hat they were going to their ruin if they did;
that they were leaving comfortable homes; many of them had
sold their mules or given them away at a mere sacrifice. One
negro sold a mule worth $150 for $15 to get off. They opened
their potato-houses, they opened their corn-cribs and
scattered the corn, giving it away to everybody that would
offer them five cents a bushel. I had given two of these
people a piece of land, the productions of all of which
they were to have for bringing it into cultivation and
improving it. Knowing the negro nature as I do, and knowing
that he would not want anybody to derive the benefit of
something that he thought he was entitled to, I got two
white men in the county to come and offer me to take this
piece of land and cultivate it on shares with me, giving me
one half its product, whereas with them I was entitled to
nothing. As soon as those two fellows found out that I had
made a good bargain for their land they went back home from
the river bank, and as soon as they went back all the rest
followed. Then I called the whole plantation up and told
them to appoint two representatives and that I would send
them to Kansas at my own expense to examine into this matter
and report to them. These two men went to Kansas, came back,
and reported the true condition of affairs; and now if what
they call in that country "a poor white man"--the negro's
expression--goes through the country and says "Kansas," they
almost want to mob him. That was the result of the Kansas
movement.

Q. What has become of those who went to Kansas?
--A. Many of them have returned and many have died; numbers
of them have died. Quite a large number went to Washington
County Mississippi, just opposite me.

Q. From time to time, at Washington, efforts are being made
to secure public lands in the Territories, the Indian
Territory and elsewhere, for the purpose of colonizing such
tracts with negroes. Do you think there is any sort of
occasion for that?
--A. None in the world. If the alluvial lands on the
Mississippi River were protected from overflow and brought
into a condition where they could be cultivated they would
afford all the homes, and of the best character, that the
negroes could possibly want in the South, and the natur