The Charleston Daily News

The Trial System of the South - The Cotton Crop of 1866,

A Northern man, who has been some time in the South, wishes the Cincinnati Commercial with the following as his impressions upon this important subject:

Never in all history, perhaps, was there witnessed so complete a revulsion of public sentiment in a given topic as was seen in the South after the Christmas holidays. Before that almost everybody of white complexion had been despondent and gloomy, while the negroes wore correspondingly elated and expectant; the former, from a belief that the latter never would work again; the latter, from a belief that they never would have to work again. Now everything is changed. For a few days first succeeding those holidays, the colored people felt bitterly disappointed at the non-appearance of Government agents, who were to parcel out to them the lands and title of their old masters, but soon, with their usual happy and contented dispositions, they shook off regrets that they found were useless, and with a universality that was astonishing both to North and South, gave their attention to facts, and entered into contracts for the year. With this the hopes of the whites began slowly to return and, though they were loth to admit it, and are still, they began to see pleasing visions of prosperity in the future.

To the negroes work had always been a habit, and they found no difficulty in renewing it; it is a habit their white brethren generally have yet to learn. Of course, there are thousands of lazy and worthless negroes, who never have done anything of value, and never will, but the majority of them have gone nobly to work.

Renting, as many of them do, and working under their own contract, their labor will not be so skillfully directed as formerly; there will be 200,000 less of them at work than in 1860, and they will work fewer hours per day than then; consequently there will be less cotton raised than then by one-third, perhaps, but they will lay the foundation of a system of self-directing, intelligent labor; that, in two or three years, will produce far more cotton than ever before. The cotton crop of 1866 will be a better picked, better cleaned and better packed crop, as a whole, than any ever before raised, for the reason that there are thousands of poor white men renting little fields, who never did before, and these will bring it to market in the best possible order. I estimate there will be 150,000 poor white men renting land this year who never did before, and at least as many negroes. These generally contract for one-third of the crop, and furnish their own teams; or one-fourth, and use the teams and implements of their former masters.

The crop of 1860 was 5,341,166 bales of ginned cotton. In attempting an estimate of the crop of 1866 I shall set it down as two-thirds of that of 1860 in all the States except Texas, Alabama and Mississippi. In Texas and Alabama I believe the crop will be a full one, for they were the two great centres of the Confederacy, into which were crowded thousands of negroes, many of whom still remain, while they were very little disturbed by our armies. In Texas there are 100,000 negroes more than in 1860, and in Alabama probably 50,000. Mississippi remained comparatively quiet, also, but lost many negroes. Her crop will not exceed three-fourths. In Virginia it will be about one-half. Here, then, is the guess, by States:

	1860.	1866.
Alabama	989,955	990,000
Arkansas	867,393	240,000
Florida	65,163	50,000
Georgia	701,049	400,000
Louisiana	777,738	425,000
Mississippi	1,202,507	900,000
North Carolina	146,514	80,000
South Carolina	873,412	80,000
Tennessee	293,464	175,000
Texas	431,463	450,000
Virginia	12,729	6,000