Note 15 — PART I SOUTHWARD HO!

Mr Booker Washington declares (“The Negro in the South,” p. 73) that “the race has acquired ownership in land that is equal in area to the combined countries of Belgium and Holland.” He does not say how much of it is under mortgage. Elsewhere, Mr. Washington has stated (on the authority of the census of 1900) “that from a penniless population just out of slavery, 372,414 owners of homes have emerged, and of these 255,156 are known to own their homes absolutely free of encumbrance.” See E. G. Murphy: “The Present South,” p. 184. But the negroes were not absolutely “penniless” at the outbreak of the war. See p. 33.