The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1902-12-10
THE SOUTH BEFORE The WAR.
A Large Proportion of its People
not Idle, but Engaged in
Many Pursuits.

! (From the Norfolk, Va, Landmark
"Life in the Old South is a fine
paper, contributed by the Rev. J. M.
Hawley to the September October
number of Things and Thoughts, a
bi monthly magazine Of merit publish
ed at Winchester, Va. Mr.. Hawley's
contribution deserves special attention
because it refutes the oft-heard charge
that the ante-bellum South was ma
tion whose citizens, as whole, posed
in graceful idleness and let the slaves
do all the work. People of the present
day, even in the South (perhaps) have
come to think that in the years be-
fore the great struggle between the
sections the white men of the North
did more work, man for man, than
the white men of the South. The
OVERRIDING of the theory that the South
was settled by the Cavaliers and the
North by the Puritans has, by simple
association Of terms, had a great deal
to do with the deepening of this i'm
preston.
We consider the following extracts
from the Rev. Mr.. Hawley's article to
be valuable contri button to Ameri-
can history:
There were in the South (by the
census of 1850 in round numbers 174, :
600 persons owning from one to five
slaves. If these whites represented a
family Of five persons each on an aver
age-and many Southern families were
large-we have no less than 872, 500
persons dependent upon five slaves or
less to the family for support, when
only two in five were capable of pro-
ftable work, their own support to
come, at the same time, out of the pro-
fits of their own labor. Was popula-
tion Of /, ,745, coo souls ever clothed and
fed by the labor of only one-ffth Of
their number?
However much Southern men may
have been accused Of idleness and
incidence, very many of them-slave
holders and non-slave holders alike
were compelled to rely upon their own
energy and industry for livelihood.
To rely upon the labor Of the few
slaves they owned signifed poverty and
embarrassment.
And how were the thousands Of
families that owned no slaves, and yet
comprised two-thirds Of the white po-
pulation of the South, to be support
ed? Here again. the United States
census for 1850 gives us many inter-
esting and significant facts. The num-
Der of white persons engaged in
laborious occupations in the South III
the year was larger in proportion to
population than in the North. The
census gives US the number Of white
persons over Is years of age engaged
in any occupation in each State of the
Union. The figures are decidedly to
the credit of the South.
" Let US compare a few Northern
with few Southern States. In
Massachusetts, the percentage OF per-
sons over Is years of age engage in
work was As. 80; in Rhode Island,
IS. II; in New Hampshire, 1906; in
Connecticut. 1915: in New York,
47.61; in New Jersey, E.35. Now let
US glance at an equal number OF
States in the South. In Maryland
the percentage of white persons over
15 years of age engaged in work was
51.s0; in Virginia, 46. 81; in Georgia,
II. is in; Florida, 53.04; in Mississip-
pi, 81. % in Texas, 54.03. The average
for ali the States in the North was 49. 92
for those in the South, 49, a. But
one Southern State-Missouri-fell to
an average SO low as Massachusetts,.
But two in the North-Pennsylvania
an Iowa-rose to an average SO high
as Maryland or Mississippi, not one
of them equalling Florida, Arkansas
or Texas.
"These facts are decisive of the
question of industrial conditions in
the South. Whatever may have been
the influence of the African shadow
upon the people south of the Mason
and Dixon line, it did not produce men
who despised labor and lived in idle
ness and luxury. Go to any State Of
the South and the fact remains that
the average of the white population
living upon the interest of invested
money and having no occupation was
considerably smaller than in the
North. -