The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1906-01-26
A PRACTICAL DEFINITION OF
PEONAGE.

nized a view often expressed IN The
Herald; only more clearly and con-
vincingly stated. The demonstra-
ton of the evil of labor coercion be-
You'd the limits of the law is so con-
vincing that everybody, cotton plan
tiers especially, will perceive its in
fallible truth:
Dear Sir-"Inclosed please lind
my draft on the 0. B. Crittenden
Company in settlement of account
due to you by Nose Coleman. In
explanation of my not paying the
500 which the negro owes you, and
which he was perfectly willing for
me to pay, | wish to say that this is
the first dollar | have ever paid for
a negro, | believe, since | have been
planting. OF course, my interest IL
the matter is identical with yours,
and other planters. We all want to
make the negro, as far as possible,
comply with his contract, 1t is
simply a question Of how to do it. |
believe the true policy is never to
interfere with one who has contract
ed, and to hold him, by criminal
prosecution, or otherwise, up to his
contract, when he has made one for
that year; but, at the end of the year
if he owes more than he can pay,
and wishes to move, to let him move,
absolutely without restriction, except
that he must pay his account up to
the value of what he owns, or else
leave what he owns behind him, ex-
cepting household goods. This is
as far as we can go under the law,
to 60 farther brings you at once in
conflict with the Federal law Of
peonage, and is liable to lead to ser
ious trouble at any time, but with
out regard to the law, | am sure this
is the only policy to pursue.
If you adopt any other method
and say to a negro that he can't
move unless he pays his debt, one
of two things is bound to result;
either he stays unwillingly, saddled
with a debt which he has little hope
of paying and is a most unsatlSfac-
tory tenant, or he moves of in the
night and moves clean out of the
neighborhood, so hal you cannot
reach him. The inevitable effect
of this is to depopulate the neigh,
borhood. This plan has been known
as the Ouachita plan because it has
been tried for years on the Ouachita
river; but planters at the end of last
year, in a large convention held by
them, agreed that hereafter the plan
would be abandoned and that they
would not demand the payment of a
negro's debt before permitting him
. to move: the reason for the change
being that they found themselves al.
most without labor, so many Of the
| negroes having moved out Of tha'
| section.
l Again, under the policy suggest
! ed by me, the advancing of consid'
Grafton sums of money to negroes
before they had moved on You
place, would be done away with, al
a planter would be afraid to let
negro have more than he could rea
sonably be expected to reap out 0
one crop, and the doing away witt
| this would practically save the plan
ters of Washington county alone, a
! moderate estimate, 100000, ayear
Further, my own experience is whel
! it is known that a negro does not q
J into indefinite bondage when h,
/ moves on your place, but if unsuc
! cessful, he can leave by surrender
! ing what he has. you have much les
I trouble in filling the place with la
! Dor"
This reasoning seems SO sound
! its counsel is SO. clearly convincing
of the evil OF forcing the negro t
stay on a certain plantation, under
. heavy burden Of a debt, and a heay
. Ter sense of wrong, that we gIadl
! give it circulation. Planters G
! every county and neighborhoo
! would do well to do as those of th
! Ouachita have done-meet an
! formally declare against what is iii
orally killing the goose that lays tn
: golden eggs. In Wilkinson count
they have gone further in condemn
IL u.. A-.