The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1883-05-24
TENANTRY.
jefferson Davis, speaking of the
N,- co,+b cove.

A healthy system OF lmmlSratloh
would assure it great future.
Whether the .colored people will
ever reach the point of becoming
reliable and valuable tenants is q
question yet to be determined. They
are improving in degree, but have
not yet shown their ability to oc-
cupy the place of white tenants.
The abolition of slavery has been
great thing for the white man, but
I doubt very much if it has improv-
ed the condition of the negro. Ger
tainly it has not so far"
He touches the root of a serious
evil that is felt by every white far
mer at the South, but he touches it
in such as way as to indicate that
he is not able to point out an ade-
quate remedy. Thoughtful men
throughout the South realize that we
need a healthy system of tenantry;
they know that the negro is, as a
rule, neither reliable nor valuable
as a tenant; and they know, too,
that freedom has not tended to i'm
prove him as a laborer.
The average negro is failure as
a tenant. He has big notions, but is
not willing to do hard, systematic
work. He likes the idea Of being
boss of his own farm and master of
his own time. He cares nothing
for improved methods Of cultiva-
ton, and is not willing to work un-
der his landlords guidance. He
bankers after "store-bought" goods,
and thinks that the privilege of
buying his supplies directly from
the merchant is the highest evi-
dence Of his being an independent
gentleman and farmer. He gives
his children distaste for steady
work, and leaves them free to in.
fest schools and churches, and in
habit prison houses. He likes to
play into the hand of the merchant,
for he thinks his own interests are
adverse to those of the landowner.
With a lien-ridden crop, the owner
ship Of which is contested between
him and the grass, and a ien-fed
rack of bones that goes under the
name OF horse, and in which certain
birds of the air have vested inter
est, he is happy. That is the aver
age negro tenant.
We are glad to do justice to those
few negroes who are good farmers
and good citizens, and who are ac-
quiring property. They are not of
the latter day species. They are
men who received their habits of
thought while under the guidance
of a superior intelligence and
higher order of eiyilizaton-who
were disciplined to frugality and
industry while under the rod.
They have little reason, however, to
be proud of their offspring addicted
to alarnin'" and general worth
lessness..
The question is perplexing, and
immigration will not furnish rem
edy. AS q social and economical
question in this State, immigration
is another failure. Some time ago
a prominent German of the State,
q bank president, said to us, SUBJ
''The people of this
State cannot get immigrants of the
better class. Take the German,
for instance. He cannot come here
and compete with the negro as
farm laborer and retain his decency
and self-respect. In the Gid coun-
try the German peasant has a CON-
Portable house and good, wholesome
food; he has his feather bed and
his COW; and while he lives plainly,
be lives decently and in comfort.
Here, in order to compete with the
negro. ne is forced to live very
much as the negro does, and to give
up his ideas of comfort. He may
stand it for time, but if he is of
the kind of immigrants we need, he
will soon rebel, and leave the negro
competition" There is good,
sound sense in those words, and
sensible men will see it. Immigra-
ton is not the remedy, unless we
give the immigrant better adyan-
5ages.
We feel that much would be gain
ed by bringing the tenant under the
direction of the landlord. This
would be best for both parties.
Left alone, the negro is a poor far
mer, and will never make a good
one. And we think that the land
owner should control the man who !
tills the land, at least in the case of