the supply houses in the towns, the whites
gradually deserted the country, and many rice and cotton fields grew up
in weeds. Crop stealing at night became a business which no legislation
could ever completely stop. A traveler has left the following
description of "a model Negro farm" in 1874. The farmer purchased an old
mule on credit and rented land on shares or for so many bales of cotton;
any old tools were used; corn, bacon, and other supplies were bought on
credit, and a crop lien was given; a month later, corn and cotton were
planted on soil that was not well broken up; the Negro "would not pay
for no guano" to put on other people's land; by turns the farmer planted
and fished, plowed and hunted, hoed and frolicked, or went to "meeting."
At the end of the year he sold his cotton, paid part of his rent and
some of his debt, returned the mule to its owner, and sang:

Nigger work hard all de year, White man tote de money.

The great landholdings did not break up into small farms as was
predicted, though sales were frequent and in 1865 enormous amounts of
land were put on the market. After 1867, additional millions of acres
were offered at small prices, and tax and mortgage sales were numerous.
The result of these operations, however, was a change of landlords
rather than a breaking up of large plantations. New men, Negroes,
merchants, and Jews became landowners. The number of small farms
naturally increased but so in some instances did the land concentrated
into large holdings.

It was inevitable that conditions of Negro life should undergo a
revolutionary change during the reconstruction. The serious matter of
looking out for himself and his family and of making a living dampened
the Negro's cheerful spirits. Released from the discipline of slavery
and often misdirected by the worst of teachers, the Negro race naturally
ran into excesses of petty criminality. Even under the reconstruction
governments the proportion of Negro to white criminals was about ten
to one. Theft was frequent; arson was the accepted means of revenge on
white people; and murder became common in the brawls of the city Negro
quarters. The laxness of the marriage relation worked special hardship
on the women and children in so many cases deserted by the head of the
family.

Out of the social anarchy of reconstruction the Negroes emerged with
numerous organizations of their own which may have been imitations
of the Union League, the Lincoln Br