In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, overten percent to the Black population of the U

In the two decades between 1910 and 1930, over

ten percent to the Black population of the United States

left the South, where the preponderance of the Black

population had been located, and migrated to northern

(5) states, with the largest number moving, it is claimed,

between 1916 and 1918. It has been frequently assumed,

but not proved, that the majority of the migrants in

what has come to be called the Great Migration came

from rural areas and were motivated by two concurrent

(10) factors: the collapse of the cotton industry following

the boll weevil infestation, which began in 1898, and

increased demand in the North for labor following

the cessation of European immigration caused by the

outbreak of the First World War in 1914. This assump-

(15) tion has led to the conclusion that the migrants’ subse-

quent lack of economic mobility in the North is tied to

rural background, a background that implies unfamil-

iarity with urban living and a lack of industrial skills.

But the question of who actually left the South has

(20) never been rigorously investigated. Although numerous

investigations document an exodus from rural southern

areas to southern cities prior to the Great Migration.

no one has considered whether the same migrants then

moved on to northern cities. In 1910 over 600,000

(25) Black workers, or ten percent of the Black work force,

reported themselves to be engaged in “manufacturing

and mechanical pursuits,” the federal census category

roughly encompassing the entire industrial sector. The

Great Migration could easily have been made up entirely

(30) of this group and their families. It is perhaps surprising

to argue that an employed population could be enticed

to move, but an explanation lies in the labor conditions

then prevalent in the South.

About thirty-five percent of the urban Black popu-

(35) lation in the South was engaged in skilled trades. Some

were from the old artisan class of slavery-blacksmiths.

masons, carpenters-which had had a monopoly of

certain trades, but they were gradually being pushed

out by competition, mechanization, and obsolescence,

(40) The remaining sixty-five percent, more recently urban-

ized, worked in newly developed industries---tobacco.

lumber, coal and iron manufacture, and railroads.

Wages in the South, however, were low, and Black

workers were aware, through labor recruiters and the

(45)Black press, that they could earn more even as unskilled

workers in the North than they could as artisans in the

South. After the boll weevil infestation, urban Black

workers faced competition from the continuing influx

of both Black and White rural workers, who were driven

(50) to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs.

Thus, a move north would be seen as advantageous

to a group that was already urbanized and steadily

employed, and the easy conclusion tying their subse-

quent economic problems in the North to their rural

background comes into question.

The author indicates explicitly that which of the following records has been a source of information in her investigation？

A．United States Immigration Service reports from 1914 to 1930

B．Payrolls of southern manufacturing firms between 1910 and 1930

C．The volume of cotton exports between 1898 and 1910

D．The federal census of 1910

E．Advertisements of labor recruiters appearing in southern newspapers after 1910