Helena realized $31,000 for their
year's labor. Two of them planted forty acres in cotton; their
expenses were about $1,200; they sold their crop for $8,000. Another
leased twenty-four acres. His expenses were less than $2,000, and he
sold his crop for $6,000. Another leased seventeen acres. He earned
by the season's work enough to purchase a good house, and leave him
a cash balance of $300. Another leased thirteen and a half acres,
expended about $600 in its cultivation, and sold his crop for $4,000.

At Milliken's Bend the negroes were not as successful as at
Helena--much of the cotton crop being destroyed by the "army worm." It
is possible that the return of peace may cause a discontinuance of the
policy of leasing land to negroes.

The planters are bitterly opposed to the policy of dividing
plantations into small parcels, and allowing them to be cultivated
by freedmen. They believe in extensive tracts of land under a single
management, and endeavor to make the production of cotton a business
for the few rather than the many. It has always been the rule to
discourage small planters. No aristocratic proprietor, if he could
avoid it, would sell any portion of his estate to a man of limited
means. In the hilly portions of the South, the rich men were unable to
carry out their policy. Consequently, there were many who cultivated
cotton on a small scale. On the lower Mississippi this was not the
case.

When the Southern States are fairly "reconstructed," and the political
control is placed in the hands of the ruling race, every effort will
be made to maintain the old policy. Plantations of a thousand or of
three thousand acres will be kept intact, unless the hardest necessity
compels their division. If possible, the negroes will not be permitted
to possess or cultivate land on their own account. To allow them to
hold real estate will be partially admitting their claim to humanity.
No true scion of chivalry can permit such an innovation, so long as he
is able to make successful opposition.

I have heard Southern men declare that a statute law should, and
would, be made to prevent the negroes holding real estate. I have
no doubt of the disposition of the late Rebels in favor of such
enactment, and believe they would display the greatest energy in its
enforcement. It would be a labor of love on their part, as well as of
duty. Its success would be an obstacle in the way of the much-dreaded
"negro equality."

CHA