4- 



CHAPTER IV 



THE GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF LANDOWNERSHIP 

 AMONG THE NEGROES 



Bad as was the economic condition of the whites in 

 the South at the close of the civil war, that of the freed- 

 men was even worse. In Georgia there were 500,000 of 

 these recently liberated negroes, and this number em- 

 braced forty-five per cent of the entire population of the 

 state. The swiftness with which they were led to make 

 their flight from slavery into freedom left no time for the 

 collection of any property on the way. It may be said, 

 therefore, that in 1865 this considerable body of the 

 state's citizenry possessed neither homes nor lands, and 

 only slight traces of other forms of property. As indi- 

 viduals emerging from slavery they cannot be held an- 

 swerable for their poverty. 



Theretofore, as slaves they had been a factor in pro- 

 duction and consequently a factor in distribution. It so 

 happens, however, that under a regime of slavery the 

 part of the product imputable to labor falls into the pos- 

 session of the one who owns the laborer; just as under 

 a regime of private landownership the part of the pro- 

 duct imputable to the land is claimed by the owner of 

 the land. If, however, the minimum of subsistence law 

 of wages be true, the slaves were getting their normal 

 economic share of the product, inasmuch as they were 

 well provided for in respect to shelter, raiment and food. 

 It may be questioned whether they would have produced 

 62 [62 



