TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP AMONG NEGRO FARMERS 
INDEBTEDNESS AND CREDIT 
13 
Of the 149 owner farmers, 112, or 75.2 per cent had mortgages 
on their farms. About 46 per cent of the mortgages were under 
$1,000 in amount (Table 9) , and 67 per cent were under $2,000. The 
average amount of all mortgages per farmer subject to mortgage 
indebtedness was $1,923. 
Table 9. — Distribution of mortgage indebtedness on 112 owner farms, Southampton 
County, Va. 
Amount of mortgage 
Owners 
in each 
group 
Amount of mortgage 
Owners 
in each 
group 
Under $500 
Number 
14 
37 
15 
9 
12 
7 
$4,000 and under $5,000 
Number 
6 
$500 and under $1,000 
$5,000 and under $7,000 
9 
$1,000 and under $1,500. 
$7,000 and under $10,000. .. 
3 
9 
Total sub j ect to mortgage 
$2,000 and under $3,000. 
112 
$3,0nn finrl nnrler $4,000 
$1,923 
To determine the relationship of indebtedness to assets, the 
mortgage indebtedness and short-time indebtedness were added, and 
the percentage of this indebtedness to the total assets of each owner 
farmer was calculated (Table 10) .• On the whole, most of these 
farmers had been unusually conservative in subjecting themselves 
and their property to a heavy burden of indebtedness. Eight of 
them had no indebtedness of any kind. More than one-third of the 
owner farmers had indebtedness amounting to less than 10 per cent of 
the value of their assets, and nearly three-fifths had indebtedness 
amounting to less than 20 per cent. Only 15 of the 149 owner 
farmers had indebtedness of 50 per cent or more of the value of their 
assets. 
Table 10. — One hundred and forty-nine owner farmers classified according to per- 
centages of their indebtedness to value of their assets, Southampton County, Va. 
Percentages of indebtedness 
Class 
Percentages of indebtedness 
Class - 
Under 5... 
Number 
35 
18 
17 
16 
21 
16 
11 
Number 
8 
5 anr) nnripr 1(1 . . 
60 and under 70 
5 
10 and under 15 
70 and under 80 
1 
15 and under 20 
80 and over 
1 
Total number 
30 and under 40 
149 
40 and under 50 
Apparently, but few of these negro farmers were employing bank 
credit, for only 18 owners and 2 tenants reported this form of indebted- 
ness. (Table 11.) For the owners the average amount of bank 
credit employed was $598, with an average interest rate of 7.6 per 
cent. Both for owners and for tenants the prevailing system was 
store credit. Of the 146 owners for which such data are available, 
130 reported store credit to an average amount of $125; every one 
6 In the case of short-term indebtedness, the farmer was not asked to give the amount of such indebtedness 
at^the time of the survey, but rather the average amount of such credit employed during the year. 
80641— 26t 3 
