RACES: Planter’s Dilemma

Chronic complaint of every southern cotton planter: his inability to keep Negroes working steadily on his place. He advances money for food and clothing to his black hands, only to have them run away before they have worked off their debt. If he attempts to hold them by force, he violates the anti-slavery amendment, is guilty of peonage.*

Last week southern planters could privately sympathize with lanky, middle-aged James E. Pigott of Washington Parish, La., who pleaded guilty before U. S. District Judge Wayne Borah (nephew of Idaho’s Senator) in New Orleans. He admitted he had chained to trees on his plantation three Negroes who owed him money. Judge Borah sentenced him to 18 months in the Atlanta Penitentiary. Asked Planter Pigott:

“But why send me to jail for this? Planters all through the South hold Negroes who work for them and owe them money. I handle Negroes the same way everyone else does. There isn’t any other way to handle them. I chained them to trees because I couldn’t trust them not to run away.”

*Rare are peonage cases in U. S. courts. Only four were pending at the end of last year.