The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1867-02-07
The New Question.

Has freedmen's labor failed us? On
this point, the answers ure as various as
the respondents Few men, knowing the
nature of the African so we'll as our plan
ters generally ought, considered In ao-
vance the effect that freedom would have
upon men so long constrained 10 "Gor,
despite there inherent incidence; 6ut
children in intellect, constrained iaOor
was as irksomc to them, as long conhne-
ment to schooIboys, and liberty, in their
dictionary, meant no more than license
This was to have been considered, and is
now not to be lost sight of in any honest
estimate of the case Besides, the season
has been most disastrous. The heavens
have seemed TO frown down upon us, even
while our cup of defeat and humiliation,
of impoverishment and uncertainty, was
occrfowing. Flooded valleys, scorched
hills or devastating insects, have here or
there, thwartcd the most energetic and
hopeful, aud these added calamities lend
a sombre tinge TO the views ofall our peo-
pie, from the Carolinas to the Rio Grande.
Again: the variousness of answer to this
Question is TO be found somewhat, albeit
we will not say always, in the way the
freedmen have been managed. Those
planters who most thoroughly realized
their condition at the outset, and who
have most sensibly and phlosophically ac-
commodated themselves to their changed
circums tances, have best succeeded.
When the crop has passed from the
hands of producers, We shall have some
reliable data upon which to found an
opinion as to the measure Of success that
has crowned the efforts ofplanters. The
number of bales produced will enable the
statistician to make an approximate esti-
mate of acres planted and cost ofproduc
ton. Aside from this. let us also consid-
err what might have been the result in the
absence of floods, droughts, and all the
Pandora Ills that seem to follow war.
And hear let us ask our friends if, in
view of the gloomy retrospect they take
of the year, they are not making unwar-
rantcd calculations for the future. We
think they are. Without the compulsion
of stringent vagrant laws-without me-
ting out the exactest justice to the labor
er as we'll as eXacling tive cannot con-
ceve it more than probable, in the nature
of things that the freedmen will be more
than selfsupportng. The history of the
race in the British West Indies will be
their history. A small per centage of
them will work fairly the mass will labor
as their necessities impcl but the aver
age result will be of little avail in rcstor-
ing king cotton to his former prestige
1t is due to the freedmen from our peo-
: pie, however, not only on the score ofpast
"a
financial views, to do all they can to en-
courage him in the pursuit Of the rewards
of labor His natural position is in our
climate-his social instincts bind him here
and we shall do wisely in proving to
him that slavery is but the transition
state through which all people pass from
barbarism to progressive civilization
We say this in view of the repeated dec
Iarations Of many planters, to import
white laborers from the North and from
Europe
Ali the laborers whose labor is worth
having, perfectly understand our situation.
A few weeks ago, about 800 Germans
landed in New Orleans. Why can we no
longer keep those laborers among US 3
asked city contemporary. The hum
blest man among them would have told
him that the existence Of slavery hereto
fore in the South, has repelcd free labor;
that they have hence no friends in The
South. ut,many in western, Tex. Missouri,
&c. Besides. they generally fear the pros
cess OF acclimation. 1t is useless for our
planters to turn to Germany. No coun-
try in Europe has peasantry so sturdily
| H. Il * Al ,nI .Iau
Use, but they. will not labor in gangs-not
even in the west; ceartinly not in cotton
fields. While this is true of tho German
additionally attached to his soil, there is
u large class of immigrants from that
country, of Hebraic descent, who have
the kcenest instincts Of trade, Of any peo-
pie upon earth Come they to this coun
try never so poor, they will soon own a
peasant stand or pedlar's pack and then
they quickly possess a corner grocery or
three story front. Alike industrious,
frugal and temperate, were either class
TO work two years on plantation, they
would be '.mitcyapt" to own it-cspccial-
ly if its owner carried it on in the flush
style Of good old time.
No, the remedy is not immigration of Ia
borers, but of land buyers. Not in carry
ing on large plantations, but small farms,
till the result of compact, thrifty husband
ry induces liberal offers for the fallow laad.
Where extensive planting is desirable, in
troducc gangplows, cornplanters, wheat
drills, cotton cultivators, headers-evcry-
thing that takes the place of the mere Ia
Dor drudge So extensive is the use of
agricultural machinery in the northwest,
that the four States of Ohio, Indiana, Hi
nois and Iowa kept half million of her
Young men i'll the field, during the late
80, o,3 ,,n+ CONSTANTLY increased their |