"When the serfs were freed in Hungary, as in many other parts of Europe, provision was made to give them land, though to a very large extent they were denied the political privileges enjoyed by the upper classes.
"In Italy also it was intended, in giving the serfs freedom, to give them likewise land. Again, when the vast estates of the Church were taken over by the State, an attempt was made to increase the class of small owners and to give land to the people who tilled it . In both cases, however, it was but a few years before the greater portion of peasant owners were wiped out and their lands absorbed into large estates....
"The case of the Negro was just the opposite. When the masses of the Negro people were turned loose from slavery they carried in their hands the ballot that they did not know how to use, but took no property with them. At the present time, I believe, by a conservative estimate, that the Negroes in the South own not less than twenty million acres of land, an area equal to the five New England States of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
"On the other hand, the Negroes have largely lost, at least temporarily, many of the political privileges which were given them at emancipation."
P. 102-103, "Strikes and Farm Labor," THE MAN FARTHEST DOWN: A RECORD OF OBSERVATION AND STUDY IN EUROPE by Booker T. Washington and Robert E. Park (1912)
Monday, July 11, 2016
SOUTHERN NEGROES' 20 MILLION ACRES IN 1912
"When the serfs were freed in Hungary, as in many other parts of Europe, provision was made to give them land, though to a very large extent they were denied the political privileges enjoyed by the upper classes.
"In Italy also it was intended, in giving the serfs freedom, to give them likewise land. Again, when the vast estates of the Church were taken over by the State, an attempt was made to increase the class of small owners and to give land to the people who tilled it . In both cases, however, it was but a few years before the greater portion of peasant owners were wiped out and their lands absorbed into large estates....
"The case of the Negro was just the opposite. When the masses of the Negro people were turned loose from slavery they carried in their hands the ballot that they did not know how to use, but took no property with them. At the present time, I believe, by a conservative estimate, that the Negroes in the South own not less than twenty million acres of land, an area equal to the five New England States of Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.
"On the other hand, the Negroes have largely lost, at least temporarily, many of the political privileges which were given them at emancipation."
P. 102-103, "Strikes and Farm Labor," THE MAN FARTHEST DOWN: A RECORD OF OBSERVATION AND STUDY IN EUROPE by Booker T. Washington and Robert E. Park (1912)