The Movements of Countrymen 119 



diate vicinity of these lynchings a ttributed the movement 

 from t heir places to the fact that the lynching parties had 

 terrori zed their Negroes. Some of the co unties remote from 

 the lynchings, how ever, showed as heavy a m ovement as 

 th e counties where the lynching took place. On th e whole, 

 th e weevil, together with the simultane ous off ers of high 

 wages, seemed to be the main determining factor in the 

 m ovement from southwest Georgia. Z. R. Pettet, the State 

 crop estimator, says in his annual report for 1916: "The 

 Negro exodus has been greatest in the territory that has been 

 infested [with the weevil] long enough to make it difficult 

 to grow a paying crop of cotton. The reported acute labor- 

 shortage line coincides closely with the line of third-year 

 infestation, except along the southern State line." It 

 appears from this study • that the planters inter- 

 viewed in the heavily damaged counties sustained a loss 

 of 13 per cent of their plow hands, and those in the counties 

 with moderate damage sustained a loss of 9 per cent. 

 These percentages are slightly higher than the percentage of 

 loss in the areas as a whole, for the reason that points of 

 heavy movement were selected for study. The loss for all 

 10 heavily damaged weevil counties would probably be close 

 to 10 per cent and for the 10 moderately damaged counties 

 about 6 per cent. The rural districts of the Wiregrass 

 showed slightly less disturbance in their farming population 

 and the Central Black Belt and Upper Piedmont were prac- 

 tically undisturbed. 



The foregoing percentages are based upon figures obtained 

 from plantation owners. These owners, living in the county 

 towns, usually supervise their plantations closely or provide a 

 competent overseer. The majority of Negroes on their places 

 are, therefore, wage hands or share croppers; a few rent 

 land from the planter. These are supervised almost as close- 

 ly as the wage hands and share croppers. Of the '4,831 plows 

 operated by planters interviewed in the boll-weevil section, 



