Shiftless? Yes,
the personification of shiftlessness. And yet follow those
boys: they are not lazy; to-morrow morning they'll be up with
the sun; they work hard when they do work, and they work
willingly. They have no sordid, selfish, money-getting ways,
but rather a fine disdain for mere cash. They'll loaf before
your face and work behind your back with good-natured
honesty. They'll steal a watermelon, and hand you back your
lost purse intact. Their great defect as laborers lies in their
lack of incentive beyond the mere pleasure of physical exer-
tion. They are careless because they have not found that it
pays to be careful; they are improvident because the im-
provident ones of their acquaintance get on about as well as
the provident. Above all, they cannot see why they should
take unusual pains to make the white man's land better, or to
fatten his mule, or save his corn. On the other hand, the
white land-owner argues that any attempt to improve these
laborers by increased responsibility, or higher wages, or
better homes, or land of their own, would be sure to result in
failure. He shows his Northern visitor the scarred and wretched
land; the ruined mansions, the worn-out soil and mortgaged
acres, and says, This is Negro freedom!
Now it happens that both master and man have just enough
argument on their respective sides to make it difficult for
them to understand each other.
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