Characteristics of the Southern Negro

so well as they did in slavery, they worked better than they have at any time since. In the nineties I asked numerous planters who had had much to do with negro farm laborers, both before emancipation and after, the following question: Have the negroes in the upland counties produced as much as they have consumed since the war? The uniform answer was, " They have riot." But the answers varied as to how much they lacked. A few planters said they had not made enough, upon an average, to pay land rents. The average answer was, " They have made a living and paid half rents for their lands." To make a living with rents half free, is consuming more than they produce. As an evidence of this, the value of uplands fell to about half price. Another evidence of this: The sections where there are the most negroes are the least prosperous. Compare Marshall County, Mississippi, with Henry County, Tennessee. Before the war, the people of Marshall were prosperous and were rapidly accumulating, and the negro population was, I judge, about double the white inhabitants. The people of Henry County were industrious and slowly accumulating property. Both were early settled counties. Marshall County was worth, I judge, about five times what Henry was. Now, Marshall is left far in the rear, and Henry has shot out well in advance. We cannot account for this in any other way than that negro labor is consuming more than it is producing. I could give many other illustrations, showing ...