The Ruin of the Old Regime 37 



following prices were quoted for the years 1865-1870, by 

 M. B. Hammond, in Cotton Industry: 5 1865, 83.38c; 

 1866, 43.20c; 1867, 31.59c; 1868, 24.85c; 1869, 12.01c; 1870, 

 23.98c. All during the five-year period the price of the 

 crop was considerably higher than any level which it 

 reached before the European War. For such reward, strong 

 competition was set up among the planters. Thousands of 

 Negroes were moved from the Black Belt in response to 

 the demand, and every expedient was resorted to in order to 

 obtain an adequate supply of labor. The following letter 

 from General Howell Cobb indicates the difficulties of the 

 situation : 6 



December , 1866. 



"I find a worse state of things with the Negroes than I 

 expected, and am unable even to say what we shall be able 

 to do. From Nathan Barwick's place every Negro has left. 

 There is no one to feed the stock, and on the other places 

 none have contracted as yet. I shall stay here until I see 

 what can be done. By Tuesday we shall probably know 

 what they will do. At all events I shall be on the lookout 

 for other Negroes. I intend to send Nathan Barwick to 

 Baldwin on Wednesday to see what hands can be got there, 

 with the assistance of Wilkerson. I am offering them even 

 better terms than I gave them last year, to- wit: one-third 

 of the cotton and corn crop, and they feed and clothe them- 

 selves, but nothing satisfies them. Grant them one thing and 

 they demand something more, and there is no telling where 

 they would stop. The truth is, I am thoroughly disgusted 

 with the free Negro labor, and determined that the next 

 year shall close my planting operations with them. There 

 is no feeling of gratitude in their nature. Let any man 

 offer them some little thing of no real value, but which looks 

 a little more like freedom, and they catch at it with avidity, 

 and would sacrifice their best friends without hesitation and 

 without regret. That miserable creature Wilkes Flag sent 

 old Ellick down to get the Negroes from Nathan Barwick's 



5 American Economic Association Publications, new Series, 

 1897. The prices quoted represent the annual averages. 

 8 Brooks, Agrarian Revolution, opp. cite p. 21. 



