CHAPTER II 



TENDENCIES IN LANDOWNERSHIP AMONG THE WHITES 

 SINCE THE WAR 



Every one knows that the civil war gave the econ- 

 omic organization of the state a tremendous shock — as 

 far-reaching in its effects as the jar of an earthquake 

 upon a city. One influence of the jar was the cracking 

 of the large plantations, from which fragments have been 

 falling up to within recent years. Another effect was 

 the liberation of a half million negro slaves whose rela- 

 tionship to the soil was thereby made to undergo a rad- 

 ical readjustment. 



Connected with these problems, and as an outgrowth 

 of the changed situation, several systems of tenancy were 

 developed. The altered condition also invited the rise 

 and extension of a plan of credit, which is a matter of 

 great importance in studying the forces affecting the 

 tenure of land. All of these problems are to be consid- 

 ered in order in the succeeding parts of this essay. It is 

 the purpose of this chapter to present the extent and 

 nature of the splitting up of large holdings, and to dis- 

 close the readjustment in the white ownership of land 

 wrought out under the revised order of things, in so far 

 as this can be done by the use of statistics. 



Before entering into the discussion proper something 



should be said concerning the nature and amount of the 



land subject to ownership. The land surface of Georgia 



is larger than that of any other state east of the Missis- 



30 [30 



