ision is made?

6th. How many hours do the laborers work?

7th. Under what system do you work?

8th. What is the relation existing between the planters and
their employees?

9th. What danger is there of strikes?

10th. How can the interest of the laborers of your section
be best subserved?

If you have prepared answers to these questions, and can
give your answers consecutively, I would like you to do so.
The WITNESS. I have prepared replies in order that I might
save the committee time as well as condense my ideas.

Q. 1. What is the condition of the laborers in your
section?
--A. The laborers in the Mississippi Valley are
agricultural. But few whites are employed; they soon become
landowners or tenants. Your question, therefore, reduces
itself to, What is the condition of the negroes? I should
say good, as compared with a few years ago, and improving.
You must recollect that it has only been 18 years since the
negroes emerged from slavery without a dollar and with no
education, and that for generations they had been taught to
rely entirely upon others for guidance and support. They
became, therefore, at once the easy prey of unscrupulous
men, who used them for their personal aggrandizement, were
subjected to every evil influence, and did not discover for
years the impositions practiced upon them. They were
indolent and extravagant, and eager to buy on a credit
everything the planter or merchant would sell them. The
planter had nothing except the land, which, with the crop to
be grown, was mortgaged generally for advances. If he
refused to indulge his laborers in extravagant habits during
the year, by crediting them for articles not absolutely
necessary, his action was regarded as good grounds for them
to quit work, and there were those present who were always
ready to use this as an argument to array the negroes
against the proprietors. This, of course, demoralized the
country to a very great extent, and it has only been in the
past few years the negro laborers have realized their true
condition and gone to work with a view of making a support
for themselves and families. There is yet much room for
improvement, but they will improve just as they gain
experience and become self-reliant.

Consid