Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-07-07
Condition Of the Neproes in the Extreme
South.

Condition Of the NeprOes in the Extreme
south.
[From the New York Wolld, National Democratic
Organ, June 4.l
The great revolution in the Industrial system
and political or ;apizatiou Of the South, is sub
ject on which all intelligent people in The North
desire, and few are able to obtain, co ect ;nfor-
maiiop. Or,'nary travellers and newspaper GER
respondents VINO pass rapit-'y th ou3h the Souih
get superficial Impressions, and their crude op l.
ions more frequently mislead than enlighten us
on one of the most important aud interesting ex-
peiiments in human HISTORIAN experiment
which must prove equally insti dctive to the
statesman, the political economist, and the phi
lantf opist.
with gentleman who has just retul ned from a
residence of seven or eight months in Gulf
State, and has given us more trustworthy infor-
nation respecting the condition of the South
than we have been able to CLEAN from other
sources.
We lea; from this intelligent person that
emancipation is not regarded as an evil by the
owners of the Southern plantations, and that
they heartily acquesce in free labor. The me-
groes are reasonably Industrious, and are i'm
proving every yea. under the wages system. He
has purchased and stocked a large sugar planta-
ton and his description of this enterprise gives
fair idea of the relations at present subsistipg
between the owners of land and the laborers
"
them S1S per month of twenty-six days, furnish-
ing cash family with cottage and garden free
of rent and making each weekly allowance Of
Indian meal and pork or bacon equal to the old
allowance formerly made to slaves. The cot
tages have cost him $500 each to build. They
are surrounded with gardens in which he has
planted fig, orange, and other fruit trees and he
has assigned to each family an acre of land on
the plantation to cultivate In odd hours by them
selves and their women and children
Ia informs that this common arrange
ment on the Louisiana plantations. The wages
of the heads of families is paid monthly the
women and children being employed at daily
wages in such labor as they are capable of per-
forming and paid at the end of each week.
Boys who can drive team receive twenty-five
cents day, and women who work in the field
from fifty to seventy-five cents. Medical atten-
dance is provided by withholding fifty cents a
month, or six dollars year, from the wages of
each hand this money being paid to physician
subject to the call of any family needing his SER
vices, The same physician has similar arrang-
ment with a sufficient number of plantations to
bring him about $4,000 year1-a very good in
ers are hired by the year, both planters and
laborers are in the habit of dissolving the en-
gagement whenever either become dissatisfied,
the wages being paid up to the time when the
laborer leaves or is discharged. The plantation
we have described is sample of thousands of
others in the same State. 1t conveys pleasing
and satisfactory picture of the condition of the
negroes and the disposition of their employers.
The negroes are conteht, and the planters ap-
prehend no trouble The labor problem is re-
garded as solved to the satisfaction of both
| parties. The planters have become convinced
that they will make greater profits under the
wages system than they ever did under the slave
| system. When negro dies, it does not entail a
loss of 81, 500 on the owner of the plantation.
comparatively small capital suffices for starting
and working plantation The owner is exempt
ed from the duty of supporting the negroes in
childhood, old age, and sickness. The negroes
work with alacrity, and are pleased to have album
dance of money in their pockets to spend as they
please. The industrial part of the experiment
| is working to the satisfaction of all concerned.
Our intelligent informant tells us that organ
| lied efforts are in contemplation, and already
making, to bring large numbers of negroes from
| Virginia to Louisiana. The inducements offered
for such emigration are very great, as the wages
| paid in the Gulf States are double those paid to
negroes in the border States. The obstacle to
| such emigration this year has resulted from the
had reached Mobile, and were put on board
steamers ostensibly for New Orleans, they would
be carried to Cuba and sold as Slaves
| II il the intention of the agent who has been
most active in promoting the emigration, to take
back to Virginiathe most Intelligent negroes who
have emgrated, and let them tell their story te
their former companions and aquaintances. The
exodus from the border States is expected to in
crease from year to year under the stimulus o
higher wages and il il probable that in tht
course of ten or twenty years Virginia, Maryland
Kentucky and Tennessee will be drained Of thei
negro population, which will eventually be con
centrated in the Gulf States. The cotton ant
sugar States abound in rich lands not yet brough
under cultivation; the demand for the staples j
constantly increasing prices are high; AM
tempting wages can always be offered to tn
only class Of laborers who can stand the climate