"Report by a Commissioner of the American
Freedmen's Inquiry Commission"
J. McKaye
The
following excerpt is from a report submitted circa 1864 by J. McKaye,
a Commissioner of the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission. His
report, which runs 104 pages, is a supplemental part of the American
Freedmen's Inquiry Commission report.
Another
matter intimately connected with the foregoing, and as I believe
profoundly involving the existence and future prosperity of free
society in the Southern States, is the disposition to be made of the
confiscated estates and other lands in these States. No such thing as
free democratic society can exist in any country where all the lands
are owned by one class of men and are cultivated by another. Such
ownership of the lands of a country constitutes the basis of the most
permanent and oppressive aristocracies. Upon this foundation stood
for a thousand years the feudal aristocracy of France. And today the
aristocracy of England maintain their supremacy upon the basis of the
partition and tenure of the soil of England, robbed by William the
Conqueror from the original owners, the people of England, and
granted in large estates to his captains. So incompatible has that
tenure become with modern civilization and the well-being of society
in that country, that the wisest statesmen there are beginning to
apprehend the most fearful consequences from its continued
existence.
In
the sugar and cotton producing portions of the South, almost all the
cultivated soil has been hitherto held in large tracts by the master
class. I need not stop to argue the utter incompatibility of such a
state of things with the existence of a free, independent, democratic
yeomanry, or with the development of free democratic institutions.
The poor whites of the South are a sufficient illustration of its
pernicious influence and effect upon a whole community of the same
race with the land-holders.
If
not for the sake of the emancipated colored people, then for the sake
of these poor whites, these most pitiable men of our own race, this
whole scheme and tenure of the mastership should be overthrown. The
great necessity, as I have before intimated, from another point of
view, which at the present hour lies upon the People and Government
of the United States is not so much a political as a social
reconstruction of the Southern States. Any well founded plan for the
former, to be effectual and permanent must include the latter. And
for the latter the initiation of a policy on the part of the National
Government which shall have for its aim the ultimate division of the
great plantations into moderate sized farms, to be held and
cultivated by the labor of their owners is of the utmost
importance.
I
am aware that an opinion has been hitherto generally entertained that
sugar and cotton cultivation could only be profitably carried on upon
large estates and by the employment of large gangs of laborers;
principally because a large capital is necessary to the erection of
the sugar-mills, cotton-gins and other machinery connected with the
production of these commodities. All the investigations of the
Commission go to show that this opinion is but a part of the system
of slavery and has no foundation in the necessities of the case.
There is, in reality, no more reason why the sugar cane should be
raised and converted into sugar by the planter alone than there is
that wheat should be converted into flour only by the farmer who
raises it. And so with the raising, ginning and baling of cotton. On
the contrary, a proper division of labor in the raising and
manufacture of sugar and cotton would almost inevitably lead to a
great development in their production, while at the same time it
would tend not only to mitigate the labor but to secure the
industrial prosperity and independence of all those employed in that
production; and thus constitute an entirely different order of social
relation and condition in these States. I consider this a matter next
in importance to the permanent security of the civil and political
rights of the emancipated population, and beg leave to recommend it
to the earnest attention of the National Authorities.
And
finally permit me once more to call the attention of Government to
the third of the measures proposed by the Commission. The
establishment of some uniform system of supervision and guardianship
for the emancipated population, in the interim of their transition
from Slavery to freedom. No one acquainted with the facts could
hesitate a moment as to the necessity and propriety of such a system;
not only for the sake of the emancipated but for the general interest
of the Government and country.
J. McKaye
Source: Berlin, Ira et al. Freedom: A
Documentary History of Emancipation: 1861-1867. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1990: 532-534.
Arguments for Confiscation
History 122