The Ruin of the Old Regime 39 



tained. Landlords became heavily involved in debt, and 

 foreclosures were numerous. "One of the newspapers of 

 the Black Belt in the years 1865 to 1872 was full of adver- 

 tisements of land for sale. One issue in 1866 contained 

 sixty-eight separate advertisements of land for sale aggre- 

 gating 23,000 acres." Brooks cites two sales at public out- 

 cry, one of 40Q acres in Appling County, which sold at 10 

 cents per acre, and two entire tracts, one of 400 acres in 

 Montgomery and one of 200 acres in Decatur County, which 

 together, sold for the lump sum of $2.50. 7 



Of course the Negro emerged from slavery with no cap- 

 ital, but with land selling for these low prices, only a little 

 saving and foresight were necessary for making 

 the initial payment on a small farm, and beginning the work 

 of home building. Only a small number of Negroes, how- 

 ever, availed themselves of this early opportunity to buy 

 land. This group will be more fully discussed in the latter 

 part of the next chapter which deals more specifically with 

 Negro landowners. The majority of Negroes were too ig- 

 norant, and too easily tempted to waste their wages, to make 

 even these small payments. No previous training in thrift 

 had prepared them for the exigency of the situation. But a 

 small number of landholders did appear very soon after 

 emancipation. This beginning was made possible by the 

 cheapness of the land and the crop lien system. 



The Crop Lien System. Of importance both to the small 

 owner and to the tenant was the system of credit which 

 arose out of the conditions of agriculture. Since land values 

 were so low and fluctuating, the few people with money in 

 the South were unwilling to advance capital to the farmer 

 with land as the security. The homestead exemption 

 amendment to the Constitution added to the unwillingness 

 to accept land as a security. This amendment was passed 

 in order to prevent absolute ruin of farmers by the numer- 



7 Brooks, Agrarian Revolution, p. 38. 



