The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-15
NEGRO FARMERS.
Their Attachment to the Old Planta-
lions of Slavery Times.
Macon CAD Letter to Chicago Record.

2hdCOH tNId.D LelleT TO CDlCdSO RECORD.
The tenant system in the cotton belt
is unique. Before the war the agricultural
sections of the State were divided into
sometimes 10000 acres. own owned by one u man,
under single management and worked by
gangs OF saves wtb male ana bemaie directed
thirty or forty acres, according to the
wealth or the generosity of the master
to a hand, but that was excessive to cruel
ty, and such planters were universally con-
slaves for a 3,0O0-acre plantation, $50 or 100
for 5;oOO-aere plantation and 300 or 400
of the land is allowed 20 lie idle. The own
er retains 200 or 300 acres around his resi-
dence for his own and farms the rest
on shares, and the extent of it's cultivation
is usually governed by the character Of the
land and the character of the landlord.
To a large extent the tenants to-day are
the same men and women who lived upon
same soil freemen that they did in
bondage, some of them being the better
and others the worse for the change. And
to a remarkable degree the same relations
exist between the employer and the en-
pioyes-the patriarchal system of commun-
mirable, but sometimes degrading and OPP
pressive.
domestic animal and when he once forms
an attachment for place it is difficult
to drive him, away. Sometimes the rest
less, hayward ones wander off from the
old plantation and are gone for years,
but they will invariably claim a residence
there and usually come back sooner or
later, and expect to be taken on and given
work again. This rule applies only to those
plantations where the people were well
treated in slave times and since and where
the property has been retained by the same
owners. Often when a place is sold, if the
negroes dc. not like the appearance or the
behavior of the purchaser they will evac-
uate in a body and build cabinr, upon
ea whom k they know or IN w sh
may be related to their old master.
When the ties of personal attachment
are cut 1t does not take them long to
move. A couple of men can build
cabin in three or four days with no
tools but an ak to hew and trim the wood
and a trowel to handle the mortar in build
ing the chimney.
It was also the rule for plantations
upon which there, were hard masters to
and when emancipation came and many
of them have never been repopulated. There
are many farms in the South upon which
no negro is willing to work for any
farms were the scenes of cruelties during
slavery and are cursed-tabooed forever.
And there are certain men who can never
sent to work for them he would be boy
cotted by his race; he would be turned
out of the church and ostracized in every
way. The prejudices and the vindictveness
as their attachments and their loyalty.
But after emancipation large majority
of the slave population In the cotton belt
remained in the old cabins built new
ones upon the old plantations and their
fathers and grandfathers titled. receiving
a share OF the crop for their labor, or
rather in the way they are pleased to
vest to the landlord annually for ground
rent