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CHAPTER 7
POPULATION
I. The Growth of the Negro Population
There were about 17 times as many Negroes in the United States in
1940 as there were in 1790, when the first census was taken, but in the
same period the white population increased 37 times (Figure i). Negroes
were 19.3 per cent of the American population in 1790, but only 9.8 per
cent in 1940. Except for the first decade in the nineteenth century and the
1930’s, this proportion has been steadily declining. The trend in the propor-
tion has been governed by the natural increase of the two population
stocks, by expansion of the territorial limits of the United States and by
immigration. Since all figures on these things are uncertain, it is not possible
to make an accurate imputation of the changes in the relative importance
of these factors. Since descendants of immigrants after the second genera-
tion are included in the category of ‘^native born,” it is still less possible to
calculate what the proportion of Negroes would have been had there been
no immigration of either race to the United States after 1790.
In a previous chapter we have discussed the considerable slave import,
legal up to 1808 and illegal from then until the Civil War. After the War
immigration of Negroes became inconsequential.® The immigration of
whites from Europe was much heavier, even in relation to the larger white
stock, during practically the whole period.^^ There is no doubt that this
factor accounts for the great decline in the proportion of Negroes until
recently. Additions of territory to continental United States have brought
in a more than proportional share of whites.""
There has been a radical change in these factors, a change which promises
to stop the downward trend of the proportion of Negroes and probably
send it slightly upward. There have been no acquisitions of continental
territory for a long while, and it is not likely that there will be any more.
Immigration from Europe was largely halted by the First World War,
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