spot as could be dignified with the appellation of village:[1] but I may possibly have passed some at night. There were many places where cotton was shipped and provisions were landed, still there were no signs of enterprise to indicate that we were in the heart of a rich cotton region. * * * The planters supply themselves directly through agents in the large towns, and comparatively little of the money drawn fur the cotton crop is spent in the Southern States. Many of the planters spend their incomes by travelling with their families in the Northern States or in Europe during the summer, and a large sum is required to pay the hog-raiser in Ohio, the mule-breeder in Kentucky, and, above all, the Northern capitalists who have vast sums of money on mortgage over the estates. Dr. Cloud, the editor of the Cotton Plant [Alabama], assured me that after all these items are paid out of the money received for the whole cotton crop and sugar crops of the South, there did not remain one-fourth part of it to be spent in the Southern States. Hence, the Slave States soon obtain a comparatively stationary condition, and, further, the progress they make is in proportion to the increase of freemen, whose labour is rendered comparatively unproductive, seeing that the most fertile land is occupied by slaveholders."[2]
I questioned the agent of a large land speculation in
Mississippi, a Southerner by birth, with regard to the success
of small farmers. In reply he made the following statement,
allowing me to take notes of it, understanding they were for
publication:—
"The majority of our purchasers have been men without capital. To
such we usually sell one hundred and sixty acres of land, at from two to
three dollars an acre, the agreement being to pay in one, two, and three
years, with six per cent. interest. It is very rare that the payments are
made when due, and much the largest proportion of this class fail even to
pay their interest punctually. Many fail altogether, and quit their farms
in about ten years. When crops are generally good, and planters in the
same neighbourhood make seven bales to a hand, poor people will not
make over two bales, with their whole family. There is , in
county, for instance. We sold him one hundred and sixty acres of
land in 1843. He has a family of good-sized boys—young men now. For
- ↑ Mr. Russell uses the language of England. There are several collections of houses on this river bank, the inhabitants of which would consider it an insult if they should hear such a humble term as "village" applied to their pseudo towns and cities.
- ↑ "North America; its Agriculture and Climate," p. 290.
