Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963. . The Negroes of Farmville, Virginia: a social study
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AGE, SEX, AND BIRTHPLACE OF NEGRO POPULATION.

    The total number of Negroes in Farmville who reported as to age and sex was 1,225. If 250, estimated as not reporting, be added to this number, the total in and about Farmville is found to be about 1,475. Subtracting from this total 125 who lived outside the corporation, we find that the Negro population of the corporation of Farmville was approximately 1,350 in 1897. As the corporation line, however, cuts off somewhat arbitrarily a considerable number of Negroes who really share


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the group life of Farmville, they have been included in the total, except when otherwise stated. Twenty-five people whose residence in Farmville was for such indefinite periods as to make their citizenship questionable have been omitted; they have families here, but themselves work mostly in the North. About 75 servants, mostly young women living in white families as servants and having no other town homes, were not interrogated at all, and consequently are not accounted for in these returns. Their number and the number of those otherwise omitted are estimated and not actually counted. Taking the Negroes of the Farmville group as shown in the table following, we find that there are 598 males and 627 females, or the proportion of 1,048 females to every 1,000 males.n11

    This is much above the general proportion for the United States (952.8 females to every 1,000 males), and even above the proportion in the North Atlantic States. This excess of females indicates a large emigration of males. The following table shows, by age periods, the number of Negroes of each sex from whom reports were obtained:

NUMBER OF NEGROES IN FARMVILLE FROM WHOM REPORTS WERE OBTAINED, BY AGE PERIODS AND SEX, 1897.

Age periods. Males. Females. Total .
Under 1 year 12 12 24
1 to 9 years 127 150 277
10 to 19 years 182 147 329
20 to 29 years 87 101 188
30 to 39 years 53 67 120
40 to 49 years 47 55 102
50 to 59 years 44 52 96
60 to 69 years 23 24 47
70 to 79 years 14 15 29
80 to 89 years 3 3 6
90 to 99 years 1 .. 1
100 years or over 1 .. 1
Age unknown 4 1 5
Total 598 627 1,225

    Considering the percentage in different age periods, it is interesting to bring the Negro population of Farmville into comparison with the colored population of the United States, the whole population of the United States, and the populations of various foreign countries. This comparison is made in the following table.

   




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PER CENT IN DIFFERENT AGE PERIODS OF NEGROES IN FARMVILLE AND OF TOTAL POPULATION IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.
[The per cents for Farmville are computed from schedules; the others are taken from the United States census of 1890 and Mayo- Smith's Statistics and Sociology.]

Age periods.Negroes of Farmville. Colored pop. of the US.n12 Total pop. of the United States. Pop. of Ireland. Pop. of Germany. Pop. of France.
Under 10 years 24.57 28.22 24.28 24.2 20.8 17.5
10 to 19 years 26.86 25.18 21.70 20.7 23.4 17.4
20 to 29 years 15.35 17.40 18.25 16.2 16.2 16.3
30 to 39 years 9.79 11.26 13.4812.710.8 13.8
40 to 49 years 8.32 7.89 9.4510.49.8 12.3
50 to 59 years 7. 84 4.92 6.38 7.88.5 10.1
60 to 69 years 3.84 2.88 3.945.26.0 7.6
70 years or over 3.43 2.25 2.522.84.5 5.0
Total 100.00 100.0 0 100.00 100.0 100.0100.0

   

n12:Persons of Negro descent, Chinese, Japanese, and civilized Indians.

    Here again we have evidence of the emigration of persons in the twenties and thirties, leaving an excess of children and old people. This excess is not neutralized by the immigration from the country districts, because that immigration is apt to be of whole families-young, middle-aged, and old-rather than of young men and young women alone. The proportion of children under 15 is also increased by the habit which married couples and widowed persons have of going to cities to work and leaving their children with grandparents. This also accounts for the small proportion of colored children in a city like Philadelphia.

   With regard to persons 35 or 40 years of age or over, there is undoubtedly considerable error in the age returns. They do not know their ages, and have no written record. In such cases the investigator generally endeavored, by careful questioning, to fix some date, like that of Lee's surrender, and find a coinciding event like marriage or the "half-task" child-labor period of life, to correspond...

   There are 263 males of voting age and 512 children of the legal school age (5 to 20), or 367 of the usual school age (5 to 15). From the statistics of birthplace it is found that of the 1,225 Farmville Negroes 531, or 43 per cent, were born in the town; 750, or 61 per cent, in Prince Edward County, and 1,181, or 96 per cent, in the State. Of those born outside the State, 1 was born in Alabama, 4 in Georgia, 1 in Kansas, 2 in Massachusetts, 4 in New York, 4 in North Carolina, 1 in Tennessee, and 5 in West Virginia. Two came from the West Indies, and the birthplaces of 20 are unknown. The town population is thus shown to be a local concentration from neighboring country districts.

   Of the 262 families of Negroes in the town, 202 reported as to length of residence there. Eight had resided there less than a year, 17 from one to five years, 35 from five to ten years, 45 from ten to twenty years, 61 from twenty to thirty-five years, and 36 thirty-five or more years. In other words, about one-half the population has moved into the town since 1880.



n11:The number of females in excess would be still larger if the omitted house serv-ants were included. However, they are not in all, if in a majority of, cases citizens of Farmville, but have homes in the country. Those living in Farmville are perhaps balanced by other omissions.

   




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