No less important than the spread of cotton culture is the structure and internal economy of the plantation. The technique of cotton production, the disposition of the hu man factors in production, their living standards, the management and relation of the plantation economy to the outside world are all of significance. They may best be treated by giving as far as possible cases and types that strike near the mode of plantation activity.
William J. Barbee of De Soto County, Mississippi, writing immediately after the Civil War has described the organization of a small plantation.
"The best bottom plantations," he writes, "are those im mediately on rivers above overflow. Such location is decidedly healthier than any in interior of the bottoms." Such a plan tation must have good soil that will not wash away, good timber and plenty of it, good water in abundance, and must be close to a good steamboat landing or depot. Such bottom land may be counted on to grow one to two bales per acre to only one to a half bale for upland. Nevertheless, "for a family residence and plantation we think the best table and creek-bottom land of the hill country is more desirable—more especially when we take in view the social and moral ad vantages.
A good small plantation he regards as consisting of 200 acres. To stock such a farm will require the following supplies: 4 horses or mules at $150 $600.00 4 turning ploughs 25.00 4 broad shovels 25.00 plough harness 25.00 1 wagon 80.00 1 yoke oxen 100.00 axes, hoes, shovels, spades 20.00 saws, augers, chisels, hammers, tools 25.00 cross cut saw 10.00 $910.00 Corn from Jan. to Sept. 300.00 $1210.00 To run this plantation will require "six good hands in the field" and two in the house. Under favorable circumstances the plantation will produce about 35 bales of cotton and 800 bushels of corn. With cotton at a good price one can meet the expenses of the hands, keep up his family, have enough corn for the stock for next year, and possibly a large enough surplus to pay for the stock and Mr. Barbee's estimate may be taken as average for the type of soil and locality presented. Many of the planta tions were much larger in size, but an estimate may be arrived at by multiplying the stock and number of hands, leaving the number of domestic servants more or less constant.
The regime on the plantation was well ordered. The slaves had their quarters, small log cabins or shacks of one thickness of board, built together near the big house. The movements were regulated by the plantation bell. The schedule on the Hammond plantation of South Caro lina is cited as a type: The first horn was blown an hour before daylight as a summons for work hands to rise and do their cooking and other preparations for the day. Then at the summons of the plow driver at the first break of day, the plowmen went to the stables whose doors the overseers opened. At the second horn, just at good daylight, the hoe gang set off for the field. At half past eleven the plowmen carried their mules to a shelter house in the fields, and at noon the hoe hands laid off for dinner, to resume work at one o'clock, except that in hot weather the intermission was extended to a maximum of three and a half hours. The plowmen led the way home by a quarter of an hour in the evening, and the hoe hands fol lowed at sunset." The food and clothing for the slaves were simple, sub stantial, and monotonous. De Bow estimated that slaves
could be supported for $15 a year. Hoecakes, fried pork, and molasses formed the staples of diet.
On the Telfair plantation in Georgia each worker was allowed a peck of corn, a pint of salt and not over three and a half pounds of meat a week. Hammond also gave order to allow a heaping peck of meal and three pounds of bacon with the substitution in the winter if desired of a bushel of sweet potatoes for a peck of meal. Molasses was furnished in proportion. "Feed everything plentifully but waste noth ing," was the admonition of one planter.
On the Hammond plantation each man was allowed two cotton shirts, a pair of woolen pants and a jacket in the fall; in the spring he drew two cotton shirts and two pairs of cotton pants. For the women there were six yards each of cotton and woolen cloth in the fall and twelve yards of cotton cloth in the spring with needed buttons, needles and thread. Each worker was to have a pair of stout shoes' in the fall and a heavy blanket every third year. Negroes must appear once a week in clean clothes, "and every negro habit ually uncleanly in person must be washed and scrubbed by order of the overseer—the driver and two other negroes 24 The most difficult task in the cotton regime fell to the lot of the plantation overseer.' On him was the burden of the direction and integration of the plantation's ac tivities. If he has been painted as an unlovely character it is largely because he was placed in a most unlovely position. General manager of the plantation, inter mediary between master and slaves, he possessed the re spect of neither. In the absence of the planter he was the only white man among a horde of blacks; But whether the planter was present or absent, the overseer was per mitted intimacy with neither the planter nor his slaves. Up in the morning before anyone else to ring the planta tion bell, he went to bed only after he had seen that the horses were in the stables, the corn in the cribs, and the Negroes in the cabins. Otherwise, there was danger that supplies might disappear, mules might be ridden, and Negroes might go visiting. If punishment and reprimands were to be distributed, it fell to the lot of the overseer to inflict them. When presents, pardons, and favors were to be granted, the planter and his family gave them to the slaves. The overseer often wanted to attend the rustic dances and merrymakings of his compatriots but his duties kept him on the plantation. No doubt he often slipped away. James K. Polk's overseer writes complain ing that the planter does not want him to keep a decent horse or a supply of liquor for himself. Undoubtedly, the overseer was crude, illiterate, and of low social status. At the same time he was often a man of good practical sense and keen business management. His salary usually varied from $250 to $600. He had to remain fairly con tent in his social and economic status. As a rule he ex pected to marry his daughter to a man in the like class. But an exceptional overseer who had won the confidence of the factor with whom he dealt might borrow from him, move West, and set up as a planter himself. Not many of them did, it is to be feared. If successful, his descendants by the third generation, having learned the manners of gentility, might be admitted to the society of their peers.