50 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



nence, but which, under the system prevailing before 1860, 

 occupied a position of small social importance. The class made 

 up of the small landowners always formed the body of the 

 white population. Its members, as a rule, owned from fifty to 

 two hundred acres of land, which they worked themselves, with 

 the assistance, at the most, of a few slaves. 



When the first patents were sued out, it was deemed all-im- 

 portant to take up the most fertile soil as, in the absence of arti- 

 ficial manures, the best fitted for the culture of cotton or tobacco, 

 and such as was least likely to be exhausted by prolonged tillage. 

 The lands preferred were those situated on the rivers and larger 

 streams which furnished an alluvial deposit. The constant aim 

 of the wealthy planter was to engross as extensive an area of these 

 lands as he could acquire ; broad reaches of upland were patented 

 or purchased as a means of obtaining wood for fuel and timber for 

 building, and as affording a wide range for the browsing of 

 cattle. The mass of the white population, the true yeomanry of 

 the country, were confined to the ridges and narrow low grounds 

 of the small streams, the soil of which was inferior in productive 

 capacity as compared with the grounds lying around the large 

 streams held by the wealthy planters. 



The class of small landowners represented, in many instances, 

 a high degree of thrift, but in some cases an extreme degree of 

 poverty, according to the character of the different holdings. 

 Many of the small estates were cultivated with great care and 

 enabled the owners to live in comfort and abundance. The tables 

 were set forth with a considerable variety of food; there was a 

 slave to furnish the household service ; the residence though plain 

 was substantially built and sufficiently spacious: to it were 

 attached small gardens for both flowers and vegetables; also an 

 orchard of fruit trees enclosed as a pen for the hogs ; and there 

 were several milch cows, and a horse and vehicle for conveying 

 the family to church. During the week, the owner with his sons 

 and a Negro or two hoed and plowed in his tobacco and corn 

 fields. When the end of the year came, he had perhaps several 

 hundred dollars in his chest. If ambitious of improving his con- 

 ditions, he expended his savings in the purchase of more land, by 

 which he was enabled to plant cotton or tobacco over a larger area 

 of ground. The increase from one couple of slaves made a con- 



