60 Negro Migration 



Another point of difference in the increase of white and 

 colored ownership is found in the fact that the total acreage 

 owned by Negroes increased from 58,000 in 1873 to 336,000 

 in 1902, while the total acreage owned by whites increased 

 from 6,700,000 to 7,100,000. This is an increase of 280,000 

 acres owned by colored people and 400,000 owned by white 

 people, but a percentage increase of about 600 in colored 

 acreage as against 6 in white acreage. This is readily un- 

 derstood when it is realized that the colored people in 1873 

 owned a very small amount of land, and they could increase 

 their holdings in two ways, first by buying farm land from 

 white farmers, and second by taking up new "unimproved 

 lands." The white people, on the other hand, owned practi- 

 cally all of the land in cultivation in 1873, and the only way 

 for them to increase their holdings was to take up new land. 

 It is extremely doubtful if Negro holdings will at any early 

 date approximate white holdings either in number, or in 

 total amount of land owned. Such a state of affairs may 

 come about in a few counties where the Negroes are massed 

 and outnumber the whites. In a few of the Atlantic Coast 

 counties the Negro owners have for years outnumbered the 

 white owners. Even where they are in the large majority, 

 the holdings of colored farmers are so much smaller than 

 the holdings of white farmers that the total amount of their 

 land is much less than that owned by whites. 



3. Localities of Negro Land-owners. — These Negro land- 

 holdings were localized at first in two centers. The one 

 began in the Coast Counties and extended eastward 

 slightly into the Wiregrass. The second occupied the area 

 about four counties square in the southwestern corner of 

 the State. In the Coast Counties the breakdown of the plan- 

 tations was rapid. This section was, before emancipation, 

 the seat of the largest slave holders, and the Negroes were 

 overwhelmingly in the majority. The rice plantations were 

 located in this region. These and the sea island cotton plan- 

 tations required ditching and banking, for which great gangs 



