TENANCY AND LANDOWNERS HIP 



tive to the tenant to strive; on the other hand, 

 if the rent was too high or if the land deteriorated, 

 the result was to discourage and to check the 

 efforts of the tenant. 



"The renter for a fixed money rental belongs in 

 the highest of the emerging classes. The advan- 

 tages possessed by this class are their freedom to 

 choose their crops and the increased responsibility 

 which comes through having money transactions. 

 While some of the renters differ little in condition 

 from the metayers, yet on the whole, they are a 

 more intelligent and responsible class and are the 

 ones who eventually become landowners." 



As to the distribution of the landowning negro 

 farmers and the conditions which have been con- 

 ducive to the acquiring of landownership on the 

 part of the freedmen the following may be quoted 

 from the same source as the above : "In the states 

 along the northern border of the South, .... the 

 per cent, of owned farms among negro farmers is 

 comparatively high, varying from 40.5 in Dela- 

 ware to 72 per cent, in West Virginia. In 

 Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana the 

 percentage is very low, ranging from 13.7 per 

 cent, in Georgia; to 16.3 per cent, in Mississippi; 

 in South Carolina the percentage is somewhat 

 higher (22.2) but is still below the average for 

 the country. These five states are in the heart of 

 the South; they comprise the greater part of the 

 black belt ; in each of them negroes form between 

 255 



