"By the use of commercial fertilizers, vast regions once considered barren have been brought into profitable cultivation, and really afford a more reliable and constant crop than the rich alluvial lands of the old slave plantations.In nearly every agricultural county in the South there is to be observed, on the one hand, this section of fertile soils, once the heart, of the old civilization, now abandoned by the whites, held in tenantry by a dense Negro population, full of dilapidation and ruin; while on the other hand, there is the region of light, thin soils, occupied by the small white freeholder, filled with schools, churches, and good roads, and all the elements of a happy, enlightened country life."All the systems devised for handling Negro labor proved to be only partially successful.The laborer was migratory, wanted easy work, with one or two holidays a week, and the privilege of attending political meetings, camp meetings, and circuses.A thrifty Negro could not make headway because his fellows stole from him or his less energetic relations and friends visited him and ate up his substance.One Alabama planter declared that he could not raise a turkey, a chicken, a hog, or a cow; and another asserted that "a hog has no more chance to live among these thieving Negro farmers than a June bug in a gang of puddle ducks." Lands were mortgaged to the supply houses in the towns, the whites gradually deserted the country, and many rice and cotton fields grew up in weeds.Crop stealing at night became a business which no legislation could ever completely stop.A traveler has left the following description of "a model Negro farm" in 1874.The farmer purchased an old mule on credit and rented land on shares or for so many bales of cotton; any old tools were used; corn, bacon, and other supplies were bought on credit, and a crop lien was given; a month later, corn and cotton were planted on soil that was not well broken up; the Negro "would not pay for no guano" to put on other people's land; by turns the farmer planted and fished, plowed and hunted, hoed and frolicked, or went to "meeting." At the end of the year he sold his cotton, paid part of his rent and some of his debt, returned the mule to its owner, and sang:
Nigger work hard all de year, White man tote de money.
The great landholdings did not break up into small farms as was predicted, though sales were frequent and in 1865 enormous amounts of land were put on the market.After 1867, additional millions of acres were offered at small prices, and tax and mortgage sales were numerous.The result of these operations, however, was a change of landlords rather than a breaking up of large plantations.New men, Negroes, merchants, and Jews became landowners.
The number of small farms naturally increased but so in some instances did the land concentrated into large holdings.
It was inevitable that conditions of Negro life should undergo a revolutionary change during the reconstruction.The serious matter of looking out for himself and his family and of making a living dampened the Negro's cheerful spirits.Released from the discipline of slavery and often misdirected by the worst of teachers, the Negro race naturally ran into excesses of petty criminality.Even under the reconstruction governments the proportion of Negro to white criminals was about ten to one.Theft was frequent; arson was the accepted means of revenge on white people; and murder became common in the brawls of the city Negro quarters.The laxness of the marriage relation worked special hardship on the women and children in so many cases deserted by the head of the family.
Out of the social anarchy of reconstruction the Negroes emerged with numerous organizations of their own which may have been imitations of the Union League, the Lincoln Brotherhood, and the various church organizations.These societies were composed entirely of blacks and have continued with prolific reproduction to the present day.They were characterized by high names, gorgeous regalia, and frequent parades."The Brothers and Sisters of Pleasure and Prosperity"and the "United Order of African Ladies and Gentlemen" played a large, and on the whole useful, part in Negro social life, teaching lessons of thrift, insurance, cooperation, and mutual aid.
The reconstructionists were not able in 1867-68 to carry through Congress any provision for the social equality of the races, but in the reconstructed states, the equal rights issue was alive throughout the period.Legislation giving to the Negro equal rights in hotels, places of amusements, and common carriers, was first enacted in Louisiana and South Carolina.Frequently the carpetbaggers brought up the issue in order to rid the radical ranks of the scalawags who were opposed to equal rights.In Florida, for example, the carpetbaggers framed a comprehensive Equal Rights Law, passed it, and presented it to Governor Reed, who was known to be opposed to such legislation.He vetoed the measure and thus lost the Negro support.
Intermarriage with whites was made legal in Louisiana and South Carolina and by court decision was permitted in Alabama and Mississippi, but the Georgia Supreme Court held it to be illegal.Mixed marriages were few, but these were made occasions of exultation over the whites and of consequent ill feeling.
Charles Sumner was a persistent agitator for equal rights.In 1871 he declared in a letter to a South Carolina Negro convention that the race must insist not only upon equality in hotels and on public carriers but also in the schools.
