The Continental Monthly, Volume 1, Issue 3, March 1862 | Page 8

after year; the
seed--which Northern men would cultivate for oil alone, and which
exhausts the land ten times faster than the fibre--is mostly wasted; in
the words of a Southern paper, 'The seed is left to rot about the
gin-house, producing foul odors, and a constant cause of sickness.' The
land is cropped until it is literally skinned, and then the planter migrates
to some new region, again to drive out the poor whites, monopolize the
soil, and leave it once more to grow up to 'piney woods.'
Note again the warning words of Dr. Cloud: 'With a climate and soil

peculiarly adapted to the production of cotton, our country is equally
favorable to the production of all the necessary cereals, and as
remarkably favorable to the perfect development of the animal
economy, in fine horses, good milch cows, sheep and hogs; and for
fruit of every variety, not tropical, it is eminently superior. Why is it,
then, that we find so many wealthy cotton planters, whose riches
consist entirely of their slaves and worn-out plantations?'
No crop would be more remunerative to a small farmer, with a
moderate family to assist in the picking season, than cotton.
Upon the fertile lands of Texas, which produce one to two bales of
cotton to the acre, ten acres of cotton is the usual allotment to each
hand, with also sufficient land in corn and vegetables to furnish food
for the laborer and his proportion of the idle force upon the plantation,
which are two to one, without reckoning the planter and overseer and
their families. Now, upon the absurd supposition that a free man, with a
will in his work, would do no more work than a slave, what would be
the result of his labor? 1st, food for his family; 2d, 10 acres of cotton, at
500 pounds to the acre, 5000 pounds, at 10 cents per pound, or $500.
But the result would be much greater, for, as a Southern man has well
said, 'the maximum of slave labor would be the minimum of free labor;'
and the writer can bring proof of many instances where each field hand
has produced 13, 15, and even 18 bales of cotton in a year. With the
denser population which would follow the emancipation of the slaves
and the breaking up of the plantation system, a harvest force for the
picking season would be available, and one man would as easily
cultivate 20 to 25 acres of cotton, with assistance in the picking season,
as he could thirty acres of corn, the usual allotment to each hand upon
the corn land of Texas.
The very expense of slave labor is a proof of the profit which must be
derived from it. The writer has elsewhere estimated the cost of slave
labor at $20 per month, which statement has been questioned, because
no allowance was made for the increase of the live stock. Now it is well
understood that where the women are worked in the fields in such a
manner as to make their labor pay, the increase of live stock is much

smaller, and the business of breeding is left to the first families in
Virginia and other localities where the land has been exhausted (readers
will pardon a plain statement,--it will cause them to realize the full
horror of the business). The slaves in the cotton States increased from
1850 to 1860 33-88/100 per cent., in all the other slave States 9-61/100
per cent. The surplus increase in the cotton States, above the average,
was 190,632. Where did they come from?[C] At $900 each, this surplus
represents a capital of $171,568,800. How was this sum earned, and to
whom was it paid?
Let us examine the estimate of $20 per month, and, although it is
admitted that female field hands do not bear many children, take the
average increase of the country, or 2-335/1000 per cent. per annum.
The standard of value for an A 1 field hand is $100 for each cent per
pound of the price of cotton, say ten cents per pound, $1000, and the
standard of value for all the slaves upon a plantation is one-half the
value of a field hand.
Suppose a plantation stocked with 100 slaves, men, women, and
piccaninnies, at 8500 each, $50,000 Interest at 8 per cent., a low rate
for the South, 4,000 Customary allowance for life insurance or
mortality, 1,000 Overseer's wages, 1,000 House and provisions, 500
Doctor's fees, hospital, and medicines, 500 Renewal and repairs of
negro quarters, 500 Clothing and food, at $1 per week for each slave,
5,200 _____ 12,700
Credit.
Increase to keep good the mortality, 2 Annual gain, 2-335/1000, say 3
Gain, 5, at $500 2,500 Net cost, 10,200
The usual allowance for field hands is