[2] James Grant Wilson, "History of New York," Vol. II, p. 314. [3] POPULATION OF NEW YORK FROM 1800 TO 1900: TOTAL AND NEGRO. BOROUGH OF MANHATTAN Percentage Total Negro of Negroes 1800 60,515 6,382 10.5 1810 96,373 9,823 10.2 1820 123,706 10,886 8.8 1830 202,589 13,976 6.9 1840 312,710 16,358 5.2 1850 515,547 13,815 2.7 1860 805,658 12,574 1.6 1870 942,292 13,072 1.5 BOROUGHS OF MANHATTAN AND BRONX 1880 1,206,299 19,663 1.6 1890 1,515,301 23,601 1.6 1900 2,050,600 38,616 1.9 GREATER NEW YORK 1900 3,437,202 60,666 1.8 [4] For a full account of the Negro's political status in New York consult Charles Z. Lincoln's "Constitutional History of New York." [5] Thomas Boese's "Public Education in the City of New York," p. 227. [6] King _v._ Gallagher, 1882. [7] A. Emerson Palmer, "The New York Public School." [8] Laws of New York, Chapter 492. [9] B. F. Wheeler, D.D., "The Varick Family." [10] Geo. H. Hansell, "Reminiscences of New York Baptists." [11] _New York Tribune_, February 23, 1855. [12] "The Story of an Old Wrong," in _The American Woman's Journal_, July, 1895. [13] Life of the Reverend Charles B. Ray. [14] _Colored American Magazine_, October, 1907. CHAPTER II WHERE THE NEGRO LIVES It is thirty-five years since, in his Symphony, Sidney Lanier told of "The poor That stand by the inward opening door Trade's hand doth tighten evermore, And sigh their monstrous foul air sigh For the outside hills of liberty." Were Lanier writing this today, we should wonder whether New York's crowded tenements had not served as inspiration for his figure. The island of Manhattan, about eight miles long by two miles wide, with an additional slender triangle of five miles at the north end, in 1905, housed two million one hundred and twelve thousand people. These men and women and children were not scattered uniformly throughout the island, but were placed in selected corners, one thousand to the acre, while a mile or so away large comfortable homes held families of two or three. This was Manhattan's condition in 1905, and with each succeeding year more congestion takes place, and more pressure is felt upon the inward opening door.[1]