Hints for Emigrants to Louisiana.--Planters, Farmers, Merchants, and
Mechanics.
Whoever emigrates from a northern to a southern climate, experiences
more or less a change in his constitution; his blood is thinned, and in
a state of greater effervescence, and his frame weakened in consequence.
The least derangement in the digestive system in this case, produces a
bilious fever.
The new comers emigrating to Louisiana, are either planters, farmers,
merchants, or mechanics. The former, being more or less wealthy, come
for the purpose of establishing themselves, and usually buy sugar or
cotton lands, on the banks of the Mississippi, or Red-river, which,
though in general healthy, are, on the other hand, a sure grave to those
who neglect taking the necessary precautions. Planters descend to
Louisiana in the winter months; but as the heat increases every moment,
and has a debilitating effect upon their bodies, accustomed to a cold
climate, they attempt to counterbalance this weakness by an excessive
use of spirituous liquors, to promote digestion. Notwithstanding bad
omens, and in spite of the advice of their more experienced neighbours,
their mania for making money keeps them there during the summer, and
they fall victims to their avidity for gain.
Whoever intends to establish a plantation in Louisiana, has the free
choice between the low lands on the Mississippi, or the Red-river. There
are upwards of 200,000 acres of sugar lands still unoccupied. He may
settle himself on the banks of the above-mentioned rivers, without the
least fear, the yellow fever seldom or never penetrating to the
plantations. Thousands of planters live and continue there without
experiencing any attack of sickness. After having bought his lands, and
obtained possession, he may stay till the month of May, taking the
necessary measures for the improvement of the plantation, leave his
directions with his overseer, and remove to the north. His house, if
along the banks of the Mississippi, should be built not far from the
river, in order that he may enjoy the cooling freshness of its waters.
In the rear of his plantation, and about his house, he sows the seed of
sun-flowers, to preserve his slaves from the morning and night
exhalations of the swamps; a measure which, trifling as it may seem,
will have an incredible effect in improving the air.
With a capital of 25,000 dollars, 5,500_l._ sterling, he may purchase at
the present time, 2,000 acres of land, for a sum of from 3 to 4,000
dollars, and thirty stout slaves for 15,000 dollars; there will remain
7,000 for his first year's expenses. The establishment of a sugar
plantation amounts to not more than the above stated sum of 25,000
dollars. The produce of the third year, if the plantation be properly
managed, amounts to 150,000 pounds of sugar, valued at 12,000 dollars,
besides the molasses, the sale of which will cover the household
expenses; each negro, therefore, yielding a clear annual income of 400
dollars.
Failures in sugar crops in plantations along the banks of the
Mississippi, never occur, except beyond 30° 30' of north latitude. The
planter, however, cannot expect any thing in the first year from his
sugar fields; the canes yielding produce only eighteen months after
having been planted. The planting takes place from August until
December, by means of eye-slips. The process at the sugar-houses is
sufficiently known. These plantations, if well managed and well attended
to, are, owing to the great and constant demand for sugar, the surest
way of realising a capital, though the management requires considerable
care and attention.
Cotton plantations are not to be judged according to the same estimate.
A cotton plantation may now be established by means of a capital of
10,000 dollars. 3000 dollars for the purchase of 1500 or 2000 acres of
land, on the banks of the Mississippi, from Baton Rouge up to the
Walnut-hills, on both sides of the river; or what is still preferable,
on the banks of the Red-river. Ten slaves at 5000 dollars, leaves 2000
for the first year's current expenses. The beginner will not find it
difficult to clear fifty acres in the first twelve months; and to raise
from twenty-five acres, thirty bales of cotton, the produce of which
will, with the crop of corn from the remaining twenty-five acres, keep
him for the first year, the cotton alone being worth 1500 dollars,
independently of the corn. The following year he may raise sixty bales,
giving an income of 3000 dollars, every slave thereby yielding about 300
dollars; proceeding thus in a manner which in a few years more will
render his income equal to his original capital.
There are still unappropriated above two millions of acres of cotton
lands, of the very first quality, in the state of Louisiana; and though
it sometimes happens that the plants are killed by the frosts, as was
the case in the spring of 1826, these accidents seldom affect the
profits. The management of a cotton plantation is by no means
difficult, as it differs but little from that bestowed upon Indian corn,
and requires only a strict superintendence over the negroes.
The cultivation of indigo has latterly been neglected, though 200,000
acres of land in the state of Louisiana are well adapted for it. This
neglect was occasioned by the injurious effects produced upon the
labourer by the watering of the plants, and the exhalations from them.
The cultivation of rice is more extensive. There are 200,000 acres
unoccupied. Planters generally combine the cultivation of this plant
with that of cotton or sugar. Tobacco of a superior quality is reared
about Natchitoches and Alexandria; the produce is little inferior to
that of Cuba. The price of a stout male negro is 500 dollars; if a
mechanic, from 6 to 900 dollars; females from 350 to 400 dollars; so
that 5000 dollars will purchase five men, two of them mechanics, and
five stout women, and enable their master at once to set about a
plantation, which will, in the course of three years, double the capital
of the owner, without his exposing himself to any risk.
The easy way in which the planters of Louisiana are found to accumulate
wealth, excites in every one the desire of pursuing the same road,
without having the necessary means at command. Hundreds of respectable
farmers have paid with their lives for a neglect of this truth.
Instigated by the anxiety to become rich, and unable withal to purchase
slaves, they were under the necessity of labouring for themselves. The
consequence was, they shortly fell victims to their mistaken notions.
One can only be seasoned by degrees to the climate of Louisiana. To
force the march of time and habit, is impossible. The more stout and
healthy the person, the greater the risk. People who, allured by the
prospect of wealth, would attempt to work in this climate as they were
used to do in the north, would fall sick and die, without having
provided for their children, who are then forced upon the charity of
strangers. There are many tracts of second-rate land, equal to land of
the best quality in the northern states, in the west and east of
Louisiana, which are perfectly healthy, and where farmers of less
property may buy lands, and establish labour and corn farms, or raise
cattle in abundance. Those who have proceeded in this way, which is more
proportioned to their means, have never failed to acquire in the course
of time, a large fortune, as by the open water communication the produce
can easily be conveyed to New Orleans, where, in the summer, they find a
ready and advantageous market. These parts have hitherto been too much
neglected, to which circumstance it is greatly owing that New Orleans,
at certain seasons, is almost destitute of provisions, when the waters
of the tributary rivers of the Mississippi, Ohio, &c., are low.
A third class of settlers in Louisiana are merchants. New Orleans has
unfortunately the credit of being a place to which wealth flows in
streams, and it is consequently the resort of all adventurers from
Europe and America, who come hither in the expectation, that they have
only to be on the spot to make money. Thousands of these ill-fated
adventurers have lost their lives in consequence. It is true, that most
of the wealthy merchants were needy adventurers, who began with scarcely
a dollar in their pockets, as pedlars, who sold pins and glass beads to
the Indians. But the surest way for the merchant who wishes to begin
with a small capital, will always be to settle in one of the smaller
towns, Francisville, Alexandria, Natchitoches, Baton Rouge, &c. Those
who have followed this course grew wealthy in a short time. I admit
there is an exception with respect to such as have a sufficient capital
to begin business with in the city itself, or to embark in commercial
relation with Great Britain, the north of the Union, or the continent of
Europe.
The commission trade is advantageous in the extreme; and the clear
income realised in commercial business by several merchants, amounts to
50,000 dollars a year. All the French, English, and Spaniards, who have
established themselves in this place, have become rich, especially if
the individuals of the latter nations were conversant with the French
language.
For manufacturers, there is in New Orleans little prospect. In a slave
state, where of course hard labour is performed only by slaves, whose
food consists of Indian corn, and at the most, of salt meat, and their
dress of cotton trowsers, or a blanket rudely adapted to their shapes,
the mechanic cannot find sufficient customers. Half of the inhabitants
have no need of his assistance; and as he cannot renounce his habits of
living on wheat flour, fresh meat, &c., provisions which at certain
seasons are very dear in New Orleans, his existence there must be very
precarious. The charges are proportionably enormous. The price for the
making of a great coat, is from fourteen to sixteen dollars; of a coat,
from ten to twelve dollars. The greatest part of the inhabitants,
therefore, buy their own dresses ready made in the north. The wealthy
alone employ these mechanics.
There are yet several trades which would answer well in New Orleans,
such as clever tailors, confectioners, &c. But as almost every article
is brought into this country, the mechanics have rather a poor chance of
succeeding, and if not provided with a sufficient capital, they are
exposed to great penury until they can find customers. This class of
people are very little respected, and hardly more so than the people of
colour in Louisiana.