17736

17736

8 D 10776

About thirty-five percent of the urban Black population in the South was engaged in skilled
trades. Some were from the old artisan class of slavery-blacksmiths, masons, carpenters-which
had a monopoly of certain trades, but they were gradually being pushed out by competition,
mechanization, and obsolescence. The remaining sixty-five percent, more recently urbanized,
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
labour recruiters and the Black press, that they could earn more even as unskilled workersin
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 to undercut the wages formerly paid for industrial jobs.

Thus, a move towards the North would be seen as advantageous to a group that was already
urbanized and steadily employed, and the easy conclusion tying their subsequent economic

problems in the North to their rural background comes into question.

(a) Whatis assumed as the reason for lack of economic mobility among the migrants in the

north ?
(1) The large number of black migrants.
(2) the collapse of cotton industry.
(3) Unfamiliarity with urban living and a lack of industrial skills.
(4) the cessation of European immigration due to the First World War.
(b) From the second paragraph, give a synonym for 'enticed': (1 mark)
(1) Threatened. (2) Tempted.
(3) Insisted. (4) Pressurized.
(c) The author cites each of the following as possible influences in a Black worker's decision
to migrate north in the Great Migration EXCEPT :
(1) Wage levels in northern cities.
(2) Labour recruiters.
(3) Competition from rural workers.

(4) Voting rights in northern states.