CHAPTER IV 



THE LIFE OF THE TENANT CLASSES. 



The foregoing description of the extent and rapidity of 

 the breakdown of the gang labor plantation gives an in- 

 sight into the rise of share tenancy, renting, and ownership 

 among the Negroes. It does not, however, indicate the full 

 extent of the revolution in southern rural life which this 

 movement implies. This can be realized best by contrasting 

 the condition of the freedmen in 1860 with that of the 

 Negro to-day. In Georgia, the half million Negroes who 

 emerged from slavery were a homogeneous group. There 

 were comparatively few who held personal property and 

 none who owned land. To-day, on the other hand, the 800,- 

 000 rural Negroes are stratified. Laborers differ from ten- 

 ants and tenants from owners. Tenant classes also differ 

 from one another in such respects as method of renting the 

 land, utilizing the land, value of land cultivated, work-stock 

 and implements used, yield obtained, housing and income. 

 In addition to these economic differences the social relation- 

 ships such as home life, standard of living, general standing 

 in the community, and contacts with the white people vary 

 greatly. These fundamental differences cause the rural or- 

 ganization of communities to vary with the relative numbers 

 of the different kinds of tenants which compose it. These 

 detailed effects of land tenure on rural organization may be 

 realized best from a full description of the differences be- 

 tween the tenant classes. 



Hitherto, only the general characteristics of the different 

 tenant classes have been mentioned. In order to give these 

 terms definiteness and precision the following definitions are 

 quoted : * 



*"A Study of The Tenant Systems in the Yazoo-Mississippi 

 Delta," Goldenweiser and Boeger, Bulletin 337, U. S. Dept. of 

 Agriculture. 



