The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-12-14

work, and that the planter never
conld make it profitable Most of
these men have passed through the
year without having their views
changed, but on the contrary, as they
claim, strengthened and confirmed by
the actualworkings Of the new system.
While there are some planters who
worked the negroes successfully, and
are fully satisfied that their labor can
be made profitable, there is no
doubt but that the former isethe view
entertained by the great mass Of the
people of the South But in my re-
cent visit [ have been over planta-
tons where ten bales have been pro-
duced to the, hand, and on a nihber
where the average yield was one bale
to the acre. On one plantation, work
ed on the shares" blythe, negroes,
the yield was one and quarter bales
to the acre. Such results would sat-,
isfy the old planters under theislave
system. And while these facts can be
found in many places in the South,
they are not to be set up against the.
general results in the whole country,
yet they establish certain facts. Nor
should the negro be charged with
the rains, the droughth, the
worms, and other "dispensations of
Providence" The South has this
year very improbable crop; but it
is not all chargeable to the negro, nor
does it entirely prove the failure of
the free system of labor 1t is not to.
be denied that the general character
of the negro is that of laziness and in
difference to the interests of their EN-.
ployers. They love ease, and have no.
fondness for work. But, considering
their past condition In. slavery and
ignorance, little else could be expected
of them. All men must have proper
incentive to .exertion, and especially
so in the case of egraded beings as
the late slaves of the South. The
payment simply of wages, of itself, is
not a sufficient incentive to dilligents
work in the cotton fields; they should
have an interest in the soil, or n the
product oflthe soil; and this will spur
them up to effects which mere
wages will not. They must also
be we'll treated They know
that they are free men, and will de-
mand something, approaching the
duestreatment their changed position.
But 1 have heard z it reported
dozens of times lin my recent
visit that the negroes would network
except by the application of the lasff;5
and on many plantations the past year,
it has been freely resorted too. 1.-The
laws lofMississippi have'thrown every
possible obstacle in the way Of their
independence and citizenship, pros,
pibitipg, them from holding real es7
tate, denying them the right of free
locomotions requiring permits to trade. 4
and a number Of other legal restric-
tions,whieh operate to, keep them ina
position sof vassdlage and depend
ence.II Until. these are swept away,
until the negro is made to feel that he
is secure III person and property, that i
he can acquire some kind of interest
in the soil, gthe system of free negro /
labor will continue to, prove a failure.
The large planters, contrary to the
general prosperity of the country,
cling, with great tenacity, to their
large plantations. They have lordly |
pride still in their broad acres. While
the past year has demonstrated, what
free labor, in other sections of the
world had already proved, that large
farms can not now be so well and
proftably cultivated as small ones,
and while they. have no means with
which to cultivate them, they are un-
willing to see their large plantations
of thousands of acres pass out of
their possession and be cut up into
small farms. But such, it appears,
must be the case before general a ri-
cultural prosperity will be enjoyed
1t may be 9that the late crop failure,
and the present poverty of so many
of the planters, which must lead to
the sale and partition of their lands,
will Sin the end, result in ultimate
and substantial beneftto the South.
III III. J, w. F. |