The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-12-07

book on 1.-THE Negro in Africa and Amer
lea
To the Editor of the Republican,:
In an editorial article in the Repub-
lican of November 20, in criticising the
study of 1.-The negro in Africa and
America" by James Alexander Tilling-
hast, you accuse him of inherited bias
against the free blacks" and ask the
question:
Taking Southern agriculture as whole
how was it possible for it's farm values
to increase a greater percentage in the
two decades mentioned (1S80-1900) than
the farm values of the whole country, il
the negro labor, upon which Southern
agriculture largely depends, was all that
time degenerating in quality? obviously,
there is conflict between Mr.. Filling
hast's conclusion and the broad fact OF
the Southern uplift in agricultural
wealth.
There is no conflict between Mr.. Til
linghast's contentious and the tact OF
Southern prosperity and development.
These are due to the white man, not TO
the negro, to the immigration OF White
men from the West and TO the uplifting
of the poor white of the South, whose
progress during these two decades has
been as rapid as the decay of the negro
as a laborer and a producer. These
statements of Mr.. Tillinghast are sub
stantiated by the census and every other
statistical report published which lets in
any light on the subject, and they can
not be 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
an agriculturalist for 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
best 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.
If however, you return to the census of
1900, statistics of agriculture, volume II,
you will find that the two counties pro-
ducing the largest amount of cotton in
the South over 10000 bales each, are
Ellis and Williamson counties in Texas.
The negro constitutes o:ly one. te1to OF
their population, and produces less than
onetenth 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-
fngton county, Miss, and OFangeburg
county, S. c. a comparison with former
census will show that the cotton produce
ton 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 alluvial lands
of the Tensas basin (where the cotton is
raised by negro labor to the central dis
trict, 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
is the center of cotton production in the
South, and is declared by Prof. Hilgard,
in his snecial report on cotton for the
census. to be the best cotton country in
the world. The Tensas parishes have
always led the country both in the
quality 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
been unchanged. The land is as fertile
nc, TIL
acre. 1t has never been overworked and
there are several million acres of fer
tile lands still unculivated. 1t was sub
jeet to overflow formerly, but has for
years been safe, thanks to a splendid
leyee system. In view of these improve
ments and the better and more intelli-
gent cultivation of cotton throughout the
South, which has everywhere else pro-
duced such favorable results, the yield
of cotton of this favored district,-for
it is devoted exclusively to that crop
would, one should think, have materially
increased during the past 40 years. Yet
today these parishes yield Census of
l9O0) only 94.012 bales of cotton, as
against 91,29S in the single white county
OF Ellis, Tex. mot nearly as good for
the southern slopes, and as against
157,650 bales under slave labor There
has been little change in the labor, which
is almost wholly negro, as follows: 1900,
whites 1914, negroes 51,51S; 1860, whites
5,494, negroes &C. The production I'M
der slavery was 2.S bales per negro;
today it is Is bales, a loss of nearly Sc
per cent. The decline in the other crop
of the district corn, has been even
greater. There are no railroads. saw
mills or other industries to divert the
negro labor. The white population is al
most exclusively storekeepers and over
Eeers, except a few white farmers on
Black river, who do not raise cotton.
'Hhe cotton production is nearly all by
negro labor. The census figures show
that in the most favored section of the
South, and under most suspicious sur
rouad:ngs, the negro produces less cot
ton in the aggregate and per capita than
he CD under slavery. l might say fur
Their that this decline has been constant
since slavery. The planters say that
they are not making money with negro
labor. That the negroes are not grow
ing richer is shown by the fact that the
total assessment of all property held
by them is only $5O9,SS2, or little over
20