Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-05-22
The south's Industrial Troubles.
A DISTINGUISHED CoLoRED WRITER
LAYS ALL THE BLAME ON
tsKlNG COTTON"

|
The industrial disturbances in the
South, Indicated from time TO time
by large exoduses of black and col
ored farm laborerh from one section
to another, have bten inexplicable to
persons outside the South, who have
sought in vain forla satisfactory ex-
PLANTATION. Tho most common expla-
nation given is tlat the negro as a
free laborcr is failure; that he is
wholly mtrustwo8t THY, and without
the simplest knowledge of economy.
But do not find that the farmers
endorse this opinion.
What are the facts in the case
Selma, Tuskcgce, Montgomery, Opc-
lika, and Eufala mhy safely be con-
sidcrcd as the urban centres of cot
ton culture. Here, if anywhere,
prosperous FARMS, opulcnt farmers,
we'll paid laborcrs should be found.
My observations along these centres
justify me i'll concluding that the re-
verse is sadly the case. l find the
farm stock of the most hopelessly
inferior kind; never saw worse. |
find the farms wofully run down and
mismanaged, the soil fearfully worked
to death, the one leading purpose
being to wiring from its reluctant
poverty as many stalks of cotton as
possible at the expense of, every
other form of produce. There is
little diversity of the crops. King
Cotton rules and tyrannizes the in
dustrial roost, and everything and
everybody must pay him court and
homage. The farmers are ground
to powder by the merchant, who has
a mortgage on his crop for supplies,
and the merchant is in turn pulvcr-
lied by the money lcndars from
whom he must borrow to buy his
stock, and carry it for twelve months
before he can realize on the farmers
cotton. The black laboror, as a mat
ter Of course, beiHg the force upon
which all the others rest, is mangled
to death when accounts are squared
at the end of the year. He always
comes out in debt to somebody, the
merchant or the planter. Is it any
wonder, therefore, that he should be
restless and discontcntcd, ever ready
to follow any man who holds out to
him fair promises of n better condi-
ton, a more advantageous opportu-
nifty somewhere else, even if it be
but ten miles from the place where
he labored?
Cotton culture is the curse of this
section of the South. It's cultiva-
ton is an obligation rather than a
prediction Of the planter 1t is
the only staple upon which the
money lenders will advance him
money; it is the only product upon
which the merchants will furnish
him supplies. lie has no money, he
has no supplies. He therefore is
compelled to stick to cotton as a
slave would to his master. Hc buys
his mules and horses Of Kcntucky y
and Tennessee stock raiscrs, when
he could very well raise them him
self, if he had timo or could alienate
the pasture land and the land fol
corn and hay crops necessary for the
purpose. lie buys his corn and hay
from Intermediates, who buy it OF
Western grain growers. IIc buys
his bacon in the same markets
Land adapted to corn and hay and
sugar cane culture, which is not
adapted to any other purpose, is
burdened with cotton stalks just as
religiously as the uplands, which will
produce nothing but cotton.
| Everybody goes to town once q
week. Most all colored people and
negroes 60 Oh Saturday. The high.
ways groan under the tread of i'm.
povcrished stock, mainly mules and
oxen, and the weight of wagons Of
the rudcst manufacture or most an.
tiquated styles. Every vehicle goes
into town empty; every one comes
out loaded in small or large measure
with corn meal and bacon produced
in the West, and gewgaws manufac.
tured in Lynn, Woonsockct, STAN.
ford, New York or some Other
Northern centre. King cotton alone
will satisfy merchant and money
lender, and to placatc these the pro-
duction of food products for home
must be foregonc. Everybody in
this section that have talked with
recognizes the vicious character of
this policy, but declares that he can
not change it. The farmers do not
nav the laborcrs any better worns