58 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



The changes involved in the transition from slavery 

 to free labor are well shown in the history of a planta- 

 tion in Middle Georgia: 



The plantation underwent all of the changes of the tran- 

 sition period except that in mobility of labor, for none of the 

 Negroes left. In 1860 the Barrow's plantation of a thousand 

 acres at Oglethorpe, Georgia, contained about 25 Negro 

 families living in the quarters centered around the big house. 

 "For several years following emancipation the force of la- 

 borers was divided into two squads, the arrangement and 

 method of cultivation being very much the same" as in the 

 ante bellum days. "Each squad was under the control of a 

 foreman who was in the nature of a general of volunteers." 

 . . . "The laborers were paid a portion of the crop as their 

 wages which made them feel interested in it." 



After a while, however, even the liberal control of the 

 foremen grew irksome. . . . The two squads split up into 

 smaller and smaller squads, still working for a part of the 

 crop with the owners' teams, until this method of farming 

 came to involve great trouble and loss. The mules were ill- 

 treated, the crop was frequently badly worked, and in many 

 cases not honestly divided. It became necessary to reorganize 

 the plantation. The owner sold his mules to the Negroes on 

 credit, thus placing the risk from careless handling upon the 

 tenants. The gang system was abandoned, and the land was 

 divided so as to give each family its individual tract. When 

 some of them had to walk a mile it became impracticable to 

 keep the cabins grouped. One by one the workers moved 

 their house on to their farms, settling in convenient places 

 near springs. The plantation now contained 999 acres as one 

 acre had been given for a schoolhouse and a church. 



The system of sharing was abandoned for cash rent in 

 kind, especially cotton. The Negroes planted what they 

 pleased and worked when they liked, except that the land- 

 lord required that enough cotton be planted to pay the rent. 



