
liberty to do so. To this end we shall (may) be satisfied in this
point, and satisfy likewise our good friends, and acquaintances in our
native country, to whom it is a terror or fearful thing, that men
should be handled so in Pennsylvania.
"This is from our meeting at Germantown, held on ye i8 of the
2 month, 1688, to be delivered to the Monthly Meeting at Richard
Worrell's. GARRET HENDERICH,
DERICK UP DEGREFF,
FRANCIS DANIELL PASTORIUS,
ABRAHAM j'r DEN GRAEF."
"At our Monthly Meeting at Dublin, ye 30-2 mo., 1688, we, having
inspected ye matter above mentioned and considered of it, we find it
so weighty that we think it not expedient for us to meddle with it
here, but to commit to ye consideration of ye Quarterly Meeting: Ye
tenor of it being nearly related to ye truth.
"On behalf of ye Monthly Meeting.
(Signed) P. JO. HART."
But the Quarterly Meeting only referred it to the Yearly Meet
ing, making the following note:
"This, above mentioned, was read in our Quarterly Meeting, at
Philadelphia, the 4 of ye 4th mo., '88, and was from thence recom
mended to the Yearly Meeting, and the above said Derick, and the
other two mentioned therein, to present the same to ye above said
Meeting, it being a thing of too great weight for this Meeting to
determine. "Signed by order of ye Meeting, ANTHONY MORRIS."

PERCENTAGE OF INCREASE OF NEGRO POPULATION
OF PENNSYLVANIA AND OF THE UNITED STATES.
Whites — Percent. Negroes — Percent.
Before the Civil War. Penna. U. S. Penna. U. S.
1790 to 1800  38.2 3S.8 58.4 32.3
1800 to 1810  34-2 36.1 43-1 37.S
1810 to 1820  29.S 34.2 30.6 28.6
1820 to 1830  28.0 33.9 26.0 31.4
1830 to 1840  28.0 34.7 25-0 23.4
1840 to 1850  34-7 37-8 11.9 26.6
1850 to i860  26.2 37.8 6.2 22.1
After the Civil War.
i860 to 1870  21.3 24.8 14.7 9-9
1870 to 1880  21.4 29.2 31.0 34.9
1880 to 1890  22.7 27.0 25.8 13.8
1890 to 1900  193 21.2 45.8 18.0
1900101910  — — —
14

210 The Negro In Pennsylvania

SOURCE OF FREE COLORED POPULATION OF PHILADEI^
PHIA IN i860 AND OF NEGRO POPULATION OF
PHILADELPHIA AND PENNSYLVANIA IN igoo.
states in wjiich born I'hiladelphia Pennsylvania
18(0 1900 1900
Alabama  i iii 415 
Arkansas  o 18 67 ....
California  2 48 43 
Connecticut  38 • 108 164 
Delaware  2,977 2,527 5,944 
Florida  .... 94 184 ....
Georgia  58 429 926 ....
Illinois  2 64 167 ....
Indiana  3 32 134 
Iowa   I 44 .....
Kansas  .... 9 27 ....
Kentucky  13 59 657 
Louisiana  25 57 151 
Maine  10 17 26 ....
Maryland  1,976 9,474 I7.4I5 H-i
Massachusetts  48 183 294 ....
Michigan  .... 26 89 ....
Minnesota  4 13 13 ....
Mississippi  i 54 160 ....
Missouri  7 27 127 
New Hampshire .... 3 6 5 ....
New Jersey  1,047 i,77i 2,571 
New York  138 697 1,199 
North Carolina  100 3,403 S,2o6 
Ohio  17 172 1,696 
Oregon  .... i 3 
Pennsylvania  13,724 22,835 70,365 45.1
Rhode Island  9 52 74 
South Carolina  205 577 1,009 
Tennessee  3 109 - 835 ....
Texas  .... 42 95 ....
Vermont  3 10 16 ....
Virginia  1,241 16,369 40,870 26.1
Wisconsin  .... 36 17 ....
District of Columbia. 145 1,185 2,067 •••¦
\t Sea  I 6  
Not Stated  71 238 774 
Alaska  .... .... .... ....
Arizona  i i i ....
Colorado  .... 7 16 
Hawaii  .... .... .... ....
Idaho  .... 1 I ....
Indian Territory . . . . , .... 2 5 ....
Montana  .... 35 n ....

A Study In Economic History

211

states in which born
Nebraska 
Nevada 
New Mexico 
North Dakota 
Oklahoma 
South Dakota 
Utah 
Washington 
West Virginia 
Wyoming 
Porto Rico 
Americans born
abroad 
Total 

Philadelphia
I860 1900

2
II

21,922

I
76
197

29
62,253

Pennsylvania 1900 14 I
r I
I
2
1S9
1,917 2

155,981

SOUTHERN STATES TO WHICH PENNSYLVANIA BORN
NEGROES HAVE MIGRATED AND VICE VERSA

States
Delaware 
Maryland 
District of Col. . .
Virginia 
West Virginia . . .
North Carolina. .
South Carolina . .
Georgia 
Florida 
Kentucky 
Tennessee 
Alabama 
Mississippi 
Louisiana 
Arkansas 
Texas 

Negfroes born in
Pennsylvania liv
ing in specified
Southern States

1,141 586
4SO 3" 137 32 65
948584 5675
118 73
140

Negroes born in Excess in
specified Southern favor of
States now Hving Pennsyl-
in Pennsylvania vania
5,944
17,415 2,067
40,870 1,917
5,206 1,009 926 184
657
835
415 160
151 67 95

Excess in
favor of
Southern States 5,098
16,274 1,481
40,420 1,606
5,069 977 861 90
572
751359 85 43 7
54

CITIES HAVING OVER 500 NEGROES i860, AND 1900
Cities I860 1900
Allegheny City  690 3,315
Braddock Borough   558
Carlisle  509 1.148
Chambersburg  524 7"9
Chester City  4i7 4405

212

The Negro In Pennsylvania

Cities
Columbia 
Harrisburg City 
Homestead Borough 
Lancaster City 
McKeesport City 
Norristown Borough 
Philadelphia City 
Pittsburgh City 
Reading City 
Scranton City 
Steelton Borough 
Uniontown Borough (Fayette Co)
Washington Borough,
(Washington County) 
West Chester Borough 
Wilkes-Barre City 
WiUiamsport City 
York City 

I860 648
1,321 29
'382
22,185 1,154 285 I

435 561

334

1900 421
4,107 640
777
748728
62,613 17,040 534
521
1,508 803
984
1,777 680
1,142 776

DISTRIBUTION NEGRO CITY POPULATION BY WARDS,

1900.
Philadel- Pitts- Alle-
Wards. phia. burgh, gheny.
1  712 161 269
2  1,319 167 847
3  1,704 49 752
4  2,87s 50 116
5  1,251 211 363
6  no 219 236
7  10,462 1,208
8  2,464 2,595 I
9  606 55 188
10  792 3 238
II  36 1,489 153
12  286 844 147
13  571 3,025 5
14  1,961 676
15  2,423 405
16  102 401
17  125 278
18  18 83
19  270 1,326
20  2,821 1,108
21  464 1,881
22  3,676 211
23  794 27

Scran- Wilkes- Harris-
Reading, ton. Barre. burg.
3 27 310
7 II 467,
2 ... 190
I 61 339
2 104 99
550
15 20 467
44 63 1,506
130 13 170
4 35 9

2
10
5526 13
44 57
109139 3
17
12 I
21 4
21

25
43 8
143 65 16 I
10

27 II
'ei
104 21
2063 13
3582
45
129 31 1919

A Study In Economic History

213

Philadel-
Wards pliia
24  2,193
25  236
26  2,874
27  3,171
28  1,164
29  3,160
30  5,242
31  29
32  962
33  766
34  1,773
35  364
36  1,955
37  284
38  675
39  831
40  689
41  383
Total 62,613

AUe
gheny

Pitts
burgh 6
23
120 25
62 I
25 19
160 36
90 43
119 39

17,040 3,315

Scran-
Reading ton

Wilkes- Barre

Harris- b u

534

521

680

4,107

NEGRO POPULATION IN CODNTIES HAVING NO LARGE CITY
SHOWING DECREASE IN 20 AND 10 YEARS
Counties 1880 1890 1900 20 yrs 10 yrs
Adams  471 319 338 3 
Bedford  577 587 499 78 88
Bradford  537 599 307 230 292
Butler  128 154 115 13 39
Corbon  8 36 12 .... 24
Clarion  99 72 16 83 56
Clinton  286 324 253 33 7i
Columbia  14S 118 126 ig 
Crawford  493 3I4 359 I34 
Cumberland  2,167 2,091 1,818 354 273
Erie  322 308 311 21 
Franklin  2,551 2,019 1,954 597 65
Fulton  129 112 106 23 6
Greene  503 445 3I3 190 132
Indiana  227 212 160 67 52
Juniata  261 170 172 89
Lancaster  2,845 2,603 2,461 384 148
McKean  326 299 302 24 
Mercer  425 304 35i 74
Mifflin  215 169 162 S3 7
Monroe  i55 176 151 4 25

214 The Negro In Pennsylvania

Counties 1880 1890 1900 20 yrs lOyrs
Montour  107
Perry  164
Pike  84
Schuylkill  358
Snyder  19
Susquehanna  219
Tioga  115
Union  133
Venango . . j  547
Warren '  103
Wayne  31
Wyoming  21

AGE DISTRIBUTION OF NEGRO POPULATION IN PENNSYL
VANIA AND SOUTHERN STATES PROM WHICH
NEGROES EMIGRATE CHIEFLY.
Pennsylvania Virginia North Carolina
Age Periods No. Per Cent No. Per Cent No. Per Cent
Under 15  39,947 25.5 267,410 40.5 268.074 42-9
15 to 29  55,697 35-5 189,416 28.7 184.183 29.S
30 to 44  37,971 24.2 101,727 15.4 80,514 12.9
45 to 59  16,099 10-3 62,892 9-5 57,910 9-3
59 and over  6,345 4.0 36,922 5.5 30,803 4.9
Unknown  786 0.5 2,355 0.4 2,985 0.5
Totals  156,845 loo.o 660,722 loo.o 624,459 loo.o

96

88

19

8

137

82

82

SS

107

81

3

26

i 374

252

106

122

< S05

3

16

2

1 162

141

78

21

; 91

85

30

6

i 52

65

68

....

473

522

25

1 75

52

SI

23

33

18

13

IS

8

14

7

CONJUGAL CONDITION OF NEGROES IN PENNSYLVA
NIA AND VIRGINIA, THE PRINCIPAL SOURCE OF
NEGRO IMMIGRATION, COMPARED WITH CONJU
GAL CONDITION OF NEGROES IN THE U. S.
Negroes of U. S. Virginia Pennsylvania.
Number. P. C. Number. Females Males. Total
Single  5,346,262 60.5 420,248 40,815 47,584 88,39g
Married  2,867,572 32.5 197,968 28,314 28,276 56,590
Widowed  565,396 6.4 39,940 8,046 3,055 ll,X0l
Divorced  33,071 -4 i,iiS I79 I3S 314
Unknown  21,693 .4 i,45r I43 298 441
Totals  8,833,994 660,722 79,348 77,497 156,845

A Study In Economic History 215

ILLITERACY OF PENNSYLVANIA N EGROES COMPARED WITH
J NEGROES OF OTHER SECTIONS OP THE UNITED STATES
1900
Negroes of Total Illiterates. P. C.
10 Years and Over.
Continental United States  6,415,681 2,853,194 44.5
North Atlantic States  320,176 44,275 13.8
North Central States  404,568 87,914 21.7
Western States  25,862 3,399 13.1
South Atlantic States  2,655,833 1,250,279 47.1
South Central States  3,009,142 1,467,327 48.8
Pennsylvania  28,935 19,532 15. i
New York  84,688 9,180 10.8
New Jersey  57,534 9,882 17.2
Massachusetts '  26,573 2,853 10.7
Virginia  478,921 213,836 44.6
North Carolina  437,691 21^,132 47.6
South Carolina  537,398 283,883 52.8
Georgia  724,096 379067 52.4
Alabama  589,629 338,605 52.4
Mississippi  638,646 313,312 59. i
Louisiana  464,598 284,028 61. i

PROPERTY HOLDING AMONG NEGROES.
FROM REPORT OF INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS, 1911.
SUMMARY OF NEGRO PROPERTY HOLDING IN PHILA
DELPHIA. A REPORT BY R. R. WRIGHT, JR. Tax
Ward Properties. valuation.
I  '.  10 $19,700
2  I 2,700
3  20 60,600
S  6 23,400
7  172 584,900
8  36 290,400
9  I 12,000
10  2 17,000
12  I 2,900
13  I 2,300
14  10 32,600
IS  25 62,400
19  2 3,400

216

The Negro In Pennsylvania

Ward
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 
39 
40 
41 
42 
44 
45 
46 
47 
Totals ....

Properties-

Tax Valuation

24

53,200

10

23,000

96

2x5,300

13

11,700

37

73,900

47

93,900

37

92,500

114

27,600

5

11,000

168

484,200

3

4,300

II

22,400

4

1,700

35

48,900

8

6,250

84

159,300

7

14,500

24

50,100

2

3,000

66

63,325

2

1,900

7

10,800

28

54,900

4

3,400

14

26,800

46

129,100

1,080

$2,801,275

SUMMARY OF PROPERTIES OF NEGROES OF PITTS
BURGH.
Ward. Taxables. Assessed value. Real value.
First  I $26,400 $26,400
Second  2 26,300 40,000
Third  44 236,520 367,000
Fourth  10 23,370 , 34,850
Fifth  168 331,920 508,350
Sixth  24 42,840 62,900
Seventh  18 80,530 118,500
Eighth  9 15,830 22,500
Ninth  13 15,860 23,300
Tenth  80 88,700 132,050
Eleventh  24 62,890 95,300
Twelfth  25 50,770 74,500
Thirteenth  51 ii4,340 175,600
Fourteenth  5 7,120 10,400
Fifteenth  4 3,820 5,400

A Study In Economic History

217

Ward
Sixteenth 
Seventeenth 
Eighteenth  ,
Nineteenth 
Twentieth 
Twenty-first 
Twenty-second . . . .
Twenty-third 
Twenty-fourth . . . .
Twenty-fifth 
Twenty-sixth 
Twenty-seventh . . .
Total 
Exemptions 
Grand total . .

Taxables

Assessed Value

Rea Value

2

4,120

5,900

6

28,140

42,200

62

89,560

133,800

II

14,990

21,700

6

13,240

19,800

9

28,550

42,800

4

12,400

18,400

I

3,ooo

4,500

25

79,150

115,700

i6

27,160

40,680

5

9,540

14,300

643 38

681

$1,437,060

$1,437,060 $2,153,830 406,853

$2,560,683

PROPERTY HOLDING OF NEGROES IN OTHER PENNSYLVA
NIA CITIES AND TOWNS

Town or District.

County.

WiUiamsport  Lycoming . . .
Washington  Washington .
Carlisle  Cumberland
Darby  Delaware . . .
Scranton  Lackawanna
Meadville  Crawford . . .
Lewistown  Mifflin .....
Franklin  Venango . . . .
Uniontown  Fayette 
Titusville  Crawford . . .
Ardmore  Montgomery
Harrisburg, 2 wards. . . . Dauphin . . . .
Langhorne  Bucks 
Lancaster  Lancaster ...
Canonsburg  Washington
Robesonia  Berks 
Norwood  Delaware . . .
Sharon Hill  Delaware ...
Edgemont  Delaware ...
Lansdowne  Delaware . . .
Ashton  Delaware ...
Prospect Park  Delaware . . .
Concord  Delaware . . .
Glenolden  Delaware . . .

Assessed Market
Properties, value. value.

93

$50,840

$70,000

95

214,450

327,050

81

129,700

309,500

t^

72,920

119,300

II

113,000

165,000

27

15,060

38,100

22

19,375

38,750

20

11,875

31,700

21

25,000

33,325

18

13,040

38,480

24

64,250

96,400

41

41,900

66,800

26

16,950

22,400

25

54,900

73,000

14

46,300

59,800

I

900

1,200

8

107,350

115,100

5

3.07s

3,975

I

SOO

650

7

10,850

11,650

5

4,300

5,725

2

1,400

1,850

9

6,760

6,760

2

1,400

2,I0Q

218 The Negro In Pennsylvania

I Assessed Market
Town or District County. Properties. value, value.
Lower Chichester  Delaware 
Clifton Heights  Delaware 
Marple  Delaware 
Marcus Hook  Delaware 
Chester, 2 wards  Delaware 
Swarthmore  Delaware 
Ridley Park  Delaware 
Colwyn  Delaware 
Haverford  Delaware 
Springfield  Delaware 
Bristol  Bucks 
Lower Makefield  Bucks 
East Rock Hill  Bucks 
MorrisviUe  Bucks 
Yardley  Bucks 
Richland  Bucks  '.
Falk  Bucks 
Wrightstown  Bucks 
South Langhorne  Bucks 
Mechanic Valley  Bucks 
Nockamixon  Bucks 
Emilie  Bucks 
Ruscomburaner  ..Bucks 
West Rockville  Bucks 
Newtown  Bucks 
Marietta  Lancaster 
Smethport  McKean 
Bradford  ..McKean 
Miffiintown  Juniata 
Montrose  Susquehanna ....
Sewickley  Allegheny 
Braddock  Allegheny  ,
Swatara  Dauphin 
Omerlin  Dauphin 
Royalton  Dauphin 
Middletown  Dauphin 
Steelton  Dauphin 
Lower Paxton  Dauphin 
Penbrook  Dauphin 
Highspire  Dauphiii 
Catawissa  Columbia 
Bloomsburg  Columbia 
Tilden  Berks 
Upper Bern  Berks 
Wyomissing  Berks 
Reading  Berks 
Stroudsburg  Monroe 

8

5,240

7,700

2

1,600

2,100

4

3,150

4,250

6

3,300

4,500

14

21,990

28,000

3

1,790

2,975

3

3,200

4,000

4

2,850

5,300

4

4,700

6,250

4

2,750

3,300

17

6,650

11,775

5

1,925

2,550

4

2,120

3,100

6

3,750

5,100

5

2,000

2,000

2

3,175

4,100

5

2,6l2

2,475

2

1,300

2,000

I

125

ISO

II

3,150

3,150

I

1,080

1,200

2

500

1,000

2

225

27s

.3

870

1,150

4

1,350

1,600

24

8,100

2,700

S

2,850

4,500

13

18,180

40,750

I

700

1,000

17

2,200

8,240

II

24,150

32,500

35

104,475

156,700

5

4,760

6,350

7

2,700

3,400

2

600

goo

14

8,470

11,260

7

10,800

14,390,

2

4,200

5,800

2

160

250

I

400

500

2

72s

1,000

II

3,980

9,950

3

1,740

2,150

I

80

80

I

100

150

18

41,92s

62,750

9

6,275

8,375

A Study In Economic History

219

Town or District.

Assessed
County. Properties, value.

Lewisburg  Union 
Kingsley  Forest 
Sunbury Borough  Northumberland
Warren  Warren 
Milton  Northumberland
Courtney  ,  Washington 
Greensburg  Westmoreland .
Hegins  Schuylkill 
Connellsville  Fayette 
Vanderbilt  Fayette 
Cito  Fulton 
Three Towns  Beaver 
Coudersport  Beaver 
Huntersville  Beaver 
Elizabeth  Allegheny 
Doylestown  Bucks '. 

4 I I
I
8
4
13 3
II 13 7
32 2 I
28 3

2,100 40
240
1,500
3,5505,700
18,600 3.5006,150
16,250 2,060
33.600 960soo
24,780 1,600

Market value. 3,500 120
800
3.500
15,150
10,200
27,900 7,800
•9,900
21,475 2,860
64,500 1,500 650
32,900 1,800

1,072 $1,351,217 $2,316,865

ADDITIONAL PROPERTY OWNERS
Place. Property holders
Bedford Springs  20
Bradford  10
Chester  102
Coatesville  50
Columbia  ;  25
Erie  2
Homestead  28
Irvine  4
Johnstown  25
McKeesport  30
Morton  22
Oil City  28
Tyrone  S
Wajmesburg  12
West Chester  125
West Newton  4
Wilkes-Barre  30
York  S^
Totals  578

Market value
$10,000 75,000
100,000 150,000 35,000 15,000
150,000 5,000
35,000 10,000
25,000 3S.00O 4,500
10,000
400,000 75,00080,000

$1,214,500

220 The Negro In Pennsylvania

SUMMARY
Number property Market
¦ Place. holders Assessed value value
Philadelphia  i,o8o $2,801,275 $3,735,ooo
Pittsburgh  643 1,437,060 2,153,830
Eighty-seven towns and cities 1,072 1,351,217 2,316,865
Eighteen towns  578  1,214,500

Totals  3,373 $S,S89,SS2 $9,420,195

CHURCH PROPERTY.
A great deal of the property of Negroes is in churches. Among
the various influences which the church has had, has been the en
couragement of co-operative buying of church properties. Many
Negroes learned, for the first time, what a deed meant, or a builders'
contract, or a mortgage, etc., from his participation in church buy
ing and building. The Census Department reported in 1906, that
Negroes owned about $58,000,000 worth of church property in the
United States, of which fully $50,000,000 worth was unencumbered.
As will be seen, Pennsylvania Negroes own more than their share,
which is due largely to the fact that in this State Negro churches
took root very early and have always been encouraged as one of the
influential factors for the better development of the race.
There are about 150 Baptist Churches in the State of Pennsyl
vania, but only 73 of them reported to the State Baptist Convention,
and of these, only 44 reported their value, which was put at $785,230.
An average of about $17,850 each. These, of course, were the best
properties. The balance of about 100 churches include about fifty
which are more or less temporary and own but little property. If the
average of these 100 Baptist Churches is $1000, that would give an
additional $100,000 of church property, and a total of $885,230, the
value of the property of Negro Baptists. There are 196 African
Methodist Churches in the State, of which 136 are of the African
Methodist Episcopal denomination and '60 African Methodist Episco
pal Zion denomination. Of the former 106 reported at the last con
ference session, a property valuation of $1,067,213. Allowing a valu
ation of $100 each for the 36 not reported, we have 136 properties
of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsyl
vania valued at $1,097,213. Of the latter, 46 reported property valu-

A Study In Economic History 221

ed at $553,824, an average of about $12,000 each. If the average
value of the remaining 14 African Methodist Episcopal Zion Churches
is $1000, the total valuation would be about $567,824.
There were fourteen Presbyterian Churches whose value is esti
mated at $190,000, and eight Episcopal Churches valued at about
$100,000. There are a number of Negro congregations of the Metho
dist Episcopal Church, the chief ones being in Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh. They own about $250,000 worth of property. Other
churches are the A. U. M. P., the Church of God, Congregational
and C. M. E. Church, and several independent churches who own
property valued at about $100,000. This would make the total amount
of church property owned by Negroes approximately, as follows:
Baptists  $885,230
A. M. E  1,067,213
A. M. E. Zion  567,824
Methodist (North)  250,000
Presbyterian  190,000
Episcopalian  100,000
Other denominations  100,000
Total value of church property .... $3,160,267

GENERAL ESTIMATE OF PROPERTY.
By the above it is seen that in the cities of Philadelphia and
Pittsburgh, the assessed value of property, exclusive of churches, is
$4,238,335; that in eighty-seven other cities and towns the assessed
value of 1072 properties is $1,351,217, making a total ot $5,589,552,
having a market value of $8,205,695. To this market value must be
added the estimated holdings of Negroes in eighteen other cities and
towns with a market value of $1,214,500 and $3,160,260, the value
of church property, making a total of $12,580,455 as the value of hold
ings of Negroes in this State.
If we consider the difficulty of obtaining data, and scan carefully
the list of places reported, we must conclude that this estimate is
possibly 25 per cent, under the real holdings of Negroes in the State.
I would estimate that they own property, the most conservative esti
mate of whose value is $15,000,000 to $20,000,000.

222 The Negro In Pennsylvania
POPULATION, PROPERTY HOLDINGS, ETC., NOT IN
CLUDED IN IPRECEDING REPORT.

Short sketches of Negroes in Pennsylvania cities and towns, com
piled from letters from city and town officials, resident ministers,
teachers, physicians, etc., and personal observation:
ALTOONA, Blair County; population 1900: 38,566 whites, 407
colored. Estimated colored population in 1907 was 1000. Negroes are
scattered more or less, but find it difficult to rent. There are about 25
home owners, having about $300,000 worth of property; one Negro
is reputed to be worth $250,000, owning some of the most valuable
portions of the city. Chief businesses are: i contractor, i retail furni
ture store, occupying about 2500 square feet of space; i pool room, 2
restaurants, 7 barber shops, 25 independent teamsters, 4 teamsters
and excavators, i tailor, 10 plasterers, i dying establishment. Wages
of the women in domestic service from $3.00 to $5.00 per week, and
$1.00 per day. Men get $1.50 per day. Three churches: A. M. E.,
A. M. E. Z., and Baptist, with a total of 138 members. Masons, Odd
Fellows, True Reformers. Mixed school, no Negro teachers; 2 po
licemen, I high school graduate in 1907 now attending Howard Uni
versity, I in 1906.
BEDFORD SPRINGS, Bedford County: i colored lawyer, 3
barbers, more waiters, about 25 persons own their homes; one Negro
worth $5000, I farmer owns 65 acres. One young woman graduated
in 1906, and now in college, none in 1907, 4 since 1900; several cases
of inter-marriage between Negroes and whites.
BLOOMSBURG, Columbia County: 6067 whites, 97 colored.
There are 4 Negro property owners, one farmer having 30 acres, 3
barber shops, shaving both colored and white; 7 women in silk mills,
others in hotels and domestic service; i church, no inter-marriage,
mixed schools, i death in 1906, 3 births, 2 still births.
COATESVILLE, Chester County. Population, 1900: 5288 white,
433 colored. Estimated Negro population 1907, 1000. Negroes chief
ly day laborers and in domestic and personal service; about a dozen
men in business; chief businesses are a blacksmith shop, groceries.

A Study In Economic History 223

tailoring, barbering, dressmaking, express and hauling, i physician,
a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School; 4
school teachers, i postoffice employe, 6 firemen, i policeman, 50 prop
erty holders, value of property estimated at $150,000; 4 churches.
Much immigration from South during recent years; race prejudice
has increased; i case of inter-marriage.
COLUMBIA, Columbia County. Population, 11,893; 423 color
ed. Negroes came to this town as early as 1819, most of them be
ing manumitted slaves from Virginia; at a later time some fugitive
slaves were among them. After passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in
1850, there was considerable emigration of many of the best Negroes,
not less than. 75 persons. Columbia was one of the most important
places in the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania, and held among
its population some of the most prominent Negroes. Both Stephen
Smith, the lumber merchant and philanthropist, and William Whipple
lived here. At present there are about 500 Negroes who work chiefly
in domestic service and do common labor on traction road, and some
few are employed in the rolling mill, which has one colored foreman.
"^ages for men very from $1.25 per day to $1.50. There are 2
churches: I A. M. E., i Baptist; a- separate primary school having
two teachers and 56 pupils — ^28 girls and 27 boys between the ages of
6 and 14 years. There are three Negro children in the High School,
but no graduates. The businesses are all small, and consist of 2 bar
ber shops, 3 teamsters, i small notion store, i small grocery, i itiner
ant meat dealer and 2 boarding houses. There are lodges of Odd
Fellows and True Reformers and Household of Ruth. The Metro
politan Life Insurance Society and the Baltimore Mutual do a good
business among the Negroes. The Negroes live chiefly in small one-
and two-story houses, made of rough boards, on alleys from 12 to 20
feet wide; some of these houses are worn out and about to fall, while
others are newly painted or whitewashed, and appear neat. A few
families live in brick houses on Fifth street. There are about 25
property holders with property valued at about $3S,ooo. The com
munity has made practically no progress in a generation.
ELIZABETH, Allegheny County. Total population in 1900 was
1866. About 20 famihes own properties valued from $1500 upward.
One man has a large grocery and employs 2 persons. Two teamsters,
2 pupils in High School; no graduates.

224 The Negro In Pennsylvania
ERIE, Erie County. 52,483 whites and 250 colored. 2 ice cream
manufacturers and 2 barber shops are the chief businesses. Negro men
are waiters, porters, laborers in stores and foundry; women work in
private families. There is i policeman, i yoiing woman graduated
from High School in 1907, now bookkeeper in ice cream factory.
There are two farmers, i owning 59 acres; i Negro is said to be
worth $75,000. There are 6 cases of inter-marriage among the races,
Negro men marrying white women in every case. More emigration
than immigration. Emigrants go chiefly to roUing mill centre at
Youngstown, Ohio, i A. M. E. Church, 30 members; i lodge of
Masons. FRANKLIN, Venango County. Population: 7043 whites and
274 colored. Negroes work chiefly in steel mills and oil refinery,
averaging $1.50 per day; some are waiters, porters and general labor
ers; women are domestic servants. There are 12 property holders;
I girl graduate of High School in 1906 studying music; i young man
graduated in 1907 and is studying pharmacy. There is one store
keeper, 4 churches: i A. M. E., i A. M. E. Z., I Free Methodist, i
Wesleyan Church. True Reformers and Masons have lodges.
GREENSBURG, Westmoreland County. Population, 1900:
6374 whites, 134 colored. Business: i restaurant, i tailor and dyer,
I barber, i shining parlor. Negroes in domestic service chiefly. 7
persons own homes.
HARRISBURG, Dauphin County, Capital of Pennsylvania.
46,044 whites, 2107 Negroes, 10 Chinese, 6 Indians. Estimated Negro
population in 1907, 6000. Negroes live chiefly in three or four "settle
ments" of four or five blocks each. The oldest is within one block of
the State Capitol and the depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad, about
South, Short, Walnut, State, Cowden and Filbert Streets, and adja
cent alleys. Jews and Negroes live side by side. Other Negro set
tlements are about Balm Street. There are: i undertaker, i steam
fitter, 6 restaurants, 4 caterers, i tailor, i peanut and cofifee roaster,
I contractor, 6 expressmen, i wrapper manufacturer, i notions and
dry goods store, 7 barbers, 2 hand laundries, i shoe repairer, i chir
opodist, I insurance society, 1 pool room, 8 coal, wood and ice deal
ers, I ladies' tailor and dealer in second-hand clothing, i Building and
Loan Association. Chief occupation for both men and women is
domestic service. There are about 25 Negroes employed as janitors,
messengers and clerks in the State House, at salaries from $50 per

A Study In Economic History 225

month to $1200 per year; 5 Negroes are in postoffice, and 31 in city
offices, and 5 on the police force. There are 3 physicians, i lawyer,
I dentist and 10 teachers; 2 A. M. E. Churches, i A. M. E. Zion
Church, Baptist Churches, i Presbyterian and i Episcopal Churches.
There are schools composed entirely of Negroes. Four cases of inter
marriage are reported. Immigration has been heavy in recent years.
There are 3 nurses, 2 stenographers and typewriters, lo graduates
from High School in 1906. There were 637 arrests in 1905; 77 births
and 109 deaths; about 175 marriages.
HOMESTEAD, Allegheny County. Population, 1900, 11,903
whites, 651 colored; estimated Negro population, 1907, was 800; sub
urb of Pittsburgh; built up around the iron and steel industry, in
which Negro workingmen earning from 90c to $6 per day. A
few men do common labor at $1.60 to $1.50 per day; and some are
porters, butlers and domestic servants. Women earn as domestics
from $3.50 to $4.50. Negroes have come to Homestead chiefly since
the strike of 1892, when a number of them were brought there as
strike breakers. Prior to this time Negroes were few and worked
chiefly in lumber and brick yards. A few Negroes are helpers on
open-hearth furnaces, earning from $4 to $6 per day. The chief busi
nesses are: 3 groceries, 6 barber shops, 6 teamsters, several carpen
ters, masons, i undertaker, 2 doctors, 2 men in post office, i mail
clerk and i carrier, 2 policemen, i graduate from high school in igo7;
about 28 persons own homes; i Negro said to be worth about $100,-
000; 14 pieces of property, bank stock, stock in coal corporation.
There is one land company, and one small co-operative grocery store
started in 1903.
IRVINE, Warren County; population, igoo, 307; about 70 Ne
groes, 4 property holders; 4 barber shops; several coal miners; 2
small churches, A. M. E. and A. M. E. Zion.
JOHNSTOWN, Cambria County, 35,613 whites, 323 colored.
Chief occupations are janitors, waiters, porters; the two largest hotels
employ Negro waiters. About 25 property holders. Negroes have
begun to buy because of difficulty in securing homes. Several Negroes
own more than i piece of property and rent to others of their race.
There are 8 barber shops, 2 hotels, one in the business part of the
town between the Majestic Theatre and the Columbia Opera House;
I transfer company, i restaurant, i lodging house, 5 expressmen, i
contractor (painter), does the work for the Cambria Steel Com-
15

226 The Negro In Pennsylvania
pany; i tar and gravel roofer, employing lo men; i sign painter, l
contractor for excavating, now working on railroad with Negroes
and Hungarians; i newspaper; i real estate dealer, i National Real
Estate and Investment Company, incorporated at $10,000 in igo5, at
$5 per share; has branch offices in Alabama, Kansas, Florida and
South Carolina and Georgia. Johnstown has had only one Negro
High School graduate. She is now teaching in Washington, D. C.
There are 2 colored women's clubs; i Negro member of the Civic
Club; Coachmen's and Porter's Club; lodges of Masons, Eastern
Star, Mystic Shriners, Odd Fellows, Household of Ruth, Knights of
Pythias, Court of Calanthia, Good Samaritans, 3 churches, i Baptist,
I A. M. E-, I A. M. E. Zion. Several cases of intermarriage.
LEWISTOWN, Miffiin County; total population, 4451; 132 Ne
groes; 7 property holders; 3 barber shops, 2 of which shave whites
only; i teamster, i dressmaker, i notion store; some Negroes in
steel works and hotels; i electrician, 2 churches, with 27 members;
5 cases of intermarriage; i lodge of Odd Fellows.
McKEESPORT, Allegheny County. Population, 1900. But little
immigration from the South; 10 business men, 2 ministers, i physi
cian. Property valued at $80,000; 2 churches, 5 high school graduates,
10 pupils now in high school. Negroes "are thrifty and manv of
them are buying property because the tendency is not to rent to them
in desirable locations.'' Prejudice against Negroes h^s increased.
One Negro on police force said by the chief of police to be "very
good." MEADVILLE, Crawford County, 10,110 whites and 181 colored;
a college town, i church (A. M. E.); no graduates from high school,
10 property holders; chief work, domestic service, railroad work, i
barber, i carpenter; value of church and parsonage, $10,000.
MONONGAHELA, Washington County. Population, igoo, 4827
whites, 346 colored. There are 6 barber shops, 4 teamsters, i paver,
several dressmakers, brick and stone masons; mixed school; no Ne
gro teacher; i graduate from high school, 1906, and none in 1907;
no intermarriages. MONESSEN, Westmoreland County; 2197 total population 1900;
about 250 Negroes in 1907. About 150 men work chiefly for Pitts
burgh Steel Company, of whom 28 are wire drawers, earning about
$4.00 per day of 11 hours; others are firemen, boiler tenders, etc.
Negroes started here in 1902, when 32 wire drawers got free passes

A Study In Economic History 227
from Joliet, 111., and a guarantee of $4.00 per day to come here to
work; 6 of the original 32 still remain. There are 2 churches: A. M.
E. and Baptist; i Negro doctor, 3 barber shops, shaving whites only.
NEW CASTLE, Lawrence County. Population, 1900, 27,868
whites and 471 colored. About 800 Negroes in 1907. Negroes chiefly
porters, butlers, hod carriers, laborers in steel mills; a few plasterers;
6 barber shops; i pool room, 2 restaurants, 4 churches, 2 Baptist,
A. M. E., and A. M. E. Zion; i physician; no graduates from high
school, 1906 or 1907. True Reformers, Odd Fellows and Masons
have lodges; some immigration.
OIL CITY, Venango County. Population, igoo, 13,072 whites
and 182 colored. Men work in machine works, and with oil com
pany at $1.50 to $2.50 per day; some waiters, laborers, bartenders
and porters. About four-fifths of the people own their homes; 2
cases of intermarriage; i A. M. E. Church.
OXFORD, Chester County. Population, 1900, 2032. Near Lin
coln University. There are 3 ministers, i teacher, 12 business men.
Some immigration and some emigration in past years. Prejudice has
not increased. "The condition of the Negro here is not so inviting,
the few in business make no mark in the business world, the several
are doing fairly well on a small scale."
PHILADELPHIA, Philadelphia County. Population, igoo,
i,22g,673 whites, 62,613 Negroes. Negro population now (igo7) about
80,000. Negroes lived most largely in the 4th, 7th, 8th, 15th, 22d,
24th, 27th, 2gth, 30th wards, but are generally scattered over the city.
Voting population was, in 1900, 20,095, of whom 2190 Negroes were
illiterate; 416 persons owned houses, of which 198 were encumbered.
In 1907 there were 802 pieces of property owned, the taxable value
of which was $2,438,675; Negroes have over $3,000,000 in banks; more
than 800 persons in business; 40 incorporated businesses; savings
banks. The chief occupation is domestic service, in which more than
95 per cent, of the female and 65 per cent, of the males were engaged
in 1900. There is, however, an increasing number of Negroes in the
professions, trade and transportation and in manufacturing and
mechanical pursuits. There are 80 churches, with approximately
28,000 members; of these 31 are Baptists, 17 are A. M. E. Churches,
8 Methodist Episcopal Churches, 6 Episcopal Churches, 5 A. M. E.
Zion, 4 Presbyterian, etc. The schools are mixed. There are about
SO teachers, teaching Negroes chiefly. Negroes attend school fairly

228 The Negro In Pennsylvania
well. There have been graduates from the high and normal schools
each year during recent years. There are lodges of Masons, Elks,
Odd Fellows, Triie Reformers and other secret orders. Negroes are
emigrating to the city in large numbers, chiefly from Virginia, Mary
land, North Carolina; about 150 cases of intermarriage.
PITTSBURGH (including Allegheny), Allegheny County. Popu
lation, 1900, 451,512, of whom Negroes comprised 20,355 (Pittsburgh,
17,040; Allegheny, 3315). Negroes are chiefly in 8th and 13th wards,
along Wyhe, Bedford and Centre avenues; but are also in every ward
in the city; the movement of the population has been eastward for
several years; many of the most prosperous Negroes live in the East
End of Pittsburgh. In 1900 there were 259 homes owned, of which
146 were encumbered. Considerably over a million dollars' worth
of property must be owned today. More than 300 Negroes are in
business employing about 1000 Negroes. The chief businesses are
barber shops, restaurants, hotels, excavating and hauhng. Negroes
are largely employed in the steel mills and some have very respon
sible places. Negro puddlers are used exclusively in the Park's
Mills (The Black Diamond); Negro rollers are employed in the Old
Clark's mills, now owned by the Carnegie Steel Company, of the
United States Steel Corporation. There are 5 lawyers, more than a
dozen physicians, dentists and pharmacists, but no teachers. There
are 175 Negroes in the employ of the Federal, county and city gov
ernment, of whom 25 are policemen and about 40 in the post office.
There are nearly 40 churches, the Baptist having the largest num
ber and the largest memberships. Immigration is very heavy, espe
cially from' Virginia and North Carolina.
PITTSTON, Luzerne County; about 12,530 whites and 26 col
ored in 1900; in 1906 about 150 colored; i family owns home. Ne
groes chiefly in domestic service and unskilled labor; coachmen and
waiters; i Negro has peanut stand, 2 teamsters, i novelty manufac
turer, I A. M. E. Church, i lodge. Odd Fellows; no intermarriage.
SCRANTON, Lackawanna County. Population, igoo, 101,487
whites and 53g colored. Principal businesses are teaming, i man
running 12 teams, employing 40 persons; i grocery, i hotel of 40
rooms, 2 barber shops. Men are largely coachmen, messengers,
waiters, a few coal miners; women chiefly domestics, 2 graduates
from high school in igo7, i teaching in West Virginia, the other in
a business college; i lawyer, 2 churches, A. M. E. and Baptist; lodges.
Masons, Odd Fellows, Elks, True Reformers.

A Study In Economic History 229
STEELTON, Dauphin County, suburb of Harrisburg. Popula
tion, 10,575 whites, 1571 colored. This town is built around the steel
industry. Negroes are chiefly on Adams and Ridge streets, largely
segregated. Only a few own homes. The principal businesses are:
I general store, 2 small confectionery and notion stores, i tobacco
store, 2 restaurants, 2 pool rooms, 4 express and hauhng, 4 barber
shops, 2 rag and junk dealers, i manicurist, i undertaker, 2 carpen
ters, I plasterer, i newspaper, i building and loan association, I
cleaning and pressing establishment. The chief occupation is labor
ing in the steel mills, where about 500 Negroes are employed. There
are some foremen, and one machinist. Women do but little work.-
There are 2 Baptist Churches and i A. M. E. Church, having an
aggregate membership of about 700 persons; there is one physician,
a graduate of Lincoln University and Howard University; 5 teachers
il) pubhc schools. The Negro pupils are taught chiefly by Negro
teachers; no graduates in igo7 from high school. There are three
Negro poHcemen, i detective, i clerk in the Steel Company's store,
I member of the City Council; 25 Negroes own property, Negroes
first entered steel mills as strike breakers. Immigration has been
very heavy in past ten years, chiefly from Virginia, Maryland and
North Carolina.
TYRONE, Blair County. Population, igoo, 115 Negroes, 54
males and 61 females, and 5731 whites. Negroes are chiefly porters,
laborers; 5 property holders, i farmer owns 70 acres. There are five
barber shops, one hairdresser, i A. M. E. Church at Hollidaysburg;
a few miles away one Negro does a large confectionery business.
Hollidaysburg had 116 Negroes in igoo.
UNIONTOWN, Fayette County. Population in 1900, 6537
whites, 807 colored; now (1907) about 1200 colored; about 15 home
owners, averaging $1000 each. Businesses include 2 small grocers, 2
restaurants, 4 barber shops, 3 of which for whites only; i employ
ment agency, 4 dressmakers, 2 boarding houses, i bricklayer and
carpenter. Men work principally in the coal mines and coke manu
factory. Wages range from $1.15 to $3.50 per day. All hotels have
Negro waiters. Women chiefly in domestic service. There are 4
farmers in neighborhood, having from 10 to 40 acres. There are 4
churches, 2 Baptists, and i A. M. E. and i A. M. E. Zion; mixed
schools; no Negro teachers; l physician and i electrical engineer.
There were 4 Negro graduates from the high school in 1907 and 2 in

230 The Negro In Pennsylvania
igo6. About 350 Negro pupils in school. Lodges of Knights of
Pythias, Odd Fellows, Good Samaritans and True Reformers are in
the city. Considerable immigration in past two years, from Virginia,
North Carolina and Maryland; i Negro policeman.
WASHINGTON, Washington County. Population, igoo, 6677
whites and 993 colored. Estimated Negro population in 1907 was
1500. Businesses are: i grocery, 3 restaurants, 8 barbers, boarding
houses, I contractor, i plasterer, i tailor, 2 hairdressers, 2 caterers.
There are 4 churches, A. M. E., A. M. E. Z., Baptist and M. E.;
I lawyer, i physician, 3 teachers under a white principal. Colored
children in separate room from whites in public school; i high school
graduate (male), 1907, 2 in 1906; i former graduate is a physician
in Virginia; a few cases of intermarriage; large immigration from
Virginia and West Virginia. Men work chiefly in tin-plate manufac
tory and coal mines, earning from $4.50 to $7.50 per day. About 150
persons own property, one owning 7 houses, valued at $10,000; an
other having property valued at $5000; Church property valued at
$40,000. People live in good houses, scattered in all parts of the
city. WAYNESBURG, Greene County. Population, igoo, 62,390
whites and 154 colored. Men work in tin-plate mills for $1.50 to $s
per day; finishers being able to earn the latter amount; about one-
third of the Negroes own their homes; but not as much property is
owned as formerly; one Negroe owns property worth $20,000. There
' are 3 barber shops, 3 teamsters, i carpenter, i plasterer, i A. M. E.
Church, I lodge of Masons; no graduates; no intermarriage.
WEST CHESTER, Chester County. Population, 1900, 7739'
whites, 1785 colored. Estimated Negro population, igo7, 2000; chief
occupations of men are common labor, work in brickyards and mills;
of women, domestic service; wages, $1.25 to $3.00 per day for men;
$2 to $5 per day for women. 45 Negroes in business, 6 restaurants,
I hotel, 8 barbers, i real estate dealer, i blacksmith, i excavating con
tractor, 2 shining parlors, i colt trainer, i contractor, i caterer, 2
hairdressers, 2 boarding houses, i grocery, 3 expressmen, 3 fish and
vegetable dealers, 4 junk dealers, 5 dressmakers, i bakery, i paper
hanger. There are also i stone mason, 2 bricklayers, i engineer,
sveral fireman and brickmakers. The Negro business people employ
from 58 to 75 persons. In this hotel g are employed regularly. There
are 6 teachers, 2 post office employes, i physician, 8 ministers, i po-

A Study In Economic History 231
liceman. Property is estimated to be worth $6oo,ood But little im
migration during recent years; not much prejudice. Negro school
put under Negro principal a year ago.
WEST NEWTON, Westmoreland County. Population in igoo,
2467. Negroes now estimated at 200 (igo7); 4 property holders; 2
barber shops, serving only whites; i restaurant, 2 engineers. Mining
is the chief work of the Negroes; a few work in radiator and boiler
works; a few teamsters, coachmen and hotel workers. Women wash
and sew chiefly; i church (A. M. E.); no lodge. Population is de
creasing on account of scarcity of coal. The church membership has
decreased by 50 per cent.
WILKES-BARRE, Luzerne County. Population, igoo, 51,030
white, 685 colored. Negro population in igo7 estimated about 1000.
No physician, 3 ministers, 2 post office employes, i clerk and i car
rier, I Court officer with whites, good; Negroes own between $75,000
and $100,000 of property; one stock clerk in wholesale store, i sten
ographer with large coal company; majority of men work in hotels,
clubs and daily unskilled labor; women in domestic service; 23 busi
ness men, 6 barber shops, i hotel, several express men and general
.haulers, 2 tile setters, I weekly newspaper, 2 churches, i mission, i
lodge of Odd Fellows; but little immigration from South.
WILLIAMSPORT, Lycoming County. Population, 1900, 27,613
whites, 1 144 colored; about 40 property holders, one of whom owns
eight houses. Negroes are not segregated, but scattered over the
city. Chief businesses: I steam laundry, employing 10 persons; 3 res
taurants, 4 paper hangers, 4 paper hangers and painters, 2 carpenters,
3 plasterers, i bricklayer, 2 grocery stores, i hotel, 3 colored barber
shops and about a dozen teams. Negroes work in silk braid factory,
I foreman; laborers in the lumber mills; waiters, porters, etc. There
are 4 churches, aggregating 640 members; i A. M. E., i A. M. E.
Z. and 2 Baptists; 2 lodges of Odd Fellows, i of Masons, i of True
Reformers; I policeman, i constable, 2 men in post office, l letter
carrier, I lawyer; no teachers; mixed schools; 2 graduates from high
school, 107, and i graduate, 1906; 3 cases of intermarriage.
YORK, York County. Population, 1900, 32,929 whites, 778 col
ored. Negroes live scattered over the town, some in quite desirable
places, with clean brick houses, with small porticos, others in the side
streets. There are about 50 property holders, some owning one, two,
three, four and as high as five houses in addition to their homes.

232 The Negro In Pennsylvania
Within the last ten years it has become very difficult for colored
people to rent houses on the better streets; as a result, they are
forced to buy if they would live in the desirable parts of the city.
The value of property in York is about $100,000. There are 6 barber
shops, 3 of which shave whites only; 2 restaurants, i caterer, 3 team
sters, I hair dresser, 2 boarding houses, 2 dressmakers, i inurance
agent. Negroe are engaged largely in domestic service and unskilled
labor. Wages for men run from $25 to $40 per month, for women,
$3 to $3.50 per week. The York Manufacturing Company (iron
works) has about 100 Negroes employed; pay ranged from $1.50 to
$2.50 per day. In some establishments Negroes hold positions of
importance. The York Dental Supply Company has a Negro to
burn artificial teeth; one of the iron companies has a Negro engi
neer and a Negro draughtsmen. There are 4 churches, i A. M. E.,
with go members; i A. M. E. Z., with 250 members; i Presbyterian,
40 members, and I Baptist. There were 136 Negroes in public
school, June, igo7, and 2 in business, college. There were 4 teachers
and I physician. Negro children go to a separate primary school.
Nine Negroes have graduated from high school in past ten years;
one is a physician, another a Presbyterian minister, another a grad
uate in law, now in the Government service in Chicago; i died while
studying medicine; 2 are teachers, i a barber, i in training school
for teachers and 2 are at home. There have been Negro teachers in
the schools for a half century. There has been immigration during
the past ten years, chiefly from Virginia, Maryland and North Caro
lina, but this has been very nearly balanced by emigration to Har
risburg and larger cities. The Negroes are optimistic, and report
no ill-feeling among them and whites.

^

A Study In Economic History 233

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A Study In Economic History 239
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A Study In Economic History 245
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246 The Negro In Pennsylvania
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