human
So your son is Professor of English at the University, said Hamilton, as, with all the details secured, he closed the census portfolio.
gpt
Do, you think the negro ought only to learn a few things, or do you think he ought to be taught just the same as in the regular universities?
human
Thar should be one good university, said the old preacher,
gpt
You're strong on that color line, Ephraim, the boy remarked.
human
Surely you don't believe in 'Jim Crow' cars and all that sort of thing?
gpt
As long as thar is prejudice, Ah do, was the unexpected answer,
human
You don't see many negro laborers in Northern cities, the boy remarked,
gpt
It is in the No'th that trouble lies, the old man said,
human
How do you make that out? cried the boy.
gpt
You say the South has settled the race question? I thought it was the biggest issue there was, down here and in the Gulf States.
human
Farmin' an' cotton raisin' has settled it. Did yo' know that mo' than two-fifths, or nearly half the cotton raised in the United States was grown by negroes ownin' their own land? An' the cotton crop of America's one of her biggest sources o' wealth. Those that don' own the land lease it on a share basis known as the métayer system, but more'n more o' them are owners every year.
gpt
I hadn't really thought of the negroes as owning land at all,
human
A stretch o' land three times as big as the British Isles, or equal to the New England States is owned by the colored race, was the reply,
gpt
And is that land worth much?
human
Oveh half a billion dollahs, sah, Ah was told at the last census, an' it's worth a lot mo' now.
gpt
But, said Hamilton,
human
Ah'm ashamed to say you're right, sah, the old negro answered,
gpt
Ah reckon one-third of all the negroes in the South still live in one-roomed cabins, cookin', eatin', and sleepin' in the same room, men, women, an' children all together. But they're improvin' right along.
human
They ought, said the boy,
gpt
Thar's no one else c'n do it but the negro, sah, the preacher answered.
human
It's the hardes' kin' of work, an' it has to be done in summer, an' thar's no shade in a cotton fiel'. Right from the sowin' until the las' boll is picked, cotton needs tendin', an' yo' don' have much cool weather down hyar.
gpt
You sow cotton something like corn, don't you?
human
Yas, sah, jes' about the same way, only it has to be hilled higher an' hoed more'n corn. An' weeds jes' spring up in the cotton fiel's oveh night. The pickin', too, is jes' killin' work. Yo' see a cotton plant doesn' grow mo'n about fo' feet high an' thar's always a lot of it that's shorter. The bolls hang low, sometimes, an' yo've got to go pickin', pickin', stoopin' halfway oveh an' the hot sun beatin' down on yo' neck an' back. Since the war the planters have tried all sorts o' labor, but thar's no white man that c'n pick cotton, they get blindin' headaches an' fall sick. I reckon their skulls are too thin or maybe it's jes' because they're not black, seem' that it's harder fo' a mulatto th'n a full-blood negro.
gpt
You would make all the negroes cotton planters?
human
Ah'd have all the cotton crop in the hands o' the negroes, sah, the old man answered,
gpt
I see your idea, said Hamilton.
human
You would just make the cotton section solid negro. Would you try and be independent of the whites?
gpt
No, sah, the other answered decidedly.
human
It's jes' those No'thern niggehs that are talkin' that way all the time. Thar's a lot o' talk up No'th, but down hyar an' furtheh South, whar the mos' o' the colored people are, they're willin' enough to be let alone. Thar's a lot o' talk about a race war, an' it might come some time, but not likely fo' a good many hundred years, an' somethin will come up to settle it befo' then. But Ah'm reckoning sah, that yo'll be wantin' to make war unless Ah let yo' go to bed. Thar's a bell, sah, if yo' want anythin'.
gpt
I wonder, said Hamilton half aloud, as the door closed behind his host,