University of Virginia Library

V.—ILLITERATE.

Thus far the large figures have been all in one direction, but
here the case is different. The South is in advance and still
advancing.

The following tables, Nos XLIII. and XLIV., show the
number unable to read and write. It will be seen that the
number of native white citizens of this class in the free States
is 248,725, and in the slave States 493,026, a number about
twice as great in a population of far less than half.

The number of native white adults who cannot read and
write, in the State of Tennessee, is 77,017, in a white population
of 756,836. The number in New York, 23,241, in a
white population of 3,048,325.

TABLE XLIII.
Persons in the Slave States over Twenty Years of Age who cannot Read and
Write.

                                 

SLAVE STATES.	Whites.	Free Colored.	Natives.	Foreign.	Native Whites.
Alabama	33,757	235	33,853	139	33,618
Arkansas	16,819	116	16,908	27	16,792
Delaware	4,536	5,645	9,777	404	4,132
Florida	3,859	270	3,834	295	3,564
Georgia	41,200	467	41,261	406	40,794
Kentucky	66,687	3,019	67,359	2,347	64,340
Louisiana	21,221	3,389	18,339	6,271	14,950
Maryland	20,815	21,062	38,426	3,451	17,364
Mississippi	13,405	123	13,447	81	13,324
Missouri	36,281	497	34,917	1,861	34,420
North Carolina	73,566	6,857	80,083	340	73,226
South Carolina	15,684	880	16,460	104	15,580
Tennessee	77,522	1,097	78,114	505	77,017
Texas	10,525	58	8,095	2,488	8,037
Virginia	77,005	11,515	87,383	1,137	75,868
Total	512,882	55,230	548,256	19,856	493,026

The number in Georgia is 40,794, in a white population of
521,572, and of Pennsylvania it is 41,944, in a white population
of 2,258,160.

Again. The number of white inhabitants over twenty years
of age, in the state of New Hampshire, is 174,232. The
number of native white adults who cannot read and write, is
893, or 1 in 201. In Connecticut it is 1 in 277; in Vermont
1 in 284; and in Massachusetts 1 in 517. In South Carolina,
on the other hand, it is 1 in 7; in Virginia 1 in 5, and in North
Carolina 1 in 3.

Such facts as these show the condition and character of the
schools in the North and the South more clearly than all other
statistics combined.

TABLE XLIV.
Persons in the Free States over Twenty Years of Age who cannot Read and
Write.

                                   

FREE STATES.	Whites.	Native Whites.	Natives.	Foreign.	Free Colored.
California	5,118	117	2,318	2,917	2,201
Connecticut	4,739	567	1,293	4,013	826
Illinois	40,054	1,229	35,336	5,947	34,107
Indiana	70,540	2,170	69,445	3,265	67,275
Iowa	8,120	33	7,076	1,077	7,043
Maine	6,147	135	2,134	4,148	1,999
Massachusetts	27,539	806	1,861	26,484	1,055
Michigan	7,912	369	5,272	3,009	4,903
New Hampshire	2,957	52	945	2,064	893
New Jersey	14,248	4,417	12,787	5,878	8,370
New York	91,293	7,429	30,670	68,052	23,241
Ohio	61,030	4,990	56,958	9,062	51,968
Pennsylvania	66,928	9,344	51,288	24,989	41,944
Rhode Island	3,340	267	1,248	2,359	981
Vermont	6,189	51	616	5,624	565
Wisconsin	6,361	92	1,551	4,902	1,459
Total	422,515	32,068	280,793	173,790	248,725