'4
ANNUAL FAIR JLIST.
North Carolina Agricultural Society, Raleigb, October
10th to 17th.
W. N. (J. Agricultaral and Mechanics Fair Association,
Salisbury, October 27th to 31st. 1 ; -' ' -
Roanoke and Tar Rlrer 'Agricultural Society, "Weldoa,
October 20th to 23rd. -
Cumberland County Agricultural Society, JTayetteTille,
Sampson County Agricultaral Society, Clinton, '
Georgia State Agricultural Society, Atlanta, Ga., October
19to to 24th.
Virginia State Agricultural Society, Richmond, Va., Oc
tober 27th to 30th. - r;
Maryland State Agricultural Society. Baltimore, Md.,
October 6th to 10th. ' ; i
The Results of Free Labor iu the
South.
BV DANIEL R. GOODLOE. :
The present year will complete a decade of
free labor.fartning and planting in the South.
On the whole, the system has worked .better
than Southern ; men anticipated ; though not
so' well as the sanguine friends of the abolition
of slavery expected. On the part of the former,
it was believed that nothing but the authority
of a. master could .induce . negroes to , woik;
that the ordinary motives which operate: on
the minds ot men, inducing them to labor to
day, in order that themselves and their fami
lies may live ; comfortably to-morrow, would
be without effect on the. liberated slaves, and
that from year to year their condition would
grow from bad to worse ; that they would neg
lect to take proper care of their children ; jvnd
that as a consequence, their numbers would
be found to diminish. On the other hand, the
friends of impartial freedom predicted, as a
speedy result of abolition, that the South
would rapidly emerge from the temporary pa
ralysis of its industry and prosperity; that
land would rise in value, and that in a very
few years the aggregate wealth of the people.
would be greater than before the war.
After ten: years of experience it is safe to
conclude that the soothsayers,' whether giving
utterance to gloomy forebodings, or to roseate
pictures of prosperity, were mistaken. The
negroes have not given up regular labor; they
have not abandoned ther families to starvation;
and except in a few localities, where they have
been misled by designing demagogues they
On the contrary they still constitute the great
majority of the laboring class ; they still pro
duce four million bales of cotton, with-corii,
w&eat tobacco and sugar, . as formerly; and
tens of thousand of them have accumulated
property, and secured for their families per
manent homes. They are not diminishing in
numbers. They exhibit a laudible ambition
to acquire knowledge, and to elevate them
selves in the scale of being ; and no people in
the history of the world ever made more rapid
progress in the acquisition of learning. It is
to be lamented that the poor and illiterate
class of white people of the South; are inspired
by no such ambition as, actuates the blacks.
The former,' indeed, seem to be dead to every
generous aspiration, and without hope. The
negroes have their special friends, the aboli
tionists of the North, to look after, them, to
send them teachers, and to awaken in them a
spirit of manhood and progress. Even the
beasts of burthen have found friends in Mr.
Bergh and his benevolent " Society for the
prevention of cruelty to animals." But whose
mission shall it become to inspire with hope,and
elevate the poor, ignorant, friendless whites6f
the South ? Their poverty and ignorance of
books are not their greatest misfortnnes. It
is their ignorance of the arts of life even ot
, agriculture ; and the difficulty, it not impossi
bility of finding regular remunerative employ
ment. In the days of slavery they were rare
ly employed by the planters ; their labor was
not wanted; and they eked out existence as
tenants of the pine barrens, by the aid of fish
ing and hunting not the manlyport of hunt
ing with dogs and guns, but by trapping
poor hares and, birds. If the Sonth 'cah be
induced to engage entensively in manufactur
ing cotton, there may be hope ftfr this class of
poor whites. They can soon learn the simple
art of the factory operative, and, collected to
gether in villages and towns they may be ed
ucated and civilized.
But I am digressing. I am next to show
that the abolitionists werejmistaken when they
predicted a rapid development; of Southern
wealth and prosperity and a speedy rise in
the price of lands, as a consequence of eman
cipation. We have seen on the contrary, that
agricultural operations have been crippled ;
that the crops have not, as a whole been so
large as before the war ; and; that la j eg8
vaiuaum luau ib was m iuu uaja uij, crj
Common experience has demonstrate : 30
that the practice of cultivating largep pja.
tions with free labor, works badly, or ger
ently well ; and that thousands of m - ex.
perience in planting under the old r 0f
things have failed in the new exp nt
This fact by no means proves, howey ;hit
the thing is impracticable; and all that.; e I
unciicu iiulu ib is, mab ouuijjui u jjiir,,y
a class, with their limited experience, iVder1
unfavorable circumstances, are not ye
to the I task of managing large bodies of.nn.
cipated slaves The planting experimffts of
Northern men who have come South suj
war,, have been still less successful bahose
of natives; and so far as my observatiotg
they have generally proven disastrous. Asa
rule, I believe, the class of men referedjto
were jnot agriculturists by profession , aDd
their temerity was as great as would be Uat (f
the Southern planters should they go forth
and engage in manufacture or comment ;
But it is highly probable that the pip Na
tion system, of cultivating many hundri: of
thousands ot acres under one ownershijind
management,' will gradually, be abanconxi,
and that agricultural operations, in the lo ,th
will, in the course of a generation or t?o, be
assimilated with the uniform cusioms ofotier
free communities. The growth of towns ajnd
cities, and the multiplication of populitjon
will tend to this result. They will "coamre
with the inherent difficulties of plan tit jon
management, already pointed out,;and tend
to break. them up into smaller parcels, iln
Great Britain, there is a tendency to the cl n
centration of real estate in few hands; int
the proprietors are not the cultivators. They
lease -ir farm ther lands to men of smaller
means; who pay annual rents to the proprie
tors! The true definition of the term farmer,
is a lessee or tenant of land. There is- no
considerable class in that country correspond
ing to our small proprietors of the Northern
States who cultivate their own lands, n6r to
our large planting class of the South.
The law of primogeniture in Great Britain
and Ireland has kept the land of the ancient
proprietors in the possession of their eldest
sons from generation to generation. Occa
sionally a great family breaks down, and dis
appears; but instantly a new man j who has
growpTich by coromej
and the law of primogeniture secures it to
the eldest son of the new house, in perpetual
succession, just as it did to the representative
ot the old one. This feudal law of inheritance
which was framed with a view to-the perpet
uation of a landed aristocracy, has been sec
onded in its design by. the natural tendency of
capital to increase in the hands of its posses
sors, and thus to make the rich richer. The
result is that the whole real estate of Great
Britain is owned , by about thirty thousand
persons ; while full half of it is the property
of a few hundreds.
The tendency of wealth to accumulate in
the liands of the few, even in this country is
manifest ; but in the absence of a law of pri
mogeniture, there is no likelihood of such a
concentration of real property in a few fami
lies as exists in Great Britain. Our law of
inheritance, which distributes real, as well as
personal property equally among all the chil
dren; and the universal sanction it has in pub
lic opinion, caiising men to make their wills
in conformity with it, tends to a sub-division
rather than to an augmentation of estates.
As population grows more dense, by natural
increase, parents will divide their lands up
among their descendants. Persons who accu
mulate wealth in other avocations will be am
bitious of securing homesteads ; and tbonsantfs
of - immigrants will purchase farms. - These
causes operating, with an indefinitely increas
ing population onthe one hand,and a fixed area
of land on the other, the effect must necessarily
be a sub-didivision of the plantations into small
farms. Or if we suppose that capitalists will be
ambitious of owning the land, they will then
cease to be cultivators, and will lease it to
farmers, as is the custom in Europe.
; The plantation system is characteristic of a
colonial condition, in- which agriculture is jtte
exclusive occupation of society ; in which tie
planters produce one or two staples for a for.
eign, or distant market, by the labor of elaves;
and! in which allr other arts of life wilt ahi
perish. The commerce of a colony, or of a
community in which the plantation systeji
prevails, must always be in foreign hands,
and; the: manufactures consumed by it: mit
be brought from abroad. The absorption f
capital which results from the ownership
labor, leaves none for commerce and manufac
tures ; and the nature of slavery is incompati
ble with any pursuit other than agricultnre,
except on'a very small scale.
The South has long aspired to commercial
and manufacturing independence of the North.
" Commercial Conventions,,, whose object was
direct trade with Europe, were held in Norfolk,
in Memphis, in Savannah, and other places,
prior to the war ; but no single good result
from them can bo pointed out, unless it be
that the abortive effort, while slavery existed,
served to illustrate the truths above stated.
A community which relies tor subsistence
mainly on the exportation of raw products,"
can never be wealthy or independent. . It is
dependent on the variable foreign or distant
market which buysits staples ; it 16ok3 abroad
for its currency, or for the standard which
regulates it ; and while its staples may go
for a low price, the necessaries which it re
quires in exchange, may be high. It Spends
its money abroad, instead of spending it at
home ; it can have no cities or considerable
towns, because it has neither commerce nor
manufactures ; apd in the absence of these, it
has no sufficient market for the necessaries of
life; for grain, for hay, for vegetables, and
fruits, for beef, mutton, pork, for fowls, for
butter, cheese, and eggs ; and the consequence
is that the production of these necessaries' of
life 'is neglected, and often ha ve to be brought
from a distance from the . very communities
which buy the staples. .What the South needs
to-day, more than a direct trade with Europe,
is large and small, but healthy, thriving towns
and cities. In the Northern States the urban
population seems to have grown out of pro
portion to the rural ; there are there too many
idle or vicious people drawn together by the
excitements and alurements of city life, who
ought to go West," or South, and go to work
in the fields. But with us, the fault ' is the
other way. We have not enough ot city pop
ulation to infuse life and enterprise among
the country people ; to sustain an independent
Press ; to foster literature ; to encourage edu
cation ; or, as above stated, to furnish a market
for the necessaries of life. ; A single occupa
tion gives us but one class of ideas. Our
social life lacks variety; and in a word, before
we can attain to, a high civilization, we need
to be socially and economically regene
rated and born again. We must get out o
the colonial, chrysalis condition, which fetters
thfiuT-injirrwof irrrQyfi"MlihpnmlxaL thn invf
monotonous. It is this sameness, this absence
of fine cities, and towns, of various modes of
life which renders the South, in spite of its
natural beauties, so little attractive to travel
lers. Our own people, our young men and
maidens, our brides and bridegrooms, all go
North in search of pleasure and sight-seeing.
They rarely go South ; and the Northern or
European tourist who ventures into this terra
incognita is gazed at by natives, as people
gaze at a 6trange bird from distant lands.
r. The most hopeful sign of the times in the
South, is the impulse which has been given to
trade and commerce, and the resulting growth
of the towns. On every railroad line these
indications of life in the new social sj'stem
based on free labor are visible. Every way -
station is becoming a village ; every village is
rjecoming a town ; ana tne, towns are develop
ing into cities. Raleigh, Charlotte, Wilming
ton and Greensboro are believed to have
doubled in population since the war. In other
words, they have grown more during the last
ten years than during, the eighty or one hun
dre,d which preceded. Goldsboro, Fayetteville,
Salisbury, Asheville, and Newbern, have all
given evidence of a renewed existence ; and
the same is true of scores of smaller places.
Durham, now a thriving manufacturing town,
of perhaps a thousand or twelve hundred in
habitants, had no existence at the close of the
the war, and may claim to?be the first-born of
the new civilization. Already it is known a
over the continent for its superior - manufac
tures of tobacco, grown in the vicinity; and
it is destined, I doubt, not, to. excel in other
arts, and become a place of real importance.
These aro but the first fruits of the new
order of things ; but springing from perennial
causes of accelerating force, they give prom
ise of unlimited development. The abolition
ot Blavery caused temporary derangement in
the' social order, and impaired production.
But it destroyed forever an evil which lay at
the ery base of economical progress, and
sucked away its life, j I refer to the wholly
unnecessary investment ot capital in the own
ership of labor. Southern capitalists had
half , their funds invested in. the ownership of
four million laborers. Capital in free com
munities ia put to no such useless employment,
but is invested in improved lands, in good
barns, houses and' fences, in factories, work
shops and machineryin ship3 and commercial
enterprises. The South had nothing, or next
to nothing to invest in these productive ways,
after tying up it3 capital in the ownership oi
men. It is not necessary to own men in order
to have the benefit of their labor; and an in
vestment of that sort- is, therefore, a sinking
of capital. The owner it is truej is repaid by
by appropriating the wages of the laborer ; ,
but the aggregate wealth of society is no
greateror that, and his invest mvnt U unprd-
ductive. " : ' ": ' :
Ihe effect of emancipation Ins been to pre
vent further investments ot thi.- unproductive
kind. Every dollar made and saved now goes
into the fixed capital oi the community, and
aid3 production of some sort.- People may
have less money than formerly, but they have
more with which to bnild houses and make
permanent improvements. They have no uso ;
for their savings since they can no longer buy
slaves and hence it comes about that tli& towns
are beginning to prosper, j - ; . , ; ; ;
Another circumstance Which' has s contribu
ted to this result is", the seif-dependence of the
negro population. So long as they were slaves
their necessary supplies were purchased by
their masters, at the the market towns where
the crops were sold. ' This practice was inju
rious to the interests of the local dealers, the.
village and country store-keepers, and the re
sult was, the towns and villages languished. ',
Another reason for the growth of the towns
since emancipation took place, is the freedom
of action of the whole people. .Every, man
is now at liberty to select his occupation in
life, and diversity of pursuits! is the result. In
proportion as education is diffused, and the ar
tificial wants of the people are multiplied, this
diversity of tastes and pursuits will be greater,
and one will betake himself to his farm, anoth
er to his merchandise, a third to his workshop,
or to his professional pursuit; -
It is gratifying -to observe that the'operatibn
of these various causes, economical and social
have had theeffect of arresting the tide of em
igration J wnich for some fifty years steadily
flowed out of the State. . At present, and for
four or five years past, few persons, at any '
rate, few white persons, have left North Caro
lina for the purpose of seeking homes in the
West,' or elsewhere. On the contrary immi
frrants arft oAminor to the State, from Eu-
O D
-rwntneiy ortnera
States ; so that at no time within the memory
of the oldest inhabitant, has there been such
an increase of population as is now going on.
From 1790 to 1800, the rate of increase was
21 i per cent.; from 1800 to 18 10, 16 per cent.';
from 1810 to 1820, 15 per cent.; from 1820 to
.1830, 14 per cent.; from 1830 to 1840, less
than 2 per cent. These figures indicate the
drain of the pew planting states of the South
West upon the population of North Carolina,
culminating in 1840, in an almost complete
cessation of increase. But the subsequent re
turns of the census show that the Southern
demandor labor was for the time relaxing or
that the supply was drawn from other sources.
Erom 1840 to 1850 the rate of increase was
above 15 per cent; from 1850 to 1860, near
ly 13 per cent.; from 1860 to 1870, nearly 8
per cent. This second period of decline in
our rate of incf ease dates from, and was doubt
less caused by the acquisition of Texas.
The present indicatiohs are that the census
of 1880 will exhibit a higher rate of increase,
at least " as regards the white population of
North Carolina, than has taken place since
the year 1800. The demand in the South
West may draw oft a large per cent, of the
colored population, and thus reduce the ag
gregate rate of increase in the State; but there
never has been a time when our white people
were so well satisfied to remain on their native
6oil. Even those who went West immediate
ly after the war are beginningjto return, con
vinced that North Carolina is, after all, the
most cherishable part of the world. This
testimony is borne by returning emigrants
from the South-west, the West, and the
North-west
Who can doubt, in view of all these facts,
that North Carolina is opening upon a grand
career of progress in wealth, in population,
and power? j
Wabketon N. C, August 17, 1874.
... . .. .. 1 1 1 . : ;
T. B. Harris & Son, of Pittiboro, have lately
sold to Luke A Powell, Clinton N. 1 Cots
wold ram; G.R. Griffith, PittsboroN. C, 1 pair
of Berkshire pigs ; J. A. Edwards, Hookerton
N. C, 1 pair of Berkshire pigs ; W. J. Bul
lock Pantego Beaufort Co. N. C, 1 boar
t
v.