ause of it was economic. This statement, however, does not
adequately cover the ground, because, as has already been seen, a
migration is usually the result of the operation of a complexity of
causes and not the result of any one cause. Therefore, we shall say
that this Negro movement was due to the workings of a complication of
economic and social causes, but that of these causes the economic were
overwhelmingly predominant.

In studying the forces or causes which were behind this movement, we
find that they group themselves under two categories, namely,
attractive and repellent. In this migration the Negroes were to a
large extent both drawn and driven to break the ties which bound them
to their respective localities. One has said that these causes may be
grouped as beckoning and driving causes, the former arising from
conditions in the North and the latter from conditions in the
South.[59] The beckoning causes are as follows: high wages, little or
no employment, a shorter working day than on the farm, less political
and social discrimination than in the South, better educational
facilities, and the lure of the city.[60] On the other hand, we have
these given as the driving causes: "General dissatisfaction with
conditions, ravages of boll-weevil, floods, change of crop system, low
wages, poor houses on plantations, inadequate school facilities,
unsatisfactory crop settlements, rough treatment, cruelty of the law
officers, unfairness in courts, lynching, the desire for travel, labor
agents, the Negro press, letters from friends in the North, and
finally advice of white friends in the South, where crops had
failed."[61] At this juncture a specific consideration of these latter
causes as they were operative in three of the Southern States will now
be made. These States referred to are those which were foremost in
contributing to the movement and are, namely, Alabama, Georgia and
Mississippi.

The causes of migration from Alabama[62] were in the main economic. In
the first place the opportunities afforded Negroes to earn their
subsistence were greatly curtailed by the boll-weevil pest which swept
over the State a few years ago. In the black belt counties cotton had
been for several generations the sole crop, and its cultivation wholly
dependent upon Negro labor. On the other hand, the Negroes were
dependent upon the landowners or overseers for money for their
subsistence. In the meantime the Negro farmers and laborers w