New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-11-19

places that are owned by colored people and those
still held by the whites. and was surprised to md
that for the first eight miles out of Kingsree mere
| than half the land on both sides of the road, and
within one OF two miles of it, has been purchased
| by negroes during the past five or six years, and
| that most of il has been paid for. The upland
| is very light and sandy naturally. producing not
more than eight or ten bushels of corn or from one
third to One-fOurth of bale of cotton to the acre
All of the nigh lands originally covered with
| pine trees, the stumps Of which are still In the
| ground, and in most the bare trunks of the
trees which have been killed by glrdling, stand Ike
| grim sentinels over the scanty crops The swamps
| that have been cleared are not much ncher
! although in some of them fair crops of rice are
raised IN favorable seasons. Altogether IL Is foi-
| bidding country. but the cOlOred people who were
| born upon it know no b tier and they were sell
dom accustomed to receive &" meat" (baconl rations
in the days of slavery, they live now, on corn and
potatoes at les. expense than negroes i'll almost any
| other part of the South. The women do Us much
work in the fields as the men, and Il children help
TO pick out the cotton that negro family Will
save enough in two three years to buy
place where a Northern white man would starye
to death in one. The plantations owned
by the colored people contain all the way from 10
or 20 to go and 800 acres, and are on the whole
fairly cultivated, as farming goes in the South
Most of the families live i'll log cabins, as they dId
before the war, and certainly as comfortable as
they were in slavery They raise cotton corn, peas,
sweet potatoes, some rice, and many of them emp
the pine trees for turpentDc. Most OF them nave
little stock pigs and chickens, and, as Lewis
said. live rs happy as n big sunhower." We
passed several churches and schools and the open
doors of the latter disclosed full benches OF coored
children.
Further down in the country the land Is a little
better and is held in large tracts by white planters
who refuse to sell to the blacks, but work the best
portions of their lands thcmsclveswth hired labor,
and rent out the poorer fields to negroes, who pay
dollar or dollar and half an acre, and furnish
their own seed. manure, teams and labor
colored family dependent on days work for living
has rather a hard time. The price paid by most
of the planters this year has been 40 cents day,
and very little of that cash. For instance peck OF
corn paysfOr yslabor, and that cannow be bought
for so cents bushel, making the actual wages ~
cents, without board. The price Cor picking cotton
is 80 cents 100 pounds. paid chiefly III provisions
and a man OF a woman can pick about 100 pounds
day. In spite of these ndIcuousy low wages,
many of the colored people on these large plaHta-
tions are saving money, and might become land
owners # the white people would sell. lhey might
buy by going eight ten miles away, but their at
tachment to their old homes Is so great that they
will not leave them. We rode four or five miles
through single plantation, upon which there were
before the war, coo negroes. Mr.. McCntchen, the
present owner, cultivatcs some Of it and rents
some. He has a stcam-gin, mills store, etc, and
the place is a little world in itself
| have devoted more space than | otherwise
should have done, in this letter, to the condition OF
the colored people Of this county, because believe
from he hastv glance have been able to take Of
IT land my information has been obtained eXclu-
slvely from the colored people themselves, that
step is being taken here very short one, possibly,
toward removing those two most scriou- mcnaccs
TO popular government In the Soutb-the ignorance
and poverty Of the voters. The colorcd children
nearly all 60 to school little, and learn to read and
write, if nothing more, and where they have a
chance many Of the adults are acquiring property.
This makes them conservative, and if the white
people would only give the blacks little more en-
courageInent the great problem of tho regeneration
of this part of the South might be successfully
solved have given the bright side of the picture
in this letter 1t certainly has its shadows, and
some of those may possibly draw at another ume.
1 "