The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-08-18
Did the Abolition OF Slavery Decrease
the Wealth Of the Statel


above heading. The following atui statistics lies
will throw some light upon the sub.
ject and may be Interesting to those
inclined to think upon the subject or to
pursue the investigation further. from
the standpoint here presented.
No wcll-informed reader or observer
will, at this period of the worlds pro-
gress, deny for moment that the most
prosperous countries 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 magnificent re.
suit ofhergreat evolution, which, sweep
ing away the fcudal system, left her a
nation of freeholders-a State founded
on the most conservative elements to be
found in human civilization-a free pco.
pie living in free homesteads. Pauper-
ism Is Arrival evil in France, as compar.
ed with the course under which Great
Britain labors. The land monopoly and
continued absorption existing there is n
frightful source and principal cause of
the necessities which make the poor rates
SO grievous burden. Nearly sec, ,OOO.-
600 annually is what the British people
pay for the support of their paupers.
An examination Of the conditions pre-
vailing 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 n century been the
especial bane Of Great Britain. In 1860
Tennessee contained 82,36S farms. In
1870, just five years after the surrender
of the Confederate armies, the State con-
tanned l18, ,14l 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 advantageous. In every
one of the States of Alabama, Arkansas.
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas
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
censua Of 1870 shows one subdivision
that ia not found in that of 1860. 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
division, there being in the States
named, including Tennessee, n total of
l14,574 farms under 30 acres in extent.
against 92,4lG additional farms between
twenty and fifty acres in extent. Again.
there is total increase of 206, 900 farms
under fifty acres each, against an in
crease of but IA ,532 of between fifty and
one hundred each.
A partial exhibit of 1915 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 indicated
by Northern papers, as sure to result
manifest. The following summary is in
teresting Acres in corn, 659, 1856 wheat,
125,5S7; clover, 1870; cotton, 549,396 !;
tobacco, 542; gardens, 5,124; total,
/ ,342, ,o56 acres. The number of hired
hands was stated at this time at 1926,
evidently showing that there was con-
siderable number of white persons be.
longing 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 81 ,1l0, and of the hands work.
ing on shares 19,024-making a total
working force of wage and share labor
ers in the counties embraced, of 81 $50
In the census of 1860, or those preced-
ing, no figures appear to wages paid for
farm labor.
Attention has been called to these few
scattered items simply to illustrate the
growth of free labor and its concomtant
advantages, where the ownership of the
soil is easily accessible to those who
must work on it.-NnshriNe dnlericnn