between the published
estimates which range from 300,000 to 1,000,000. The investigations of
the United States Department of Labor indicate the smaller number.

The motives for this northward migration are various. The offer of
higher wages is the most important. The desire to get for their children
greater educational advantages than are offered in the South is also
impelling. The belief that race prejudice is less strong in the North is
another inducement to leave the South, for "Jim Crow" cars and political
disfranchisement have irritated many. Finally the dread of lynch law may
be mentioned as a motive for migration, though its actual importance may
be doubted. Not all the negroes who have moved to the North have
remained there. Many do not allow for the higher cost of food and
shelter in their new home, and these demands upon the higher wages leave
a smaller margin than was expected. Others find the climate too severe,
while still others are unable or unwilling to work regularly at the
speed demanded.

The overwhelming mass of the negro population in the South, and
therefore in the nation, is still rural, though among them, as among the
whites, the drift toward the cities is marked. The chief occupations are
agriculture, general jobbing not requiring skilled labor, and domestic
service, although there is a scattered representation of negroes in
almost every trade, business, and profession. In 1865 the amount of
property held by negroes was small. A few free negroes were upon the
tax-books, and former masters sometimes made gifts of property to
favorites among the liberated slaves, but the whole amount was trifling
compared with the total number of negroes. In 1910, in the Southern
States, title to 15,691,536 acres of land was held by negroes, and the
equity was large. This amount represents an increase of over 2,330,000
acres since 1900 but is nevertheless only 4.4 per cent of the total farm
land in the South. As tenants or managers, negroes cultivated in addition
nearly 27,000,000 acres. In other words, 29.8 per cent of the population
owned 4.4 per cent of the land and cultivated 12 per cent of it. The total
value of the land owned was $273,000,000, an average of $1250 to the
farm.[1]

[Footnote 1: It must be noted, however, that during the decade ending in
1910, the percentage of increase in negro farm owners was 17 as against
12 for the whites, and of increase in the value of their holdings was
156 per cent a