arming
districts because of unsatisfactory labor conditions due to failure on
the part of the planters to keep in close touch with their laborers.
There was utter neglect on their part to look after certain details of
plantation life as they particularly affected the single men. For
example, in many cases, no provision was made to have their food
properly cooked, their clothes mended, to keep them supplied with
fresh meat, to repair the houses in which they lived, and to furnish
them with gardens. On the other hand, it was noted that those planters
who carefully looked after these details had no difficulty in holding
their laborers.

In regard to lynching as a cause of migration from Georgia, it is not
easy to state exactly its effect on the movement, because the
lynchings which occurred immediately before and during the migration
were in the boll-weevil section where the economic conditions were
also at their worst. Nevertheless, several planters whose premises
were crossed by lynching parties held that their losses in regard to
labor were heavier than those of the surrounding plantations because
of the state of terror into which their tenants had been thrown by
these lawless bands. In two instances occurring respectively in 1915
and 1916, in the boll-weevil section of this State, moreover, lynching
parties killed not only the guilty Negroes but also others who were
innocent. In another instance the mob, after murdering the criminal
and terribly beating and terrorizing many others not implicated in the
crime, proceeded across the county and killed the mother and another
relative of the accused. These bloody deeds had the effect of
developing in the Negroes a feeling of insecurity of life and thus
caused them to seek the North as a place of refuge.

Another reason why Negroes left Georgia was the resentment of the
minor injustices done to them in the courts. In this State, and in a
number of others as well, there prevails a system whereby the county
and police officials are compensated by a fee for their services, that
is, they are paid so much a head for every man they arrest. The effect
of this system is to render these officials overzealous in rounding up
Negroes for gambling, drinking and other petty infractions of the law.
As punishment for these small violations of the law Negroes are
usually sentenced to work on the county roads for certain periods of
time. In the rural districts where recreational facilities a