Part 15 (1/2)

Q. From what States?

--A. From the Atlantic and Gulf States.

Q. What became of them?

--A. They were scattered along the alluvial lands of the Mississippi Valley. As the negroes of the Mississippi Valley either immigrate from that valley and go in different directions and buy land, the planters of the Mississippi Valley send out to the older States and replace them with labor from those States. A negro in the older States, probably, to make his support would have to cultivate 15 or 20 acres of land, whereas a negro in the Mississippi Valley can make his support on 8 or 10 acres of land.

Q. Will this result in the owners.h.i.+p of the alluvial lands being transferred to the negro?

--A. No, sir; because as he makes money he goes off.

Q. He is a Chinese immigrant?--A. I mean by ”goes off” he does not go out of the State, but he goes to the hills.

Q. And to smaller owners.h.i.+ps?--A. To smaller owners.h.i.+ps.

Q. And the aim of the Southern planter is to accommodate this tendency of things to smaller rentings?

--A. Yes, sir.

Q. Do you think a plantation is more productive where, under a general supervision by the planter or the owner, it is let out in small sections to the negroes to cultivate, or is it better to cultivate the plantation as a whole?

--A. It is better to let it out, as I stated in my written answers. The cotton crop of this country is being raised to such an extent by the small white farmers that the large planter can no longer afford to hire and compete with that cla.s.s of labor who only expend their own energy; consequently the tendency is to make farmers of the negroes.

Q. What chance is there of the planter securing white labor to carry on these plantations?

--A. There is such a small proportion of white labor in the South that it would be difficult for him to find them, and the tide of foreign immigration is just beginning to be turned in that direction. There has been a prejudice against white emigrants going to the South, on account of going among the negroes.

Q. Do you think that is diminis.h.i.+ng?

--A. Diminis.h.i.+ng yearly.

Q. You mean that immigration from Europe is being employed on the plantations?

--A. Not exactly upon the large cotton plantations, but the smaller plantations are now being converted into farms. For instance, there has been a large immigration of European emigrants into that section of the country between Little Rock and Fort Smith.

Q. Do they, upon these farm or small plantations being converted into farms, work in companions.h.i.+p with the negro laborer?

--A. No; they generally buy the land and work it themselves; they may hire a negro and work with him; they are laborers themselves.

Q. Is there any tendency among the white and colored laborers of any cla.s.s to work in companions.h.i.+p, or to fraternize at all in labor?

--A. I cannot say that there is. A white man would not take a negro in as a partner to work with him in the field.

Q. And will a white man find any difficulty in hiring another white man and negro to work together side by side in the field?

--A. No, sir; I have them myself working side by side.

Q. There is no prejudice of that kind?

--A. None at all.

Q. No white man inquires whether he can work by himself or is to work in company with a negro? Do they exhibit any reluctance to work in company with the negro?

--A. The cla.s.s of white people that work in our country for wages comes from Ohio, and Missouri, and Indiana, and that section of country, and I find there is some prejudice among that cla.s.s of people sometimes, but still there are instances--as I say, I have men from Indiana now myself hired working right in a gang with negroes.

Q. There is no strong tendency in that way, I suppose?

--A. No strong tendency in that way. There are no white laborers from the South proper; at least the number we can hire for wages is so small that it is not sufficient to call it a cla.s.s.

Q. In the Southern States proper about two thirds of the population is white, is it not?

--A. I do not recollect. According to the census returns I think there are about seven millions of negroes. The census would give the exact statement.

Q. Not far from two thirds of the population, I think, is white. In the Gulf States proper at least one half the population must be white. In what way is the white laboring population of the South employed?

--A. They are employed as small farmers nearly almost entirely.