120 Negro Migration 



1,722 were operated by wage hands, 2,334 by share croppers, 

 and 775 by renters. That is to say, 36 per cent of the Negro 

 plow hands on these places were working for wages, 48 

 for a share of the crop, and only 16 paid a fixed rental. 

 T his indicates that the area infested by the w eevil happened 

 to coincide with the areas w here the ojd jpjantation system 

 is most firmly estab lished. As a consequence the great 

 majority of the Negroes leaving were wage hands and 

 share croppers. Of the 534 leaving the boll-weevil section 

 only 20 or 30 were renters. Two classes of Negro farmers 

 were not reached by this inquiry among plantation owners. 

 They were ( 1 ) independent renters on the land of absentee 

 landlords, and (2) negro landowners. Only a scattering 

 number of these were reported by farm demonstrators and 

 local merchants as having left ; but while these higher types 

 of the Negro farmer constitute only a small part of the 

 total movement, the few who have left are noteworthy for 

 the reason that they point to causes other than economic for 

 their movement. The new tendencies to move from South 

 Georgia, therefore, at least for two or three years have 

 more than offset the old tendency to move into this land of 

 previous agricultural opportunity. It is interesting to note, 

 however, that in the movement from South Georgia again 

 the share tenant and the labor classes contributed the over- 

 whelming majority of the migrants. The renters and owners 

 held on and constituted the stable class. 



Thus the moYenien^of 1916-17 bears all the earmarks of 

 the earlier move ment of freedmen. Discont ent with the old 

 plant ation svstenTwhich still prevai ls on some of th e South- 

 e rn farms wa s intensified by low wages in 1914 and 1915, and 

 th e appearance of the bo ^ wfrfvi 1 *" *hp smith western 

 c orner of the State. Higher wages were offe red in the 



northern rities apd artjfipal stimjilation wa^s provided by 



the, labor a^er^ rep resenting northern in dustry. The begin- 

 ni ngs of the movement may T therefore, be c haracterized as 

 an intensification of the shift of Negro population which 



