As soon as the green cotton-leaves appear above the
ground, another mortgage is given on the "crop." Every
Saturday, or at longer intervals, Sam calls upon the merchant
for his "rations"; a family of five usually gets about thirty
pounds of fat side-pork and a couple of bushels of cornmeal a
month. Besides this, clothing and shoes must be furnished; if
Sam or his family is sick, there are orders on the druggist and
doctor; if the mule wants shoeing, an order on the black-
smith, etc. If Sam is a hard worker and crops promise well,
he is often encouraged to buy more,--sugar, extra clothes,
perhaps a buggy. But he is seldom encouraged to save. When
cotton rose to ten cents last fall, the shrewd merchants of
Dougherty County sold a thousand buggies in one season,
mostly to black men.
The security offered for such transactions--a crop and
chattel mortgage--may at first seem slight. And, indeed, the
merchants tell many a true tale of shiftlessness and cheating;
of cotton picked at night, mules disappearing, and tenants
absconding. But on the whole the merchant of the Black Belt
is the most prosperous man in the section.
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