which, twenty-years ago, land was even less in value than in the James River counties, it is now become worth twice as much.
The slave population, once greater than that of whites, has been reduced by emigration and sale, till there are now less than half as many slaves as whites. In the place of slaves has come another sort of people. The change which has taken place, and the cause of it, is thus simply described in the Agricultural Report of the County to the Commissioner of Patents.[1]
"In appearance, the county is so changed in many parts, that a traveller
who passed over it ten years ago would not now recognize it. Thousands
and thousands of acres had been cultivated in tobacco by the former
proprietors, would not pay the cost, and were abandoned as worthless, and
became covered with a wilderness of pines. These lands have been purchased
by Northern emigrants; the large tracts divided and subdivided
and cleared of pines; and neat farm-houses and barns, with smiling fields
of grain and grass in the season, salute the delighted gaze of the beholder.
Ten years ago it was a mooted question whether Fairfax lands could be
made productive; and if so, would they pay the cost? This problem has
been satisfactorily solved by many, and in consequence of the above altered
state of things school-houses and churches have doubled in number."
The following substantiates what I have said of the inavailability
of the native whites for supplying the place of the
negroes exported to the cotton plantations.
From the Patent Office Report for 1847.
"As to the price of labour, our mechanics charge from one to two dollars a day. As to agricultural labour, we have none. Our poor are poor because they will not work, therefore are seldom employed.
"Chas. Yancey,
"Buckingham Co., Virginia."
The sentence, "As to agricultural labour, we have none,"
must mean no free labour, the number of slaves in this county
being according to the Census 8,161, or nearly 3,000 more
- ↑ See 'Patent Office Report, 1852.'
