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CHAPTER VI. CONJUGAL CONDITION. IS. The Seventh 'Ward.-The conjugal condition of the Negroes above fifteen years of age living in the Seventh Ward is as follows :1 Conjugal Condition. l\-Iales. Per Cent. Females. I Per Cent. Single. 1,482 41.4 1,24° I 30.5 Married 1,876 52.5 1,9 18 47. 1 Widowed 200 } 6.1 84 1 } Permanently separated 18 66 22·4 Total 3,57 6 I 100.0 4,065 100.0 Unknown 125 179 Under 15 800 93° Total population 4,50 1 I I 5,174 j For a people comparatively low in the scale of civilization there is a large proportion of single men-more than in Great Britain, France or Germany; the number of married women, too, is small, while the large number of widowed and separated indicates widespread and early breaking ages of children under ten is liable to err a year or so from the truth: Many women have probably understated their ages and somewhat swelled the period of the thirties as against the forties. The ages over fifty have a large element of error. 1 There are many sources of error in these returns: it was found that widows usually at first answered the question "Are you married?' t in the negative, and the truth had to be ascertained by a second question; unfortunate women and questionable characters generally reported themselves as married; divorced or separated persons called themselves widowed. Such of these errors as were made through misapprehension, were often corrected by additional questions; in case of designed deception the answer was naturally thrown out if the deception was detected, which of course happened in few cases. The net result of these errors is difficult to ascertain: certainly they increase the apparent number of the truly widowed to some extent at the expense of the single and married. (66) Sect. IS.] The Seventh Ward. up of family life." The number of single women is probably lessened by unfortunate girls, and increased somewhat by deserted wives who report themselves as single. The number of deserted wives, however, allowing for false reports, is astoundingly large and presents many intricate problems. A very large part of charity given to Negroes is asked for this reason. The causes of desertion are partly laxity in morals and partly the difficulty of supporting a family. 1'he lax moral habits of the slave regime still show themselves in a large amount of cohabitation without marriage . In the slum districts there are many SUCll families, which remain together years and are in effect common law marriages. Some of these connections are broken by whim or desire, although in many cases they are permanent unions, The economic difficulties arise continually atnong young waiters and servant girls; away from home and oppressed by the peculiar lonesomeness of a great city, they form chance acquaintances here and there, thoughtlessly marry and soon find that the husband's income cannot alone support a family; then comes a struggle which generally results in the wife's turning laundress, but often results in desertion or voluntary separation. The great number of widows is noticeable. The conditions of life for men are much harder than for women and they have consequently a much higher death rate. Unacknowledged desertion and separation also increases this total. Then, too, a large number of these widows are 2 The number of actually divorced persons among the Negroes is naturally insignificant; on the other hand the permanent separations are large ill number and an attempt has been made to count them. They do not exactly correspond to the divorce column of ordinary statistics and therefore take something from the married column. The number of widowed is probably exaggerated somewhat, but even allowing for errors, the true figure is high. The markedly higher death rate for males has much to do with this. cr. Chapter X. 7.174.216] Project MUSE (2024-04-19 05:17 GMT) 68 con;·ugal Condition. [Chap. VI. simply unmarried mothers and thus represent the unchastity of a large number of women." The result of this large number of homes without husbands is to increase the burden of charity and benevolence, and also on account of their poor home life to increase crime. Here is a wide field for social regeneration. Separating the sexes by age periods according to conjugal condition we have these tables: MALES. d I Unk. _I Age. I ~~ Conjugal Condition. 15- 19. 20-29...

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