Part 11 (1/2)

LABOR IN THE SOUTHWEST

JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN sworn and examined

By the CHAIRMAN:

Question. Where do you reside?--Answer. In Chicot County, Arkansas.

Q. State to the committee, if you please, where you were born, of what family connection you are, and what have been your opportunities for becoming acquainted with the past and the present condition of agricultural labor in the Southern States.

--A. I was born in Marengo County, Alabama. My father was a planter there before the war.

Q. He was a son of John C. Calhoun, the statesman?--A. He was a son of Mr. John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina.

Q. You are his grandson, then?

--A. Yes, sir; I am his grandson. My father was Col. Andrew P. Calhoun. I was reared in South Carolina. In 1854 my father removed his residence from his plantations in Alabama to Fort Hill, South Carolina, near Pendleton, where I was raised. I have been identified with the agricultural interest of the South from my earliest recollections, and have been a practical cotton planter myself since the war, giving my own personal attention to my interests since 1869.

Q. When did you remove from South Carolina?

--A. I removed from South Carolina to Chicot County, Arkansas, in 1869.

Q. Until 1869 you had been a resident of South Carolina?

--A. Yes, sir.

Q. And of course very familiar with the condition of things on the Atlantic coast. Since that time you have been in the Mississippi Valley?

--A. Yes, sir; my experience as a cotton planter and with the laborers of the South is confirmed, I may say, almost entirely to the Mississippi Valley, for I left South Carolina so soon after the war that things had hardly shaped themselves there so that I could form an accurate estimate of the labor or the condition of affairs in South Carolina or on the Atlantic coast.

The CHAIRMAN. Not having had a personal acquaintance with Mr. Calhoun, and learning of his rare opportunities to give valuable information to the committee, and of his presence in the city, I addressed him a letter, calling attention to the subject-matter upon which we should like information, and which I had reason to think he could give us better than almost any one else, indicating certain questions which I would like to have him prepared to answer, and receiving a courteous reply, expressing a willingness to oblige the committee, I have called him before the committee, and will now read the questions:--

1st. What is the condition of the laborers in your section?

2d. Under what system are the laborers in your section employed?

3d. When hired for wages what is paid?

4th. What division is made between labor and capital of their joint production when you work on shares?

5th. When you rent what division is made?

6th. How many hours do the laborers work?

7th. Under what system do you work?

8th. What is the relation existing between the planters and their employees?

9th. What danger is there of strikes?

10th. How can the interest of the laborers of your section be best subserved?

If you have prepared answers to these questions, and can give your answers consecutively, I would like you to do so.

The WITNESS. I have prepared replies in order that I might save the committee time as well as condense my ideas.

Q. 1. What is the condition of the laborers in your section?

--A. The laborers in the Mississippi Valley are agricultural. But few whites are employed; they soon become landowners or tenants. Your question, therefore, reduces itself to, What is the condition of the negroes? I should say good, as compared with a few years ago, and improving.

You must recollect that it has only been 18 years since the negroes emerged from slavery without a dollar and with no education, and that for generations they had been taught to rely entirely upon others for guidance and support. They became, therefore, at once the easy prey of unscrupulous men, who used them for their personal aggrandizement, were subjected to every evil influence, and did not discover for years the impositions practiced upon them. They were indolent and extravagant, and eager to buy on a credit everything the planter or merchant would sell them. The planter had nothing except the land, which, with the crop to be grown, was mortgaged generally for advances. If he refused to indulge his laborers in extravagant habits during the year, by crediting them for articles not absolutely necessary, his action was regarded as good grounds for them to quit work, and there were those present who were always ready to use this as an argument to array the negroes against the proprietors. This, of course, demoralized the country to a very great extent, and it has only been in the past few years the negro laborers have realized their true condition and gone to work with a view of making a support for themselves and families. There is yet much room for improvement, but they will improve just as they gain experience and become self-reliant.

Considering their condition after emanc.i.p.ation and the evil influences to which they have been subjected, even the small advancement they have made seems surprising.