Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-08
Letter frOa Hon. Waddy Thompson.
THE PRESENT LABOR SYSTEM OF
THE SOUTH.
THE COTTON CROP OF 1886.

The policy Of the Government, since the
close of the war, has been unwise. The ne
groes suddenly receiving their freedom should
have been gradually admitted to its light
! One long confined in a dark room, and all at
once exposed to a CARING light, is apt to be
blinded. The former masters of the negroes,
who best understand their characters and
wants, should have been left, under all
proper guarantees and restraints, to lead
them on in a course of unbroken virtue and
industry, and Providence for the future to
appoint when they would be qualified wisely
and proftably so enjoy the freedom so sud-
denly conferred upon them. None others
are as capable, and none so much attached
to them. Instead of this officers of the
Freedmen's Bureau" have been sent, whose
interes: it is TO foment discomfort and insub-
ordination, as the continuance OF their EN-
ployment depends upon it. Infinitely more
disastrous in its effects had been the sending
of eolored troops into the South. / will
/ give single instance of the effects of this.
/ own plantation in Florida. Before the
arrival there of colored" troops, my for
mer slaves" sent me word that they would
remain with me.
| went to Florida in October, and told the
negroes that ifthey would work for me three
| VI lOuT lttfS, Il MOulu pay tue ulSHtSt
wages or give them share of the crop, and
told them that in that time they conld save
money enough to purchase mules, cows, hogs
and plantation tools, and that | would then
divide my land into small parcels and sell
to them on a credit of twenty years. Not
one accepted the offer. They have all left
my plantation-their comfortable homes,
gardens, poultry, aud are now wandering
about the country. My negroes have, |
| think, better characters than any others
where they now live or ever have lived, and
| | believe were sincerely attached to me.
| Nearly all Of them have come to me by in
| heritance, and others have purchased from
feelings of humanity alone. | never pun
ished a negro in my life for neglect Of work
| A recent article in the New York Tribune
regards the consequences OF the expulsion of
| the negroes as ruinous beyond description.
| Will it be any better to keep them here as
Migrants, non-producers and paupers? That
must be their condition if the present policy
is pursued. To send them away will convert
the fairest and most productive portion OF
the earth into a wilderness. To keep them
here in idleness, which will certainly be the
result unless they are forced to work. will be
to have that region occupied by savages and
robbers. Does any sensible man really be-
lieve that the productions Of the South will,
for many years to come, if ever, be as great
as they have been? Ifthere is such man,
he knows little of human nature, and nothing |
of the nature of the negro.
The Africans, as a race, never have labOred |
in the field, but by coercion. Where has he |
ever done so +? In his native country? In |
Europe? In the Stree" States, or in the |
South 1t is fair to assume that what has |
boo,, - /
tries will continue to be. The negro will |
work at various employments in towns and
cities-at job work in the country, &C..
many hire by the day or even month; but
for the regular continuous labor in the cot
ton field, he never has done so voluntarily, |
and he never will. In the country where | |
live, there have been, from my earliest re-
membrance, fifty or a hundred free
negroes, not one of whom has ever, to my
knowledge, owned an acre of land. 4 farm
of one hundred acres could have been secured
at dollar an acre, which family of four
or five workers could have paid for in
year, and paid for horse, COW and hogs,
and thus secured a homestead of his own.
Why has he not done so T? Because he is
lazy, shiftless and improvident, and prefers
to rent some miserable cabin in an old field,
of which he will cultivate three or four
acres, and for all else starve or steal Some
of the negroes will not work at all, others
for bare subsistence, which, with fish and
game, which abound in all the lower coun-
tries of the South, will require not more
than twenty days work. No tropical or
semi-tropical country ever has been cult
waited by white labor.
With all the tempting rewards Of high
prices for Southern products, the white man
in the lower sections of the South has never
worked, on an average, one-tenth Of his time.
The truth is, lie cannot. He may for year
or two, but a southern sun and southern
climate congests the liver, causes jaundice,
and not only indisposes but ncapacitates for
labor in the field in two or three years.
This has been the experience eve<xRhere.
In the higher regions of the So<5a cotton
may be made by small farmers in even in
creased quantities; but in the lower coun-
tries of the South, which have mainly sup
piled cotton, and on the large plantations,
it will not be produced to anything like the
extent as formerly. The negroes will not
work, and the white man cannot. Cotton
never has been produced in any considera-
BILE quantity by other than c,lored labor. A
large manufacturer in this high and healthy
region told me that he rarely bought more
than sixty or one hundred pounds from
farm cultivated by white family, however
numerous. MY crop of 1860 was $50 bales.
The present year / do not calculate on 80
bales. OF the adult negroes or workers, l
suppose that those who have served in the
armies ana those that have died amount to
one-third Men who have worn epaulets
and swords will not again take the plow and
the hoe. OF the remainder, one-half are
females, who viii never again go into the
field. There may be exceptional cases, but
very few. Negro girls, who have danced at
balls not only with young Yankee soldiers,
but with officers will not go into the field to
pillow and hoe. Who can blame them ?
OF the remaining third, the boys from
thirteen to eighteen win be at school, leav-
ing less than one-fourth of negro laborers.
How much cotton will they make? The
exports of 1859 are fallacious. Prices had
been very low, and all planters who were
not Obliged to SELL retained their cotton,
and the surplus of many preceding years
went to increase the apparent Productions of
that year. / make the prediction that the
crop of the present year will not amount TO
/ 100000 bales. / have no doubt that it
win BE isss II those predictions ahalI be |
verified, what is to be the destiny Of the
South, and ultimately of the North FOR
that now prosperous and exultant region has
only the privilege granted by the giant
that of being the last devoured. The pros
perity of both sections depends, and depends
equally on Southern agricultural produc-
tons, although the ruin Of each may have
different dates.
The payment of interest on American Sc
curities, which are accumulating in Europe | ,
to an alarming extent-interest on old debts
Of stock, railroad and other corporations-
will more than consume the cottOf exported.
How then will our merchants pay for goods
imported How obtain specie to restore our
Bankruptcy Of American mer- !
chants, or specie exported instead Of i'm. !
ported, will be what we shall see. :
An inconvertible currency is bad enough; !
but to demand specie in payment Of debt
contracted in an inflated currency, il repu- !;
diation, or perhaps a less odious word may 4
be employed, bankruptcy. Where will the i
Northwestern States sell their horses, mules, s
beeves, hogs, corn, and cotton bagging2 The 4
South can no longer buy, for 10 has nomoney :
10 pay with. Cotton may not be king, but !
It Is more than anything else the pabulum Z
Of American commerce and currency. What
are the forty millions Of specie from Cali
fornia TO the two hundred millions Of dollars
Of Southern cotton. To say nothing of rice,
tobacco and wheat? Can the commerce and p
sfar.d fIo | n