Your question, therefore, reduces itself to, What is the condition of the negroes?
I should say good, as compared with a few years ago, and improving.
You must recollect that it has only been 18 years since the negroes emerged from slavery without a dollar and with no education, and that for generations they had been taught to rely entirely upon others for guidance and support.

They became, therefore, at once the easy prey of unscrupulous men, who used them for their personal aggrandizement, were subjected to every evil influence, and did not discover for years the impositions practiced upon them.

They were indolent and extravagant, and eager to buy on a credit everything the planter or merchant would sell them.

The planter had nothing except the land, which, with the crop to be grown, was mortgaged generally for advances.

If he refused to indulge his laborers in extravagant habits during the year, by crediting them for articles not absolutely necessary, his action was regarded as good grounds for them to quit work, and there were those present who were always ready to use this as an argument to array the negroes against the proprietors.