72 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



in the black belt without seeing enough to convince him of the 

 terrible consequences growing out of these relationships. 



I made inquiries as to why the Negroes wanted to leave the 

 farms and go to cities. The answer I got from all sorts of sources 

 was, first, the lack of schooling in the country; and, second, the 

 lack of protection. 



And I heard also many stories of ill-treatment of various 

 sorts, the distrust of the tenant of the landlord in keeping his 

 accounts all of which, dimly recognized, tends to make many 

 Negroes escape the country, if they can. Indeed, it is growing 

 harder and harder on the great plantations, especially where the 

 management is by overseers, to keep a sufficient labor supply. 

 In some places the white landlords have begun to break up their 

 plantations, selling small farms to ambitious Negroes a signifi- 

 cant sign, indeed, of the passing of the feudal system. Comment- 

 ing on this tendency, the Thomaston Post says : 



"This is, in part, a solution of the so-called Negro problem, 

 for those of the race who have property interests at stake cannot 

 afford to antagonize their white neighbors or transgress the 

 laws. The ownership of land tends to make them better citi- 

 zens in every way, more thoughtful of the rights of others, and 

 more ambitious for their own advancement. The tendency to- 

 wards cutting up the large plantations is beginning to show 

 itself, and when all of them are so divided, there will be no 

 agricultural labor problem, except, perhaps, in the gathering 

 of an especially large crop." 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



THE SOUTH 



Branson, E. C. Farm Life Conditions in the South. Chapel Hill, 

 N. C. The Church as a Country Life Defense. 



Branson, E. C. Rural Life in the South. Am. Statistical Ass'n., Pub. 

 13:71-75, March, 1912. 



Brooks, Robert P. The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia, 1865-1912. 

 Univ. Wis., Madison, Hist. Series, Vol. 3, No. 3. 



Bruce, P. A. Economic History of Virginia, in the Seventeenth Cen- 

 tury. Macmillan, N. Y., 1896. 



Bruce, P. A. The Rise of the New South. Barrie, Philadelphia. The 

 Hist, of North America, V. 17, 1905. 



Bogart, E. L. The Economic History of the United States. Long- 

 mans, N. Y., 1907. 



Cable, George W. Old Creole Days. Scribner, N. Y., 1907. 



Cable, George W. The Creoles of Louisiana. Scribner, N. Y., 1884. 



