Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-08-11

| DID THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY de-
CREASE THE WEALTH OF THE STATE Pin
an issue Of your paper some ten days ago
appeared an article under the above heading.
The following statistics will throw some light
upon the subject and may be interesting to
those inclined to think upon the subject, or to
pursue the investigation further, from the
standpoint here presented.
No wellinformed reader or observer will,
at this period of the worlds progress, deny
for moment that the most prosperous coun-
tries are those in which the soil is secured by
and divided among the largest number of
persons. The vast recuperative powers Of
France are in great part due to the magnif-
cent result Of her great revolution, which,
sweeping away the feudal system, left her
nation Of freeholders-a State founded on the
most conservative elements to be found in
human Civilizations free people living in
free homesteads. Pauperism is trivial evil
in France, as compared with the curse under
which Great Britain labors. The land mo.
nopoly and continued absorption existing
there is frightful source and principal cause
of the necessities which make the poor rates
so grievous burden. Nearly S60,000,000
annually is what the British people pay for
the support of their paupers.
An examination Of the condition prevailing
throughout the South before emancipation of
the slaves will show as marked tendency,
area and conditions being considered, to
the absorption of the land by limited class
of persons as has for more than century
been the especial bane of Great Britain. In
1860 Tennessee contained S2,36S farms In
1870, just FIVE years after the surrender Of
the Confederate armies, the State contained
l18, ,141 farms, an increase in the number of
farms of 35,773 in FIVE years after slavery
was abolished nor were the conditions under
which this increase was made at all advanta-
geous In every one Of the States of Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mis-.
sissippi. North Carolina, South Carolina, Tex
as and Virginia, the census of 1870 shows
marked increase in the number of farms
over that exhibited by the census of 1860,
the increase in none of these States being
much less than 10000 farms. The census of
1870 shows one subdivision that is not found
in that of 1850. This is that of farms under
three acres-without doubt market gardens,
in the main located near large seaports and
large towns of the South, and devoted to the
raising of vegetables and fruits. The largest
increase of farms is in the smaller divisions,
there being in the States named, including
Tennessee, total Of 114,574 farms under
20 acres IN extent, against 92,416 addition
al farms between twenty and fifty acres in ex-
tent Again, there is q total increase of 206,-
$50 farms under fifty acres each, against ap
increase of but IA ,532 Of between fifty and one
hundred each. .e3 3s'-s - .
A partial exhibit of 1874-5i in the State Of
Georgia, doubtless now the wealthiest and
most prosperous of the Southern States, shows
in forty eight of the more populous counties,
out of 1873 in that State, that the changes in
dicated by Northern papers, as sure to result
from free labor have become rapidly manifest.
The following summary is interesting: Acres
in corn, 659,8S6; wheat 125,537; clover,
2,37O; cotton, 549,396; tobacco, 542; gar.
dens, {, 5,124; total, 1,342 1856 acres. The num-
Der of hired hands was stated at this time at
1925. evidently showing that there was a
considerable number Of white persons belong
ing to the land owning class who work on the
sofia habit considered before the war as
unbecoming them. The number of acres of
rented land was given at 21,1l0, and of the
hands working on shares 19,OM-making
total working force Of wage and share labor
ers in the counties embraced, of 81 $50. In
the census of 1860, or those preceding, no
figures appear as to wages paid for farm
labor. ..-
Attention has been called to these few scat
tered items simply to illustrate the growth of
free labor and its concomitaDt advantages,
where the ownership Of the soil is easily acces'
sibleto those who must work on it.-Nash.
ville american.