CHAPTER V.
THE SIZE, AGE AND SEX OF THE NEGRO POPULATION.
13. The City for a Century.—The population of the county[1] of Philadelphia increased about twenty-fold from 1790 to 1890; starting with 50,000 whites and 2500 Negroes at the first census, it had at the time of the eleventh census, a million whites and 40,000 Negroes. Comparing the rate of increase of these two elements of the population we have:
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OP INCREASE OF NEGROES AND WHITES.
Decade from
Negroes.
Whites.
Decade from
Negroes.
Whites.
1790-1800 1800-1810 . . 1810-1820 . . 1820-1830 . . 1830-1840, .
176.42^
52.93 13.00
31.39 27.07
42.92^
35-55 22.8o
39*94
37-54
1840-1850* . . 1850-1860 . . 1860-1870* . . 1870 1880 . . 1880-1890
^% 12.26
17 43-13 24.20
63-30$ 39.67 19.96
25.08 23.42
- Decrease for Negroes.
The first two decades were years of rapid increase for the Negroes, their number rising from 2489 in 1790 to 10,552 in 1810. This was due to the incoming of the new freedmen and of servants with masters, all to some extent attracted by the social and industrial opportunities of the city. The white population during this period also increased largely, though not so rapidly as the Negroes, rising from
- ↑ The unit for study throughout this essay has been made the county of Philadelphia, and not the city, except where the city is especially mentioned. Since 1854, the city and county have been coterminous. Even before that the population of the "districts" was for our purposes an urban population, and a part of the group life of Philadelphia.
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