Free Negroes in the Northern United States [pp. 573-581]

580 FREE NEGROES IN THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES.
the black population, slave and free, during the ten years ending 1856,
the deaths were only 1 in 43.6; for the eighteen previous years,
it was about the same; and if the mulattoes could be taken from this
calculation and the black population of the whole State taken, the
report would, no doubt, be much more favorable, since negroes, as
the Doctor remarks, suffer less from consumption in the country than
in the towns.
North of about 40~ north latitude, says Dr. Nott, the negro
steadily deteriorates, and becomes exterminated. The statistics of
New-York, New-England, and Philadelphia, abundantly prove
this.
But, besides his own laziness and vice, and an uncongenial climate,
the negro has another enemy in the North, quite as powerful as those
mentioned, viz.: the influx of Irish labor, which generally invades
the same fields of occupation that are preferred by the negro. Both
of these races are fond of the large towns, and the majority of them
being fit only for unskilled labor, are brought into immediate competition, and the result of a rivalry between the hardy, industrious
Celt, and the indolent Ethiopian, cannot for a moment be doubtful.
The German immigration also interferes somewhat with his interests,
but only slightly, owing to their agricultural tastes, which carry
them to the vast fields of the far west, where they are more anxious
to secure small, but independent homesteads, by years of steady industry and thrift, than to follow the menial occupations of the cities.
The negro in the Northern States is directly upon the path of this immense wave of immigration, and is in danger of being completely
overwhelmed by it.*
Observant travellers are now beginning very generally to remark,
how rapidly the Irish are supplanting the negroes. In all the hotels,
whether North or South, the waiters, as well as the female servants,
are commonly Irish; and in all the hardest out-door work, this race
is also superseding the blacks.t In several States, Sir Charles Lyell
heard of strikes, where the white workmen bound themselves not to
return to their employment until the master had discharged all his
colored people.: Professor Johnston also observed this competition
between the two races, and even in some cases between the more
skilful blacks (few in number) and native craftsmen. He says:
"The Irish emigrants are their chief competitors for the humble, unskilled employments they were accustomed to follow. By obtaining such labor, the
Irish are enabled to indulge in their gregarious habits, to linger about large
towns, to unite, to act in masses, and so to obtain for their party a sensible influence both of a physical and political kind. But native-born craftsmen are combined against the more skilful of the free colored people, and at the period of
The average number of arrivals in the United States during the years 1849 to 1855 inclusive, was about one thousand daily! The only years in which the German has equalled
the Irish immigration were in 1846,1854. and 1855. The largest number of arrivals in any
one year, was in 1854. when over 427,000 immigrants landed in the United States! Of this
number 87.000 were farmers; 82,000 common laborers, and 31,000 mechanics.-History of
Emigration to the United States, by W.. Brosnwell.
t See Everest's United States, p. 97, Chambers' Things as they are in America, p. 271. Sir
Charles Lyell's Second Visit, vol. ii., p. 160.
t Second Visit, vol. ii., p. 100.