Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/489

 REORGANIZATION OF THE INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM IN ALABAMA AFTER THE CIVIL WAR

ANTE-BELLUM SYSTEM

The cotton-planter of the South, the master of many negro slaves, organized what was probably the most efficient plantation labor system the world ever saw. Each plantation was an indus- trial community almost independent of the outside world, with a most minute division of labor, each servant being assigned a task suited to his or her strength and training. Nothing but the most skilled management could save a planter from ruin, for though the labor was efficient, it was the most costly ever known. The value of an overseer was judged by the general condition, health, appearance, and manners of the slaves ; the amount of work done with the least punishment ; the condition of stock, buildings, and plantation ; and the size of the crops. All supplies were raised on the plantation corn, bacon, beef, and other food-stuffs; farm implements and harness were made and repaired by the skilled negroes in rainy weather when no outdoor work could be done; clothes were cut out in the " big house " and made by the negro women under the direction of the mistress. There was much need for skilled labor, and this was done by the blacks. Work was often done by tasks, and industrious negroes were able to com- plete their daily allotment and have three or four hours a day to work in their own gardens and "patches." They often earned money at odd jobs, and the church records show that they con- tributed regularly. Negro children were trained in the arts of industry and in sobriety by elderly negroes of good judgment and firm character, usually women. 1 Children too young to work were cared for by a competent mammy in the plantation nursery, while their parents were in the fields.

In the Black Belt there was little hiring of extra labor and

1 The accounts of the wild and idle negro children of the rice and tobacco districts are not true of those in the Cotton Belt. The smallest tot could do a little in a cotton field.

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