The Ruin of the Old Regime 33 



could have enhanced the welfare of their tenants by lending 

 their supervision to the operations were compelled to aban- 

 don the supervision of tenants and adopt the rent system. 

 In the case of shiftless tenants the resultants were, the use 

 of less fertilizers and poorer methods, less care of the work 

 animal and tools, and a consequent deterioration in the 

 value of the land and implements. An interesting account 

 of how the change came about step by step on a single 

 large plantation in Georgia, is given by Chancellor D. C. 

 arrow in Scribner's Magazine. 3 



"For several years following emancipation, the force of 

 laborers was divided into two squads, the arrangement and 

 method of cultivation was very much as in the ante-bellum 

 period. Each squad was under an overseer, or foreman. 

 The hands were given a share of the crop. As the time 

 went on, the control of the foreman became irksome to the 

 Negroes. As a consequence the squads were split up into 

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

 crop, and still using the owner's teams. The process of dis- 

 integration continued until each laborer worked separately, 

 without any oversight. The change involved great loss and 

 trouble. Mules were ill-treated, the crop was badly worked, 

 and often the tenant stole the landlord's share. It became 

 necessary to abandon the sharing feature. The owner sold 

 his mules to the tenants, thereby putting on them the burden 

 of the loss incidental to the careless handling of stock. It 

 became impracticable to keep the cabins grouped when each 

 man worked on a separate farm, since some of the farms 

 were at a distance from the "quarters." New cottages were 

 therefore built scatteringly in convenient places near springs. 

 The Negroes now planted what they pleased and worked 

 when they liked, the landlord interfering only to require 

 that enough cotton be planted to pay the rent." The author 

 concluded, "The slight supervision which is exercised may 

 surprise those ignorant of how completely the relations be- 

 tween the races at the South have changed." 



Thus the plantation system in parts of the Black Belt was 

 doomed. It will be noted from Barrow's description, how- 



» Barrow, D. C, Scribner's Magazine, April, 1881. 



