There were within the state in 1875, 1141 m. of railway, belonging to 12 different lines, with an aggregate capital of $1,878,103, and a funded indebtedness of $3,325,000.
The assessed valuation of property in 1870 was $177,278,890; the true valuation was supposed to be about $210,000,000. The debt of the state in 1874 (deducting $7,000,000 of bonds repudiated in 1842) was $3,558,629, of which $1,157.415 was due to the school funds. The receipts of the state treasury in 1874 (deducting $795.936 for uneurrent and unavailable funds, and $74,269 in the shape of certificates of indebtedness) amounted to $1,385,618; the disbursements to $1,288,140.
The state has three customs districts—Natchez, Pearl Elver, and Vicksburg. The direct foreign trade and the coasting trade are carried on entirely in the Pearl River dis trict, of which the only port is Shieldshorough. The amount of foreign commerce in 1874, consisting mainly of exports, was $233,406; the number of vessels entered as engaged in that trades was 93, aggregating 22,523 tons; clearances, 94—tonnage, 20,249 tons; entrances in the coasting trade, 68—tonnage, 12,048 tons; clearances, 96-21,382 tons; total tonnage of all kinds, 76,202.
There were no national and but five state banks of deposit in Mississippi at last nccounts; the five had an aggregate capital of about $550,000. Six savings banks have a capital of not far from $300.000. An insurance department was connected with one of the banks of deposit, and also with one of the savings banks, and there were 21 insur ance companies of other states doing business in Mississippi.
According to the census of 1860, the population of the state was 791,305, of which 353,899 were white. 436,631 slaves, and 773 free colored. The slaves having been emancipated in suppressing the rebellion, the population of 1870 was 827,922, of which 382,896 were white, and 445,026 (including 10.Chitick and 809 LidianS)'were colored; males, 413,421; females, 414,501; natives of the country, 816,731; persons of foreign birth, 11,191; persons of school age (5 to 20 years), 278,t;90; voters, 174,815. Pop. 1,131,592.
The constitution of the state at the time of its admission to the union recognized the need of a good common-schOol system, and congress was asked for an appropriation of public lands to promote the object. Grants were accordingly made at different times, amounting in all to 10,697,882 acres, an amount equal to more than one-third of the area of the state. The proceeds of these lands, so tar as they have been sold, have been mostly diverted from their legitimate object and lost by gross mismauttgemcnt. Indeed, before the rebellion there was no well-regulated system of common schools, or hardly an effort to secure such a boon, the policy of this as well as of the other slave states being unfavorable thereto. After the national troops gained a foothold in the state, northern benevolent societies began to establish schools, but they were attended mainly by the negroes. Appropriations from the Peabody fund and from the resources of the Freed
men's Macau were added to the contributions a the benevolent societies, and a begin ning of a better educational system was made, After the state wits reconstructed, the legislature enacted laws for the establishMent of a common-school system, and since that time much has been done to carry those laws into effect. In 1878 an act was passed placing the schools under the management of a state board of education, a state superin tendent, county 'superintendents, and local boards; providing that white and colored youth should not be taught in the same school-house, nor in school-houses nearer to each other than two and a half miles; that the Bible sliould not be excluded front the schools, and that the proceeds of land sold for taxes, from fines, forfeitures, breaches of penal laws, etc., should be set apart for the support of schools. Another act was passed snaking provision for a system of high schools. In 1878 the number of children of school age was 348,244, of whom 158,153 were white, and 110,088 were colored. Num ber of children in school, 205.855, of whom 100,676 were white, and 104,179 were col ored. Average monthly enrollrhent, 171,220, of whom 82,506 were white, 88,000 colored. Average daily attendance: whites, 64,318; colored, 71,058; total, 135,716. Number of teachers: white, 2,948; colored, 1813; total, 4,761. Average monthly salary of white teachers, $28.02; of colored teachers, $26.921. The total amount of state fends expended for schools in 1874 was $1,242,308, of which over $1,000,000 was raised by state tax. Nearly or quite as much more was raised by local taxation, and the legislature succeeded n saving from the wreck of the school-fund nearly $2,000,000. There were in the state si 1873, 8 high and 2 normal schools—one of the latter at Holly Springs in the a. section, and one at Tougaloo, near the center. The number of private schools in 1874 was 586, attended by about 13,000 pupils. Number of persons who could not read or write in 1870 was 349,813. The university of Mississippi at Oxford has classical, scientific, and law departments; while Alcorn university (colored) at Oakland has scientific and agri cultural departments. There are, besides, Mississippi college (Baptist) at Clinton, Pass Christian college (Roman Catholic) at Pass Christian, Madison college at Sharon, Tougahoo university (unsectarian, but under Congregational auspices) at Tongaloo, and Shaw university (Methodist) at Holly Springs; and not less than nine colleges and semi naries for the instruction of girls, mostly under the patronage of different Christian sects—Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Cumberland Presbyterian, and Episcopal.