Small White Farmers in the South of the United States in the Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

The purpose of this note is to analyze the situation of small white farmers in the South, especially in Mississippi, after the Civil War. (1) Broadly speaking, cotton product per acre was highest where the plantation system prevailed most and lowest where thc small white farmers had a majolity. But this relation was reversed when the natural productive capacities of the several soils occupied were taken into consideration. (2) The percentage of the tilled lands occupied by cotton was small where the small white farmers had a majority. However the proportion of white farmers engaged in the cultivation of cotton was increasing after the Civil War. (3) Another important change that had taken place in Southern agriculttlre since the Civil War was the remarkable increase of white tenants. In the South as a whole the average value of all farm property per farm was much larger in the case of the farms of white tenants than in the case of the farms of colored tenants. However, in Mississippi there was little difference between the two racial groups.