A Century of Negro Migration

A Century of Negro Migration

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Title: A Century of Negro Migration
Author: Carter G. Woodson
Release Date: February 6, 2004 [EBook #10968]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION
Carter G. Woodson

TO MY FATHER
JAMES WOODSON

WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO ENTER THE LITERARY
WORLD

A CENTURY OF NEGRO MIGRATION

PREFACE
In treating this movement of the Negroes, the writer does not presume
to say the last word on the subject. The exodus of the Negroes from the
South has just begun. The blacks have recently realized that they have
freedom of body and they will now proceed to exercise that right. To
presume, therefore, to exhaust the treatment of this movement in its
incipiency is far from the intention of the writer. The aim here is rather
to direct attention to this new phase of Negro American life which will
doubtless prove to be the most significant event in our local history
since the Civil War.
Many of the facts herein set forth have seen light before. The effort
here is directed toward an original treatment of facts, many of which
have already periodically appeared in some form. As these works,
however, are too numerous to be consulted by the layman, the writer
has endeavored to present in succinct form the leading facts as to how
the Negroes in the United States have struggled under adverse
circumstances to flee from bondage and oppression in quest of a land
offering asylum to the oppressed and opportunity to the unfortunate.
How they have often been deceived has been carefully noted.
With the hope that this volume may interest another worker to the
extent of publishing many other facts in this field, it is respectfully
submitted to the public.
CARTER G. WOODSON.
Washington, D.C., March 31, 1918.

CONTENTS
I.--Finding a Place of Refuge
II.--A Transplantation to the North
III.--Fighting it out on Free Soil
IV.--Colonization as a Remedy for Migration
V.--The Successful Migrant

VI.--Confusing Movements
VII.--The Exodus to the West
VIII.--The Migration of the Talented Tenth
IX.--The Exodus during the World War
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX

MAPS AND DIAGRAMS
Map Showing the Per Cent of Negroes in Total Population, by States:
1910
Diagram Showing the Negro Population of Northern and Western
Cities in 1900 and 1910
Maps Showing Counties in Southern States in which Negroes Formed
50 Per Cent of the Total Population


CHAPTER I
FINDING A PLACE OF REFUGE
The migration of the blacks from the Southern States to those offering
them better opportunities is nothing new. The objective here, therefore,
will be not merely to present the causes and results of the recent
movement of the Negroes to the North but to connect this event with
the periodical movements of the blacks to that section, from about the
year 1815 to the present day. That this movement should date from that
period indicates that the policy of the commonwealths towards the
Negro must have then begun decidedly to differ so as to make one
section of the country more congenial to the despised blacks than the
other. As a matter of fact, to justify this conclusion, we need but give
passing mention here to developments too well known to be discussed
in detail. Slavery in the original thirteen States was the normal
condition of the Negroes. When, however, James Otis, Patrick Henry
and Thomas Jefferson began to discuss the natural rights of the
colonists, then said to be oppressed by Great Britain, some of the

patriots of the Revolution carried their reasoning to its logical
conclusion, contending that the Negro slaves should be freed on the
same grounds, as their rights were also founded in the laws of nature.[1]
And so it was soon done in most Northern commonwealths.
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts exterminated the
institution by constitutional provision and Rhode Island, Connecticut,
New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania by gradual emancipation
acts.[2] And it was thought that the institution would soon thereafter
pass away even in all southern commonwealths except South Carolina
and Georgia, where it had seemingly become profitable. There came
later the industrial revolution following the invention of Watt's steam
engine and mechanical appliances like Whitney's cotton gin, all which
changed the