mall. Some of the plantations were not
restocked after the raid, and speedily ran to waste.

In 1863, no lessee made more than half an ordinary crop of _cotton_,
and very few secured even this return. Some obtained a quarter or an
eighth of a bale to the acre, and some gathered only one bale where
they should have gathered twelve or twenty. A few lost money in the
speculation. Some made a fair profit on their investment, and others
realized their expectations of an enormous reward. Several parties
united their interest on three or four plantations in different
localities, so that a failure in one quarter was offset by success in
another.

The majority of the lessees were unprincipled men, who undertook the
enterprise solely as a speculation. They had as little regard for the
rights of the negro as the most brutal slaveholder had ever shown.
Very few of them paid the negroes for their labor, except in
furnishing them small quantities of goods, for which they charged five
times the value. One man, who realized a profit of eighty thousand
dollars, never paid his negroes a penny. Some of the lessees made open
boast of having swindled their negroes out of their summer's wages, by
taking advantage of their ignorance.

The experiment did not materially improve the condition of the negro,
save in the matter of physical treatment. As a slave the black man
received no compensation for his labor. As a free man, he received
none.

He was well fed, and, generally, well clothed. He received no severe
punishment for non-performance of duty, as had been the case before
the war. The difference between working for nothing as a slave,
and working for the same wages under the Yankees, was not always
perceptible to the unsophisticated negro.

Several persons leased plantations that they might use them as points
for shipping purchased or stolen cotton. Some were quite successful
in this, while others were unable to find any cotton to bring out.
Various parties united with the plantation-owners, and agreed
to obtain all facilities from the Government officials, if their
associates would secure protection against Rebel raids. In some cases
this experiment was successful, and the plantations prospered, while
those around them were repeatedly plundered. In others, the Rebels
were enraged at the plantation-owners for making any arrangements with
"the Yankees," and treated them with merciless severity. There was no
course that promised abso