Chapter 11

THE NEGRO POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY

The Negro population of New York City has had a history similar to that of other Northern cities. Beginning with a small body of slaves, it has since had its problems growing out of the presence of an increasing number of Negroes in the midst of the environing white group. In 1629, The Dutch West India Company pledged itself to furnish slaves to the Colonists of New Amsterdam.[37] A similar resolution was passed by the colony council in 1648[38] and by 1664 slavery had become of sufficient importance to receive legislative regulation in the Duke of York Code.[39] Both by further importations and by natural increase the Negro population grew until in 1704 it numbered about 1,500; in 1741 it was estimated at about 2,000, and in 1757 about 3,000. Beginning with the first Federal Census of 1790 there was an increase shown by each census except those of 1820 for Brooklyn and of 1850 and 1860 for other parts of New York City, mainly Manhattan.

The figures show a striking contrast in growth between Brooklyn and the other parts of New York City as now constituted, exclusive of Brooklyn. The former had a comparatively small Negro population until after 1860, but from 1790 the Negro population although small increased steadily, except the one decade between 1810 and 1820. This was a decrease of only 92 or 4.9 per cent of a population less than 2,000. Only one increase, from 1800 to 1810, was less than 13 per cent. Beginning with 5,915 at the Federal census of 1790, the Negro population of the other parts of New York City has shown a high per cent of increase in numbers, above 15 per cent, at eight of the twelve succeeding censuses, and 8.1 per cent and 5.5 per cent at two others. The decreases from 1840 to 1850, 13.2 per cent, and from 1850 to 1860, 7.5 per cent, were probably due to the unfavorable sentiment against the Negroes which arose during the abolition agitation of these periods and which had its effect on the Negro's movements to and from the city. The small increase from 1860 to 1870, 5.5 per cent, was very probably the result of the same causes--of the Civil War disturbances and the New York Draft riots, which deterred Negroes from coming to New York City and sent many Negro residents away.[40] The figures for Manhattan show a similar trend at each census. However, except the periods noted above, there has been a general trend toward increase in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. The Negro population has become a smaller and smaller part of the total population from decade to decade since 1810, but this is because the several streams of foreign immigrants have been large and not because the increase of the Negro population has been small.

Table VIII, which follows, shows the growth of the total and the Negro populations, and brings the full figures to view:

TABLE VIII. TOTAL AND NEGRO POPULATION OF NEW YORK CITY, AS AT PRESENT CONSTITUTED, 1704-1910.[A]

+--------------------------------++-------------------------------- | New York City, exclusive of || | Brooklyn. || Brooklyn. -----+----------------+---------------++----------------+--------------- | | Increase of || | Increase of Year.| Population. | Negro || Population. | Negro | | population. || | population. -----+---------+------+-------+-------++---------+------+-------+------- | | | | Per || |Negro.| | Per | Total. |Negro.|Number.| cent || Total. | [B] |Number.| cent -----+---------+------+-------+-------++---------+------+-------+------- 1704 | -- | 1,500| -- | -- || -- | -- | -- | -- 1741 | -- | 2,000| 500|33.3 || -- | -- | -- | -- 1757 | -- | 3,000| 1,000|50.0 || -- | -- | -- | -- 1790 | 44,906| 5,915| 2,915|97.2 || 4,495| 1,478| -- | -- 1800 | 73,476| 8,626| 2,711|45.9 || 5,740| 1,811| 333|25.5 1810 | 111,431|12,116| 3,490|40.4 || 8,303| 1,853| 42| 2.3 1820 | 140,869|13,100| 984| 8.1 || 11,187| 1,761| 92| 4.9[C] 1830 | 221,743|16,082| 2,982|22.8 || 20,535| 2,007| 246|13.9 1840 | 343,501|18,595| 2,573|15.6 || 47,613| 2,846| 839|41.8 1850 | 557,233|16,131| 2,464|13.2[C]|| 138,882| 4,065| 1,219|42.8 1860 | 895,657|14,927| 1,204| 7.5[C]|| 279,122| 4,999| 934|22.9 1870 |1,058,182|15,755| 828| 5.5 || 419,921| 5,653| 654|13.1 1880 |1,312,203|22,496| 6,741|42.8 || 599,495| 9,153| 3,500|61.9 1890 |1,668,867|26,330| 3,834|17.0 || 838,547|11,307| 2,154|23.5 1900 |2,270,620|42,299| 15,969|60.6 ||1,166,582|18,367| 7,060|62.5 1910 |3,132,532|69,700| 27,403|64.8 ||1,634,351|22,702| 4,335|23.6 -----+---------+------+-------+-------++---------+------+-------+------- [A] Figures 1704-1757 from Du Bois, _Notes_, _etc._, p. 1.

[B] Negro not reported separately 1790 to 1850; includes "slaves" and all other "Free Colored" which does not involve serious error in the earlier censuses.

Census figures 1790-1910 are from the latest revisions of the Bureau of the Census. Figures for same area, outside of Manhattan and Brooklyn, are estimates of censuses 1790-1890. Figures for 1900 and 1910 are exact.

[C] Decrease.

To summarize the point, while the Negro population has become a smaller relative part of the total population each decade since 1810, it has shown a decided trend toward a large actual increase.

The distribution of the Negro population has varied with its increase and with the growth of the city. But almost from the beginning, probably the environing white group has segregated the Negroes into separate neighborhoods. The figures available for Brooklyn do not permit a positive inference, but in Manhattan, while the areas populated by Negroes have shifted somewhat from decade to decade, there have been distinctively Colored sections since 1800.[41]

An idea of this segregation is shown in the fact that in 1900, 80.9 per cent of all the Negro population of Manhattan was contained within 12 out of 35 Assembly Districts and that in 1890 seven wards of Manhattan contained fully five-sixths of the Negro population of the Borough. The largest number of Negroes, 13.8 per cent of the total number, were living, in 1900, in the Nineteenth Assembly District with numbers approximating this in the Eleventh, which contained 10.4 per cent, the Twenty-seventh, which had 9.2 per cent, and the Twenty-third, which had 8.7 per cent of the Negro population. The Negro population for Manhattan, 36,246, was distributed in 1900 by assembly districts as is shown in Table IX (p. 49).

These figures give a clear idea of the segregated character of the Negro population and show something of its present location. There has been a decided shifting from the part of Manhattan between Twenty-fifth, Forty-second streets, Sixth and Eighth avenues, and into Harlem between One Hundred and Thirtieth, One Hundred and Fortieth streets, Fifth and Eighth avenues during the past five years as business interests have been taking possession of the zone around the new Pennsylvania Railway Station, between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. But as the Negroes have moved into blocks in Harlem, the whites have moved out.

TABLE IX. DISTRIBUTION OF NEGRO POPULATION BY ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS OF MANHATTAN, 1900.

+-------------+--------------- | Negro | Per cent of Assembly District. | population. | total. -----------------------------+-------------+--------------- 5th Assembly District | 1,378 | 3.8 9th Assembly District | 1,673 | 4.6 11th Assembly District | 3,756 | 10.4 13th Assembly District | 2,584 | 7.1 17th Assembly District | 1,214 | 3.4 19th Assembly District | 4,982 | 13.8 21st Assembly District | 1,135 | 3.1 23rd Assembly District | 3,169 | 8.7 25th Assembly District | 2,950 | 8.1 27th Assembly District | 3,318 | 9.2 31st Assembly District | 1,483 | 4.1 32nd Assembly District | 1,680 | 4.6 All other Districts | 6,924 | 19.1 -----------------------------+-------------+-------------- Total | 36,246 | 100. -----------------------------+-------------+---------------

The exact character and extent of the segregation of the Negro population may be clearly seen from diagrams of this Harlem district, and of the "San Juan Hill" district in the West Sixties, based upon the latest figures of the Census of 1910. This is given in Diagrams III and IV (pp. 50-51)[42]

With such a distribution of the clearly segregated Negro population, the representative character of the 2,500 families chosen for closer study becomes evident. These families, from figures based upon the original returns of the New York State Census of 1905, were chosen from the Eleventh, the Nineteenth, the Twenty-third, and the Thirty-first districts. The last district was taken in preference to several which contained larger numbers, because it included certain streets that were typical of the Harlem section.

In all 2,639 families were tabulated. Of these 95 were excluded because the heads of these families were of the professional or business classes, 37 because they were too incompletely reported, and 7 because the heads were white. This reduced the number to 2,500 families, which consisted of 9,788 persons, exclusive of 17 white members of these families. The data from the State Census schedules of enumerators were tabulated in regular order as reported by them for each block or part of block for the Negro families that were designated as living in that street or block.

The families studied were from the following territory: Within the Eleventh Assembly District, the area bounded by Thirtieth and Thirty-eighth streets, Seventh and Tenth avenues; within the Nineteenth Assembly District, Sixty-first, Sixty-second, and Sixty-third streets, between Amsterdam and Eleventh avenues, commonly called "San Juan Hill;" within the Twenty-third and Thirty-first Assembly Districts, One Hundred and Thirtieth and One Hundred and Thirty-third streets between Eighth and St. Nicholas avenues, and One Hundred and Thirty-fourth and One Hundred and Thirty-fifth streets between Fifth and Seventh avenues. These three segregated neighborhoods in 1905 may be roughly characterized as follows: The first was probably in the lowest grade of social condition; the second did not show a decidedly predominant type, but ranged from the middle grade toward the more advanced; the third was the most advanced.

A comparison in detail of the distribution by assembly districts of the total Negro population and of the 2,500 selected families shows also that the latter are representative of the several neighborhoods and of the total population. Table X shows the distribution by Assembly Districts of the 2,500 families for comparison with Table IX above, which gave the total Negro population of Manhattan and its distribution.

TABLE X. DISTRIBUTION BY ASSEMBLY DISTRICTS OF 2,500 NEGRO FAMILIES, STATE CENSUS, 1905.

+------------------+------------------ Assembly District. | No. of families. | No. of persons. --------------------+------------------+------------------ Eleventh | 927 | 3,329 Nineteenth | 1,018 | 4,024 Twenty-third | 326 | 1,581 Thirty-first | 229 | 854 --------------------+------------------+------------------ Total | 2,500 | 9,788 --------------------+------------------+------------------

In addition to the data of the State Census of 1905, a personal canvass was made in 1909 of 73 families in their homes, having a total of 212 persons. To these were added 153 individuals at one of the evening schools of the city, a total of 365 persons. The localities within which these 365 people lived corresponded in the main to the location of the 2,500 families taken from the State Census of 1905; that is, between Twenty-fifth, Forty-fifth streets, Fifth and Eighth Avenues; Fifty-third, Sixty-fifth streets, west of Sixth Avenue and between One Hundred and Thirtieth and One Hundred and Thirty-sixth streets, Fifth and Seventh Avenues.

To sum up: The assembly districts chosen and the number of families and individuals tabulated from each district are such as to give a fairly accurate description of the clearly segregated wage-earning Negro population of the districts. The study, then, is representative of about one-fourth of the Negro population of Manhattan in 1905, and is so distributed as to be reasonably conclusive for the wage-earning element of the whole Negro population.

The next question is the composition of this toiling Negro population. The general condition of the wage-earning element of this group will now, therefore, engage our attention.

FOOTNOTES:

[37] _New York Colonial Doc._, i, 553.

[38] O'Callaghan, _Laws and Ordinances of New Netherlands, 1637-1674_, p. 81.

[39] DuBois, _Some Notes on Negroes of New York City_, p. 5.

[40] The writer has testimony of contemporary witnesses of these disturbances.

[41] _Vide_ DuBois, _Notes_, _etc._, p. 1.

[42] Diagrams III and IV were made by Mr. Eugene K. Jones, Field Secretary of the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes.