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to three of corn, and forty acres of cotton for the women and children of the four families. The squads were united to pick the cotton, because they worked better in gangs. Wage-laborers had to be kept to look after fences and ditches, and perform odd jobs. A frequent source of trouble was the custom of allowing the negro, as part of his pay, several acres of "outside crop" to be worked on certain days of the week, as Fridays and Saturdays. The planter was supposed to settle disputes among the negroes, give them advice on every subject except politics and religion, pay their fines or get them out of jail when arrested, and some- times to thrash the recalcitrant. 82
Several kinds of share systems were finally evolved from the industrial chaos. They were much the same in black as in white districts, and the usual designations were : " on halves," " third and fourth," and "standing rent." The tenant "on halves" received one-half the crop, did all the work, and furnished his own pro- visions. The planter furnished land, houses to live in, seed, plows, hoes, teams, wagons, ginned the cotton, paid for half the fertilizer, and went security for the negro for a year's credit at the supply store in town, or else furnished the supplies himself and charged them against the negro's share of the crop. The "third and fourth " plan varied according to locality and time, and depended upon what the tenant furnished. Sometimes the planter furnished everything, while the negro gave only his labor and received one- fourth of the crop ; again, the planter furnished all except provi- sions and labor, and gave the negro one-third of the crop. In such cases " third and fourth " was a lower grade of tenancy than " on halves." Later it developed to a higher grade. The tenant fur- nished teams and farming implements, and the planter the rest, in which case the planter received a third of the cotton and a fourth
- Somers, an English traveler, thought that the economic relations of planter
and negro were startling, and anywhere else would be absurd. The tenant, he said, was sure of a support and did not much care if the crop failed. Even his taxes, when he condescended to pay any, were paid by his master. For all work outside of his crop he had to be paid, and often he went away and worked for someone else for cash. And his privileges were innumerable. " The soul is often crushed out of labor by penury and oppression. Here a soul cannot begin to be infused into it through the sheer excess of privilege and license with which it is surrounded." Southern States since the War, pp. 128, 129.
