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120

(1944) [MARC] Author: Gunnar Myrdal
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120 An American Dilemma
New World.^® This evidence seems to indicate that the great majority of
slaves brought directly to the United States came from the West Coast
and hence belonged predominantly to that racial group known as the “true
Negroes.” A small proportion of the slaves came from other points in
Central and South Africa and from Madagascar, some few also from East
Africa and North Africa.^® It would seem probable, however, that the
proportion of slaves from parts of Africa other than the West Coast
increased toward the end of the slave trade era, as it became increasingly
difficult to get enough West Coast Negroes. But the proportion from other
parts of Africa never became predominant. During the later period also,
slaves were brought from the West Indies, and the Negro ancestors of
these people came from all over Africa.^^
Since Emancipation there has been an addition to the American Negro
population through immigration. This has never been large, however. In
1940 there were only about 84,000 foreign-born Negroes in the entire
United States. Three-fourths of these were from the West Indies and so
may be presumed to have a significant proportion of white and Indian
ancestry.^® Only about 1,000 came from Africa, but this does not necessarily
mean that they were of unmixed Negroid stock.® In common with most
foreign-born groups, these foreign-born Negroes have a high birth rate,^®
and so tend to have an effect on the genetic composition of the American
Negro people in slightly larger proportion than their small numbers
would indicate. This effect is largely offset, however, by the facts that they
are genetically much more like the native American Niegro and that they
are concentrated in Northern cities where the birth rate rapidly becomes
depressed. Consequently, they will tend not to have such an important
effect on the genetic composition of the American Negro population,
3. Changes in Physical Appearance
Even if we ignore the fact that there has been an admixture of white
and Indian blood **
into the American Negro population, there have been
some changes in this population stock which make it different from those
African tribes from which it has descended. Those who became slaves in
America were only a selection of Africans, not a representative sample of
them. They were probably made even less representative by the rigors of
the displacement from Africa to America, which killed off a certain number
of them. After the Negroes came to America, their biological composition
was probably changed by differential reproductivity and possibly by muta-
tions. There may also have been environmentally caused changes in
* While the total figures are from the 1 940 Census, the proportions from the West Indies
and from Africa are from the 1930 Census. The latter figures for 1940 are not yet
available. It is probable that these proportions have not changed significantly from 1930
to 1940.
^ Race mixture will be discussed in the following sections.

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