Occupations of the Negroes

The statistics of occupations used in this paper are from the Census of 1890, and represent the status of the race on June 1 of that year. The Census takes cognizance only of “gainful” occupations, excluding from its lists housewives, school children, men of leisure, etc. Its schedules deal only with wage-earners, those directly engaged in earning their living. In 1890, out of a total population of 62,622,250, 22,753,884 persons, or 34.6 per cent., were engaged in gainful occupations. Of the negroes, including all of mixed negro blood, numbering 7,470,040, 3,073,123, or 41.1 per cent., were engaged in gainful occupations. The proportion was much greater than with the total population. This total population, however, was composed of several diverse elements, including, besides the negroes themselves, the foreign born (of which a large proportion were adult males), and the native whites. The proportion was greatest among the foreign born because of the large proportion of adults, and particularly of males, among this element. Next to that, the proportion was greatest among the negroes, being much greater than among the whites collectively and still greater than among the native whites.

Classifying the wage-earners of the country in respect to race and nativity, it appears that 64.5 per cent. were native whites, 22 per cent. were of foreign birth, and 13.5 per cent. were negroes.

Analyzing the statistics of occupation by sex, it is discovered that the proportion of native white males who had occupations was 53.4 and of females 9.4 per cent. The corresponding proportion of male negroes was 56.3 per cent. and of female negroes 26.0 per cent. The male negroes were slightly more fully occupied than were the native whites, while among females the proportion of wage-earners was much greater. The difference between native whites and negroes in the proportion of wage-earners was, therefore, due mainly to the fuller occupation of women. To put it in another form: Out of every hundred native whites who pursued gainful occupations, 85 were males and 15 were females. Of every hundred negroes, 69 were males and 31 were females. Indeed, a larger proportion of women pursued gainful occupations among negroes than in any other class of the population.