poverished the
land of every cotton-producing state east of the Mississippi river." As
cotton became less and less profitable in the east the opening up of the
newer and richer lands in the west put the eastern planter in a more and
more precarious situation. Had cotton fallen to anything like its
present price in the years immediately preceding the war, his lot would
have been far worse.

Another influence should be noted. Slavery tended to drive out of a
community those who opposed the system, and also the poor whites,
non-slave holders. The planters sought to buy out or expel this latter
class, because of the temptation they were under to incite the slaves to
steal corn and cotton and sell it to them at a low price. There was also
trouble in many other ways. There was thus a tendency to separate the
mass of the blacks from the majority of the whites. That this
segregation actually arose a map of the proportionate populations for
Alabama in 1860 shows. It may be claimed that there were other reasons
for this separation, such as climatic conditions, etc. This may be
partially true, but it evidently cannot be the principal reason, for we
find the whites in the majority in many of the lowest and theoretically
most unhealthful regions, as in the pine flats. This is the situation
to-day also.

The influence of the rivers in determining the settlement of the country
has been mentioned. Nowhere was this more the case than in the alluvial
lands of the Mississippi, the so-called "Delta." This country was low
and flat, subject to overflows of the river. The early settlements were
directly on the banks of the navigable streams, because this only was
accessible, and because the land immediately bordering the streams is
higher than the back land. Levees were at once started to control the
rivers, but not until the railroads penetrated the country in 1884 was
there any development of the back land. Even to-day most of this is
still wild.

The war brought numerous changes, but it is only in place here to
consider those affecting the location of the people. The mobility of
labor is one of the great changes. Instead of a fixed labor force we now
have to deal with a body relatively free to go and come. The immediate
result is that a stream of emigration sets in from the border states to
the cities of the North, where there was great opportunity for servants
and all sorts of casual labor. The following table shows the number of
negr