News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-11-08
THE SHARE FARMERS.
INTERESTING CHARACTERS OF THE
NEW SOUTH.
Dissertation of His Home. How he Works
and Iivcs-ThC Banker.
from the American Agriculturi-tI

!
The changes wrought by the civil war
| in the South have produced one Charac-
! ter whom we found one of the most in
| teresting studies of n recent trip
through the South. We allude to the
negro share farmer. At home III his
ramshackle cabin. among his lean pigs,
! his bOnv cattle and his always numerous
| family, or in the market-placc with his
| spike team, often composed of a mule
and a COW, which he has driven a long
| day : journey to sell Il dollars worth of
wood or a couple of bushels of potatoes,
! he presents a grotesQue and interesting
type. Tt would be difficult. probably,
| to get down TO poorer and less profitable
| agriculture than the share farmer prac-
| tees. But he manages to scrape a liv-
| ing out of the ground. exactly how, he
| would perhaps sometimes find it diff
cult to explain himself.
| You come upon his cabin among the
| pine woods, with patch OF scraggy corn
| behind it, and the ground around stTewn
| with faggOts, among which pick a stray
! Cling crew of rusty fowls A couple of
| ours bark furiously at Won, and a couple
of pigs, which look like dogs, they are so
bOny and long-legged, trot grunting
away into the brush. The messy roof is
sagging on its yielding beams; there are
| great assures in the -plastPred chin
ney, and the winds find ingress through
! the cracks between the slabs and logs of
| the walls, from which the mud has fall
| len. The cOmmOtion your approach has
aroused brings troupe of children
| tumbling over one another cut into the
road, to watch YOU with wide-open
mouths and eyes, and shrinking back
when You look at them. \ sturdy ne
gross, with Il cob pipe, gives you curt
sey in the doorway; behind her Won see
figure like the witch of Il fairy tale
covering III the big fire -pIace; the fig
ure of some old grandmother or grand
father, carrying the weight of nearly Il
century on a bent back.
As YOU ride on, Won perhaps come
upon the farmer, sturdy aHd uncOuth,
hOeing in his potato patch, 81 wandering
among his corn or cotton.
The share farmer obtains his title from
the tenure by which he holds his land.
Fle rents it at the simple price of half
It's yield. 1t is commonly portion of
some large plantation. often of the same
one on which he once labored.
The system Of share farming has given
existence to another type beside the
farmer himself. This Is the banker, as
he calls himself; the usurious money
lender, as he really is. This worthy, like
the class he thrives off of. is Il negro
He Is, in a small way. Il capitalist, and
his business Is simply lending money on
the security of the share farmers crop.
Few of the thriftlcSs blacks can resist
the temptation of anticipating their
gains, ard the banker Is an Obliging
friend, when he considers it safe to be
so. In business he Is. by all accounts,
desperately hard and griudiug-other-
wise he is eminently respectable. and
not infrequeutly preacher of no little
local fame. Between the money he
owes this creditor and his store account
for mOlasscs tobacco, etc. also secured
by his crop; the share farmer IS often
saved the trouble of handling anvmoncv
at all for it, when it has been gathered.
Such as it Is, the existence of the ne
gro share farmer is not devoid of Gle
mentS of pictWcsqUeuess His labor Is
hard ana his fare coarse, but he is q
tough, rude man, and has no craving for
unknown lUxuIies. Among the togs of
early day he Is at work, when night falls
he fddies or crOOns ms simple melodies
before the yawning fireplace of his cabin.
He generally has an old gun and wages
war upon such game as the woods around
him shelter. What little leisure lie en-
joys he spends III sleep. In the scale of
education he ranks very low. He can
not read or write His ideas are fire.
quently clouded by superstition though
quite often he exhibits peculiarly keen
native wit and cunning, which make