p. 17 | Progress of the Negro Race by A. J. Haysmer

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 1, 1910

Progress of the Negro Race

By A. J. Haysmer

In 1859 there were 4,500,000 Negroes in the United States. Four millions of these were slaves, and ninety-five per cent of them could neither read nor write. Only one in six professed Christianity. When they were freed, in 1863, they were penniless and ignorant. Ninety-nine per cent were either field hands or servants.

Statistics show a great change. In 1900 fifty per cent of the Negro population of the United States were farm laborers and servants, and over one half of these were efficient modern workmen. There were 750,000 farmers; 55,000 railroad hands; 70,000 teamsters; 36,000 miners; 35,000 sawmill employees; 28,000 porters; 21,000 teachers; 21,000 carpenters; 21,000 barbers; 20,000 nurses; 15,000 clergymen; 14,000 masons; 24,000 dressmakers and seamstresses; 10,000 engineers and firemen; 10,000 blacksmiths; 2,500 physicians; 2,000,000 mistresses of independent homes; and 3,000,000 children were in school.

Fifty years ago the Negroes were penniless, and assessed as real estate. Last year they owned 500,000 homes, of which one half were farms. They owned 15,000,000 acres of farm land, worth $200,000,000. As owners and renters, they control 40,000,000 acres of land, worth $500,000,000, with a gross income of $250,000,000.

To-day they control every seventh farm in the United States, and raise every sixteenth dollar's worth of crops. They have accumulated $600,000,000 in the last fifty years.

This is surely a very encouraging report. We ought to put forth a more determined effort to get the third angel's message before them.

I should be glad to hear from any who would like to assist in the work for this people.

A. J. HAYSMER.