It will now be of interest to extend this study in detail by states,
but, in doing so, the study will be confined to the southern, the former
slave states, which are, in a sense, the home of the negro, and in which
more than nine-tenths of them live. In most of the northern states the
number of negroes is so small that any conclusions drawn from statistics
regarding them are worthless and are likely to be misleading.
Diagram No. 8 shows the distribution by sex of the negro wage-earners of
these southern states. The total length of the bar represents in each
case all the wage-earners, the white portion representing the males and
the shaded portion the females.
This diagram shows that the greatest proportion of female wage-earners
is in the District of Columbia, where it is nearly one-half of all negro
wage-earners, and the least in West Virginia, where it is less than
one-fifth of all. In most of the cotton states it ranges from one-fourth
to one-third of all negro wage-earners.
Diagrams Nos. 9 and 10 present the proportion of male and of female
negro wage-earners who are engaged in agriculture, personal service, and
other occupations in the southern states.
The first of these diagrams, representing male wage-earners, shows that
agriculture and personal service accounted for from 63 to 94 per cent.
of all male wage-earners. Indeed, excluding the District of Columbia
from consideration, from 73 to 93 per cent. were accounted for by these
two occupations.
Again excluding the District of Columbia, which is not a farming
community, the male wage-earners who were farmers constituted in the
different states proportions varying from 36 per cent. in Missouri to 85
per cent. in Mississippi. The proportion of farmers was highest in the
cotton states and decidedly less in the border states. On the other
hand, the proportion of males engaged in personal service was least in
the cotton states and increased decidedly in those further north.
The second diagram, illustrating the occupations of female wage-earners,
has certain features in common with that relating to males, but these
features are more accented. In the cotton states a large proportion of
the female wage-earners worked in the fields, and was therefore reported
as engaged in agriculture, while in the border states but a small
proportion was found there. On the other hand, domestic service claimed
nearly all female wage-earners in the border states, but in the cotton
states a relatively small proportion.
Both the diagrams, and especially the first, show an important feature.
In the cotton states wage-earners were almost entirely either farmers or
those engaged in personal service, but in the states farther north these
classes were relatively smaller and occupations were somewhat more
varied.
[Illustration:
Proportions of Male Negro Wage-earners engaged in Agriculture,
Personal Service and other occupations.
Diagram No. 9.
]
[Illustration:
Proportions of Female Negro Wage-earners engaged in Personal Service,
Agriculture, and other Occupations.
Diagram No. 10.
]