68 



ECONOMICS OF LAND TENURE IN GEORGIA 



[68 



The other center of negro landowning, as stated 

 above, 1 was in the southwestern corner of the state. In 

 this section before the war large plantations were being 

 built up, and the negroes were beginning to outnumber 

 the whites. There were vast stretches of wild land still 

 untouched in those counties when the negroes became 

 free. With the breaking-up of the system upon which 

 the prosperity of the plantation rested, it was natural 

 that a few of the more sanguine negroes should come 

 into possession of some of these easily obtainable lands. 



Thus the two chief centers of negro landownership 

 have been located — the one in the southwestern, the 

 other in the southeastern part of the state; the one in a 

 region where the negroes outnumber the whites, the 

 other in a region where the whites outnumber the 

 negroes ; 2 each in a region where the density of popula- 

 tion is below the average density for the state, the one 

 being in a region slightly below, the other in a region 

 greatly below this average. Both of them therefore 

 were in regions of relative land abundance where the 

 economic struggle was less acute. Some of the causes 

 leading to such a localization have been mentioned. It 

 now remains to trace the course of development from 

 the small beginnings found in 1874, to weigh the real 

 significance of the movement, and to point out the forces 

 that seem to hinder a larger increase in landownership 

 among the negroes. 



The following table shows the acreage owned by 

 negroes|in Georgia by years from 1874 to 1903, and also 



rice planter who writing in 1870 said: " Many negroes left to settle on 

 their own properties in the pine woods." Leigh, op. tit., p. 155. 



1 Supra, p. 65. 



2 This region, however, is in close proximity to the seaboard counties 

 in which the negroes outnumber the whites. 



