A Review of Hoffman's Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro Part 4

The Negro has a higher criminal record than the Caucasian, it is true, but so has the foreigner a greater average than the native whites. The strongest possible argument in this connection rests upon the fact that the presence of a large number of Negroes in any community does not increase its total criminal average. The North Atlantic division, including the states of Maine, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Vermont, Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, has a criminal record of 833.1 to the million, while the South Atlantic division, including the states of the Southern Atlantic coast shows a record of 831.7. The Western division has an average of 1300. The section that has the fewest Negroes has the highest average, and the states that have the largest quota of blacks show the lowest criminal rates. If we compare state with state the same interesting results are revealed. The criminal record of New York (million basis) is 1369, of South Carolina 702.6, of California 1703, of Alabama 720.1.

But, says the objector, a difference in the rigidity of the enforcement of the law may account in some measure for this disparity. Let us then take the city of Was.h.i.+ngton, one-third of whose population are Negroes, and compare its police reports with those of Boston, whose Negro element is a negligible fraction. It will be conceded, I think, that the enforcement of law in both cities is rigid. The major of police for the District of Columbia, in his last report remarks: "Those familiar with the conduct of police affairs in this country generally contend that there is a constant increase of crime; that it keeps pace with the growing population. While such may be true of the princ.i.p.al cities of the United States, facts and figures support the claim of this department that in this respect the District of Columbia occupies a distinct standing of its own. Its comprehensive moral status is above that of most communities. Were it not for the depredations chargeable to theft, there would be comparatively little crime to chronicle. This offense must always exist here, unless through some unexpected agency a complete change should be effected in the social conditions which prevail. The abiding place of a large cla.s.s of idle, illiterate, and consequently vicious persons, it is but reasonable that the respectable element should be preyed upon to a considerable extent."[52]

The percentage of arrests for Boston during 1896 was 9.37, whereas for Was.h.i.+ngton it was only 8 and a fraction. These facts would seem to furnish sufficient evidence that crime adheres to circ.u.mstances and condition and not to race and color.

But, says the author, in the North (where legal processes are acknowledgly fair so far as the Negro is concerned) the race shows a criminal record which is out of all proportion to its numerical strength. In Pennsylvania 2.23 per cent of its population commit 16.16 per cent of the crimes; in Chicago 1.30 of the population are responsible for 9.84 of the offenses, and so for other Northern communities. The Negro's criminal status is from six to eight times greater than his numerical weight. It has been shown in another place that from a social and economic standpoint the Northern Negro is completely submerged. The criminal outbreak under the circ.u.mstances is only natural.

It is also true that where numbers are small proportions are high. The startling criminal showing of the Northern Negro can be accounted for largely on this principle. Suppose that there were but one Chinaman in a community, and coming, as he naturally would, into hostile contact with a wide area, he should be arrested and convicted. The criminal records of that community would show that one hundred per cent of the Chinese population belonged to the criminal cla.s.s.

I append the following table, extracted from the census of 1880, to establish this principle. The Negro in the country at large shows a much higher criminal rate than the foreign whites, but if we limit our inquiry to those states where the foreign population is small, the conditions will be reversed.

_Number of prisoners in several southern states (to the million of population.)_

State. Foreign white. Colored.

Florida 2,624 1,797 Georgia 2,272 2,181 Louisiana 1,810 1,728 Mississippi 2,498 1,783

If, on the other hand, we select those states in which the Negro element is small and the foreign element large the result is very decidedly to the disadvantage of the Negro.

The Northern Negro has a criminal record which is not only out of all proportion to his numerical strength, but is two or three times as great as that of his black brothers in the South. It is hard to see how "race traits" could account for this discrepancy.

RAPE AND LYNCHING.

The attempts at rape and the consequent lynchings are also offered in evidence of the evil propensity of the race. It is undoubtedly true that the alleged a.s.saults upon white women by colored men have done more than all other causes combined to give the race an evil reputation and make it loathsome in the eyes of mankind. "It throws over every colored man a mantle of odium and sets upon him a mark for popular hate more distressing than the mark set upon the first murderer ... It has cooled our friends and heated our enemies."[53]

The alleged culprit in such cases, especially if he be a colored man and the victim a white woman, is almost certain to die without due process of law. The native, savage furor of human nature a.s.serts itself in the presence of such dastardly outrages, and neither legal enactments nor moral codes nor religious sanction can restrain it. The perpetrators cannot be defended or pitied. It is a waste of sympathy to wail over the deep d.a.m.nation of their taking off. And yet we must remember that when the two races are concerned rape has a larger definition than is set down in the dictionaries. There can be no doubt that there have been many lynchings chargeable to rape, when the true cause should be designated by a different, though an ugly name.

Let us not forget, also, that not more than one-third of the lynchings are even chargeable to rape. The causes include the whole catalogue of offenses, serious and trifling, from the committal of murder to jostling against a white man on the street. The attempt to show that lynching and rape are coextensive is misleading and unjust.

So the effort to show that rapeful a.s.saults are due to "race traits"

can, I think, be clearly disproved. In a pamphlet which is certainly not flattering to the Negro, a learned medical authority tells us: "I might remark in pa.s.sing that, notwithstanding the horrible crimes perpetrated under the influence of the _furor s.e.xualis_ by the Negro, I believe that he compares quite favorably as regards s.e.xual impulses--taking all abnormalities into consideration--with the white race. The more I see of white men in so-called refined society, the more contempt have I for quite a large proportion of male humanity."[54]

To summarize the points of the argument, showing that rape is not peculiarly characteristic of the Negro:

1. Rape has been practiced among all races and nations.

2. The committal of rape by white men is by no means an infrequent occurrence. Two instances of white men committing heinous a.s.saults upon white children occurred in Was.h.i.+ngton during the preparation of this article.

3. In Africa rape is so severely punished that it is comparatively unknown.

4. In the British Islands and in South America where the Negroes live in greatest relative abundance, the crime is unheard of.

5. When the care and safety of the white women of the South were entrusted to the keeping of the slaves, they returned inviolable all that had been entrusted to their hands.

6. Of the hundreds of lady missionaries of the North who have trusted their lives and virtue to the emanc.i.p.ated race whom they came to uplift, not a single case of violation has been reported to their friends at the North.

SOCIAL MORALITY.

The present state of social morality is mirrored in the number of illegitimate offsprings. The figures which show that the rate of illegitimacy among Negroes in Was.h.i.+ngton has increased from 17.60 per cent of total births in 1879 to 26.46 per cent in 1894 have been widely quoted and remarked upon. These are facts of record and cannot be gainsaid or denied. According to the opinion of medical men and others in positions to observe, these figures if anything fall short of the truth. It is also probable that the other large cities of the country, if as closely studied, would make as startling a showing. The only alarming feature of the situation is the constant _increase_ in the illegitimate rates. That twenty-five per cent of the births among Negroes are illegitimate will not alarm anyone where it is considered that even this low moral status represents a gain of seventy-five per cent over the conditions prevailing under slavery.

Mr. Hoffman having on hand a theory, was spared the pains of inquiring further into the causes which led to this deplorable state of things.

The reviewer suggests that this increase in social immorality among the Negroes of Was.h.i.+ngton is due to the great rush of ignorant, purposeless colored people to the national capital, a condition of things which always leads, in its first effect, to social looseness and impurity. The very late marriages among the better element of the colored people also help to account for this awful state of things. But perhaps a greater than any cause yet a.s.signed as leading to the social degradation of Negroes in cities is the excess of the female over the male element of the population. On account of the importance of this subject, I append a table showing this excess for the cities whose colored population is over 20,000.

_Colored population._

Number of Colored Colored Excess of females to City. males. females. females. every 100 males.

Baltimore 29,165 38,131 8,966 131 Richmond 14,216 18,138 3,922 128 Atlanta 12,400 15,717 3,317 127 Was.h.i.+ngton 33,831 41,866 8,035 123 New Orleans 28,936 35,727 6,791 123 Nashville 13,334 16,061 2,727 120 Charleston 14,187 16,849 2,662 119 Savannah 10,493 12,485 1,992 119 Memphis 13,333 15,396 2,063 115 Louisville 13,348 15,324 1,976 115 Philadelphia 18,960 21,414 2,454 113 St. Louis 13,247 13,819 572 104 New York 12,649 13,025 376 103 ------ ------ ------ --- Total 228,099 273,952 45,875 120

Such a disproportion between the s.e.xes can forbode no good to society.

In the West, where the male element predominates over the female among the white population, the evil effect on society is painfully apparent.

If every colored man in Was.h.i.+ngton were married and every male minor had a mate selected for him, there would still be left Negro females enough to form a manless community larger than Annapolis, Md. Now, no one should wonder at the moral corruption under these circ.u.mstances. These 8000 females, for whom marriage is impossible, be it remembered, are not restrained by the inhibitory influence of pride, station, and self-esteem. This is no doubt the greatest evil which threatens the social integrity of Negro life, and forms the most serious and perplexing of our city problems.

As startling as the records of crime and immorality are, they are only the outgrowth of circ.u.mstances and conditions. Human nature at best is weak, and under fostering circ.u.mstances has always yielded to the power of sin and uncleanliness. The author tells us that immorality is a race trait. This is sadly too true, but it is a human race trait, and is limited to no particular variety thereof.

CHAPTER VI.

_Subject._ Economic Conditions.

_Gist._ "As a general conclusion it may be said that the Negro has not yet learned the first element of Anglo-Saxon thrift."[55]

THE NEGRO AS A FARM HAND.

Attempt is made to show that the Negro has deteriorated as a farm laborer, and that as an industrial factor he has not held his own in the development of the resources of the South. With a process of reasoning with which we are fully familiar by this time, these a.s.sertions are sought to be upheld. The decline in agricultural interests throughout the country has had its effect upon the apparent efficiency of the farming cla.s.s everywhere. The mad rush to the cities, with a vain hope of improvement in condition, has well nigh demoralized agricultural pursuits.

THE NEGRO AS AN INDUSTRIAL FACTOR.

The investigations which have been undertaken to determine the industrial efficiency of the Negro have shown results not unfavorable to him. The recent discharge of white workmen in the cotton mills of Charleston, and the subst.i.tution of colored workmen in their places, is quite significant.

The hindrances which the Negro has to meet in the industrial field are fully suggested in the address to the public of the discharged white employes of the Charleston establishment: "If the colored man's status precludes him from competing with the office-holder, it should exclude him from competing with our wives, sons, and daughters in the light pursuits of the country. We affirm, by our physical powers and brave hearts, not to sit supinely by and witness this Negro horde turned loose upon the pursuits of our mothers, our wives, our widows, our daughters, our sisters, and rob them of their living."[56]

This is the solemn declaration of 800 workmen in the metropolis of South Carolina, and represents fairly the white labor sentiment of the South.

The trades unions and labor organizations preach the same doctrine. If the alleged low industrial efficiency of the Negro is to be chargeable to race traits, it should be attributed to the domineering and intolerant race traits of the white workmen who are not disposed to give the colored man a fair chance. The fact that in almost every contention between white and colored workmen the employers take the side of the Negro, is an eloquent argument in behalf of the industrial merits of the latter; for these employers are in the business for profit and not for philanthropy.

ACc.u.mULATION OF PROPERTY.

The acc.u.mulation of property on the part of the blacks shows that in Georgia they own $12,941,230, in North Carolina $8,018,446, and in Virginia $13,933,908. The land held by the colored people in Virginia alone has an area nearly equal to that of the State of Rhode Island.

These facts make a decidedly favorable showing.