The American Negro Academy.

Occasional Papers, No. 1.

A REVIEW

of

HOFFMAN’S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO,

BY

KELLY MILLER.

Price, Twenty-five Cents.

WASHINGTON, D. C.
PUBLISHED BY THE ACADEMY.
1897.

OCCASIONAL PAPERS.

Orders may be sent to John H. Wills, 506 Eleventh Street N. W., Washington, D. C.

A REVIEW OF HOFFMAN’S RACE TRAITS AND TENDENCIES OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO.

In August, 1896, there was published, under the auspices of the American Economic Association, a work entitled “Race Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro,” by Frederick L. Hoffman, F. S. S., statistician to the Prudential Insurance Company of America. This work presents by far the most thorough and comprehensive treatment of the Negro problem, from a statistical standpoint, which has yet appeared. In fact, it may be regarded as the most important utterance on the subject since the publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin;” for the interest which the famous novel aroused in the domain of sentiment and generous feelings, the present work seems destined to awaken in the field of science and exact inquiry.

Mr. Hoffman has spent ten years in painful and laborious investigation of the subject, during which time he has been in touch with the fullest sources of information, and has had the advice and assistance of the highest living authorities in statistics and social science. The temper of mind which he brought to this study may be judged from his own words: “Being of foreign birth, a German, I was fortunately free from a personal bias which might have made an impartial treatment of the subject difficult.”[1] There are other assurances that the author possesses no personal animosity or repugnance against the Negro as such. But, freedom from conscious personal bias does not relieve the author from the imputation of partiality to his own opinions beyond the warrant of the facts which he has presented. Indeed, it would seem that his conclusion was reached from a priori considerations and that facts have been collected in order to justify it.

The main conclusion of the work is that the Negro race in America is deteriorating physically and morally in such manner as to point to ulterior extinction, and that this decline is due to “race traits” rather than to conditions and circumstances of life. Not only do we find this conclusion expressly set forth in connection with every chapter, but it is also easily discernible in foot notes and quotations, in the general drift of cited references, and between the lines. In order to give the clearest possible statement of the author’s position his own words will be used.

“The conditions of life therefore ... would seem to be of less importance than race and heredity.”[2]

“It is not the conditions of life but in the race traits and tendencies that we find the causes of the excessive mortality.”[3]

“For the root of the evil lies in the fact of an immense amount of immorality, which is a race trait.”[4]

“A combination of these traits and tendencies must in the end cause the extinction of the race.”[5]

“It is not in the conditions of life but in race and heredity that we find the explanation.”[6]

“The mixture of the African with the white race has been shown to have seriously affected the longevity of the former and left as a heritage to future generations the poison of scrofula, tuberculosis, and most of all, of syphilis.”[7]

If the reader will keep constantly in mind the key suggested by these quotations, he will peruse the book itself as well as this review with greater ease and facility.

CHAPTER I.

Subject. Population.

Gist. “For some generations the colored element may continue to make decennial gains, but it is very probable that the next thirty years will be the last to show total gains, and then the decrease will be slow but sure until final disappearance.”[8]

I have taken this quotation from another work by the same author as it represents more clearly than any other condensed statement the substance of the present chapter. This proposition is a most important one, and therefore its establishment needs to be inquired into with the greatest particularity. If a race does not possess the requisite physical stamina, it is impossible for it to maintain a high degree of moral and intellectual culture or compete with its more vigorous rivals in the race of civilization.

“All the elements of society are conserved in its physical basis, the social population.”[9]

Since the author relies mainly upon the eleventh census for facts to establish his conclusion, and since the accuracy of this census is widely controverted, we may fairly call upon him to prove his document before it can be admitted in evidence.

The following quotation from Senator Mills reflects the opinion of many eminent students of public problems as to the accuracy of this enumeration: “The announcement that our population is only 62,662,250 was a genuine surprise, not only to those who looked for the dark side of the picture, but also to those whose faith in the administration and its census bureau had never for a moment wavered. The census of 1880 gave 50,155,783. The present returns give an increase of 12,466,476, which is at the rate of 24.86 per cent. That this number is not even