38 Negro Migration 



place. Old Ellick stayed out in the woods and sent for the 

 Negroes and they were bargaining with him in the night and 

 telling Barwick in the day that they were going to stay 

 with him. The moment they got their money, they started 

 for the railroad. This is but one instance, but it is the his- 

 tory of all of them. Among the number was Anderson, 

 son of Sye and Sentry, whom I am supporting at the Hur- 



This letter was from one of the highest types of planters 

 in the State, who was operating several plantations. It indi- 

 cates the great delimma in which planters found themselves 

 immediately after the war. It also illustrates the immediate 

 effect of emancipation upon the Negroes. Such keen com- 

 petition for labor is not likely to increase the reliability 

 of any body of laboring men, and there is small wonder that 

 the Negro, having just emerged from slavery, without pre- 

 vious experience in free contracting, was completely de- 

 moralized for the time. 



Hard Times and Cheap Land. The circumstances were 

 not only highly favorable to Neproqs, who desired to leave 

 th e status of laborer and be come tena nts, but they were also 

 favorable to those desiring to acquire land and become 

 independent farmers. Although there were no free public 

 lands in Georgia, private sales of land were numerous at the 

 close of the war. Ruined farmers and large landholders 

 desiring to reduce the size of their holdings in order that 

 they might be cultivated more efficiently under the new sys- 

 tem, were everywhere. Much of the old field land which 

 had been abandoned during the plantation era was available 

 for purchase, and the new "Wiregrass" section which had 

 been considered unproductive during the plantation era was 

 entered by farmers in their desire to obtain more land for 

 cotton. Added to these causes was the crop failure of 1865, 

 1866. Brooks writes that the "results of the operations in 

 1865 and 1866 were a bitter disappointment. ,, In spite of 

 the abnormal price of the staple heavy losses were sus- 



