EVOLUTION OF THE COTTON SYSTEM 53 



lineal descendent of the feudal organization of agri- 

 culture in Europe. It was exported by royal charter, 

 confirmed by proprietary land grants, and accepted by 

 the English gentry as a matter of right and privilege. 

 It was standardized and perfected under tobacco cul- 

 ture. The great excess of land over labor encouraged 

 all attempts to secure labor, and the plantation or- 

 ganized this cheap labor as efficiently as possible around 

 a staple crop. Almost by chance the innovation of hu- 

 man slavery and the invention of the cotton gin in an 

 area of peculiar climatic possibilities for cotton made 

 possible its large scale production. Cotton culture ex- 

 tended the plantation far and wide and settled the Negro 

 in the fertile river bottoms and flood lands where he re- 

 mains today. It remains to be seen how the plantation 

 survived the shock of the abolition of slavery and, re- 

 organizing itself, fitted into the cotton system of today. 



FROM THE COTTON PLANTATION TO COTTON 

 TENANCY 



From all accounts the plantation withstood the shock 

 of war and the loss of its great staple remarkably well. 30 

 Where unaffected by the actual struggle, its organiza- 

 tion not only remained intact, but the cultivation of corn, 

 cowpeas, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, and fruits 

 in the place of much of the cotton was efficiently car- 

 ried on. The plantation came to diversify through neces- 

 sity. More and more the able-bodied white men were 

 drawn away from the great plantation areas, but the 

 system, except where touched by war, went on under 



80 Especially valuable for this period are W. L. Fleming's Docu- 

 mentary History of Reconstruction, and Civil War and Recon- 

 struction in Alabama. 



