The Economic Status of the Negro in the United States

E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro in the United States. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1949, p. 30. 2In 1790, 35.8 per cent of the families in the South held slaves; by 1850 the figure was 30.3 per cent. (U.S. Bureau of the Census, A Century of Population Growth from the First Census of the United States to the Twelfth, 1790-1900. Washington: Government Printing Office 1909, p. 135.) By 1860, however, three-fourths of the white population in the South had no direct property interest in slaves. Only 3 per cent of the whites belonged to the planter class at that date. See Maurice R. Davie, Negroes in American Society. New York: McGraw Hill, 1949, p. 59. who did, found it necessary to identify such interests with those of a much wider segment of the population. To accomplish this, the concept of inherent superiority of all whites was introduced and popularized. Meanwhile

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