The Port Gibson reveille. [volume] (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1890-current, 1893-11-17

"A correspondent or tho New YORK
Post, writing from Clark's nm, South
Carolina, gives vivid picture of the
dcsoIalIon wrought In that region frat
by slave labor, aud afterwards by the
still more destructive tonani system Of
farming. This article might have been
written about Claiborne county and
the rest Of the Mississippi ~bIuf form
alton" so perfectly does II paint both
The past and the present Of these couu-
Ties, once rs fertile as any land that
The sun shines on. The South Caro-
lima correspondent SAWS:
"Thc locality from which | write Is
In that broad baud of hin country,
neither mountainous nor level, lying
between the Appalachian chain and
The sandy belt along the coast. The
plantations here In the days of slavery
averaged about thousand acres aud
fifty 10 sixty negroes.
"In this broken country water has
been mans Chief enemy, for outside OF
the low grounds along the streams
there Is hardly level acI o.to be found.
The most shiftlcss system Of agricul-
turc Tho world has ever seen has been
pracliced here since the first new
grounds' weFc cleared. la no instance
was any attempt made to prevent
washing, and In many cases gullies
wero deliberately conrtod by laying OF
cotton and corn-rows mp and down
tho hillside. TO replace the scanned
aud gashcd fields, the axe would ring
all tho winter, aud 3 new patch would
be prepared for tho plough. This
reckless squandering Of mother earth's
gifts destroyed perhaps half of the ara
BILE surface By 1865.
"For The first year or 30 after that
era the negro remained with bis FORM
or slaye-mastcr and worked the land
on shares, furnishing the labor only
and receiving one-third to onc-halt of
the gross product. IIo next wanted
TO become a renter, though he bad
nothing besides his naked human
strength The landowner had to
credit him, without security, for stock,
seed, food, implements. The universal
custom was 10 charge two bales of cot
ton for onc-mulc farm. More fresh
land was wanted, and tho black agreed
to fell tho forests on condition OF using
the ground rcnt-free for two crops.
Under this stimulus the dark woods
soon gave way before their kecn-cdged
enemy.
"Wiih the folly OF their fathers, tho
planters put forth no effort 10 save
their land. Rotation, even II thought
of, was practically impossible with the
negro so determined to make cotton
manuring has never been tried to tho
present day. With q clean-culturc
crop like cotton on the hills season af-
ter season, the fercc showers OF sum-
mcr soon justified the colIoquial ex-
preston, No man here has title to
hls laBd'
@The cor onclusion Of such careless
methods was plain and the end not
far. The soil being gone, the negro
had to go too. Generally he won't to-
wards tho ocean aud TO Georgia, Flor
ida, Mississippi aud Louisiana. Largo
numbers went 20 The towns and vi
lagos lately sprung up In this belt.
@As a result OF the destruction oil
tho soil, the same land maintains few
er people than II did In slavery. Tho
best judges believe that only about
threc-ffths as many people live on this
strip as lived here IN former days. On
one plantation at the upper end about
a hundred slaves dwclt; now II has
twenty-five or thirty negroes. Anoih-
or had forty slaves, now II supports
ono family of five. A third, alongside
OF this, which bad forty, now has
twenty-onc. The picturesque planta-
tion that formed little warId-unli In
itself, with its carpenter. wheelwrighii
blacksmith, spinners, wcavers, and
shocmakcrs, has disappeared"