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own. But that's a form of sharecropping and is not a bad way to handle it.

At any rate, what I want to say is that form of sharecropping and tenancy as a way of making a living on land you don't own obscures the relationship of master and servant, and as a matter of fact legally it doesn't exist. There is no master and servant relationship under old common law. That's one of the things that makes it so tragic, as we see it. A man who is working as a share-cropper gets hurt in the course of his employment and there is no recourse. He can't sue. He is not a servant, has no master, but is only an independent contractor.

Directly after the Civil War there were some very intelligent Negroes who were delighted with the idea of not being slaves any more. I knew about a particular Mississippi case and saw some of the people involved. They had always liked the family to whom they had belonged, who had apparently been good, honest, kindly people. They then became tenants, or sharecroppers. After five or six years they agreed that life was better when they were slaves. They had more done for them and were better taken care of. Of course, it wasn't good politically, but one can see that economically it has very great advantages, as well as disadvantages.