wage system failed, 46 and finally all settled down to the share system. In this there was some encouragement to effort on the part of the laborer; and in case of failure of the crop he bore a share of the loss. After a few years' experience the negroes were ready to go back to the wage system, and labor conventions were held demanding a return to that system. 47 But whatever system was adopted, the work of the negro was unsatisfactory. The skilled laborer left the plantation, and the new generation knew nothing of the arts of industry. Labor became migratory, and the negro farmer wanted to change his location every year. 48 Regular work was a thing of the past. In two or three days of a week a negro could work enough to live, and the remainder of the time he rested from his labors, often leaving much cotton in the field to rot. 49 He went to the field when it suited him to go, gazed frequently at the sun to see if it was time to stop for meals, went often to the spring for water, and spent much time adjusting his
- The value of the wage-laborer is shown by the following table of wages :
Year
Men
Women
Youths over 14
1860...
$138
$ 89
$66
1865-66
1867
7*
1868
87
50
40
The figures for 1860 are based on the hire of an able-bodied negro. The statistics of 1867 are taken from tables of wages prescribed by the Freedmen's Bureau; those for 1867 and 1868 show the decline caused by the worthlessness of the negro laborer. Yet the demand for labor was greater than the supply. In 1860 clothing and rations were also given; in 1866-68, rations and no clothing. In 1866-68 the currency was inflated, and the wages for 1868 were really much lower. (Hammond, The Cotton Industry, p. 124; Montgomery Mail, May 16, 1865 ; Freedmen's Bureau Reports, 1865-70.)
OT A convention held in Montgomery in 1873 recommended that the share system be abolished and a contract-wage system be inaugurated ; wages should be secured by a lien on the employer's crop ; separate contracts should be made with each laborer, and the " squad " system abolished. In this way the laborer would not be responsible for bad crops. To aid the laborers, Congress was asked to pass the Sumner Civil Rights Bill providing for the recognition of certain social rights for negroes, to exempt homesteads from taxation, and to increase the tax on property held by speculators. And the President was asked to supply bread and meat to the negro farmers. (Annual Cyclopetdia, 1873, p. 19 ; Tuscaloosa Blade, November 20, 1873.)
- Willets, Workers of the Nation, Vol. II, pp. 701, 702.
Ibid., p. 714.
