78 HUMAN FACTORS IN COTTON CULTURE 



Like its ante bellum prototype the plantation has de- 

 veloped a social system commensurate with its economic 

 organization. In some cases community and family affairs 

 are subject to review by plantation managers. Many 

 operators do not allow tenant families living without 

 legal marital relations on their plantations. The landlords 

 determine all the holidays that shall be observed. Planta- 

 tion barbecues and picnics are given by the management 

 for all the workers. 



Plantations on which the owner and his family live have 

 a strongly paternalistic regime. A not too friendly critic 

 of the modern plantation and its human factors writes : 



The patience with which a Mississippi planter deals with 

 his dull, irresponsible labor is almost unbelievable to a North- 

 erner. If he is harsh in punishing a "runaway," too shrewd 

 in his contracts, quick to take advantage of all his opportuni- 

 ties to exploit, the planter is also the long suffering guardian 

 of difficult children. If a hand falls sick, the planter's physi- 

 cian is called. The planter purchases the necessary medicines, 

 and he or his wife watches through the night beside the sick 

 person, for no plantation Negro can be depended upon to ad- 

 minister medicine regularly. Family or community quarrels 

 are patiently heard and decided. Many planters give an an- 

 nual barbecue where all hands are invited to a feast and 

 merry-making. A Negro cheated by another Negro or by a 

 white man can count on his "boss" to safeguard his rights. The 

 planter protects his Negroes from the countless "agents" who 

 are always trying to sell the hands some trifle at an exorbi- 

 tant price. The average planter looks upon his hands as 

 responsibilities to be fed, clothed, guarded, and cared for in 

 sickness or disaster. At the same time, he is unalterably op- 

 posed to anything that would help these children grow up. 69 



The presence of the plantation system is a unique ex- 



69 Beulah A. Ratliff, "Mississippi," in These United States, I, 32. 



