half millions at the
outbreak of the Civil War and to about ten and a quarter millions in 1914.

The present so-called Negro population of the United States is:

1. A mixture of the various African populations, Bantu, Sudanese,
west-coast Negroes, some dwarfs, and some traces of Arab, Berber, and
Semitic blood.

2. A mixture of these strains with the blood of white Americans through a
system of concubinage of colored women in slavery days, together with some
legal intermarriage.

The figures as to mulattoes[90] have been from time to time officially
acknowledged to be understatements. Probably one-third of the Negroes of
the United States have distinct traces of white blood. This blending of
the races has led to interesting human types, but racial prejudice has
hitherto prevented any scientific study of the matter. In general the
Negro population in the United States is brown in color, darkening to
almost black and shading off in the other direction to yellow and white,
and is indistinguishable in some cases from the white population.

Much has been written of the black man in America, but most of this has
been from the point of view of the whites, so that we know of the effect
of Negro slavery on the whites, the strife among the whites for and
against abolition, and the consequent problem of the Negro so far as the
white population is concerned.

This chapter, however, is dealing with the matter more from the point of
view of the Negro group itself, and seeking to show what slavery meant to
them, how they reacted against it, what they did to secure their freedom,
and what they are doing with their partial freedom to-day.

The slaves landing from 1619 onward were received by the colonies at first
as laborers, on the same plane as other laborers. For a long time there
was in law no distinction between the indented white servant from England
and the black servant from Africa, except in the term of their service.
Even here the distinction was not always observed, some of the whites
being kept beyond term of their service and Negroes now and then securing
their freedom. Gradually the planters realized the advantage of laborers
held for life, but they were met by certain moral difficulties. The
opposition to slavery had from the first been largely stilled when it was
stated that this was a method of converting the heathen to Christianity.
The corollary was that when a slave was converted he became free. Up to
1660 or