Note:  a beat refers to a specific geographical area or community within a larger county. This term is often used in the Southern United States to describe small administrative or electoral subdivisions similar to a district or precinct. In this document, Mt. Meigs Beat is a local area where both Black and white planters live and work, organizing meetings to discuss agricultural and labor issues affecting their community.

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There was a meeting held at Pike Road Station in this county, composed almost exclusively of negroes, on Saturday last, at which the following resolutions were adopted: 

WHEREAS, The crops of the present year have not yielded a sufficient supply to satisfy the demands of the planters and laborers of Mt. Meigs Beat; and

Whereas, The white planters of said beat have held several meetings, for the purpose of devising plans whereby they may better their conditions, without allowing the colored planters and laborers an equal voice, wherein their interests are concerned as well; and

Whereas, We, the laborers, hold that we are in no way responsible for the failure of the crops, and that we have worked as faithful during the present year as we have any year since emancipation, but in consequence of a bad season, wet weather and rain, followed up by the ravages of cotton worms, &c., came the present calamity.—Therefore be it

Resolved, That we consider it nothing but humane and just that the white planters should take our poverty and distresses under advisement, as well as their own, we being the bone and sinew of the beat, and in times past while seasons were favorable rendered them valuable service at their own prices.  Be it further resolved, That we desire to cultivate a friendly relation with the white planters of this beat, but cannot do so, if they insist upon discriminating against us by framing to deprive us of our rightful privilege to have a voice in settling the price of our labor, and the hours in which we shall work.

Be it further resolved, That we believe, and do acknowledge, that a thorough and economical cultivation of the lands of this beat are essential to the peace and prosperity of both white and colored people, and that the most successful way to do that is for each to regard the other’s interest as being as sacred as his own.

Be it further resolved, That we are willing to try another crop in the coming year, upon reasonable terms, provided we are allowed to have an equal voice in the settling of those terms and a reliable showing for the procurement of whatever we contract for.

Be it further resolved, That we ask a careful consideration of these resolutions by the white planters of this beat, and a timely response, so that we may know upon what to depend for the coming year.

Source: Reprinted in Foner, Philip S., and Ronald L. Lewis, eds. Black Worker: A Documentary History, Volume II: The Black Worker During the Era of the National Labor Union. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978.

Document 4.10.6: “What Does it Mean?,” Advertiser and Mail, Montgomery, Alabama, November 4, 1873.