The Negro at Work in New York City Part 6

PART II

THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS IN NEW YORK CITY

CHAPTER I

THE CHARACTER OF NEGRO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

1. THE BUSINESS PROMISE

It is a far cry from satisfying an employer to pleasing the public.

The one requires the obeying of the orders of a boss, the other calls for initiative and self-direction. Business enterprise involves judgments of the whims, wishes and wants of prospective customers and skill in buying goods or supplying services to satisfy their demands.

The wage-earner needs his labor only. The business promoter must secure capital and establish credit. The employee has only the stake of a present place, and has little hindrance from going to another job in case of disappointment. The business man risks name, time, labor and money in the commercial current and has only his experience left, if he loses his venture.

Therefore, the Negro two and a half centuries under the complete control of a master could hardly be expected in one generation to acquire the experience, develop the initiative, acc.u.mulate the capital, establish the credit and secure the good-will demanded to-day in carrying on great and extensive business enterprises, such as find their headquarters in New York City, the commercial heart of the continent. Besides, the handicaps of the social environment, due to the prejudices and differences of the white group by which he is surrounded, and to previous condition of servitude, have had their commercial and industrial consequences. Again, speaking for New York City, many of the Negroes who were leaders in whatever business was carried on up to about 1884 were the prominent workers in activities for race liberation and manhood privileges, thus subtracting energy and time from business pursuit. The movement may be likened in a rough way to that of English workingmen before and after about 1848; the first period being a struggle for the liberty of labor and the second period aiming to fill that liberty with manhood and economic content.

This study, then, of what the Negro is doing along business lines in New York City does not show a number of large operations when compared with what goes on in America's greatest commercial Metropolis. But the findings are highly significant for what they disclose of business capacity and possibility. There has been a business development among Negroes in such a compet.i.tive community that is both substantial and prophetic.

2. A HISTORY OF THE NEGRO IN BUSINESS

The economic propensity to higgle and barter appeared early among the Negroes of the New Amsterdam Colony. As early as 1684 the Colonial General a.s.sembly pa.s.sed a law that "no servant or slave, either male or female, shall either give, sell or truck any commodity whatsoever during the term of their service." Any servant or slave who violated the law was to be given corporal punishment at the discretion of two justices and any person trading with such servant or slave should return the commodity and forfeit five pounds for each offense.[66] And further action was taken in 1702 which rendered all bargains or contracts with slaves void and prevented any person from trading in any way with a slave, without the consent of the owner of such slave.[67] The penalty for violation was to forfeit treble the value of the commodity and payment of five pounds to the owner of the slave.

In 1712, probably after the terror of the Negro riot of that year, it was decreed that no Negro, Indian or mulatto _who should be set free, should hold any land or real estate, but it should be escheated_.[68]

The provisions of the two acts of 1684 and 1702 about trading with slaves were revised and re-enacted in 1726.[69]

The character of much of this trade is shown by city regulations which forbade the sale of great quant.i.ties of "boiled corn, peaches, pears, apples, and other kinds of fruit." These wares were bought and sold not only in houses and outhouses but in the public streets. The Common Council in 1740 declared the same to be a nuisance and prohibited it with a penalty of public whipping. The Council gave as one of its reasons that it was productive of "many dangerous fevers and other distempers and diseases in the inhabitants in the same city," but those coming to market by order of their masters were excepted from the prohibition. The effect of the latter traffic upon the health of the city was purposely not discerned.[70] The act of 1726 was again re-enacted in 1788.[71] From time to time faithful slaves of the West India Company were set free. These usually began tilling the soil for themselves and probably marketed their products in the town.

Slaves, therefore, had little or no opportunity to share in the trading operations of the Colony. State emanc.i.p.ation by the acts of 1799, 1817, and 1827, however, was finally secured, and with the coming of this boon there was liberty to engage in the traffic of the growing metropolis. There is conclusive evidence that considerable numbers of Negroes did embrace the opportunity.

The volumes of the Colored American from 1838 to 1841 contain a number of advertis.e.m.e.nts and references to business enterprises run by Negroes. The newspaper itself was a considerable undertaking and job printing was also "executed with dispatch." In 1837, George Pell and John Alexander opened a restaurant in the one-hundred block in Church Street.

In 1838, there were two boarding houses in this same block, and two boarding houses in Leonard Street and one each in Spruce and Franklin and Lispenard Streets. The next year two other boarding houses were started, one on South Pearl Street and the other near the beginning of Cross Street, and in 1840 two more entered the list, on Sullivan and Church Streets. The drug store of Dr. Samuel McCune Smith and the cleaning and dyeing establishment of Bennet Johnson, both in the one-hundred block on Broadway, were well known and successful enterprises of the day.

B. Bowen and James Green both had small stores for dry goods and notions in 1838, the former on Walker Street and the latter on Anthony. While the same year a hair-dressing establishment on Leonard Street, a coal-yard on Duane Street, a pleasure garden on Thomas Street and three tailors, whose location could not be ascertained, were enterprises of promise.

In 1839 and 1840, there were a pleasure garden and saloon in Anthony Street and a similar establishment on King Street, with an "Amus.e.m.e.nt House" on Spring Street, and near it Brown and Wood ran a confectionary and fruit store. Richard Carroll ran a bathing establishment in Church Street. A coal-yard in Pearl Street, a watch and clock maker, three private schools, and a "dry-goods store of the female Trading a.s.sociation," complete the list of firms that was contained in the record of the period.

A number of these enterprises are known to have continued for a number of years after 1840. Testimony of witnesses[72] as late as the time of the Civil War shows that a number of the above-named enterprises were in existence as late as 1860.

Also that second-hand clothing shops were frequently run by Negroes, and barber-shops and restaurants of excellent equipment were evidences of activity comparable with the earlier period. Thomas Downing kept a restaurant at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets and from it ama.s.sed considerable wealth bequeathed to his children.

In 1869, the Negro caterers had such a large share of this business that the dozen leading ones came together and formed the Corporation of Caterers which was a sort of pool to control the conduct of the business and which was so enlarged after three years under the name of the United Public Waiters Mutual Beneficial a.s.sociation, that the original purpose was largely sidetracked.[73]

There is little direct evidence available for the period from about 1875 to 1909. The census of 1900 gave a return of Negroes in occupations which may indicate proprietors of establishments, but there is no way of ascertaining whether they owned, operated or were employed in such lines of business. There were in all 488 distributed as follows: Among the males, boarding and lodging-house keepers 10, hotel-keepers 23, restaurant keepers 116, saloon keepers 27, bankers and brokers 5, livery-stable keepers 9, merchants and dealers 162 (retail 155, wholesale 7), undertakers 15, clock and watchmakers and repairers 2, manufacturers and officials 36, and photographers 22. The females included boarding and lodging-house keepers 50, milliners 9, and photographers 2. A goodly number of Negro enterprises are very probably represented in this list. That this is true is evident from the large number of enterprises in the various lines of business that were found by the canva.s.s of 1909. We may safely infer that the period was one of considerable growth in both the number and variety of business establishments. We shall, therefore, turn our attention to the result of the canva.s.s of the last-named year.

3. THE NATURE OF THE ESTABLISHMENTS IN 1909

The first question which naturally arises is how many Negro business enterprises were in Manhattan in 1909. At the meeting of the National Negro Business League in New York City in 1908, a paper was read on "The Negro Business Interests of Greater New York and Vicinity." This paper gave a total of 565 enterprises. But as this included 100 dressmaking and 14 stenography and typewriting, this estimate doubtless included some cases that upon closer a.n.a.lysis could not have been designated as business establishments.

A Negro business directory of New York City in 1909 gave names and addresses of 567 establishments. Upon investigation some of these could not be found at addresses given. From his own canva.s.s, the writer estimates the number of bona-fide business enterprises in Manhattan to have been about 475. Of this number, records of 332 were secured and the remainder were either visited or certified by reliable testimony. Of the 332 records, 15 have been excluded either because the firm has ceased to do business or the records were too incomplete for use in this monograph; eight of the remainder were corporations and will be treated below separately. This left 309 establishments upon which to base conclusions. These establishments were so distributed as to be fully representative of the whole. According to the kind of service or goods offered to the public, these 309 establishments were as follows:

Barber shops 50 Groceries 36 Restaurants and lunch rooms 26 Tailoring, pressing, etc. 24 Coal, wood and ice 19 Hotel and lodging houses 17 Employment agencies 14 Express and moving vans 12 Undertakers and embalmers 11 Pool and billiard Rooms 10 Dressmaking and millinery 8 Hairdressers 8 Printers 5 Saloons and cafes 5 Miscellaneous 48[74]

---- Total 309

Two facts are evident. The largest number of the enterprises are the outgrowth of the domestic and personal service occupations and they are mainly enterprises that call for small amounts of capital.

4. OWNERs.h.i.+P OF ESTABLISHMENTS

The Negro goes into business mainly as an independent dealer. In the large majority of cases he does not enter into a partners.h.i.+p and even when he does, there are rarely more than two partners. Out of the 309 enterprises in 1909, there were only 49 partners.h.i.+ps and 44 of these were firms of two partners only. There were only three firms with three partners each, one firm with four members and one with five members. To these may be added the eight corporations mentioned above.

Some light is thrown upon the Negro's business enterprises by knowing the birth-place of proprietors, the length of time they had resided in New York City and the occupations in which the proprietors were engaged previously to going into business.

The birth-place of proprietors should be considered in connection with the length of their residence in New York City, because the two facts point to the same conclusion concerning the economic and other stimuli of the environment. So far as birth-place is concerned, the most striking fact is that out of 330 proprietors whose birth-places were ascertained, 220, or 66.66 per cent, were born in Southern states and the District of Columbia, and 65, or 19.7 per cent, in the West Indies. The following Southern states furnished the specified 220 proprietors: Virginia 96, South Carolina 31, Georgia 27, North Carolina 25, Maryland 15, Florida 12, the District of Columbia 5, Delaware 3, Kentucky 2, and Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas 1 each. Besides the Southern and West Indian-born Negro business men, other sections were represented as follows: South America 7, New Jersey 7, New York State 7, Pennsylvania 5, New York City 8, Illinois 2, Bermuda 2, Canada 2, Africa, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, and Ma.s.sachusetts 1 each.

This proportion of Southern-born proprietors is 0.84 of one per cent less than the proportion of Southern-born in the total Negro population.[75] The 19.7 per cent West Indian is about 10.3 per cent larger than the West Indian proportion in the total Negro population.

If the 7 natives of South America be added, the proportion would be 12.4 per cent larger. This condition can hardly be explained on the ground that West Indian Negroes reach New York with more capital, nor is it because West Indians secure employment that is better paid, for they, like the native-born Negroes, are confined to domestic and personal service. It is due both to the better general education of the average West Indian and to the fact that he has been reared in an environment of larger liberty which has developed in him an independence and initiative that respond more readily to the new surroundings. Conversation with numbers of them elicited the information that they had come to this country with the idea of saving money and entering business for themselves.

Facts about the length of residence before January 1st, 1910, of 363 proprietors are no less illuminating than their birth-places. Both show the influence of environment, for we do not find that the majority entered business immediately after taking up their residence in the Metropolis. Exclusive of 50 doubtful and unknown and 11 who were born in New York City, only 11 of the 363 had been in the city less than 2 years, 18 had resided in the city between 2 years and 3 years 11 months, and 33 between 4 years and 5 years eleven months--in all, only 62 had entered business after a residence of less than six years. Of course this is partly due to the time it took to save or secure the necessary capital but that this is not the only reason for long residence previous to entering business is shown by the fact that of the 62 who began after less than six years residence, 14 ran barber-shops and 11 had grocery stores, enterprises which require at least a small outlay of capital.

In harmony with this view of the matter the inquiry showed further that 161 proprietors had lived in New York City between 6 years and 9 years 11 months; 108 had been in the city between 10 years and 19 years 11 months; 43 had resided there between 20 years and 29 years 11 months; while 28 had lived in the city 30 years or more.

Considerable weight must then be given to the opinion that is in line with the showing of the West Indian--that Negroes entering business in New York City need to live some time in the atmosphere of such a progressive, liberal community to catch the spirit of its initiative and enterprise.

In support of the conclusion the full table showing length of residence of proprietors of the several cla.s.ses of enterprises is given (p. 103).

Besides the birth-place of proprietors and the length of their residence in New York City, their occupations previously to their entering upon their present lines of business throw considerable light upon the character of owners.h.i.+p. The natural expectation would be to find connection between the previous occupation of the proprietor and the present business in which he is engaged. In a number of cases this cannot be clearly made out as is the case of 16 brokers and 11 undertakers. Very probably this expectation would not be fulfilled in the cases of many Negroes, because domestic and personal service has been largely the opportunity of employment and the source of savings through which the prospective business venture could be launched. For example, 11 proprietors have been waiters or waitresses; of these one hotel and lodging-house proprietor, and one restaurant keeper were in enterprises closely connected with their previous occupations; there were three grocers and one coal, wood and ice dealer: enterprises less closely connected. Two pool and billiard-room proprietors, one conductor of a tailoring establishment, one employment agent and one establishment in the miscellaneous cla.s.s completed the list of those formerly employed as waiters and waitresses. This makes a striking comparison with three hotel and lodging-house keepers and with five restaurant and lunch-room proprietors who formerly were cooks. That many did follow such a natural line of advance from employee to employer is shown in that 80 out of the 309 were previously connected with the same line of business in which they were engaged in 1909 either on a smaller scale or as an employed promoter. A few had tried one line of business before and had changed to that in which they were found. Such was the case with nine who had previously been restaurant keepers, and six who had been in the grocery business. In no case did a proprietor report that he had been an inheritor of independent means or a gentleman of leisure, and had thus found the road which had led him into business.

5. SIZE OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

The size of business enterprises was measured in three ways: (1) the number of employees besides proprietors; (2) the floor s.p.a.ce occupied and (3) the rental paid for the place in which the business was carried on. Obviously all the enterprises could not be measured by all three tests. For example, the amount of floor s.p.a.ce occupied and monthly rental paid by a brokerage firm might not bear so close a relation to size as the number of employees, nor would rental alone be an index of size of a coal, wood and ice business, since cellars, which call for smaller rental than other s.p.a.ce, are used. But each enterprise was covered by more than one of the measurements, so that a fair estimate is given of its size.

In ascertaining the number of employees, the attempt was made to include only those who had no part in the owners.h.i.+p, but who gave a large part or all of their time to some work connected with the enterprise. As far as possible this was confined to paid employees, but in a few cases the question of wages of those employed could not be successfully ascertained on account of reticence of the employer.

No record was made of whether or not the time of the proprietor was also put into the business since in this respect there was great variation among establishments.

Only a small proportion, 77 out of 309 establishments, were without employees. Yet very few, 21 in all, employed five or more persons. The largest number, 87, had only one regular employee, 65 establishments had two employees, 29 had three and 16 had four persons regularly employed. The number of employees of 14 firms was not ascertained.

Floor s.p.a.ce occupied by many establishments is a good index of size, especially in New York City. Of course, in the case of such establishments as brokers, employment agencies and express and moving-van firms that require an office only, this is not a criterion.

But for many other establishments in a city where square feet of floor s.p.a.ce is carefully figured upon in the cost of the product, such a measure has considerable value in estimating business enterprises. In securing the measurement of floor s.p.a.ce in the different establishments it was not possible to make an actual measurement in many instances. In some cases the proprietors knew accurately the length and breadth of the place they occupied; in other cases where measurements could not be taken estimates of length and breadth were made, taking a rough view of the frontage and depth of the building or apartment occupied.

A goodly number of enterprises, such as dressmakers, milliners, shoemakers and tailoring "bushelers" carried on their business in the front room of a ground-floor flat and lived, often with families, in the rear rooms. In those cases, only the floor s.p.a.ce of the room used for business purposes was included in the estimate.

Establishments to the number of 17 were estimated as having less than 150 square feet of floor s.p.a.ce; six of these were offices of brokers and express and moving-van firms. The greatest number of establishments, 186 in all, were estimated to occupy between 150 and 499 square feet of floor s.p.a.ce. Thirty-one establishments occupied between 500 and 999 square feet of floor s.p.a.ce; 17 between 1,000 and 1,999 square feet; 4 between 2,000 and 2,999 square feet; 10 between 3,000 and 4,999 square feet; 8 occupied 5,000 or more square feet; 36 were not known--a total of 309 establishments.