Hoffman having on hand a theory, was spared the pains of inquiring
further into the causes which led to this deplorable state of things.
The reviewer suggests that this increase in social immorality among the
Negroes of Washington is due to the great rush of ignorant, purposeless
colored people to the national capital, a condition of things which
always leads, in its first effect, to social looseness and impurity. The
very late marriages among the better element of the colored people also
help to account for this awful state of things. But perhaps a greater
than any cause yet assigned as leading to the social degradation of
Negroes in cities is the excess of the female over the male element of
the population. On account of the importance of this subject, I append a
table showing this excess for the cities whose colored population is
over 20,000.

_Colored population._

Number of
Colored Colored Excess of females to
City. males. females. females. every 100
males.

Baltimore 29,165 38,131 8,966 131
Richmond 14,216 18,138 3,922 128
Atlanta 12,400 15,717 3,317 127
Washington 33,831 41,866 8,035 123
New Orleans 28,936 35,727 6,791 123
Nashville 13,334 16,061 2,727 120
Charleston 14,187 16,849 2,662 119
Savannah 10,493 12,485 1,992 119
Memphis 13,333 15,396 2,063 115
Louisville 13,348 15,324 1,976 115
Philadelphia 18,960 21,414 2,454 113
St. Louis 13,247 13,819 572 104
New York 12,649 13,025 376 103
------ ------ ------ ---
Total 228,099 273,952 45,875 120

Such a disproportion between the sexes can forbode no good to society.
In the West, where the male element predominates over the female among
the white population, the evil effect on society is painfully apparent.
If every colored man in Washington were married and every male minor had
a mate selected for him, there would still be left Negro females enough
to form a manless community larg