Negro
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Negro. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: ET 2026-07-22) the distinctively dark, as opposed to the fair, yellow, and brown varieties of mankind. Their original home was probably all Africa S. of the Sahara, India S. of the Indo -Gangetic plains, lains, Malaysia and the greater part of Australasia. In early and middle Tertiary times this tract was probably Lemuria. The negro is best represented by the Sudanese tribes in Africa. Varieties are found throughout that Continent, with differing characteristics. Negroid races are also found in Madagascar, New Guinea, and Melanesia. The classification of these is difficult, and ethnologists do not agree in relation to them. Indeed, knowledge as to the negro is relatively slight, although advances have been made in recent years. NEGRO EDUCATION in America began with the early efforts of individual masters or slave owners for economic reasons. They were supplemented by Spanish and French missionaries as a part of their effort to convert the Indians and the Negroes to Christianity. The first settlers of the American Colonies, who offered Negroes the same educational and religious privileges which they accorded to white persons, were the Quakers. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, an organization of the Episcopal Church of England, attempted education as well as missionary work among Indians and Negroes, the first school being opened by the Rev. Samuel Thomas in South Carolina in 1695. In 1747 the Rev. William Sturgeon, a student of Yale, and ordained in London, opened a school for Negroes in Philadelphia. Prohibitive legislation against the education of the Negro began with the Act of South Carolina in 1740, but the Northern and New England States still continued to provide teachers for colored children. In 1828 there were three public schools for Negroes in Boston, one in New Haven, one in Salem, and one in Portland, Me. In New York City the New York African Free School was organized in 1787, and was the first to introduce industrial training. In 1801 the Convention of Abolition Societies of New Jersey had several schools in operation. During the latter part of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century practically all negro education was conducted either by the Church or by Abolition societies. A colored settlement was begun begun near Xenia, O., where Wilberforce University had its beginning. The sixth census in 1850 shows that Pennsylvania had 3,114 Negro children in school, New York 2,607, Ohio 1,321, New Jersey 1,243; in 1860 New Jersey had 2,741, Ohio 5,671, New York 5,694, and Pennsylvania 7,573. The first Negro to graduate from a collège was John B. Russworm from Bowdoin. The first institution exclubroken up by the sea and the disappear- sively for the higher education of Negrc ance of the region named by Sclater youth was opened in Philadelphia, 1852. Avery College was incorporated at Allegheny City, 1849. Ashmun Institute, afterward Lincoln University, was founded in 1854 in Chester co., Pa. Wilberforce University in Ohio was formally incorporated in 1856. The earliest advocate of manual training for colored pupils was Frederick Douglass, and industrial schools were opened in Ohio and Indiana. Free public schools for colored children were established by law in Massachusetts 1820, New York 1821, Rhode Island 1828, Pennsylvania 1834, New Jersey 1844. The foundations of Hampton Institute were laid at Fortress Monroe in 1861. After the Emancipation Proclamation, Negro schools were established in all parts of the South by the Federal Army. The Freedmen's Bureau was created March 3, 1865, and in the five years of its existence it established 4,239 schools, employed 9,307 teachers and taught 247,- 333 pupils, expending for Negro education $3,521,936, while the benevolent organizations cooperating with the bureau expended $1,572,000. In addition the freed colored people raised and expended for their own schools $785,700. The American Missionary Association, which helped to establish Hampton, also started Fisk University at Nashville, Tenn.; Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga., and Straight University at New Orleans, La. It also established normal schools at Charleston, S. C.; Macon, Ga.; Talladega and Mobile, Ala.; high schools at Wilmington and Beaufort, N. C.; Savannah, Ga.; Memphis and is and Chattanooga, Tenn.; and Louisville, Ky. The American Freedmen's Union Commission, organized in 1866, established 458 schools. The New England branch of the same society sent out 180 teachers, who instructed 10,000 pupils. The New York branch supported 125 schools, with 222 teachers. The Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of the Colored People built more than 50 school houses. West Virginia was the first Southern State to establish a public school system for colored children, in 1863. The District of Columbia, Louisiana, and Maryland in 1864; Missouri, 1865; Alabama and Tennessee, 1867; Arkansas, Florida, and South Carolina, 1868; North Carolina and Virginia, 1869; Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas, 1870; Kentucky, 1874; and Delaware, 1875. At present the chief supervising agencies for Negro common schools are the State and county boards of education; the Jeanes Fund; the General Education Board, the Slater and Peabody Funds, and the Rosenwald Foundation (through the administration by Tuskegee of funds for rural improvement). Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, a, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia have State colored supervisors in the rural schools. The largest single contribution to the education of the Negro was made by Pierre S. duPont of Delaware, who in 1919 gave $900,000 for building and equipping rural Negro schools in Delaware. The Baptist, Catholic, Congregational, Friends, Lutheran, Methodist Episcopal, Presbyterian, Reformed Episcopalian, and Reformed Presbyterian, Seventh Day Adventists, and United Brethren churches maintain boards which carry on educational work among the Negroes. The Society of Friends conducts a number of schools, notably the one at Cheyney, Pa., a normal schoo school; the outgrowth of the old Institute for Colored Youth, formerly at Philadelphia, founded in 1852. The United States Bureau of Education's report on Negro education gives 64 public high schools for colored persons. These schools had 49 teachers, 29,- 923 elementary students, and 8,453 secondary students a total of 29,376. These high schools were located by States as follows : Alabama, 4; Arkansas, 5; Delaware, 1; District of Columbia, 2; Florida, 2; Georgia, 1; Kansas, 1; Kentucky, 9; Maryland, 1; Mississippi, 1; Missouri, 2; Oklahoma, 5; South Carolina, 1; Tennessee, 5; Texas, 13; Virginia, 6; West Virginia, 5. Howard University, the largest institution for the higher education of the Negro, was founded by the Freedmen's Bureau in 1869. It comprises colleges of law, medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, the ology, education, arts. It is connected with the Freedmen's Hospital, which serves as a practice school for the graduates in medicine and pharmacy. In 1875 Booker Taliaferro Washington graduated from Hampton Institute, whither he had entered in 1872. On July 4, 1881, he established the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, the greatest institution of its kind in the world . Expenditures. During 1917-1918, the expenditures for private and higher schools for the Negro in the United States were by States and municipalities $686,253; by the United States Government, $381,000; from other sources than those mentioned above, $3,425,000; total, $4,492,253 . There was expended for colored public schools by the sixteen former slave States, the District of Columbia and Oklahoma, $12,964,457. The total expenditure for Negro education was $17,456,710. It is roughly estimated that the religious and philanthropic organizations have contributed since 1865 about $63,- 500,000 for the education of the Negro in the South. During this same period the Negroes themselves, by direct contributions through their churches and other means, have contributed over $30,- 000,000 for their education. It is estimated that since 1870 the Southern States have expended from their public funds about $143,000,000 for Negro common schools . School Property and Endowments.- The total value of the property, including scientific apparatus, grounds and buildings owned by institutions for secondary and higher training of Negroes, amounts to about $24,792,669. The endowments or productive funds of schools for Negroes amount to approximately $9,550,000. Of this amount $3,050,000 belongs to colleges and universities, and $6,500,000 to normal and industrial schools. Only about twenty colleges for Negroes have endowments. During the year 1917-1918 all Negro schools increased their endowments about $500,000. Cortributions of Negroes for tion. It is estimated that through the Educachurches and other means Negroes are each year raising about $2,000,000 for the support of 175 schools. Their school property is valued at about $2,500,000. NEGRO IN AMERICA, first mention of the Negro in America is THE. The found in the records of the voyages of Columbus. In 1501, or earlier, Negro slaves were familiar in the West Indies, African slaves having been brought over by the Spanish émigrés. From 1505 to 1510 there are records of King Ferdinand sending slaves to the West Indies. In 1516, 30 Negroes accompanied and assisted him in building the first Balboa ship constructed on the Pacific Coast. On accession to the Spanish throne in 1517, Charles V., also Emperor of Germany and the Netherlands, granted the exclusive monopoly to Flemish noblemen to import annually 4,000 Africans Hispaniola, Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto to Rico. ( References: Lowery, "Spanish Settlements Within the Limits of the United States, 1513-1561"; Wright, "Negro Companions of Spanish Explorers, " American Anthropologist, Vol. ÎV., N. S., 1902.") In August, 1619, a Dutch vessel brought to Jamestown 20 Negroes, who were sold into servitude. Virginia did not give statutory recognition to slavery as a system until 1661. In the records 446; New York, 91,709; New Orleans, of the county courts, Negroes are designated as "servants," never as "slaves." (See Russell, "The Free Negro in Virginia, 1619-1865," pp. 22-25; Ballagh, "White Servitude in Virginia," p. 45.) The Negroes were first imported into Massachusetts from Barbadoes 1636 or 1637; into New York about 1650; into Maryland 1632. In New Jersey the date is indefinite, although the word "slave" occurs in 1664. In Delaware about 1702. First heard of in Pennsylvania in 1688 through the memorial of Francis Daniel Pastorius of Germantown. Slavery was recognized officially in Connecticut in 1650; in Rhode Island in 1652; in New Hampshire in 1714; in North Carolina in 1715; in South Carolina in 1682; in Georgia in 1749. These dates are significant in that they show the presence and distribution of the Negro over the area of the United States. (See Brawley, "A Short History of the American Negro"; "The Negro Year Book.") Population. In 1625, six years after the first Negroes were brought to Virginia, there were only twenty-three, twelve males and eleven females. In 1659 there were 300; in 1683, 3,000; in Per cent. of total population in gainful occupations. Per cent. all males in gainful occupations.. Per cent. all females in gainful occupations Per cent. of all Negro males in gainful occupations. Per cent. of all Negro females in gainful occupations. NUMBER OF NEGROES IN EACH MAIN CLASS OF OCCUPATIONS OCCUPATION Agricultural pursuits.... Professional Service. Domestic and personal service. Trade and transportation.. Manufacturing and mechanical pursuits. 1708, 12,000; in 1712, 23,000; in 1756, 120,156; in 1774, 200,000, or 14 per cent of the population. The first census in 1790 showed Ne Negro constituting 19.3 per cent, or 757,208, of which 697,899 were slaves. In 1910 the census returns give 9,827,763. Distribution of Population. - Negroes are distributed in the United States as follows: The South, 8,749,427; the North, 1,027,674; the West, 50,662. In 1910 classification by sex was as follows: Males, 4,885,881; females, 4,941,882. Georgia has the largest Negro population of any State. In 1910 there were 1,176,987. The State of Mississippi the largest percentage, 56.2 per cent. The five cities with the largest Negro population are: Washington, D. C., 94,- La., 89,262; Baltimore, Md., 84,749; Philadelphia, Pa., 84,459. Four cities of 25,000 or more, with one-half the popиlation Negro, are Jacksonville, Fla., 50.8 per cent.; Montgomery, Ala., 50.6 per cent.; Charleston, S. C., 52.8 per cent.; Savannah, Ga., 51.1 per cent. The balance of distribution and the percentage of population has been somewhat disturbed by the migration of 1918, but it seems to have readjusted itself to pre-war conditions in the large Southern cities. Economic Conditions. - The Negro is capable of the hardest kind of work under climatic conditions often intolerable to whites. During the period of slavery the race was engaged chiefly in agriculture and in manual labor. The following tables show the distribution by occupation: In 1910 the number of Negroes 10 years of age and over in gainful occupations was: 5,192,535, or 71.0 per cent. of total Negro population of this age; by sex the number was, males, 3,187,554; females, 2,013,981. Negroes constitute 13.6 per cent. of all persons in gainful occupations. 1910 1900 53.3 50.2 81.3 80.0 23.4 18.8 87.4 84.1 54.7 40.7 INCREASE 1910 1900 Number Per cent. 2,893,674 2,143,176 750,498 35 69,929 41,324 22,605 47 1,099,715 1,324,160 *224,445 *17 425,043 209,154 215,889 103 704,174 275,149 429,025 156 * Decrease. A larger proportion of persons 10 years of age and over in the United States were engaged in gainful occupations in 1910 than in 1900. This increase was especially marked for the Negroes. The census reports on occupations for 1900 appeared to indicate that in such trades as carpentry, plastering, blacksmithing, etc., Negroes were losing ground. The 1910 census on occupations indicates that the Negro has made gains in practically all the trades in which he appeared in 1900 to be losing ground. In recent years there has been a large increase in the number of Negroes working in factories. They are, to a They large extent, doing the rougher, semiskilled work. A marked tendency topublished ward more highly skilled labor is notice- Recorder. " able. In 1900 the number in factory inlish 450 dustry was 131,216; in 1910 the number religious, was 358,180; an increase of 226,964, or 173 per cent. national ture, 30 According to the census of 1910 there papers. were, excluding the 10,601 boarding and lodging housekeepers, 38,382 Negroes en- Macon, was gaged in business enterprises. This did Worcester, not include those operating blacksmith, 779 Negro barber and shoe shops, and several other tional classes of business connected with the social trades for which separate returns for tributed proprietors and employees were not 60 fraternal made. Probably 5,000 or more should have been added, making the total about 43,000. It is estimated that there are Knights of now 50,000 or more Negroes engaged in endowment the Odd business. and the The general effect on the Negroes of ternal the United States by the World War purpose of was greatly to increase the number of economic conditions. occupations in which they were engaged. In Pittsburgh industrial concerns alone is necessarily there were in 1916, 2,550 Negroes em- The earliest ployed, while in 1918 the number had in- States was creased to 8,325. (Epstein, "The Negro Migrant to Pittsburgh.") Solomon 1853; the The following table shows the general derground progress of the Negro since 1866, the Philadelphia end of the Civil War: 1866 Economic Progress- Homes owned. 12,000 Farms operated. 20,000 Businesses conducted. 2,100 Wealth accumulated. $20,000,000 Educational Progress- Per cent. literate. 10 Colleges and normal schools. 15 Students in public schools. 100,000 Teachers in all schools. 600 Property for higher education. $60,000 Annual expenditures for education. $700,000 Raised by Negroes.. $80,000 Religious Progress- Number of churches..... 700 Number of communicants. 600,000 Number of Sunday schools. 1,000 Sunday school pupils.... 50,000 Value of church property. $1,500,000 The social and moral condition of the not including Negro is rapidly improving, owing and economic chiefly to education and to a better Select economic position in the community. can," W. versity Wherever economic conditions of the Negro improve, family life and morals liography improve. Poverty, overcrowding in the report of cabins in the South and tenements in the sioner of North, and segregation in the worst lect List of quarters in the city, result in destruc- A. R. Grifin tion of of family life, and in disease ond Edition, 1906.) and crime. The Negro has improved to a larger following extent educationally than in any other Europe, (See "Negro Education in the line. moved north United States.") The first periodical is without was in 1865, " The Christian Negroes now own and pub periodicals, of which 70 are 85 educational, 7 organs of nal associations and general literafraternal organs, and 220 news- The first Negro lawyer, Allen B. admitted to practice law in Mass., 1845. There are now lawyers. There are 33 naassociations of various kinds; settlements by Negroes are disthroughout the country; over organizations, with a total membership of 2,000,000. Of Of these, the Pythias have $ 1,000,000 for and $ 2,500,000 of property; Fellows $ 2,000,000 of property Masons $ 1,000,000. These fraorganizations are largely for the improving health, social and The list of books published by Negroes faulty and incomplete. production in the United " Twelve Years a Slave, " by Northrup, Buffalo and London, next, " The History of the Un- Railroad, " by William Still, , 1872. Hundreds are listed, Gain in Fifty-three 1919 Years 588,000 600,000 980,000 1,000,000 47,900 50,000 $1,080,000,000 $1,100,000,000 70 80 485 500 1,700,000 1,800,000 37,400 38,000 $21,940,000 $22,000,000 $14,300,000 $15,000,000 $1,620,000 $1,700,000 43,000 42,300 4,200,000 4,800,000 39,000 46,000 2,200,000 2,250,000 $84,400,000 $85,900,000 special studies on social questions. ( Reference, " A Bibliography of the Negro Ameri- W. E. B. Du DuBois, Atlanta Uni- Publication, No. 10, 1905; " Bibof the Negro in America, " the United States Commis- Education, 1894, Vol. I .; " Se- References on the Negro, " , Library of Congress, Sec- Negro Migration. Within three years, the outbreak of the war in more than 400,000 Negroes . In extent, this movement parallel in American history. The real beginnings of Negro migration within the limits of the United States began between 1815 to 1850, with the flight of fugitive slaves to the Northwest. But the migration of 1917-1918 was more nearly similar to the exodus of 1879-1880 to Kansas, and the one to Arkansas and Texas in 1888-1889. The real causes of the recent migration as expressed by refugees were the agricultural depression in the lower Mississippi valley, resentment against political conditions in the South, desire for economic and industrial opportunity, and inadequacy of school facilities for Negro children. This migration was hailed as the "Exodus to the Promised Land," and was characterized by an unusual degree of excitement. It had no conspicuous leaders, and although apparently sudden and spontaneous, it was in reality an accentuation of a process which had been going on for a hundred years. The total increase in the Negro population between 1900 and 1910 was 11.2 per cent. In the past 50 years the Northern movement has transplanted about 4 per cent. of the entire Negro population. "Chicago increased her Negro Negro population 46.3 per cent., and Columbus, O., 55.3; an increase wholly at the expense of the South, for the rural communities of the North are very sparsely populated with Negroes, and the increment accruing from birth is almost negligible. When there is any migration southward it is largely in the western South Central division, while the migration northward has been more evenly distributed by divisions, except that a comparatively_small number have gone to the New England States. Previous to the World War, the States having the greatest gain from Negro migration were Arkansas, 105,500; Pennsylvania, 85,000; Florida, 84,000; New York, 58,- 450; Illinois, 57,500. The migration of 1916-1917 brought in its wake a train of industrial and racial conflicts in East St. Louis, Chicago, and some other cities, but they seem to have subsided quickly. The problem of the refugees was handled by the Urban League with intelligence and efficiency, best displayed in Detroit, where there was a minimum of suffering, in comparison with the congestion of emigrants. (Reference, "Negro Migration During the War," Emmett J. Scott, Preliminary Economic Studies of the War, No. 16, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.)
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a person of the black race. The native home of the negro is Central Africa. Not all Africans are negroes. The Sahara and the country to the north and east of it are peopled by dark representatives of the white race. The Hottentots of southern Africa are not considered negroes proper. There are supposed to be in all about 175,000,000 negroes or Ethiopians, as they are called sometimes. They were introduced as slaves into northern Africa, the southern United States , Nicaragua, the West Indies , and Brazil. The physical characteristics of the typical negro are interesting. The frame is of moderate height, tilted somewhat forward. The arm is long, in some individuals reaching the kneepan; the leg is thin; the foot is broad and flat, with a low instep; the great toe is flexible; the heel is long and is known as the "lark heel." The bones of the head are thick and strong. The brain is small, averaging about ten ounces less than that of the white man. The skin is soft, cool, and velvety, apparently enabling the negro to withstand a greater degree of heat than is possible for the white man. The complexion varies from a deep brown to a black. The pigments of the skin do not differ from those of a white man except that there is a greater accumulation of dark pigment. A peculiar odor is, however, noticeable. The hair is short, black, and curly. The eye is large and full. The iris is black; the surrounding sclerotic coat somewhat yellowish. The nose is short and broad. The lips are thick and turned somewhat outward, showing the inner surface. According to the last United States census there were 8,840,789 negroes in this country. The increase during the preceding ten years was eighteen per cent; that of the whites was twenty-one per cent. The state having the largest negro population in the census year was Georgia, almost equal to the white population, 46.7 per cent of the whole. The negroes outnumbered the whites in Mississippi with 58.5 per cent of the total, and in South Carolina with 58.4 per cent. Of minor civil divisions the maximum density of negro population was recorded in Issaquena county, Mississippi, with 94 per cent; in nine other counties in the south the percentage lay above 88. The native negro population according to the twelfth census of the United States, not including 20,336 foreign born, was distributed as follows: United States 8,820,296 Continental U. S 8,813,658 North Atlantic division 375,777 South Atlantic division 3,723,522 North Central division 493,023 South Central division 4,191,884 Western division 29,452 Alabama 827,112 Arizona 1,764 Arkansas 366,802 California 10,612 Colorado 8,516 Connecticut 14,990 Delaware 30,668 District of Columbia 86,528 Florida 226,270 Georgia 1,034,611 Idaho 284 Illinois 84,468 Indiana 57,441 Indian Territory 36,833 Iowa 12,654 Kansas 51,939 Kentucky 284,634 Louisiana 650,314 Maine 1,101 Maryland 234,761 Massachusetts 28,499 Michigan 14,713 Minnesota 4,877 Mississippi 907,477 Missouri 161,081 Montana 1,503 Nebraska 6,216 Nevada 129 New Hampshire 633 New Jersey 69,385 New Mexico 1,588 New York 95,680 North Carolina 624,415 North Dakota 279 Ohio 96,418 Oklahoma 18,810 Oregon 1,061 Pennsylvania 155,981 Rhode Island 8,700 South Carolina 782,224 South Dakota 451 Tennessee 480,151 Texas 619,751 Utah 658 Vermont 808 Virginia 660,570 Washington 2,406 West Virginia 43,475 Wisconsin 2,486 Wyoming 931 Alaska 163 Hawaii 178 Military and naval 6,297 It is thought that about one-third show at least a trace of white blood. The geographical center of the negro population of the United States is drifting westward. During the past 100 years it has traveled from Virginia to its present position--a point in DeKalb County in northeastern Alabama. About 1829 most of the slaveholding states passed laws making it a crime punishable by fine, whipping, or imprisonment to teach a colored person to read or to write. The education of the colored race, therefore, cannot be said to have begun before the close of the Civil War. When it is considered that the Southern States were impoverished by the war, and that they were utterly without teachers for the colored people, it must be admitted that they have met the situation courageously. Separate schools for colored children have been established very generally. The total number of negro children in attendance in separate schools is about a million and a half. About one-fifth of the total amount expended for education in the Southern States is devoted to colored schools. According to the census report already quoted over half of the negroes old enough to vote are now able to read and to sign their names. The efforts of the various states have been supplemented by private gifts. The negroes of the United States are the descendants of slaves. It is probable that there is not a single negro in the Union who migrated to this country of his own free will. According to the report mentioned, eleven negroes out of a thousand are members of some profession; 572 are engaged in agriculture; 47 in trade and transportation; 56 in manufacturing; and 314 in domestic and personal service. There were 22,318 negro carpenters and 17,480 barbers. Although negro farmers began work for themselves under the most adverse circumstances at the close of the Civil War they now own farm property valued at $250,000,000. As the farms are chiefly in the South, their principal crops are corn, tobacco, sweet potatoes, rice, and cotton. Statistics for the United States are: Negroes imported, 1500-1800 10,137,000 Negro population, 1800 1,001,463 Negro population, 1900 8,848,749 Farms owned by negroes, 1860 0 Farms owned by negroes, 1900 757,000 Other homes owned, 1900 1,075,000 Value of negro property, 1900 $499,941,000 Negro pupils, 1900 1,587,000 See Peabody ; Slater; Tuskegee; Hampton ; Douglass; Freedman'S Bureau; Emancipation Proclamation; Contraband ; Washington ; Dunbar 2026 Editor's Note: This page uses language about race that was commonplace when the book was published and is offensive by today's standards. The text has been left exactly as it was printed, rather than cut or softened, so that the historical record — including how ordinary such language once was — is preserved. (Ed: BR 2026-07-22)