So skilfully and so
closely has he drawn the bonds of the law about the tenant,
that the black man has often simply to choose between pau-
perism and crime; he "waives" all homestead exemptions in
his contract; he cannot touch his own mortgaged crop, which
the laws put almost in the full control of the land-owner and
of the merchant. When the crop is growing the merchant
watches it like a hawk; as soon as it is ready for market he
takes possession of it, sells it, pays the landowner his rent,
subtracts his bill for supplies, and if, as sometimes happens,
there is anything left, he hands it over to the black serf for his
Christmas celebration.
The direct result of this system is an all-cotton scheme of
agriculture and the continued bankruptcy of the tenant. The
currency of the Black Belt is cotton. It is a crop always
salable for ready money, not usually subject to great yearly
fluctuations in price, and one which the Negroes know how
to raise. The landlord therefore demands his rent in cotton,
and the merchant will accept mortgages on no other crop.
There is no use asking the black tenant, then, to diversify his
crops,--he cannot under this system.
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