The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-12-09
NEGROES CRITICAL POSITION
IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORIn
he Is o'eao"y Ketrograding, Even in Agriculture
Statistics of Wealth do Not Show His
Real Condition.

Hre following is a letter to the SPRING
e.1f Republican in reply to a criticism
ru that paper of Mr.. T~illinghast's recent
~. III. Editor of the Republican:
r9 an editorial article in the Repub-
,:.sr of November 20, in criticising the
s+r5v Of The negro in Africa and
,~.:.a,' by James Alexander TilIing-
hast lou accuse him of ''inherited bias
~..t the free Blacks and ask the
question:
~aE.nC Southern agriculture as a whole
how WAS it possible for it's farm values
en- fr.rgase a greater percentage in the
.r.4 decades mentioned 1SSO-1900) than
.sa farm values of the whole country. if
+ha negro labor, upon which Southern
ao-frulture largely depends, was all that
time .egeuerating in quality? Obviously
there is a conflict between Mr.. Filling
ta--'s conclusion and the broad fact of
the southern uplift in agricultural
vealta.
There is no conflict between Mr.. Til
rfn-aasts contentious and the fact of
Southern prosperity and DEVELOPMENT.
These arc ult | " Tic Wllllo man, not to
rhr negro. to the immigration of white
men from the West and to the uplifting
IF the poor white of the South, whose
-ragress during these two decades has
haeu as rapid as the decay of the negro
IS Il Iaborer and a producer. These
statements Of Mr.. Tillinghast are sub
stanttared by the census and every other
statistical report published which lets in
anv light on the subject, and they can-
not b. brushed away by the general and
vague statement Of a North Carolina
banker, as you suggest.
You very properly take agriculture as
the industrial field in which the negro
makes the best showing, for he has been
IN aEricuIturaliSt fer generations. OF
all the southern crops, that in which he
makes the best showing is cotton. The
cotton industry is based on negro (slave)
labor. The negro was believed to be the
hest cotton laborer in days of slavery,
and the planters even pretended to find
that his hand was better made to pick
cotton than that of any other race.
originally the entire cotton crop was
raised by negro labor and, at the death
Of slavery, certainly nine-tenths of it
was raised and picked by the negroes.
# however, YOU return to the census of
1900. statistics of agriculture, volume II,
yCu will find that the two counties pro-
duciEz the largest amount of cotton in
the South. over so, 900 bales each, are
Ellis and Williamson counties in Texas.
The negro constitutes OILY one. tento O.
their population, and produces less than
oGe-tgnth Of their cotton. Of the nine
teen southern counties producing over
$4,000 bales of cotton each. seventeen
are overwhelmingly white. nearly all
the cotton in them being raised by white
labor. and only two are black-Wash-
lngron county, Miss, and CEangeburg
county, :. c. \ comparison with former
census Will show that the cotton produc-
tion is drifting away from the black belt
to the white counties in nearly every
Southern State. Thus in North Carolina
the big cotton counties are white. In
Louisiana the center of cotton production
has shifted from the rich a~lluvial lands
OF the Tensas basin (where the cotton is
raised by negro labor to the central dis
lrlct, where the population is mainly
white.
An excellent basis of comparison of
the negro of slavery days and the free
negro is offered in that region known
as the Tensas basin of Louisiana. This
-ANN y NoI1oh ~ - 49,
South, and is declared by Prof. Hilgard,
in his snecicl report on cotton for the
census, 10 be the best cotton country in
The world. The Tensas parishes have
always LED the country both in the
9laHly and the yield of cotton per acre,
carroll parish being we'll in advance Of
any other county. The Tensas district
consists Of four counties, which have
lleh unchanged. The and is as fertile
as ever, yielding as much cotton per
acre 1t has never been overWorked and
t1ere are several million acres of fer
Nte lands still unculivated. 1t vas sub
Jeet TO overflow formerly, but has for
years been safe, thanks to a splendid
+Fee system. In view Of these improve
Ae4ts and the better and more intelll-
GEM cultivation of cotton throughout the
south, which has everywhere else pro-
oac@1 such favorable results, the yield
Of cotton Of this favored district,-for
il e devoted exclusively to that CROP
would, one should think, AVE materially
increased during the past 40 years. Yet
"+aE these parishes yield Census OF
l""| only %, 012 bales OF cotton, as
against u, 29S in the single white county
" Ellis, Tex. mot nearly as good for
e- southern slopes, and as against
[''ee' bales under slave labor. There
LIDS daen little change in the labor, which
ID @i0ost wholly negro, as follows: 1000,
-A.'.s A.814, negroes 51,5f8; 1850, whites
1ogroes IS, 1872. The production un-
Ief slavery was % bales per negro;
"1@E il is Is bales, a loss of nearly sc
per cent The decline in the other crop
I'll '1a district, corn, has been even
~.a'rr. There are no railroads, saw
L.-... or ntLC- ;.I,r{r:o ~ to 6iuC-t tho
negro labor. The white population is al
~' exclusively storekecpcrs and over
except a few white farmers on
~--'6 river, who do not raise cotton.
'"" cotton production is nearly all by
labor. The census figures show
ln the most favored section of the
o- and under most suspicious sur
'"tlngs, the negro produces less cot
h the aggregate and per capita than
-I under slavery. | might say fur
0.". mat this decline has been constant
L # ] "a NEr.r -{Dr fha