The
statistics of illegitimacy in Washington cited by Hoffman in his _Race
Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro_ show that in fifteen
years in Washington, from 1879 to 1894, the percentage of illegitimate
births among the whites was 2.9 per cent, while the percentage among the
negroes was 22.5. In other words, from one fifth to one fourth of all
the negro births in Washington during that fifteen-year period were
illegitimate. Statistics collected in other cities show approximately
the same result. Of course statistics of illegitimacy are not exactly
the same thing as statistics of vice, but they, at any rate, throw a
light upon the moral condition of the negro in this regard, and
particularly show the demoralization of his family life.
(3) _Negro Pauperism._ We have no good statistics on negro
pauperism, but such as we have seem to indicate that the state of
dependence of the negro is very great. In the city of Washington, where
30 per cent of the population is made up of negroes, 84 per cent of the
pauper burials are those of negroes; and in Charleston, where 57 per
cent of the population are negroes, 96.
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