Mary - Journeytohistory

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Chapter 12The Effort to Attain Peace259mean that the Black Codes had failed, but rather that political power over theSouth had been transferred to Washington. In the final analysis, neither theBlack Codes nor Radical Reconstruction solved the economicLoboI' pl'oblcllISproblems of ex-slaves. What solution there was, however unforcx-slovesfollowing the warsatisfactory, came by negotiations between the white employerand the black worker, in some instances under the supervisionof the Freedmen's Bureau. Because the federal government failed to give blacksmuch land, they slowly returned to the farms and resumed work under circumstancesscarcely more favorable than those prevailing before the war. Blackagricultural workers found themselves at the mercy of white planters. Laborcontracts drawn up to bind both parties were frequently disregarded, employersfailing to pay stipulated wages and workers failing to perform tasks outlinedin their contracts.Once blacks were back on the farm as workers, they were paid either inmonthly wages or a share of the crop. Plantation wages ranged from $9 to $15a month for men and from $5 to $10 for women, in addition to food, shelter,and fuel. Where the sharecropping system prevailed, former slaves were allowedfrom one-quarter to one-half of the cotton and corn; they were also providedwith a house, fuel, and in some cases food. There was every opportunityfor the contracting parties not to live up to their word; good faith was the onlyeffective way to keep agreements. Where hatred and bitterness prevailed, as itdid in so many parts of the South, relations between employer and worker oftenmilitated against efficient production.There can be no question that the majority of blacks worked, despiteSouthern doubts of their efficiency as free laborers. Many of them resented thesuggestion that they would not work. The editor of a black newspaper declaredin 1865 that black people need not be reminded to avoid idleness and vagrancy.After all, he concluded, "the necessity of working is perfectly understoodby men who have worked all their lives." The same could be said ofwomen. Blacks had no other choice but to cast their lot with their former mastersand assist them in restoring economic stability to the rural South. By 1870the cotton kingdom had retrieved much of its losses, and by 1875 the whiteSouth had come to realize that cheap labor could be the basis for a profitableagricultural system. The cotton crop of 1870 had not reached the level of productionachieved just before the war, but by 1880 the South was producingmore cotton than ever. While the sugar crop recovered more slowly, its continuedimprovement was marked. Thus black farm workers contributed greatly tothe economic recovery of the South. As free workers, however, they gained butlittle. The wages paid them in 1867 were lower than those that had been paidto hired slaves. In the sharecropping system the cost of maintenance was sogreat that at the end of the year ex-slaves were indebted to their employers formost of what they had made and sometimes more than they had made. Thewhite South generally recovered much more rapidly than the former slaves did.Many former slaves had received the impression that abandoned andconfiscated lands were to be distributed to them in lots of forty acres by
260 From Slavery to FreedomDr. .vortonDiscusses ExGonjederntes1866Washington, February 3, 1866Dr. Daniel Norton (colored) sworn and examined.By Mr. [Jacob M.] Howard, [Senator from Michigan]Question.Answer.Question.Answer.Question.Answer.Question.Answer.Question.Answer.Question.Answer.Question.Where do you reside?I reside in Yorktown, Virginia.How old are you?About 26 years old.Are you a regularly licensed physician?I am.Where were you educated?In the State of New York. I studied privately underDr. Warren....Are you a native of Virginia?Yes, sir. I was born in Williamsburg, Virginia.What is the feeling among the rebels in the neighborhoodof Yorktown towards the government of theUnited States?They do not manifest a very cordial feeling towardthe government of the United States. There are some,of course who do, but the majority do not seem tomanifest a good spirit or feeling....How do the colored people feel toward the government of the United States?January 1866. This impression stemmed from the Confederate apprehensionduring the war that the Union government planned to seize their land andconvey it to ex-slaves, and from the bill creating the Freedmen's Bureau,which gave tacit encouragement to such a plan. Although nothing came of it,the federal government sought to encourage the dispersionS(ullhcmof populations from congested centers by opening publiclands, under the Southern Homestead Act of 1866, in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida to allsettlers regardless of race. Eighty acres were available for the head of eachfamily. Within a year ex-slaves secured homesteads in Florida covering160,960 acres, and in Arkansas they occupied 116 out of 243 homesteads.By 1874 blacks in Georgia owned more than 350,000 acres of land. "Fortyacres and a mule" as a gift of the government had not been realized, butwherever possible blacks were acquiring land in their effort to achieve economicsecurity.lIomcSlead .\ctof 1 '66
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