TENANCY AND OWNERSHIP AMONG NEGRO FARMERS 
CHANGES IN FARM TENURE IN THE SECTION 
Figures on tenure are obtainable for the first time in 1880 in census 
data. At that time 45 per cent of all farms in Southampton County 
were operated by tenants. (Table 3.) A decrease in the percentage 
of farms operated by tenants occurred between that date and the 
census of 1890, at which time 31 per cent of all farms in the county 
were operated by tenants. It will be recalled that this was a decade 
in which the total number of farms in the county decreased, and when 
apparently the process of subdivision which had developed rapidly 
from 1870 to 1880, was temporarily suspended. Approximately 56 
per cent of allfarms were operated by tenants in both of the following 
census years, and in 1920 the percentage had increased to 59.2. 
Thus, in 1920 nearly 60 per cent of the farms of Southampton 
County were operated b} 7 tenants, as compared with 31 per cent in 
1890, the increase having occurred in the decade 1890-1900 and to 
a less extent in the decade 1910-1920. The percentage of tenancy 
was much higher than in the United States as a whole or the State 
of Virginia as a whole. The percentage of tenancy in Southampton 
County, however, is somewhat less than the percentage of tenancy 
in most parts of the South, where there are large numbers of negroes. 
Table 3. — Number and percentage of all farms operated by tenants and owners 
in Southampton County, Va., since 1880 and comparative figures on percentage of 
tenancy in Virginia and the United States, 1880-1920 
Farms of Southampton 
County 
Percentage of farms operated in — 
Year 
Total 
Operated by- 
Virginia by — 
United States by — 
Owners 
and 
managers 
Tenants 
Owners 
and 
managers 
Tenants 
Owners 
and 
managers 
Tenants 
1880 
1 
Number i Per cent 
1, 648 55. 
Per cent 
45.0 
31.0 
56.7 
56.0 
59.2 
Per cent 
70.5 
73.1 
69.3 
73.5 
74.4 
Per cent 
29.5 
26.9 
30.7 
26.5 
25.6 
Per cent 
74.4 
71.6 
64.7 
63.0 
61.9 
Per cent 
25.6 
1890. 
1,523 
2,683 
2,882 
3,550 
69.0 
43.3 
44.0 
40.8 
28.4 
1900. .. 
35.3 
1910. 
37.0 
1920. 
38.1 
NEGRO POPULATION AND FARM TENURE IN SOUTHAMPTON 
COUNTY 
The colored population of Southampton County has been larger, 
each decade since 1790, than the white population. In 1790 the 
total population of the county was 12,864, of which 5,993 were 
slaves and 559 free colored. There was a gradual increase from 
12.864 in 1790 to 16,074 in 1830, followed by a decline during the 
following 40 years to 12,285 in 1870. This date marks a distinct 
period in the change of population in Southampton County. From 
that date with each successive census year to 1920 the population 
gained rapidly until there were 27,555 inhabitants in the county in 
1920, of which 16,919 were negroes and 10,635 white. 
Practically all of the increase in population between 1790 and 1S30 
was caused by an increase in the negro population of the county. 
Almost all of the decrease between 1830 and 1870 was due to a de- 
cline in the negro population of the county. Again, since 1870 the 
increased negro population of the county has been the principal 
source of the total increase. 
