Negroes. The negro and negroid people at home are dealt with at AFRICA and ETHNOLOGY. In America the word negroes is Copyright 1891 in U.S. used for all of African descent, by J. B. Lippincott whether of the true negro or of Company.
Bantu stock. The total number of negroes of pure or mixed blood in America has been recently estimated as somewhat above twenty millions, of whom about one-third are in the area of the United States. Their importation has been going on steadily since the early years of the 16th century, when it was begun by the Spaniards, even the good Las Casas recommending it in the interest of the native Indians. Both Queen Elizabeth and King James I. issued patents to English slave-trading companies operating between the coast of Guinea and the American colonies. England, by the treaty of Utrecht (1713), engaged to carry out the contract of the old French Guinea Company, and to import into the New World 130,000 slaves in the course of the next thirty years, and is said to have more than made good the engagement. In the United States the traffic was open and active until the passage of the Act of 1794 prohibiting the importation of slaves into any of the federal ports. Long after this it continued to be a brisk business in the West Indies and South America. As late as 1840 there were seventy-five ships plying constantly between Brazilian ports and the African coast, bringing cargoes of 300 or 400 slaves at each trip. The principal points at which the slaves were obtained were along the coast of Guinea, especially on what was known as the Slave Coast, between the rivers Lagos and Assinie, where were the crowded marts of Waidah and Anamaboe, and again along the Angola coast, from 8° to 18° S. lat. In these two regions the traders encountered two quite different branches of the African race, and their human wares in America show that they were derived from different sources. Along the Guinea coast, whence most of the slaves brought to the United States were derived, the population belongs to the true negro type. As most of the coast tribes enriched by the traffic did not sell their own members, but obtained the slaves from the interior by capture or purchase, we do not find traces of the Fans, Ashantis, or Dahomis in the negro population of our country, but well-marked characteristics, both linguistic and anthropologic, of the interior tribes, especially of the extensive Mande or Mandingo stock. Such words as Juba and Obi are traced to this stock, and a method of counting in use among the negroes of Maryland about the beginning of the 19th century proved to be derived from the Mandingo numerals. In Brazil and other parts of South America the preponderance of importations was from the negroid stock south of the equator, whose dialects and physical traits are allied to those of the Kaffirs and Zulus of the east coast (Bantus). The slaves in all parts, however, being from mixed stocks, their descendants do not present any well-marked anthropologic peculiarities inside those of the race. As a rule, they are in strength equal to the whites, and in endurance of exposure and labour under a tropical sun are superior to all other immigrants. The experiment was officially tried in British Guiana to ascertain the relative working powers in field labour of negroes, Chinese, and East Indian coolies. The negroes performed twice as much labour as the coolies and a third more than the Chinese, although the latter were the most intelligent in their work. It is usually held that the negro is not naturally industrious; but this seems to some extent answered by the severe field labour of many tribes, both men and women, in their native continent, and by the official reports of the United States government showing a greater acreage of land under cultivation in the former slave states and a larger crop of cotton than before the civil war. When under the control of a strong social organisation, and with obvious motives for industry and economy before his eyes, the American negro is both industrious and provident, and the instances are numerous where members of the race have accumulated fortunes of respectable size. Their viability appears on the whole to be about the same as the whites, except in the more northern states, where it is unquestionably much less. Thus, according to the census of the United States in 1880, the total average annual mortality of the white male population was 15.08, while that of the black population was 17.19, a showing which might fairly be attributed to difference of social position and consequent more careful observance of hygienic laws by the whites; but in the northern states of the Union there was a contrast which could not be so explained, but must be attributed to an inability of the African to withstand the cold of a high latitude. The proportion of deaths per thousand in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire was in 1880 among whites 15, 19.06, and 16.23; but among negroes, 22.41, 24.41, and 26.5. In 1890, in New England, New Jersey, New York, Delaware, and District of Columbia, the highest death rate amongst whites was 23.19 per 1000; amongst negroes, 34.14; the lowest amongst whites, 15.60; amongst negroes, 18.78. See Vol. X. p. 380.
In New England and Canada negroes gradually but surely perish. The diseases to which they are especially subject are those connected with the organs of respiration, as pneumonia, tuberculosis, pleuritic affections, and bronchitis. On the other hand, in the south they are less subject to malarial diseases, to yellow fever, to hepatic derangement, and to sunstroke than the white population. It is generally conceded that they are not so liable to acute alcoholism (delirium tremens) as the whites, which may be attributed to the inferior susceptibility of their nervous systems. The special senses are usually acute and correct: colour blindness is four times commoner among whites than with negroes, and the vocal powers of the latter are perceptibly greater. From a number of autopsies of adult males carried out during the civil war, it results that the lungs are relatively smaller and the liver larger than in the whites. The assertion has been made that the average weight of the brain in the negroes of the United States is greater than that of the true African negro; but repeated dissections tend to disprove this statement. No change whatever has been observed in the colour of the African in any part of America so long as the blood has been unmixed. Observations conducted in Guiana, however, would seem to show that the hair may undergo some alteration, rendering it slightly less woolly; and it is stated positively that the odour peculiar to the negro is not found in the wild negroes of that country who have for generations lived apart in the woods. This is certainly not the case in the negroes of the United States, and it is likely that the Guiana tribes are descendants of negroids from Angola, who have little or none of the odour of the true negro of the Soudan. There is a prevalent opinion that in- stances of uncommon longevity are more frequent among the coloured than the white population; and according to some statistics which have been published, the number of centenarians of this race in the southern United States in proportion to its membership is a hundred times that of the French! The explanation of this is simply that old negroes very rarely know their own age and love to magnify it; in other words, no dependence is to be placed on the statistics. There is no evidence of exceptional longevity among them.
The change from one continent to another does not appear to have reduced the fecundity of the race, which, it is well known, stands at a high mark in Africa. It has been calculated that in the United States at present the white race increases annually at the rate of 2.9 per cent., while the coloured population, including all shades, increases 3.4 per cent. This preponderance much more than makes up for the slightly higher death-rate. It is, however, not directly attributable to a greater natural fertility, but to the fact that a coloured woman very rarely remains unmarried, and does not avoid offspring.
The disposition of the negro is usually pacific and cheerful. He is not easily depressed by poverty or thoughts of the future. Content that his immediate wants are provided for, he rarely prepares for a distant contingency. Eminent gregarious in his instincts, he is usually to be found in certain streets and quarters of the town exclusively occupied by members of his own race. His interest in the past is weak, and few or no reminiscences of his ancestral languages, traditions, superstitions, or usages have been retained. His religion is emotional, and exerts but a moderate influence on his morality. Frequently it is associated with superstitious beliefs and rites known as Voodoo or Obi mysteries. It is believed by some that these are relics of the fetichistic worship of equatorial Africa, but the connection has never been demonstrated; on the contrary, the tales of the sacrifice of children, of ritual cannibalism, and of obscene ceremonies alleged to prevail in Hayti, and to a less degree among the negroes of other parts of America, have been shown by W. W. Newell to rest on very doubtful authority, and, if they occur at all, are the actions of a very few superstitious fanatics. The word Voodoo, or, as usually pronounced in the United States, Hoodoo, is a Creole form of the French Vaudois, and is etymologically derived from the period of the persecution of the Vaudois or Waldenses, who were represented by their opponents as sorcerers and necromancers, whence the name Vaudois came to be synonymous with 'witch' or 'wizard.' By a similar Creole French corruption the word Wanga, which among the negroes of Louisiana and Hayti means a philter or charm, and as a verb, 'to bewitch,' is, in spite of its African physiognomy, the French Onguent, an ointment or salve, such preparations being currently believed to possess magic powers. It is argued, therefore, that both the words and practices are of European origin. Nevertheless, it is unquestionably true that among the negroes both of the West Indies and the United States there is a widespread faith in charms, philters, and fetiches. In the latter country the employment of these means to cast an evil spell upon, or, as it is called, 'to conjur' (to conjure), a person is familiar to every one at all acquainted with the folklore of the coloured people. The maleficent influence can be exerted by obtaining something belonging to the victim and doing some injury to it, or by securing a little of his blood, or by burying certain roots in the path where he is accustomed to walk, or by scattering brown paper before the door of his house, or in many other ways. In the West Indies an Obi bottle is often hidden in the house or goods of an enemy. It is filled with pins, rags, pebbles, small sticks, leaves of certain plants, &c. The result is often successful; for a negro who believes himself 'cunjer'd' will refuse food, and sink into the profoundest dejection, resulting occasionally in death. That a serpent or snake plays any prominent part in these Obi rites, as has often been stated, does not appear confirmed. Nor is it a prominent figure in the stories and folk-tales of the race in America. These fictitious narratives are very numerous, the negro being a tireless talker and raconteur. Many of them reveal a high stage of the art of story-telling, as the Georgia tales collected by J. C. Harris and Colonel C. C. Jones, and numerous others from the southern states by various writers. Many of them belong to the class of 'beast-fables,' similar to some which have been collected among the American Indians and the natives of the African continent, and such as were favourite staples of amusement in Europe during the middle ages. One of the principal figures is the rabbit (the 'brer rabbit' of the 'Uncle Remus' tales). He figures conspicuously not only in the southern United States, but in the West Indies and on the Amazon (Hartt), and as tio conejo ('uncle rabbit') in the folklore of the Venezuelan negroes (Dr Ernst). This unimportant animal also plays a leading part in the mythology of various American-Indian nations, as the Algonquins and Mexicans (Aztecs); and it appears not unlikely that its prominence in negro-American folklore was a loan from this source. Along with story-telling, singing and music are favourite diversions of the coloured population. This tendency is a direct inheritance from their African ancestry, as throughout that continent the natives are passionately fond of these diversions. In Central America the negroes still employ the marimba, a native African instrument with wooden keys placed over jars or gourds, the keys being struck with a stick. In the United States the violin, the fife, and the guitar are used, but the favourite is the 'banjo,' an instrument of African derivation, modified from the guitars with grass strings still in use on the Guinea coast. With these simple means they produce music of pleasant though not artistic character. In individual instances (as Blind Tom, born in Georgia in 1849) members of the race have attained remarkable skill on the piano and organ, rendering the most difficult compositions with spirit. No negro composer, however, has attained celebrity. Their songs are numerous, many of them of a religious character, others turning on the incidents of daily life. They are generally defective in prosody and without merit, being often little more than words strung together to carry an air.
The negro is ambitious for education, but unwilling to make the necessary mental effort to obtain it. In the public schools of the United States, where they are on the same footing as the white children, their progress is about equal up to the age of puberty. But after that important physical change there supervenes a visible ascendancy of the appetites and emotions over the intellect, and an increasing indisposition to mental labour. The consequence is that in the higher education they fall notably behind the whites, and it is a rare exception for one of them to undertake the studies requisite for a profession; and when one does, he is content with what is barely sufficient for its remunerative practice. The social position of the members of the race in some parts of South America is little different from that of the whites. This is also theoretically the case in the United States since the civil war; but the natural sense of inequality between the two races is making itself felt in the latter country, and they are probably now farther asunder in sympathies than they were at the close of the war, both in the northern and southern states. Many thoughtful and learned men see in the increasing coloured population a standing menace to the institutions and culture of their country, and the project has been seriously urged to deport the whole negro stock back to Africa, and prevent others from coming to the country.
See SLAVERY, UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, JAMAICA, &c.; G. W. Williams, History of the Negro Race in America (2 vols. New York, 1882; Lond. 1883); Blyden, Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race (1887); H. J. Bell, Witchcraft in the West Indies (1890); W. L. Clowes, Black America (Times letters; Lond. 1891); and many articles in the American Folk-lore Journal.