Tenant Farming and Sharecropping in the Post-Civil War South – Object #2

An erroneous impression prevails
largely outside of Texas concerning
tho personnel of its tcuaut-fiiriuers.
The idea is that most of them are
shiftless and thriftless negroes, who
rent from rich land-owners and con
fine their energies to the hand-to-mouth
limit-‘ This is not tbe caso.
The great mass of tho tenant-farmers
of Texas, particularly in the
rich and populous northern
and central sections of the state,
are sober, intelligent and industrious
white men. They are not types of the
natural-born nomad species, so fami
liar in early days, with decrepit prai
rie schooners, bone-fuctory teams and
a long enrollment of ‘yaller’ dogs.
They are good, average’ American cili-
rens. But they, their wives ‘and their
children are pitiable representatives of
poverty’s partiality. None has a word
to sny against Texas soil, Texas cli
mate, Texas health or Texas manage.
nientof public aifuirs. All have ono
grievance, however ‘low cotton and
cash rent.’