diff options
Diffstat (limited to '24722-8.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 24722-8.txt | 11965 |
1 files changed, 11965 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/24722-8.txt b/24722-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c50408c --- /dev/null +++ b/24722-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11965 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Letters from Port Royal, by Various, Edited +by Elizabeth Ware Pearson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Letters from Port Royal + Written at the Time of the Civil War (1862-1868) + + +Author: Various + +Editor: Elizabeth Ware Pearson + +Release Date: March 1, 2008 [eBook #24722] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM PORT ROYAL*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Diane Monico, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 24722-h.htm or 24722-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/2/24722/24722-h/24722-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/2/24722/24722-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + [=e] in waterm[=e]lions represents a macron over the e. + + + + + +LETTERS FROM PORT ROYAL + +Written at the Time of the Civil War + +[1862-1868] + + +Edited by + +ELIZABETH WARE PEARSON + +1906 + + + + + + + +Copyright 1906 by Elizabeth Ware Pearson + + + + +CONTENTS + + +INTRODUCTION xi + +1862 1 + +1863 128 + +1864 243 + +1865 291 + +1866, 1867, 1868 325 + +CONCLUSION 333 + +FOOTNOTES 335 + +INDEX 337 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +With Commodore Dupont's capture, on November 7, 1861, of two earth +forts which the rebels had recently thrown up at Hilton Head and Bay +Point, South Carolina, the Sea Island region became Union territory. +The planters and their families having fled precipitately, the United +States Government found itself in possession of almost everything that +had been theirs, the two chief items being the largest cotton crop +ever yet raised there, nearly ready for exporting, and several hundred +demoralized, destitute slaves, the number of whom was daily being +increased by refugees and returned fugitives. The negroes were plainly +a burdensome problem, the cotton a valuable piece of property. The +first thing to do was obvious, and fortunately the same +"cotton-agents" who were despatched by the authorities at Washington +to collect and ship the property were able, by employing negroes for +the purpose, to make a beginning towards solving the problem. + +In another month the next step was taken; the Secretary of the +Treasury sent down Edward L. Pierce, of Milton, Massachusetts, as a +special agent charged with the duty of getting under way some method +of managing the negroes and starting a cotton crop for 1862. Mr. +Pierce, who the summer before had had charge of the contrabands at +Fortress Monroe, did his work quickly and well, and his suggestions +for organization were promptly adopted and put into practice by the +Government. Meanwhile he had written to "benevolent persons in +Boston," setting forth the instant need of the negroes for clothing +and for teachers, meaning by the term "teachers" quite as much +superintendents of labor as instructors in the rudiments of learning. +The response to this appeal was immediate. An "Educational Commission +for Freedmen"[1] was organized in Boston, New York and Philadelphia +were quick to follow, and on March 3, 1862, there set sail from New +York for Port Royal[2] a party of men and women who were almost +without exception inspired purely by the desire to help those who had +been slaves. Government made them an allowance of transportation, +subsistence, and quarters; and, since few could afford to give their +services, the Commissions paid them salaries of from $25 to $50 a +month. + +There was a good deal of courage in what these people did. The climate +of the Sea Islands is unwholesome; the rebels were more than likely, +from across the narrow Coosaw River, to invade the territory held by +Northern troops; it was not improbable that the negroes might refuse +utterly to work; it was not impossible that they might wreak vengeance +for their wrongs on every white man who should try to control them. +Furthermore, as a rule these men and women knew little of any kind of +agriculture, and still less of the local conditions under which they +were to do their work, or of the people with whom they were to deal. +They had, in fact, no other guides to action than enthusiasm and good +sense, and of the latter, in particular, they carried widely differing +amounts. Some, who went supplied with too little of either, were back +in their Northern homes before summer was under way; the majority, +making what they could of the means, or lack of means, at their +disposal, had within the same period of time got about thirty-eight +hundred laborers at steady work on fifteen thousand acres of corn, +potatoes, and cotton. For the first time in our history educated +Northern men had taken charge of the Southern negro, had learned to +know his nature, his status, his history, first-hand, in the cabin and +the field. And though subsequently other Southern territory was put +into the hands of Northern men and women to manage in much the same +fashion, it was not in the nature of things that these conditions +should ever be exactly reproduced. The question whether or not the +freedman would work without the incentive of the lash was settled once +for all by the "Port Royal Experiment." + +Of the many thousand letters that must have been written by these +people to their Northern homes, those of one small group only are +represented by the extracts here printed. The writers were New +Englanders and ardent anti-slavery people; W. C. G. and C. P. W. were +Harvard men just out of college, H. W. was a sister of the latter. A +few of the later letters were written by two other Massachusetts men, +T. E. R., a Yale graduate of 1859, and F. H., who remained on the +islands longer than the three just mentioned. All five are still +living. Richard Soule, Jr., now dead for many years was an older man, +a teacher, a person of great loveliness of character and justice of +mind. The principal figure in the letters, Edward S. Philbrick of +Brookline, who died in 1889, was in one sense the principal figure in +the Sea Island situation. He began by contributing a thousand dollars +to the work and volunteering his services on the ground, where he was +given charge by Mr. Pierce of three plantations, including the largest +on the islands; being a person of some means, with an established +reputation as an engineer and a very considerable business experience, +he was from the first prominent among the volunteers. When, in the +following year, he became personally and financially responsible for a +dozen plantations, this prominence was increased a hundredfold. Thus +he found himself the victim of the vituperation hurled by many +Northern friends of the blacks at the "professed philanthropists" who +went to Port Royal to "make their fortunes" out of the labor of the +"poor negro." The integrity of Mr. Philbrick's motives stands out in +his letters beyond the possibility of misinterpretation. This record +is a witness of what sort of thing he and his kind were ready to do to +redress the wrongs of slavery. + +The extracts have been arranged in chronological order, except in a +few cases where chronology has seemed less important than +subject-matter. They tell a complete story, the greater part of which +falls within the period of the Civil War. They give a vivid notion of +the life from the midst of which they were written; of the flat, +marsh-riddled country, in which few Northerners saw any lasting charm; +of the untidy, down-at-the-heels plantations; of the "people," wards +of the nation, childish, irritating, endlessly amusing; of the daily +toil of Northern men in managing farms and of Northern women in +managing households under Southern and war-time conditions; of the +universal preoccupation with negro needs; of the friendly interchange +of primitive hospitality; of the underlying sense in the writers' +minds of romantic contrast between their own to-day and the yesterday +of the planters,--or a possible to-morrow of the planters. It is not +with matters military or political that these letters deal. They +record the day to day experiences of the housekeeper, the teacher, the +superintendent of labor, and the landowner. For this reason they form +a new contribution to the history of the Port Royal Experiment. + + + + +[Illustration: THE SEA ISLANDS OF SOUTH CAROLINA.] + + + + +KEY TO MAP OF THE SEA ISLANDS OF +SOUTH CAROLINA + + +PLANTATIONS. + + Cherry Hill (T. A. Coffin) 16 + Coffin's Point (T. A. Coffin) 12 + Corner (J. B. Fripp) 5 + Eustis 2 + Alvirah Fripp (Hope Place) 18 + Edgar Fripp 20 + Hamilton Fripp 10 + J. B. Fripp (Corner) 5 + Capt. John Fripp (Homestead) 8 + Capt. Oliver Fripp 22 + Thomas B. Fripp 9 + Fripp Point 11 + Frogmore (T. A. Coffin) 19 + Rev. Robert Fuller ("R.'s") 4 + Hope Place (Alvirah Fripp) 18 + Dr. Jenkins 21 + Mary Jenkins 28 + Martha E. McTureous 14 + James McTureous 15 + Mulberry Hill (John Fripp) 17 + The Oaks (Pope) 3 + Oakland 6 + Pine Grove (Fripp) 13 + Pope (The Oaks) 3 + "R.'s" (Fuller) 4 + Smith 1 + Dr. White 27 +BRICK CHURCH (Baptist) 24 +WHITE CHURCH (Episcopal) 23 +ST. HELENA VILLAGE 7 +FORT WALKER 26 +FORT BEAUREGARD 25 +CAMP OF THE FIRST SOUTH CAROLINA + VOLUNTEERS (COLONEL HIGGINSON) 1 + + + + +LETTERS FROM PORT ROYAL + +1862 + + _Arrival of the "missionaries" at Port Royal.--The household + at Pine Grove.--First impressions of the blacks.--General + Hunter's attempt to recruit a negro regiment.--The Planter + episode.--The labor situation.--Establishment at Coffin's + Point.--Hunter's proclamation of freedom.--Details of + plantation work.--Lincoln's preliminary proclamation of + emancipation.--Unwillingness of the negroes even to + drill.--General Saxton's efforts to raise a negro + regiment.--The cotton crop of 1862.--Mr. Philbrick's plans + for buying plantations._ + + +FROM E. S. PHILBRICK + +_Boston, February 19, 1862._ Dear ----: I think you will not be +greatly astonished when I tell you that I am off for Port Royal next +week. I go under the auspices of the Educational Commission to make +myself generally useful in whatever way I can, in reducing some amount +of order and industry from the mass of eight or ten thousand +contrabands now within our lines there. Boston is wide awake on the +subject, and I am determined to see if something can't be done to +prove that the blacks will work for other motives than the lash. + +The Treasury Department offer subsistence, protection, transportation, +and the War Department offer their hearty coöperation to the work +undertaken here by private citizens, but can't take any more active +part at present for reasons obvious. They ridicule the idea that +these blacks can ever again be claimed by their runaway masters, which +is a satisfactory foundation for our exertions in overseeing their +labor and general deportment. + +You don't know what a satisfaction it is to feel at last that there is +a chance for me to _do something_ in this great work that is going on. + + The next letter describes the sailing of the first party of + superintendents and teachers. + + +E. S. P. TO MRS. PHILBRICK + +_New York City, Sunday, March 2._ We have a rather motley-looking set. +A good many look like broken-down schoolmasters or ministers who have +excellent dispositions but not much talent. As the kind of talent +required where we are going is rather peculiar, the men may be useful, +but I don't believe there will be a great deal of cotton raised under +their superintendence. + +_Str. Atlantic, March 5._ We all repaired to the Collector's[3] house +Sunday evening, and were sworn in squads of half a dozen with our +hands on the Bible, after which our passports were made out and signed +by Mr. Barney in his library with the whole thirty-three of us +standing about. + +[The next morning] I found Collector Barney on the pier with his Bible +and papers, swearing in the rest of the New York delegation. The last +of the cargo was slung aboard about eleven, and we started off at +quarter past, in a drizzling rain, freezing fast to everything it +touched. Our Boston party consisted of twenty-nine men and four +women; the New York one of twenty-three men and eight women, including +those from Washington, making sixty-four in all. At dinner (2 P. M.) +we found some one hundred and twenty cabin passengers, besides a lot +of recruits, perhaps one hundred in all, who live forward. The larger +part of the _Atlantic's_ staterooms have been taken out to make room +for stowing troops or cargo, leaving enough for only about half our +number. These rooms were assigned by the Steward and Mr. Pierce[4] to +the ladies and the oldest of us gentlemen; so I got one with Uncle +Richard,[5] for most of our party are quite youthful. Half a dozen +ladies sat on the bare deck (no other seats provided), during most of +the evening, singing Methodist hymns and glory hallelujah till after +nine o'clock. I have talked with several of our party, and got +slightly acquainted, chiefly with Messrs. Hooper,[6] G----,[7] and +Mack; also with Mr. Forbes.[8] There is a general medley of cabin +passengers, recruits, sutlers' and quartermasters' agents, and crew, +the latter not being dressed in uniform, but in nondescript old +garments such as can be found at any old Isaac's shop. Those +passengers who are outside our party are coarse-looking and +disagreeable,--Mr. Forbes and Mr. Augustus Hurd of Boston being almost +the only exceptions. I had some talk with Mr. Pierce yesterday about +your coming on, and he said as soon as I found it advisable he would +send you a pass, but I am very glad you are not here now, for I don't +believe these ladies will find anything but bare boards to sleep on. + +_Thursday evening, March 6._ We had a sort of lecture from Mr. Pierce +before dinner, consisting of some very appropriate and sensible advice +and suggestions, expressed simply and with a good deal of feeling. Mr. +French[9] followed in his vein of honest, earnest Methodism. He is the +head of the New York delegation, and a worthy man, though not so +practical as Mr. Pierce. + +Our Boston party improves upon acquaintance, and the longer I think of +the matter the more wonderful does it seem that such a number of +disinterested, earnest men should be got together at so short a notice +to exile themselves from all social ties and devote themselves, as +they certainly do, with a will, to this holy work. It must and with +God's help it _shall_ succeed! The more I see of our fellow-passengers +and co-workers, the more do the party from Boston stand eminent in +talent and earnestness, as compared with those from New York, and I +can't help thinking that the former were more carefully selected. The +Boston Commission acted with more deliberation than that of New York, +and I think the result will be shown in the end. But it's early to +form any such opinions, and out of place to draw any comparisons in +disparagement of any of our colleagues. We are all yoked together and +must pull together. The work is no trifle. It is Herculean in all its +aspects--in its reactive effects upon our country and its future +destiny, as well as in its difficulties. Yet never did men stand in a +position to do more lasting good than we, if we act with a single eye +to the object in view and pray God to guide us aright. + +_Friday, March 7._ We waked this morning still adrift off Port Royal +Bar, where we had been tossing all night, near the lightship. The wind +was blowing cold and clear from the northwest just as it does at home +in March, almost cold enough for a frost. We continued to drift till +the tide was near the flood, about noon, when a pilot came out and +took us in to Hilton Head. Here in this magnificent harbour, larger +than any other on our coast, lay some fifty transports and steamers at +anchor, and here we dropped our anchor, almost directly between the +two forts[10] taken by Dupont last November. These forts, by the way, +are so inconspicuous as to be hardly perceptible to a passer-by, and +would certainly fail to attract the attention of a person not on the +lookout for them. The shore is as flat as flat can be, sand-banks and +beaches being the only variety, backed by long dark green masses of +foliage of the pitch-pine, reminding me forcibly of the coast of +Egypt, with its sand and palm forests. Yet even Egypt was sufficiently +enterprising to line its coast with windmills, while this state has +not yet arrived at a stage of civilization sufficiently advanced to +provide them. So, there being no water-power and no steam, every negro +grinds his peck of corn in a handmill as in the year one. We came to +anchor about one P. M. and have been waiting for the necessary passes +from the quartermaster to enable us to proceed up to Beaufort, the +only town in possession of our forces. Here we lie in the still +harbour under the splendid moon, surrounded by the regiments encamped +on the neighboring islands, with the prospect of another day afloat, +before we can begin to be distributed over our field of labor. + +8 P. M. The acting Provost Marshal has just come aboard with our +passports viséed, enabling us to land here, but I don't care to do +that to-night, there being nothing but sand-banks to sleep on, while +we have tolerable berths aboard. To-morrow I may go, if there is time +before going upstream to Beaufort, though I imagine there is little to +see but sand and tents, which look quite as well at a distance. + +_March 8._ We spent the greater part of the day transferring freight +and baggage to the _Cosmopolitan_, a white river-steamer. We got +started at last about three P. M. The distance to Beaufort can't be +more than fifteen miles, and we had already made half of it at a +tolerable rate of speed when we ran aground in the mud, about two +hours before ebb tide. We were in the middle of a creek called +Beaufort River, between Cat Island and Port Royal Island, whose flat +shores did not look very inviting. I fell to reading about +cotton-culture in my book, but some of our companions got a boat and +went ashore on St. Helena Island, bringing back their hands full of +beautiful flowers from some private garden, peach-blossoms, +orange-blossoms, hyacinths, fleur-de-lis, etc. We succeeded in getting +afloat about 9.30 P. M. and arrived at Beaufort about midnight, after +poking slowly along the crooked channel under the glorious moonlight. +On getting up in the morning, which we did betimes, we found the deck +slippery with hoarfrost, and are told that it is the coldest night of +this winter. Somebody has told me that Beaufort was on a bluff, and +that its environments were not so flat as the rest of the islands. + +_Beaufort, Sunday, March 9._ But I can't find any place over ten feet +above tide-water, and no hill over six feet high. So things are judged +of by comparison. We all went ashore soon after sunrise and walked +about the town, which is laid out in rectangular streets, lined with +pleasant but weedy orange-gardens and often shaded by live-oak and +sycamore trees, _i. e._, when the latter leave out, as they will soon. +The soil is a fine sand, very like ashes, and the streets are +ankle-deep with it already, wherever the grass doesn't grow. +Dilapidated fences, tumble-down outbuildings, untrimmed trees with +lots of dead branches, weedy walks and gardens and a general +appearance of _un_thrift attendant upon the best of slaveholding +towns, was aggravated here by the desolated houses, surrounded by +heaps of broken furniture and broken wine and beer bottles which the +army had left about after their pillage. Quantities of negro children +lay basking in the morning sun, grinning at us as we passed. We saw a +chain-pump in a yard and walked in to wash our faces, there having +been no chance on the steamer, and were waited upon by an old negro, +who brought us bowls, soap, and towels. Mr. Pierce succeeded in +getting us some bread and coffee from one of the regiments, having no +time to go to headquarters. They were carried to an old negro cabin in +the remotest corner of the town, where the coffee was made and served +up in the poultry-yard in our tin mugs. + +Our quarters are in a very fine house in the east end of the town, +bordering on the river, against which is a garden wall, built of +oyster-shells and mortar, there being no stone to be had here. + +We are to wait here till our positions are assigned to us by Mr. +Pierce, which will be done in a few days. He told me he wanted me to +take the most important one, which I suppose means Coffin's.[11] I am +to have W---- G---- for my clerk and assistant. He is a very +agreeable, quiet fellow, and works like a beaver, but like several +others, is too young to take charge of the organization of the labor +to good advantage. + +There is something very sad about these fine deserted houses. Ours has +Egyptian marble mantels, gilt cornice and centre-piece in parlor, and +bath-room, with several wash-bowls set in different rooms. The +force-pump is broken and all the bowls and their marble slabs smashed +to get out the plated cocks, which the negroes thought pure silver. +Bureaus, commodes, and wardrobes are smashed in, as well as +door-panels, to get out the contents of the drawers and lockers, which +I suppose contained some wine and ale, judging by the broken bottles +lying about. The officers saved a good many pianos and other furniture +and stored it in the jail, for safe-keeping. But we kindle our fires +with chips of polished mahogany, and I am writing on my knees with a +piece of a flower-stand across them for a table, sitting on my camp +bedstead. + +I am anxious to get to work, as I hope to in a few days. Mr. +Eustis[12] has gone to his plantation, a few miles distant on Ladies +Island, and Mr. Hooper is spending a few days with him. The latter is +to be Mr. Pierce's private secretary at present. + +_Beaufort, March 10._ I can't tell until I get settled at my post what +to say about your coming on here. If my post should be exposed to any +of the rebels' scouting-parties you had better stay at home. I must +say it seems rather _near_ to live within rifle-shot of their +outposts, as some of the plantations are. + +_March 11._ We had a visit from the Provost Marshal last evening. He +has had a good deal to do with the contrabands and came to give us +some advice about them. He thinks that rebel spies may come among us, +but don't apprehend any trouble, says we can govern the negroes easily +enough by firm and judicious treatment, and says the officers in +charge are very glad to have them taken off their hands. + +_Hilton Head_,[13] _March 13._ This is a most desolate-looking place, +flat and sandy, and covered with camps and storehouses for a mile +along the river. A line of intrenchments encloses the whole, some +seven miles long, resting on the river at each end. There is a long +wharf just built out to deep water, at the end of which the _Atlantic_ +is discharging. This is the general dépôt for stores for the whole +army on the Atlantic coast and the blockading fleet. + +_March 14._ A fortnight has passed since I left Brookline, without my +being able to get at my work. This loafing about and waiting upon the +movements of Government officials is the hardest work I ever tried to +do. + +If you can't come early in April you had better not come at all, for +it will be too hot for even me to live on the plantations later than +June 1. They say the planters never lived on the plantations in summer +months, though they were acclimated, for fear of fevers. Beaufort is +the healthiest place on these islands and their resort when leaving +their plantations. Yet, if H---- W---- will come with you, _and not +without_, and you think it will pay, come as soon as you can. I shall +probably be on Coffin's plantation then, about fifteen miles east of +Beaufort, on St. Helena Island, coast of St. Helena Sound. This +plantation is one of the most secure from any interference from the +rebels, so I don't feel the slightest uneasiness on that score, for +the whole circumference of the island is picketed, and our forces also +occupy the opposite or northeasterly coast of the sound. + +Now as to outfit. Not over $5 each in money, _silver_, for you are +supplied with transportation and food by Government and there's +nothing here to buy. Bed-sacks and pillow ditto. Three umbrellas with +light covers, fly-paper, tin cups, bowls, and tea-pot, set of wooden +boxes for rice, sugar, and other stores furnished by army rations. +Spring-balance that will weigh about twenty pounds, knife, fork, and +spoons for each of you, _plated_, thermometer, three pounds of tea in +one of the boxes. We now have plenty of rice, sugar, molasses, +vinegar, hominy, potatoes, coffee, and beans, from army stores, and on +plantations can get fresh lamb, mutton, chickens, eggs, milk; so we +shall fare better than I thought. + +_Beaufort, March 17._ I don't think they would let you take a servant; +it's difficult enough to get you here alone, and there are plenty of +servants here which you are supposed to teach not only to read +but--what is more immediately important--to be _clean_ and +industrious. If you feel any hesitation about coming in contact with +them you shouldn't come, for they are sharp enough to detect apathy or +lurking repugnance, which would render any amount of theoretical +sympathy about worthless. Tell your father their nature and +disposition is nothing new to me. I was with them in Egypt long enough +to get pretty well acquainted, and though these sons of Western Africa +are not exactly of the same stock as the Nubians, they are certainly +no more degraded or lazy. In fact, from what I have already seen here +I am agreeably disappointed. Think of their having reorganized and +gone deliberately to work here some weeks ago, without a white man +near them, preparing hundreds of acres for the new crop! The Irish +wouldn't have done as much in the same position. + + This comparison of the negroes with the Irish is made by the + letter-writers, as will be seen, more than once,--almost + always to the disadvantage of the Irish. Forty years ago the + Irish were still merely immigrants, and, further, they were + practically the only people in this country who suggested + comparison with negroes. + + The next letter is the first from W. C. G., whom Mr. + Philbrick has already mentioned as destined to be his + assistant. + +_March 24. Coffin's Point._ It is the largest plantation on the +Islands, numbering in its full days over 250 hands, or head, as the +negroes call themselves. + +A large amount of cotton is still in store here, for which the boat I +hope will call this week; meanwhile the cotton-agent[14] and a guard +occupy the house with us. The former has been on the place three or +four months in charge of a large district with several plantations; he +is a smart young fellow, very dashing and jockey-like. We were +received by the guard with shouldered arms and by this agent, who did +their best to induce or rather bluff us into leaving the premises and +taking possession of another house; for we have two plantations +besides this,--estates belonging to William Fripp's sons.[15] We +stayed, however, and are now occupying two rooms, with plenty of +furniture of different kinds stored by the agent, probably for +removal. The whole business of our Commission and all its agents are +much disliked by the cotton-agents, partly because they don't +sympathize with our purposes,--partly because we seem about to usurp +their authority, to which of course we do succeed. + +The cotton-agents have started the corn-planting on most of the +estates,--and almost everywhere the whole condition of people and land +is much better than I expected to find it. The present state of a +plantation depends on the previous character and age of the people, +the influence of the drivers,[16] and the circumstances to which they +have been exposed since the soldiers came. If the people are on the +whole old and steady, if the drivers are intelligent and +strong-minded, if their masters have been humane and fatherly, and if +they have seen few soldiers,--then the work has usually been kept up +pretty well and the negroes are still at home and willing to go +a-field,--and their condition varies as those items vary. On the +larger number, as I have said, things are much better than I expected +to see them. As is proper, more attention has as yet been paid to the +_corn_ lands, and very little to the cotton. Two precious months have +been lost for that crop. On most of the plantations corn enough +remains to last through the next crop,--so there is little danger of +much suffering for want of food. But everything except corn, and their +own eggs and poultry, is wanting,--no molasses, no sugar, no salt, no +tobacco,--and no clothing. + +On two of our three plantations things are doing well, but this big +Coffin place is in a very miserable, demoralized condition. It used to +be very successful in cotton--and of late, especially, the hands have +been worked very hard. There are many _young_ people--so all the more +likely to leave. They are within a few miles of Bay Point opposite +Hilton Head, so the temptation to leave is very pressing, for smart +fellows can get money there,--one York with whom I was talking +yesterday got over $30 a month by cooking for two or three messes; he +is sick now and thinks he had better come home for the good of his +_soul_. And perhaps as evil an influence as any was the early presence +of the guards from the 19th N. Y. V., a regiment rather notorious for +wild ways, I believe,--certainly one which greatly injured these +people by their talk about _freedom_ and no need of work, etc., and +their rampant deeds. We are therefore in a hard place here,--and shall +take pretty energetic measures and do the best we can. Mr. Philbrick +has charge of the farming, etc.,--I of the teaching. We were not all +sent out two by two; small plantations had single men. Some men are +expected to overlook several estates lying near each other. + +_March 29._ The women work much better than the men, but very few are +faithful. Nor can we hope for any regularity and real improvement till +we are delivered from our cotton-agent and the influences which +emanate from him and his interests. + +The people are very discontented here, and as they have logic and need +on their side, it is hard to meet their complaints. In fact, they +can't be met,--very few do full work, many half or none. They need +_clothing_ very badly. They need salt and tobacco,--this summer they +need a little molasses and some bacon. These things[17] they have been +accustomed to receive in stated quantities at stated times,--at +Christmas, and in April or May. If we could supply them simply as they +have been supplied by their masters, the majority I think would be +contented and would work well. The _promises_ to pay to which they +have been treated by the agents of the Government for the last three +months haven't kept them warm. The agent here will probably soon give +them some cloth in part payment. Money they don't know the value +of--and especially now can't spend it to advantage; besides, as I +said, I think few desire it. + + The following fragment of a letter, from which the date and + the beginning are missing, was written from Pine Grove at + about this time; its subject is, of course, the negroes. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +They have not yet got any diseased appetite for alcoholic stimulants, +and are happy in their comparative ignorance of such things. + +They are a simple, childlike people, almost ignorant of malice, +patient and easily influenced by an appeal to their feelings. There is +far less family feeling and attachment to each other than among the +ignorant Irish, apparently, though I don't know how much allowance to +make for their being so much less demonstrative in their emotions, and +more inured to suffering. They are most eminently a religious people, +according to their light, and always refer their sufferings to Divine +Providence, though without the stoical or fatalist ideas of their +Mohammedan brethren, whom I got to know pretty well in Nubia and +Egypt. + +We find it very difficult to reach any motive that will promote +cleanliness as a habit. It requires more authority than our position +gives us as employers to make any police regulations very effectual in +their quarters. This plantation is the neatest one I have seen +anywhere in respect to their houses and yards, but there is room for +great improvement here. They have the same dread of fresh air in +sickness which is common to poor people at home, but there is very +little sickness among them. Only one death has occurred since we came +here, among a population of 420, and that was an infant. They place +great trust in our doctors and keep them pretty busy jogging about. + + The next letter, the first from H. W., records her arrival + with Mrs. Philbrick. + +_Beaufort, April 15._ The sail up was very beautiful, the green beyond +description brilliant, and now and then the deeper shade of palmetto +or live-oak. Some of the plantations were very picturesque. Roses and +azaleas were plainly visible. An hour and a half, very quickly passed, +brought us to the wharf, where Mr. Pierce and Mr. Hooper met us with +the information that we were to go to Mr. Forbes's, whither we walked +a long half-mile, a sentry at the street-corners, darkies bowing in +every direction, birds and the scent of flowers filling the air, +everything like a June day after a shower. Mr. Philbrick hopes to be +ready for us on Saturday. A cotton-agent in his house prevents us from +going just yet to the Coffin house, but we shall be established for +the present on one of the smaller plantations adjoining. + + The letter that follows, written at Pine Grove several days + later, narrates the events of these days, beginning with + April 16, in Beaufort. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Pine Grove, St. Helena, April 21._ H.[18] and Miss Towne[19] carried +the letters to the post-office, Caroline, Mr. Forbes's chamber-girl, +following to show them the way there, take them to the schools and +into some negro quarters. They were derided by the soldiers, they +said, who called after them, "See the Southern Aristocracy with their +nigger behind them!" which amused Caroline very much. + +Mr. Forbes took me in his open wagon, a tumble-down affair he has from +a negro to avoid the annoyance of always having to make a requisition +upon Government, the only owner in these regions of anything, and +drove me down the river to a plantation[20] we had noticed as we came +up on the boat, and where there was a cotton-gin Mr. Forbes wanted me +to see. The greater part of the way our road was shaded by woods on +the water-side, live-oaks with their ornamental moss, gum-trees and +pines with quantities of cat-brier and trumpet honeysuckle in full +bloom. The cotton-fields were unshaded, of course, and very large, +containing from one to three hundred acres. We passed some freshly +planted, but most of them were covered with the old bushes, dry and +dead, at which I was much surprised until I found that it was the +habit to leave the fields as they are after the cotton is picked, for +a year, planting on the same land only every other year. It makes +dreary, desolate-looking fields, for though a few weeds spring up, no +grass grows in this region, and they are brown instead of green all +summer. The Smith Plantation is about five miles from town, the house +in the centre of a live-oak grove, beautiful and beyond description, +open underneath, and so hanging with moss that you can scarcely see +any leaves as you look up. A little chapel on the place I got out to +look at, made very roughly of boards whitewashed, inside an earth +floor covered with straw, rough wooden benches, the pulpit and altar +made in the same way, but covered entirely with the grey moss, as we +trim for Christmas. The house looked rough and ordinary to us, as they +all do, except a few in the town; we did not go in. I believe there +are cotton-agents there attending to the ginning, which process we saw +in a little house by itself, where a steam gin worked four stands +tended by one hand each. The funny thing was to see them pack the +bales. There was a round hole in the second-story floor and a bag was +fastened to the edges, into which a man gets and stamps the cotton +down. I saw it swinging downstairs, but did not know what it was till, +on going up, I found a black head just above the floor, which grinned +from ear to ear with pleasure at the sight of a white lady, and ducked +and bobbed in most convulsive fashion. + +We drove through the negro quarters, or "nigger-house," as they +themselves call the whole settlement, and they flocked to the doors to +look at us, bowing and smiling as we went by. There were eight or ten +separate houses just raised from the ground so that the air could pass +underneath, and, as we looked in at the doors, apparently with very +little furniture, though in some we saw chairs which were evidently +Massa's. Dirty and ragged they all were, but certainly no more so than +poor Irish, and it seemed to me not so dirty. + +I saw palmetto-trees for the first time on this drive near enough to +know what they really looked like. They stand alone in the +cotton-fields like our elms in a meadow, though there are fewer of +them, and they are stiff and straight. The Spanish dagger, looking +like a miniature palmetto, was planted for hedges round the garden and +fish-pond. Mistletoe I saw for the first time. + +Mr. Hooper came over in the morning [of the next day] and told us he +should come for us at 12.30, but it was five before we got into the +boat.[21] The negroes sang to us in their wild way as they rowed us +across--I cannot give you the least idea of it. Indeed, I can't give +you the least idea of anything, and you must not expect it. The town +looked very pretty from the boat, some of the houses are large and +quite imposing in appearance. We found Mr. Pierce and his carriage +waiting for us, having been there without any dinner since one +o'clock. (This is the land of waiting, we have discovered--patience is +a virtue our Northern people will have to learn here.) We drove at +once to Pope's plantation, passing Mr. Eustis on the way at his +overseer's house, bedaubed from head to foot with molasses, which he +had been selling all day to the negroes, a pint to a hand. Here Mr. +Philbrick was waiting with his sulky (a two-wheeled jockey-cart), an +ox-team for the baggage, and a dump-cart in which he and H. were to +drive, while I drove the sulky alone in my glory. But it was too late +for us to think of driving ten miles farther, so we laid our beds down +and prepared for another halt. The next morning Mr. Pierce sent us +home in his carriage. + +We reached here not long before two, and went to work to try and +muster up some dinner. I had a cup and saucer, tumbler and three +knives and forks, and the rennet, which soon supplied one dish; the +negroes brought china in limited quantities; we opened a box of +sardines, and coffee, and, with the army bread we brought from +Beaufort, fried eggs, and hominy, made a most excellent meal; a +tablecloth, napkins, and silver spoons forming some of the +appointments. Joe, the carpenter, young and handy, made a very good +waiter, but when he went out and cut a bough of sycamore and began to +brush the flies as we ate, it was almost more than I could stand. Then +we went to work to put what things we had to rights, H. got her +servant, and moreover we had to receive and shake hands with any +number of negroes, who came flocking round us at once, following the +carriage as we drove up in true Southern style, and coming into the +house to satisfy their curiosity. + +W. G---- was here and aided us with a will, and about five o'clock I +went with him to the praise-house,[22] where he has his school. The +children were all assembled by Cuffy, and he was teaching them when we +went in. Mr. G---- read in the Bible, substituting words that they +could understand, made a very simple prayer, all kneeling, and then +heard them their letters and words for an hour, with a great deal of +tact and ability--strange words, you may think, to use in such a +connection, but you have little idea how much it needs of both. We +are not used to these people--it is even very difficult to understand +what they say. They have been born and brought up just here, in the +most isolated way, for generations, with no chance of improvement, and +there is not a single mulatto[23] on the place--they are black as the +blackest, and perfect children--docile, and with "faith enough to live +by," W---- G---- says. I find I have no shrinking from them, and hope +I shall be able to do my part. I take this school off his hands--he +has two other plantations to teach on and has been working like a +beaver. I made my first attempt this afternoon and got along +comfortably. Flora, the house-servant (that is, ours,--she is a field +hand), took me on my way to see the old mammas, and I went into +several of the cabins and came home with a present of nine eggs! + +These houses are all built of hard pine, which is handsome on the +floors, but the rest of the woodwork is painted, in this house an ugly +green, which is not pretty or cheerful. The walls are always left +white. Clapboards are unknown, but hard-pine boards, a foot or more +broad, are put on in the same way, and everything outside is +whitewashed. The place is very attractive-looking, grapevines and +honeysuckles and pine woods near. + +_April 25._ The house is raised high from the ground, as all are here, +and boarded in loosely underneath. There is a circle of orange-trees +round the house, and roses in abundance, but no grass, which is +dreary. The quarters are a quarter of a mile off, and the +praise-house is near them, where I have school twice a day. It is very +interesting, and I enjoy it much, though of course there is nothing to +teach but the alphabet and little words. They sing their letters very +nicely now. They are much better-mannered than the Irish, and I have +had no trouble as yet. + +Perhaps when I get to understanding things better I shall be able to +tell you some things they say. They were uneasy till they discovered +our first names, and were pleased that mine was that of the "old +Missus." They have brought me presents of eggs two or three times. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Pine Grove Plantation, April 22._ You see that we have changed our +home. The ladies have arrived. The house is in better condition than +that at Coffin's, the people better disposed, and the locality is more +retired and does not boast of a cotton-agent. In a month or two we +shall probably move to our old quarters, if it doesn't take longer to +clean it. Miss W---- will be a grand helper. It will be a pretty rough +life for them, and New England comforts and neatness and intelligence +will be sadly missed, but we certainly have been well,--our table is +the most refined thing on the Island, I fancy. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Pine Grove, April 29._ Our days pass pretty much after this fashion. +Mr. Philbrick gets up about six, calls me, and I obey, having +stipulated for a full hour in which to dress. After we get downstairs +it takes the united efforts of most of the family to get the breakfast +on the table, and we are fortunate if we get up from that meal by +half-past eight. It generally consists of hominy, very delicious eaten +with either milk, butter, or molasses, corn-cake, or waffles of +corn-flour--the best of their kind--concentrated coffee, chocolate, or +tea, army bread--when we can get it--crackers, when we can't, and +boiled eggs or fried fish, as the case may be. The important +operations of dish-washing and arranging the rooms upstairs take +longer than you can imagine, and things are not always done when I go +to school at ten, which with our simple style of living is rather a +nuisance. H. begins to pity the Southern housekeepers. This morning, +after making the starch in our little kitchen in the house, she waited +about for two hours, before she could get hold of one of the three +servants. They were all off at the kitchen, smoking and talking and +taking things easy. Joe was nominally cleaning knives, Flora had gone +to empty a pail of water, and Sukey had no thought about her starched +clothes! + +Well, I walk off to school, under the white umbrella if the sun +shines, dressed as warmly as I can if it does not. My way lies between +a row of large "Heshaberry" trees, as the negroes call them; a +corruption, I suppose, of Asia Berry, as it is the "Pride of Asia," in +full blossom now, with scent something like our lilac, but more +delicate. On each side of these trees are the corn-houses, stables, +cotton-houses, and near the house a few cabins for house-servants, and +the well. They stretch an eighth of a mile, when a gate (left open) +shuts off the nigger-house and field. Another eighth brings me to the +cabins, which have trees scattered among them, figs and others. The +children begin to gather round me before I get there, with their bow +and curtsey and "goo' mornin, Marm," and as I go through the quarters +I send them in to wash their hands and faces. The praise-house +reached, one of the children rings the bell out of the door to summon +all, and they gather quickly, some to be sent off to wash their +faces--alas, they cannot change their clothes, which are of the +raggedest. But now enough clothes have come to begin to sell, I hope +to have a better dressed set before long. I keep them in for about two +hours--there are about thirty of the little ones who come in the +morning, ten and under; all older are in the field, and come in the +afternoon, as they finish work by noon always. + +I go back to lunch at half-past twelve, a cold one generally, +sometimes a few waffles or some hominy for variety, but crackers, +sardines, and blackberries which we have in abundance now, make a +refreshing meal, with tea or coffee when we please. Shop[24] has to be +tended in the afternoon principally, and I sometimes take a turn at it +till I go off at half-past three to school again. We use for shop the +little room between Mr. G.'s and the entry, selling out of the window +over a box for a counter, to the groups on the porch. It is a funny +sight and funny work for us, albeit interesting, for they have had no +clothes for a year, and buy eagerly. Mr. Philbrick has not been able +to let them have any clothing before, as there has only been enough to +give a garment to one in ten, and they have been so used to being +treated alike that their jealousy is very easily roused, and it is a +difficult matter to deal with them. For the same reason the clothes +have to be sold, the money going back to the Commission, to be used +again for their benefit. It would be very much better if only the +goods were sent, for they prefer to make their own clothes and all +know how to sew. + +These people show their subserviency in the way they put Marm or Sir +into their sentences every other word and emphasize it as the one +important word, and in always agreeing to everything you say. In +school it is rather annoying to have them say, "Yes Marm, 'zackly +Marm," before it is possible for an idea to have reached their brains. + +Flora, our housemaid, who is a character, has a great deal of dignity +and influence among the other negroes, and takes the greatest care of +us. She is most jealous for what she considers our interests, and +moreover is quite an interpreter, though it is hard enough to +understand her sometimes. "Learning" with these people I find means a +knowledge of medicine, and a person is valued accordingly. Flora +wanted to know how much "learning" Miss Helen[25] had had, and it was +a long time before I could make out what she meant. + +H. says she never saw me look so well, so you see I thrive in spite of +fleas, which have almost flayed me alive. I understand what it means +by eels getting _used_ to being skinned. + +_May 1._ Took a ride through the quarters. We stopped to see Doll and +her week-old baby. H. had quite a talk with Mily, the nurse, who told +her it did them good to see white ladies about, and hoped we were +going to stay. She seemed very much disappointed when H. told her we +should be here [at Pine Grove] only a short time longer. I think it +does them good just to have me walk through the quarters four times a +day--they always curtsey and say a word. + +In the afternoon, as I came out of school, Cuffy said, "You promise to +jine praise with we some night dis week, Missus," so I told him I +would go up in the evening if Mr. G. would go with me. When we went up +after eight they were just lighting the two candles. I sat down on the +women's side next a window, and one of the men soon struck up a hymn +in which the others joined and which seemed to answer the purpose of a +bell, for the congregation immediately began to assemble, and after +one or two hymns, Old Peter offered a prayer, using very good +language, ending every sentence with "For Jesus' sake." He prayed for +us, Massa and Missus, that we might be "boun' up in de belly-band of +faith." Then Mr. G. read to them and made a few remarks to which they +listened very attentively; then some hymn-singing, Cuffy deaconing out +the lines two at a time. Then some one suddenly started up and +pronounced a sort of benediction, in which he used the expression +"when we done chawing all de hard bones and swallow all de bitter +pills." They then shook hands all round, when one of the young girls +struck up one of their wild songs, and we waited listening to them for +twenty minutes more. It was not a regular "shout,"[26] but some of +them clapped their hands, and they stamped in time. It was very +difficult to understand the words, though there was so much repetition +that I generally managed to make out a good deal, but could not +remember it much, still less the music, which is indescribable, and no +one person could imitate it at all. As we walked home we asked Cuffy +if they considered the "shout" as part of their religious worship; he +said yes, that "it exercise the frame." Mr. G. told him that some of +the old people had told him they did not like the shouts, or think +them religious, but he said old Binah did not object to them in the +praise-house, but she did not like the shout "out in de world," _i. +e._ before they joined the Church or came to "strive behind the +Elders." He makes his own hymns, "praying to de Lord Jesus to teach +him as he in de woods--jine one word 'ginst toder." They were almost +unintelligible as he deaconed them out, but I daresay they were his +own, unconsciously caught, perhaps, in part from what he had heard in +the white people's church. The only song I could remember ran somewhat +after this fashion: + + Oh, Jacob's ladder. + Climb high, climb higher! + Oh sodier of de jubilee, + When you git dere 'member me, + Oh! sodier of de cross! + + In the introduction to "Slave Songs of the United States," a + collection made chiefly at Port Royal and published in 1867, + this particular song is set down as spurious, that is, as + being sung to a well-known "white folks'" tune. But most of + the negro music is described as "civilized in its character, + partly composed under the influence of association with the + whites, partly actually imitated from their music. In the + main it appears to be original in the best sense of the word." + + The same writer goes on: + + "On the other hand there are very few which are of an + intrinsically barbaric character, and where this character + does appear, it is chiefly in short passages, intermingled + with others of a different character.... It is very likely + that if we had found it possible to get at more of their + secular music, we should have come to another conclusion as + to the proportion of the barbaric element.... Mr. E. S. + Philbrick was struck with the resemblance of some of the + rowing tunes at Port Royal to the boatmen's songs he had + heard upon the Nile.... + + "The words are, of course, in a large measure taken from + Scripture, and from the hymns heard at church; and for this + reason these religious songs do not by any means illustrate + the full extent of the debasement of the dialect." Of words + funnily distorted through failure to understand their + meaning there are, however, many examples. "Paul and Silas, + bound in jail," was often sung "Bounden Cyrus born in jail;" + "Ring Jerusalem" appeared as "Ring Rosy Land," etc., etc. "I + never fairly heard a secular song among the Port Royal + freedmen, and never saw a musical instrument among them. The + last violin, owned by a 'worldly man,' disappeared from + Coffin's Point 'de year gun shoot at Bay Pint.'" + + The negroes' manner of singing is pretty well suggested by + the following: + + "The voices of the colored people have a peculiar quality + that nothing can imitate; and the intonations and delicate + variations of even one singer cannot be reproduced on paper. + And I despair of conveying any notion of the effect of a + number singing together, especially in a complicated + shout.... There is no singing in _parts_, as we understand + it, and yet no two appear to be singing the same thing--the + leading singer starts the words of each verse, often + improvising, and the others, who 'base' him, as it is + called, strike in with the refrain, or even join in the + solo, when the words are familiar. When the 'base' begins, + the leader often stops, leaving the rest of his words to be + guessed at, or it may be they are taken up by one of the + other singers. And the 'basers' themselves seem to follow + their own whims, beginning when they please and leaving off + when they please, striking an octave above or below (in case + they have pitched the tune too low or too high), or hitting + some other note that chords, so as to produce the effect of + a marvellous complication and variety, and yet with the most + perfect time, and rarely with any discord. And what makes it + all the harder to unravel a thread of melody out of this + strange network is that, like birds, they seem not + infrequently to strike sounds that cannot be precisely + represented by the gamut, and abound in 'slides from one + note to another, and turns and cadences not in articulated + notes.'" + + How the same songs could be sung equally well at all sorts + of work is explained by another writer,[27] as follows: "Of + course the _tempo_ is not always alike. On the water, the + oars dip 'Poor Rosy' to an even andante, a stout boy and + girl at the hominy-mill will make the same 'Poor Rosy' fly, + to keep up with the whirling stone; and in the evening, + after the day's work is done, 'Heab'n shall-a be my home' [a + line from 'Poor Rosy'] peals up slowly and mournfully from + the distant quarters. One woman--a respectable + house-servant, who had lost all but one of her twenty-two + children--said to me: 'Pshaw! don't har to dese yer chil'en, + misse. Dey just rattles it off,--dey don't know how for sing + it. I likes "Poor Rosy" better dan all de songs, but it + can't be sung widout a full heart and a troubled sperrit!'" + + +FROM H. W. + +_Saturday, May 3._ Directly after breakfast I mounted the pony, +followed by Tom to open the gates. In this way we proceeded to Fripp +Point, the plantation which belongs to this one. Just before we +reached the Point, Tom started my horse, and before I knew it I was on +the ground from the saddle's having turned under me. The horse behaved +perfectly well, and I mounted and rode on towards the quarters (there +is no white people's house here), where I could see St. Helena Village +across the creek--a Deserted Village of a dozen or more mansions with +their house-servants' cabins behind them, and two churches in a large +pine wood, free from underbrush, where there are only one mulatto +woman and her two children, belonging to this place, the sole +occupants.[28] The village is directly on the creek on a bluff like +that on which Beaufort is situated, about eight feet high, and is the +place where the white people used to spend the summers for health and +society--those who did not go North to travel, or to Beaufort. This +Fripp family had a house in each place, besides this one at Pine +Grove. As he [Tom] walked alongside the horse, I questioned him about +the old family, and found that it consisted of William Fripp and his +wife Harriet, their four sons and a daughter. The old man they all +speak of with respect as a "good marn." Mass' Washington they +represent as not liking the war,[29] and papers have been found which +prove this true. Mass' Clan's was a doctor and very kind, and lived at +the village--"bes' young massa we hab." Mass' Eden lived alone on this +place, and was from all accounts a very bad man. With only one meal a +day, he lived on whiskey, and, beyond his own control most of the +time, he used to "lick wus 'an fire." The tree in the yard to which +they were tied, their feet a foot or more from the ground, while he +used the raw cowhide himself, has the nails in it now which prevented +the rope from slipping--Flora showed it to me from my window. They do +not talk much unless we question them, when they tell freely. As I +opened shop this afternoon, old Alick, head-carpenter and a most +respectable man, opened the cupboard door in the entry, but when he +saw our dishes shut it with an apology, saving that it was an old +acquaintance and he wanted to see what it was used for now. "I get +sixty lash for makin' dat two year Christmas, and hab to work all +Christmas day beside." Well, Alick, those days are over for you now. +"Tank de Lord, missus, tank de Lord." + +By afternoon my hip was swollen and painful. I did not go downstairs +again that night; but hearing them laugh at the dinner-table over some +experience of Mr. G.'s, found it was this. He had been telling them +[his pupils] that it was necessary that they should be punctual, study +hard, and behave well in order to have a good school, and talking to +them Saturday night about the fresh week that was coming, in which +they must try hard, asked what three things were necessary for a good +school. A question which was received in profound silence, for it is +almost impossible to make them put that and that together, till one +boy about nineteen rose and said very solemnly, "Father, Son and Holy +Ghost!" + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Pine Grove, May 3._ Sunday, besides its other virtues, in this place +brings us bread, and an opportunity to send and receive letters. Mr. +Eustis takes a large bag of loaves in his carriage, which are shared +out to hungry superintendents after service. Eustis's house and his +plantation serve as general caravanserai to our whole establishment. +His overseer house--a mile from his own--is the dépôt for supplies for +these outside islands. + +Our cotton-agent has at last paid off our plantations and will +probably say farewell this coming week. We also have made a small +payment to the hands of $1.00 per acre for all the cotton they had +planted up to a certain date. The slight sum has had a very good +effect. Other things have aided it. The cotton-agent paid them partly +in goods. As soon as they had received the money from him and +ourselves, we opened store, putting our goods at cheap prices. The +stock consisted of the clothes I brought with me, those which K. sent +me, and some pieces Mrs. Philbrick brought with her, with some +furnished by the Commission; also a barrel of molasses, some tobacco, +and shoes. The "sweetening" and the clothing were at cheaper prices +than anything they have been accustomed to, so they were greatly +pleased and we have sold out rapidly. The good effect is already quite +noticeable,--but they are by no means all clothed. The men and boys, +especially, stick to their rags. [The money] obtained from our private +boxes will be expended in buying other articles for the negroes, to be +sold again, or distributed to them, as may seem best. A vast deal of +dissatisfaction among the people has been saved by this method of +distributing the clothing. The faithful workers have all had money. +All understand and like the arrangement. + +I have made a rather elaborate explanation of all this, because to +some perhaps it will seem to be a strange and suspicious operation. + + The natural impulse to treat the negroes as objects of + charity was thus early found to be a mistaken one; by the + end of November the Government, too, had ceased to give + them anything, the system of rations having done, as is + remarked in one of the letters, "too much harm already." The + time never came, however, when there was not heard from the + North abundant criticism of the kind which H. W., in her + letter of April 29, and W. C. G. here are trying to disarm, + and the superintendents had to outgrow their fear of being + blamed for "strange and suspicious operations." + + +FROM H. W. + +_Sunday, May 4._ They had had a "Shout," which I had heard distinctly +at three o'clock in the morning when I happened to wake up. They come +from all the plantations about, when these meetings take place for the +examination of new members, "prodigals and raw souls," as 'Siah said, +he being an elder and one of the deacons. They do not begin till about +ten o'clock Saturday night, when the examinations commence and the +other services, after which they keep up the shout till near daylight, +when they can see to go home. They admitted two this time, and, as +Uncle Sam remarked, "they say there is joy in Heaven over one sinner +that repenteth, so we rejoice over these souls that have come in." + +A good many of the girls came up. They lay round the floor or squatted +about as I read and sung hymns to them; they were very much surprised +that I was not afraid to sleep alone in such a big room--said Miss +Juliana and Miss Lynch, Mass' Sam and Mass' Willie and their Mamma +used to sleep there. These people do not use any feminine adjective, +and their "hims" are very confusing sometimes. Harriet walked down to +the house behind me from school the other day for some sugar for a +sick baby, and I asked her the name of a bird that flew across our +path. "Him de Red bird." I thought the Red bird was all red, I said. +"Him de 'oman bird, marm, de marn bird all red, him de 'oman bird, +marm." The girls hung round till the faithful Flora appeared to "wash +me down" with the tide. Everything here depends on the tide; Susan +will not make butter when the tide is going out--it would take it all +day to come; and Flora would bathe the swelling when the tide was +going out, that it might carry it with it. + +No letters when they came from church--four weeks from home, and never +a word. + +In the afternoon I walked out in the yard a few steps, and it was +pleasant and touching to see how eagerly they watched me and passed +the word, "Miss Hayiot's comin'," with bow and curtsey, asking, "How +you find yourself to-day, Missus?" "Glad to see you on you feet, +marm." + +_May 5._ I had the school come up to me on the piazza, a plan I shall +adopt for the future; it is cool and pleasant, saves me a walk which +will be warm by and by, and also from the fleas of the praise-house. +Louisa came up to give me two eggs, carefully wrapped in her apron. +This makes over a dozen I have had brought to me by my grateful +pupils. + +_May 6._ In the afternoon Flora brought me a letter to read to her, +which proved to be from her husband, who is cook to some officers at +Bay Point. I am quite curious to see him--she is so fine and the +children are among the brightest here. Some soldier had written it for +him, and she was too pleased for anything at her first letter. It was +signed "York polite," which she told me was his title. I can't make +out whether they give each other surnames, and this is his, or whether +it is really a title, as she says, like "Philip the Fair."[30] She +told me what to say, and I wrote an answer for her. + +_May 8._ A Baptist minister, who came out with us and has been +appointed the pastor of the island, came to lunch, went to the other +plantations with Mr. Philbrick, and has come back to spend the night. +He had been up to the praise-meeting by Uncle Peter's invitation. He +is very much puzzled what to do about the religious feeling of these +people and their habits and customs. I hope he will let them alone. + +_May 9._ Went up to the praise-house for school in the morning; it is +so hard to get the little things together and then, like as not, they +have _half_ of them to be sent back to wash their faces and hands. +Asked the little children questions, such as "What are your eyes for?" +"For see'long." "Teeth?" "For chaw'long," etc. + +_Sunday, May 11._ In the morning a number of the women had come up to +the house to see us. It seems they have always been in the habit of +coming into the yard on Sundays. Tira, Sim's wife, brought me three +little fish fried. The women said that all the people here were born +on the place, and no new hands had ever been bought, only one sold, +and his master allowed him that privilege because his wife belonged in +Charleston and he wanted to belong to the same man. + +Flora said at lunch, as she brushed off the flies, that her husband +York was at work on the "main" (land), she did not know where, on a +house, with five of their carpenters, when the war broke out, or +rather, before the Fort here was "taken away," as they say, and that +then the white people had not food enough to feed the blacks, and she +is quite sure all her brothers and sisters who were carried off were +dead before this--starved. York was five weeks getting back here, and +arrived about Christmas. + +Limus came for a reading-lesson, a man about fifty, driver on one of +Mr. Soule's plantations next this, who comes over almost every day for +me to teach him. He has a wife here and grown children, and another on +the other plantation, the rascal. He is very smart and learns +well.[31] + +Mr. Philbrick had business with Mr. Pierce, and did not come home to +dinner. But he got into more business than he expected before he came +back, and I never saw a poor man show suffering more than he did when +he came in after ten o'clock and told us what he had received orders +to do the next day. While he was at Mr. Pierce's, writing, young +Hazard Stevens came over with despatches from General Hunter[32] +ordering all the agents to send him in the morning all the able-bodied +black men between the ages of 18 and 45, capable of bearing arms, on +the plantations. There was no explanation whatsoever of the reasons +for the demand, no hint of what was to be done with them, and nothing +but our confidence in General Hunter's friendliness to the race gave +us a shadow of comfort. But that would avail little to the negroes, +who would lose the confidence they are beginning to feel in white men. +Yet there was but one thing for us to do, and it was with heavy, +aching hearts that at midnight we separated. Companies of soldiers +were to be sent from Beaufort in the night and distributed to the +different plantations to prevent the negroes from taking to the woods, +so that we were not surprised at being roused about two hours after by +thundering knocks at the front door, echoing through all these empty +rooms with a ghostly sound. This proved to be Captain Stevens again, +alone, who had stopped to enquire the way to some of the other +plantations he had to notify, and say that the soldiers would be here +in about an hour. We had scarcely got to sleep again before we all +were roused by their arrival, and eight men, a Captain and Sergeant of +the New York 79th Highlanders, tramped through the house. Mr. +Philbrick gave them a pail of water and some hardtack, for they had +had a long walk, and then they stretched themselves on the floor of +one of our empty parlors as quietly as could be, considering +themselves in luxury. We slept as best we could the rest of the night, +and were up early to get the soldiers their breakfast and get ready +for the heart-sickening work. You never saw a more wretched set of +people than sat down to our breakfast-table. I _could not_ eat, for +about the first time in my life. Nothing had been said to any one. Joe +saw the soldiers on the floor when he opened the house door in the +morning, and wore a sober face when we came down, but no one asked any +questions, and we moved about, seeing to the breakfast, trying to +look as usual (and failing), getting out tobacco and crackers to give +the men on all these plantations when they went off. It had been +arranged that Mr. G. should see to these two plantations after Mr. +Philbrick had taken part of the soldiers to Coffin's Point. When he +had gone, Mr. G. began on Joe before he went to the field for the +other hands--telling him that General Hunter had work at Hilton Head +for a great many black men, that he did not know what for, but had +received orders in the night, and they must be obeyed and he must +march; he had to go at once to his house for his cap, say good-bye to +his wife and come to us to leave his will, for he said he never +expected to come back. We made as light of the whole thing as we +could, but did not dare to say anything (as we knew nothing) which +might make them feel afterwards as if we had deceived them, for the +thing they dread is being made to fight, and we knew that there had +been men about trying to recruit for Hunter's pet idea, a regiment of +blacks. _One_ man had been obtained on this island! We told Joe that +Mr. Philbrick knew nothing about it and was going with them himself, +and gave him a letter Mr. Philbrick had written asking for him to be +returned as a personal favor, as he was a house-servant. He did the +same thing with each of the drivers, for the good of the plantation +crops. The men were easily collected, ten here, and went off after all +with much less emotion than we expected; the soldiers behaved +admirably, delighted with the treatment they had received, and +cheering the negroes with tales of money and clothes, treating them +most kindly. Mr. Philbrick called all the hands together at Coffin's +and told them the simple fact, all that he himself knew, and named +the men who were to go, and the whole thing was accomplished with much +less _apparent_ suffering than we had supposed possible. Many of the +men were not averse to trying their hands at life in the world, for +many of their number have been and still are at work for officers, +etc., at Hilton Head and Bay Point, etc., with most desirable +pecuniary results, but they are afraid of being made to fight. Flora, +our heroine, said the women and boys could take care of all the cotton +and corn if the men did have to go--that they did not trust many white +people, but they did trust Mr. Philbrick. + +The day passed in perfect quiet: the women finished their work in the +field, I kept school, Mr. G. came back from the Point and after lunch +took the driver's place, sharing out the week's allowance of corn to +the people, while H. and I sat under the shade of the trees, watching +or talking to the women. Wil'by, Joe's wife, was the only one who +seemed really sad and heart-sick--all the rest were as usual. Dr. +Wakefield[33] came and recounted his miseries while I set the +tea-table, when, just as everything was cleared away, Mr. G. came in, +with his face all aglow, to tell us that the drivers, Joe, and one or +two others had been sent back, and in a moment Joe appeared, radiant +with happiness. Mr. G. found he had not seen his wife, so went to her +cabin and told her the ladies wanted her, and it was pretty enough to +see her simple delight as she caught sight of Joe in the doorway. They +both laughed nervously, then shook hands shyly, and she curtseyed, +then hid her face against the wall, saying, "I so thankful I can't say +a word," and pretty soon, "Oh Joe, I couldn't eat the hominy for +dinner;" and Joe, "I couldn't eat the biscuits, either, that Mr. +Philbrick gave me, had to gi' um away--and then I was so glad, I +didn't feel hungry till I got home." We sent them off to eat hominy +and be happy, and sat down to write with lighter hearts ourselves. + +Mr. Philbrick soon appeared. He found Mr. Pierce had been down to +Hilton Head and found what he had in part suspected to be the fact. +General Hunter found that the negroes misapprehended his wishes and +ideas, and he could not raise as many as he wanted, so had resorted to +these measures, meaning to give the men an idea of the life and drill, +and after a few weeks not retain any who wished to return to their +homes. All the superintendents were indignant at the way the thing was +done, but it will not turn out so badly as we feared, I trust. The +people are used to being made to do things, and are not in the least +rebellious, as any white man would have been. If we can have blacks to +garrison the forts and save our soldiers through the hot weather, +every one will be thankful. But I don't believe you could make +soldiers of these men at all--they are afraid, and they know it. + +The cotton-agent left Coffin's Point to-day, so that we can go there +now whenever we can get the house ready. Then we shall have horses and +vehicles more at our disposal; you may hear of our carriage and span +yet, but I shall hate to leave here. This moon is lovely, and to-night +the flats are covered with water by the full moon tide, and the sea +looks as if it came to our doors. + + The opinion just expressed concerning the impossibility of + making soldiers from Sea Island negroes was, very + naturally, the view that prevailed at this time among the + superintendents and teachers; in the extract that follows it + is stated with even more decision. As the letters progress, + the reader will see the development of a complete change of + mind on this point. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_May 27._ Negroes--plantation negroes, at least--will never make +soldiers in one generation. Five white men could put a regiment to +flight; but they may be very useful in preventing sickness and death +among our troops by relieving them of part of their work, and they may +acquire a certain self-respect and independence which more than +anything else they need to feel, if they are soon to stand by their +own strength. + + +FROM H. W. + +_May 13._ Old Peggy, the "leader" from Fripp Point, came over, and +Flora brought her to see the school. She sat on the doorstep, very +much interested and uttering frequent ejaculations of "Oh Lord!" H. +had her sewing-school, and then I my regular session, with diminished +numbers. Hope the men took their books. Saw Wil'by to-day and asked if +she did not feel pretty well, when Susan answered, "She feel pretty +well, Missus, but I don't; can't feel right with five boys all gone, +not so much as that (pointing off the end of her finger) left of one +of them; two carried off by Secesh, one with a Captain of ours at Fort +Pulaski,[34] not heard from since Christmas, and now two gone +yesterday." But she seemed to feel, spite of her regrets, that if they +could help she was glad they should. Flora said old Peggy and Binah +were the two whom all that came into the Church had to come through, +and the Church supports them, and she contributed thirty-five cents to +get her some flannel for garments, which she had always been used to +till now. Of course we gave them to her. + +_May 14._ Our new equipage with its two horses drew up, and I got in, +while H., shocked at the rags, cut out the lining of the top of the +buggy, showering me with sand thereby. The buggy and horses were +legacies from Mr. S., the cotton-agent, who departed yesterday. + +There have been seven babies born on the three plantations since we +came, and thirteen since Mr. Philbrick came, for which we have been +able to supply but little and that only on this place. The Master +always provided for the new babies two of each garment and half a +dozen diapers. + +I found that they had a most heart-rending time [at Mr. Eustis' +plantation] on Monday. The two companies of soldiers coming over +Sunday night had frightened them, and they kept watch all along the +creek through the night of their own accord, for fear of Secesh. The +thing was not judiciously done the next morning, and seems to have +made a great deal of suffering which was avoided here. + +_May 15._ After lunch I walked down to the quarters and stopped at all +the cabins. Found two of the men had already come back from Hilton +Head and had eased the minds of all the mothers and wives by the +reports which they brought back of comfortable quarters, good food and +clothing, confirming all our statements. I think here a greater degree +of confidence than ever will be established by this painful episode. +Mr. Philbrick says they have not behaved so well at Coffin's Point as +to-day since he came. We walked down to the field to see them hoeing +corn in their own "nigger field"--what is raised for the plantation, +not their own private patches, but that out of which their weekly peck +comes, and which therefore they will work on out of hours. Their +task[35] is done, often, by eleven o'clock. + +Went to see Binah. She is always very glad to see us, and to-day +reached to a little shelf at the foot of the bed, off which she took a +small tin pail and gave us three eggs--her last. I remonstrated, but +she said, "You gib me ting, I say tank 'ee," so I picked them up and +thanked her. + +Mr. Philbrick sent for the people to make the final payment for +cotton-planting, which is now finished, and we stood at the window to +watch them as they came up, and help give out the money. One woman, +who had not done so much work, was disturbed at not getting as much +money as the others, and Mr. Philbrick could not make her understand. +Flora came to H. afterwards and said, "You must excuse we niggers, we +no sense, and Mr. Philbrick _so_ patient; all Secesh on these islands +couldn't make so much as he has with we." + +_May 16._ Dr. Wakefield arrived with the news of the rebel +Flag-steamer's having escaped from Charleston through the inside +passages, passed Beaufort and gone to Hilton Head. It was manned by +blacks, who came off at two o'clock night before last with their wives +and children, the officers having all gone ashore. It mounted two +guns, and had four others on board which were to be taken[36] +somewhere, passed Sumter with the right signals, and Beaufort with a +Federal flag, and was sent back there again from Hilton Head. I should +like to have been in Beaufort. It is magnificent. + +The sales have been quite large, as Mr. Philbrick's denims[37] have +arrived, and the negroes had yesterday their second payment. The cloth +is sold at the wholesale price, as it was bought. I am afraid they +will never get it as cheap again. Now we can give away the made +clothes with more freedom. + +Got old Peter to make me a piggin for fresh water in my chamber; as +they always carry everything on their heads, a pail is no advantage. +It is of a red color, and very nicely made. When I gave it to Flora to +fill, she said, "him name Harriet"--whether intended as a compliment +to me or to the piggin I could not understand. When we told Joe about +the steamer, he exclaimed, "Gracious! 'zackly, that done beautiful," +and kept exploding through the rest of dinner, "my glory," "gracious," +"smartest ting done yet." + +_May 17._ H. called me out of school this morning to see one of the +crew of the _Planter_, the steamer that ran off from Charleston. He +proved to be a man from McKee's plantation who had a wife and children +at Coffin's Point and had come round in a boat with a crew and pass +from General Stevens[38] to take them to Beaufort. Almost all the men +came from about here; David had two brothers with wives at Coffin's +Point who were afraid to run the risk, and, though they belonged to +the crew, went ashore. The pilot first proposed the plan, and they +arranged a day or two beforehand with the wives they had there, took +them on board in boats I think at two o'clock, passed Fort Sumter with +the signal, two long whistles and a short, and came round inside the +islands so that they did not encounter any of our blockading fleet +till they came off Otter Island, where there is a vessel lying within +sight of Coffin's Point. Then they raised the Federal flag which was +on board, were boarded by our men and _cheered_ as they passed on +their way. Beaufort was amazed at a steamer with the Federal flag +coming from that direction. The guns were to be mounted between Sumter +and Charleston at the new Fort Ripley. David said they had made up +their minds to blow up the vessel rather than be taken--they knew they +should have no mercy. I hope the men who stayed were not hung for not +informing. He said Charleston was "very interrupted," not a white +woman left in the town, as they were expecting an attack from the +Federals. He reports coffee at $1.50 a pound, sugar 50 cents there, +but I don't know how much he is to be relied on; he was very quiet and +modest--the fireman; said he used to work in the field here, but would +"go furder" before he ever would do it again. + +To-day a quantity of bacon, which was sent from Philadelphia, was +given out to the hands on both the Fripp plantations. There has been +a good deal of trouble about their working Saturday, and the bacon was +only given to those who went into the field to-day, I hope with good +effect. They have not done a third the usual work this year, and it is +hard to bring anything to bear upon them. I hope Captain Saxton, who +we hear is coming out as head of the whole concern, will have +sufficient authority to settle some points which have been left to the +individual superintendents and with regard to which they have not +pursued the same course, making it very hard for some. + + Rufus Saxton, Captain in the United States Army, had been a + quartermaster at Hilton Head ever since its capture. On + April 29, 1862, he was assigned, as Brigadier-General of + Volunteers, "to take possession of all the plantations + heretofore occupied by the rebels" in the Department of the + South, "and take charge of the inhabitants remaining thereon + within the department, or which the fortunes of the war may + hereafter bring into it, with authority to take such + measures, make such rules and regulations for the + cultivation of the land and for protection, employment, and + government of the inhabitants as circumstances may seem to + require." He was to act under the orders of the Secretary of + War, and, so far as the persons and purposes specified were + concerned, his action was to be "independent of that of + other military authorities of the department," and in all + other cases "subordinate only to the Major-General + commanding." Many of Saxton's orders are signed + "Brigadier-General and Military Governor," but of course he + was never a military governor in the sense in which that + term was used of Lincoln's military governors of states. + Doubtless Saxton was recommended for his position by General + Hunter, both being ardent anti-slavery men. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Sunday, May 18._ Started [for church] directly after breakfast in the +buggy. It is the first time I have been up, and I am glad to have seen +the sight. The church[39] is of brick, in a grove of very beautiful +live-oak trees wreathed with grapevines and hanging moss, under which +were tied every conceivable description of horse and vehicle, from Mr. +Pierce's six-seated carriage and pair of fine Northern horses to the +one-seated sulkies, and mules saddled with cotton-bags. Just as we +arrived the people were all pouring out of church after Sunday School, +for a short intermission before the service. I was very sorry to lose +that part of the performances. Mr. Hooper is superintendent, and they +say has an admirable faculty at interesting the children, who are +taught besides by the white people present in classes. We had a +pleasant chat with Miss W. and Miss Towne and the gentlemen, most of +whom do not meet at all except once a week at church, and then the +people were collected again, and when they were seated, Mr. Pierce +summoned us, the four ladies, to an empty pew with himself. The church +is painted white inside, very plain, with galleries, and filled full +of black people,--doors, windows and aisles. Dr. French had come over +from "Biffert," as they call it, and conducted the services. He read a +hymn through, "Am I a soldier of the Cross?" etc., and then deaconed +out two lines at a time, while the negroes sang it in their peculiar, +nasal manner, one always leading. He preached them an admirable +sermon, familiar in its style. He told them of his visit to the men +who had been carried to Hilton Head, which interested them very much +and comforted them too, I guess. Compared them to the Israelites +coming out of Egypt, as in a transition state in which everything +depended upon themselves--they must not behave so ill that God would +make them wander forty years in the wilderness instead of reaching +Canaan in eighteen months. It was pleasant to see their interest--the +"elders" all sat under the pulpit and in the front seats, and many +would nod their heads from time to time in approbation, equivalent to +the "'zackly" and "jus' so" of their every-day speech. They were all +well dressed--a few in gaudy toggery, hoopskirts, and shabby bonnets, +but mostly in their simple "head hankerchers" [which] I hope they will +never give up. Many of the men on the road had their shoes in their +hands to put on when they got to church. Most of them wear none. The +women, many of them, came up to shake hands with us after church and +said they must come and see us. There are no white ladies on the +islands beside us and those at Pope's (Mr. Pierce's). + +Mr. Hooper told us of General Hunter's proclamation declaring all +slaves free in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.[40] We got no +letters or news from the North of any sort, and are waiting anxiously +to know how this news is received there and what has happened since we +heard last. He promises free papers to all who enlist, and gives each +a chance to come home to his family if he concludes to do so. +Expresses great regret that the thing should have been done as it was, +but I don't know what he could expect, and it will be some time before +the impression will die out, particularly among the women. The men are +well contented there, and most of them will stay, I daresay; there are +over five hundred. + +_May 19._ This evening Dr. Wakefield arrived with the Doctor of the +Roundhead Pennsylvania Regiment. Said the pilot of the _Planter_, as +he passed Fort Sumter at daybreak, broke into the Captain's room, put +on his regimentals, and walked up and down the deck mimicking the +Captain's gait, so that if they should use their glasses at Fort +Sumter no suspicion should be excited! + +_May 20._ We are fortunate in being on a plantation so far from town, +the soldiers, and the influence of the cotton-agents. At Coffin's +Point the people have shown the effects of having soldiers quartered +there so long, though they were a less simple and quiet sort than +these in Secesh times. The quarters here are the cleanest and +prettiest I have seen, though there is room for improvement. + +The day has been a very busy one. A large box of Philadelphia clothing +I overhauled, made a list of everything in it, and with H.'s help +rolled up half and packed again to go to Coffin's Point. It is the +last box of clothing we shall have, I hope. We thought we should enjoy +the giving more things, now that the goods have come by the piece +which they prefer to buy, but they are so jealous, and it is so hard +to keep the run of so many families so as to distribute the garments +equally, that it is hard work, and proves the wisdom of those who +decided it was best to sell in the first place. The old people and +babies of course we give to entirely, _i. e._, as far as we have the +means. I should like a box full of baby-clothes and flannel for the +old rheumaticky women, whose garments are all worn out. + +Heard Joe tell Flora, "Don't call me 'Joe' again; my name Mr. +Jenkins." I find they all have surnames, of one sort and another, a +wife taking her husband's. + +_May 22._ When they go into the field to work, the women tie a bit of +string or some vine round their skirts just below the hips, to shorten +them, often raising them nearly to the knees; then they walk off with +their heavy hoes on their shoulders, as free, strong, and graceful as +possible. The prettiest sight is the corn-shelling on Mondays, when +the week's allowance, a peck a hand, is given out at the corn-house by +the driver. They all assemble with their baskets, which are shallow +and without handles, made by themselves of the palmetto and holding +from half a peck to a bushel. The corn is given out in the ear, and +they sit about or kneel on the ground, shelling it with cleared +corn-cobs. Here there are four enormous logs hollowed at one end, +which serve as mortars, at which two can stand with their rude +pestles, which they strike up and down alternately. It is very hard +work, but quicker than the hand process. After it is all shelled, the +driver puts a large hide on the ground and measures each one's portion +into his basket, and men, women, girls, and boys go off with the +weight on their heads. The corn-house is in a very pretty place, with +trees about it, and it is always a picturesque sight--especially when +the sand-flies are about, and the children light corn-cob fires to +keep them off. The corn is ground by hand by each negro in turn for +themselves; it is hard work and there are only three hand-mills on the +place, but it makes very sweet meal and grits. The negroes do not like +the taste of that which is ground by steam-mill at Beaufort; I suppose +the heat of the stones hurts it. The blacks at Hilton Head, who have +had our Indian-meal given them as rations, cannot eat the "red +flour."[41] They separate the coarse and fine parts after it is ground +by shaking the grits in their baskets; the finest they call corn-flour +and make hoe-cake of, but their usual food is the grits, the large +portion, boiled as hominy and eaten with clabber. + + +E. S. P. TO EDWARD ATKINSON + +_Pine Grove, May 25._ We received the Philadelphia bacon and salt +herring about a week ago and divided it among the cotton-workers. I +have also distributed a part of the salt you sent. This allowance of +bacon was given once a fortnight and _weekly_ at this season by the +different masters, and the quart of salt monthly. Several plantations +near Beaufort which had been stripped of their corn by the army have +been referred to me for supplies. I have loaded three flat-boats from +the corn-barns here and at Coffin's, where there was a surplus, +sending off 285 bushels shelled corn in all. The removal of this corn +from my barns gave occasion for some loud and boisterous talking on +the part of some of the women, and made the driver of this plantation +feel very sober, but I pacified them by telling them the Government +showed its determination to provide for them by this very act, for +here were several plantations on Ladies Island, destitute of corn, +which might have been fed with much less trouble from the pile of +bacon and herring recently received, but that the Government did not +consider _that_ a just division of good things, so they sent me a part +of the bacon and fish, and took my corn to feed the destitute. +Thereby, said I, you are all gainers, for you have corn enough left to +last till potatoes come, and you get the bacon besides, for which you +ought to be thankful. The noisy ones stopped their clamor and the +sensible ones thanked me and hoped I would stay and take care of them, +saying they had about given up hopes of seeing any more meat in their +lives, and were very thankful for even this bit to grease their hominy +with. + +The people are taking hold of the cotton-fields with much more heart +than I had feared, after the levy of recruits two weeks ago. The +cotton has been mostly hoed once and is growing well under the +favorable weather. Some of the corn is five feet high and it is all +hoed and ploughed except the latest portion, which was planted this +month. A small portion of the cornfields has been neglected, being the +portions assigned to some of the men who are absent. There were ten +young men belonging at Coffin's Point who escaped notice on the day of +the levy, but who, on learning that I had called for them, came and +delivered themselves up next morning. I sent them on towards Beaufort +and they met Mr. Pierce on the road. He told them that General Hunter +did not want their service against their will, and as they preferred +to return home they did so. I had just organized the whole gang anew +after this, when Mr. S.,[42] who I thought was gone for good, turned +up with an order to collect cotton on the mainland, and requested me +to let him have a boat's crew to explore for two days. I told him the +men were all organized and at work, each on his own acre, but if he +couldn't get men elsewhere I should not refuse for such a short time. +The men came back on the third day without Mr. S. and notified me that +he had hired them (and two more joined them, making twelve in all) to +collect cotton for a month or two on the neighboring territory beyond +our previous pickets, under protection of scouting-parties detached +for the purpose. The men were offered fifty cents per day, and as I +had no authority to offer _anything_ definitely, except, a house to +live in and their allowance of corn, I told them they were free to go +where they pleased, but advised them to stay. Of course they all went +off, but have been back twice since to spend a night and have gone +again this morning. They are nearly all active young men and are +pleased with this roving sort of life, but you may imagine how fatal +such a state of things is to my efforts at organization, and how +demoralizing upon the general industry of those remaining at home +these visits of the rovers are, to say nothing of the breaking up of +old gangs and abandoning allotments of land. Some of these men who +were about to go with Mr. S. told me their wives would carry on their +tasks while they were gone, and I told them that if they would do so I +would let them avail themselves of the proceeds of their labor, but if +these patches should be neglected, I should assign them to other men, +and their planting labor would be forfeited. Thus far I find but one +neglected patch, and unless this is soon hoed by some of the friends +of the sick woman to whom it belongs, I shall have to assign it to +some one else. It is a common practice among them to hire each other +to hoe their tasks, when sickness or other causes prevent them from +doing it themselves, so that most of the tasks of the lying-in women +are taken care of by sisters or other friends in the absence of their +husbands. + +The more I see of these people the more surprised I am that they +should have done so much as they have this year without any definite +promise of payment on our part, and with so little acquaintance with +us. The course we have been obliged to pursue[43] would not have got +an acre planted by Irish laborers. I do not think it the best course, +but under the existing confusion it was _only_ one. If we were +authorized to say that we could pay a definite sum per one hundred +pounds for cotton raised, or a definite sum per month for certain +services performed, we might have accomplished much more, but under +the present arrangement I doubt if we can do the usual work for next +year's crop, _i. e._, in preparing manure. The only men left upon +these plantations are the old ones and they are not fit to cut the +marsh-grass commonly used for cotton manure. The only way I can get +the cornfields ploughed is by asking the drivers to take the ploughs +in their own hands, which they do very cheerfully and with good +effect, each one ploughing three or four acres per day. I do not +think the hands can be expected to work on all summer without further +payments of money or some equivalent. I wait rather anxiously for the +development of Captain or rather _General_ Saxton's instructions. He +has not arrived yet, but is daily expected. + +The two thousand five hundred yards of cloth you sent me is all sold +with the exception of about three pieces, and paid for in cash; a few +have said they had no money and ask me to set it down in the book for +them to pay when they get money from the cotton. I always trust them +in this way when they desire it, and find them very reluctant to run +up a long score. My willingness to trust them gives them confidence +that they will be paid for their cotton labor, and though the "white +folks" at Hilton Head are telling them that the cotton crop is a mere +speculation on our part, I don't think they listen much to them. One +man told me to-day that nobody could cross the sill of my door to harm +me or my ladies while he could prevent it. This same man was sent by +his master, the day that Hilton Head was taken, with a fleet of +flat-boats, to bring the secession soldiers away from their forts. + + W. C. G. says of the situation at this time: + +_May 27._ Between the gradual settling of affairs, the people's +growing confidence in us and in the Government as paymasters, and the +absence of the unruly men, the plantations are getting on quite +nicely. The land, both corn and cotton, has been divided and allotted +to the hands,--so a new system of labor[44] is--on our places--already +inaugurated. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Monday, May 26._ Had quite a talk with Flora over the bed-making; she +asked me to hem her a muslin head-hankercher which York had sent her +from Hilton Head, and re-string some beads which had come too and been +broken. I promised to do it, telling her she would have things enough +to remember me by--to which she responded, "Neber forget you, long as +I hab breath for draw." I find they are all beginning to feel badly at +our leaving,[45] now they know we shall really go so soon. + +This is 'lowance day, and school is always late Monday P. M., but +to-day, as they were all together, after they got through their corn, +Ranty distributed some salt and mackerel Mr. Philbrick had for them, +which kept them till six, our dinner-time, and they lost school +altogether, greatly to their regret. We went to the porch to watch the +groups, and as they passed us with their baskets on their heads and +fish wrapped in green leaves in their hands, they all looked up and +curtseyed, with a "tank 'ee, Massa." + +When Flora came in with the tea just after, she was muttering, "Neber +see a marn so payshun as Mr. Philbri'," and then, turning to H. as if +she was afraid she did not appreciate his virtue,--"Miss Helen, not +two body in de worl' so payshun as him." I don't know what had +excited her admiration just then, but she probably never saw a white +man before who did not swear, at least. For even her favorite Mass' +Clan's she does not consider as immaculate, though he would "nebber +drive nigger." + +_May 28._ To the [Pine Grove] quarters to say good-bye all round, +stopping at each house. They seemed quite sorry to have us go, +expressing their regret by presents of eggs. I filled my pockets and +H. her hands; then Mily held her apron and walked home with us; she +counted over three dozen in all. My children came in the evening, and +we went to bed early; and so passed the last day at William Fripp's +Pine Grove Plantation. + +_Coffin's Point, May 29._ Before ten the two carts were ready, and +Flora and Joe mounted one to help us get to rights. Then H. and Mr. +Philbrick went off in the buggy with the span. I was to have gone in +the sulky, but harness fell short, and I had to wait till Tom could +come back with the mule-cart. So I collected the children and had a +last school for them, and when Tom came, locked the door, mounted the +sulky (with the white umbrella) onto which the saddles had been tied, +and, followed to the gate by the whole tribe singing "A, B, C," took +my departure, the children shouting as I bid them good-bye, "We come +for see you!" + +As I drove up to the house [at Coffin's] the yard really looked +attractive, as it has some grass in it, though I had not thought the +house so. But a day's work has made a vast change, and to-night it +looks quite habitable. It was built in good style originally, but it +is very old, and has been so abused by the negroes in the first +place, and then from having had soldiers living in it for so many +months, it is very shabby. It must have been handsomely furnished, to +judge from the relics, for they are nothing more--rosewood tables, +sideboards and washstands with marble tops, drawers and doors broken +in and half gone, sofas that must have been of the best, nothing left +but the frame; no one can conceive of the destruction who has not seen +it. The rooms are twelve feet high, and the lower story is more than +that from the ground. The air is delicious, and we shall find the +blinds which are on the second story a luxury. I have my own little +bed, bureau, marble-top washstand, _three_ chairs and a large +wardrobe, to say nothing of a piano, in my chamber, which is I should +think eighteen feet square. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_May 30._ Schools are getting on pretty well, I suppose,--slowly, of +course. A few are really bright,--a few really dull; the larger +part--like the same proportion of white children--could creep, walk, +or trot, according to the regularity with which they are driven, and +the time devoted to their books. While we have been living at Pine +Grove, there have been five schools daily, teaching about one hundred +and forty scholars. + + +FROM H. W. + +_May 30._ We have moved just in time, I guess, for the weather will +grow warmer now. Between eight and eleven is the warmest part of the +day; after that the sea-breeze is sure to come up. + +_May 31._ There is a line cut through the trees all across the +islands so that they can see the light-house from Beaufort. I asked +Tom who cut it, as I rode over the other day, and he said, "Yankee cut +it." "Since the Fort was taken?" "Long time ago." "The old Masters cut +it, then?" "No, Secesh neber cut down trees, make nigger do it; poor +white men cut 'em." I finally came to the conclusion that it must have +been done by the Coast Survey. I daresay they think we are all "poor +white." Mary, a mulatto here, told Mr. G. his clothes would be fifty +cents per dozen for washing; that she used to have seventy-five cents +in Charleston, "for real gentle folks!" + +_Sunday, June 1._ H. called in Betty, Joe, and Uncle Sam while she +read, and after Mr. Philbrick had repeated the Lord's Prayer, Uncle +Sam of his own accord offered a very simple, touching prayer. He is an +Elder, and as honest and true as "Uncle Tom" himself--a genuine +specimen of that class among the negroes, which exists in reality as +well as in story. The younger ones do not seem to be quite so +religious a class, though perhaps they are too young to tell, for +young married men like Joe and Cuffy seem to have genuine principle, +and belong to the church. H. told Joe, when he had been sulky for the +first time, that she hoped he felt better; she did not like to see him +so. "Yes, Marm, feel better now, Marm; you know de ole marn will rise +sometimes." And he told Mr. G. once that he should not cry if his baby +died, "'cause de Lord take him to a better place--not punish him, +'cause he have no sin;" but he said he should cry hard if Wil'by died, +because he knew she would be punished. (His wife is not a +"professor.") + +_June 2._ An officer from the gunboat off here came ashore to see if +he could hire some men, but Mr. Philbrick told him that General Hunter +had taken off more than he could spare. The officer seemed to think +that Hunter would be recalled and the regiment disbanded[46]--in which +case Mr. Philbrick told him he did not want the men and he might take +what he needed. We hear they are made sick by the change of diet; army +rations can't be very good for men who have lived on hominy all their +lives. He told us, moreover, a most interesting piece of news; that +the firing we heard the other day was from the blockading fleet off +Charleston, which captured six and sunk three of a fleet of English +steamers, ten in number, laden with arms and munitions of war, which +were making an attempt to run in to Charleston--thus letting only one +escape. I don't know whether it got in or off. + +A semiweekly _Advertiser_ and _Tribune_ of May 14th, with full +accounts of the taking of New Orleans and the battle of Williamsburg, +which we have not heard about, and the splendid doings have roused me +all up to full war pitch again. We have been so peaceful I could not +realize all that was going on. + + +E. S. P. TO EDWARD ATKINSON + +_Coffin's Point, June 3._ I suppose we shall lose General Hunter, for +even if not recalled I don't see how he could stay after Lincoln's +proclamation. I must say I think his, Hunter's action, premature and +uncalled for. It seemed to me very like the tadpole resolution in +"Festina lente." In this case, too, the tadpoles were quite out of our +reach except the small number in these islands, who had virtually shed +their tails in course of nature already. I have great faith in Lincoln +and am ready to leave the question with him. I think the effect of +Hunter's proclamation upon the slaves of these states would be +inconsiderable. They don't hear of it, to begin with, and if they did +they wouldn't care for it. I am surprised to find how little most of +these people appreciate their present prospects. Once in a while you +find an intelligent man who does so, but the mass plod along in the +beaten track with little thought about the future and no sort of +feeling of responsibility. They feel a sense of relief that no one +stands to force them to labor, and they fall back with a feeling of +indifference as to whether they exert themselves beyond what is +necessary to supply the demands of necessity. No better result can be +hoped for till the time comes for each to see the reward for his +labor. At present they are working upon faith, without even a definite +promise as to what that payment shall be. Hunter's course is of far +greater importance in its effect upon the political world in the North +than in its immediate influence upon the status of the negroes in the +districts to which it applies. The secret of such exploits as the crew +of the _Planter_ have lately performed lies in the fact that the men +were forcibly taken from this region last November and wanted to get +back home again. If their old home had been in Charleston, they would +not have left it at the risk they incurred. In short, I don't regard +the blacks as of any account in a military light, for they are not a +military race, and have not sufficient intelligence to act in concert +in any way where firmness of purpose is required. + + +FROM H. W. + +_June 5._ Mr. Philbrick brought one unwelcome letter--an appointment +from Mr. Pierce to Mr. G. to some plantation at the other end of the +island. He is too valuable to be here. He is going to a hard place, +ten or twelve plantations, though with fewer negroes in all than on +these three. + +The mule-cart came up and was loaded with all Mr. G.'s things, and by +nine o'clock he took his departure on horseback, in his red flannel +shirt and palm-leaf hat looking quite Southern and picturesque. + +[Later.] Here came my morning school, for the first time, under +Bacchus' conduct. I heard them singing and went to the window to watch +and see how he was bringing them from the quarters. He is a cripple in +his hands, which turn backwards, and he has but little control of his +arms, but is much looked up to by the other children. Of course he +cannot do any work, and Mr. G. has made him a sort of schoolmaster, +and he has always kept school when Mr. G. was away. He manages them +nicely, after his fashion--leaving them in the midst if he happens to +want to eat some hominy! They never have regular meals, but each one +eats hominy when he happens to want it. Well, soldiers have been +stationed on the place, and Bacchus had got some notion of drill, so +he marched up the thirty-five children, six or seven in a row, holding +hands to keep them straight, and with two of the oldest boys for +captains on each side to administer raps with their sticks if they +did not keep in line, walking backwards himself to oversee the whole +company, with a soldier's cap on his head, and shouting out his orders +for them to sing their different tunes all the way,--the funniest +spectacle himself imaginable. + +_Monday, June 9._ Found that Bacchus' brother Lester had been taken +sick Sunday morning and died at night, so he did not bring up the +school. Just after dinner we saw the people assembling at their +burying-place,[47] and H. and I went down to witness the services. +Uncle Sam followed us, book in hand and spectacles on nose, reading as +he walked. As we drew near to the grave we heard all the children +singing their A, B, C, through and through again, as they stood +waiting round the grave for the rest to assemble and for Uncle Sam to +begin. Each child had his school-book or picture-book Mr. G. had given +him in his hand,--another proof that they consider their lessons as in +some sort religious exercise. We were joined at once by Mr. Philbrick, +and stood uncovered with the rest about the grave, at the mouth of +which rested the coffin, a rough board one, but well shaped and +closed. Uncle Sam took off his hat, tied a red handkerchief round his +head and, adjusting his glasses, read the hymn through, and then +deaconed out two lines at a time for the people to sing. He repeated +the process with a second hymn, when Abel made a prayer; then Uncle +Sam read from the Burial Service and began his exordium, apologizing +for his inability to speak much on account of a sore throat, but +holding forth for about half an hour upon the necessity for all to +prepare for "dis bed," filling his discourse with Scripture +illustrations and quotations aptly and with force, using the story of +"Antoninus and Suffirus" as a proof that God would not have any "half +religions"--that if anybody had "hid his Lord's money in de eart' he +must grabble for it before 'twas too late." He read from the service +again, one of the men throwing on earth at the usual place. When they +came to cover up the grave, the men constantly changed hoes with those +who had not handled them before, that each might aid, women and old +men stooping to throw in a handful. Abel made another prayer, they +sang again and dispersed. + + It was of this scene that W. C. G. wrote the following + lines: + +THE NEGRO BURYING-GROUND. + + 'Mid the sunny flat of the cotton-field + Lies an acre of forest-tangle still; + A cloister dim, where the grey moss waves + And the live-oaks lock their arms at will. + + Here in the shadows the slaves would hide + As they dropped the hoe at death's release, + And leave no sign but a sinking mound + To show where they passed on their way to peace. + + This was the Gate--there was none but this-- + To a Happy Land where men were men; + And the dusky fugitives, one by one, + Stole in from the bruise of the prison-pen. + + When, lo! in the distance boomed the guns, + The bruise was over, and "Massa" had fled! + But _Death_ is the "Massa" that never flees, + And still to the oaks they bore the dead. + + 'Twas at set of sun; a tattered troop + Of children circled a little grave, + Chanting an anthem rich in its peace + As ever pealed in cathedral-nave,-- + + The A, B, C, that the lips below + Had learnt with them in the school to shout. + Over and over they sung it slow, + Crooning a mystic meaning out. + + A, B, C, D, E, F, G,-- + Down solemn alphabets they swept: + The oaks leaned close, the moss swung low,-- + What strange new sound among them crept? + + The holiest hymn that the children knew! + 'Twas dreams come real, and heaven come near; + 'Twas light, and liberty, and joy, + And "white-folks' sense,"--and God right here! + + Over and over; they dimly felt + _This_ was the charm could make black white, + This was the secret of "Massa's" pride, + And this, unknown, made the negro's night. + + What could they sing of braver cheer + To speed on his unseen way the friend? + The children were facing the mystery Death + With the deepest prayer that their hearts could send. + + Children, too, and the mysteries last! + We are but comrades with them _there_,-- + Stammering over a meaning vast, + Crooning our guesses of how and where. + + But the children were right with their A, B, C; + In our stammering guess so much we say! + The singers were happy, and so are we: + Deep as our wants are the prayers we pray. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Captain Oliver Fripp's Plantation, June 9._ I came here, in +consequence of a letter received from Mr. Pierce, asking me to take +charge over some plantations here. There is a Mr. Sumner here,--lately +arrived,--who is teaching. The place is quite at the other end of the +island from Coffin's Point. At present I am by no means settled; it +seems like jumping from the 19th century into the Middle Ages to +return from the civilization and refinement which the ladies +instituted at Coffin's to the ruggedness of bachelor existence. + +_June 22._ In regard to danger of sickness, I hear much about it,--but +I think it is exaggerated. The white overseer stayed on Edgar Fripp's +Plantation--close by--all summer. The planters generally went to +Beaufort or the Village, but I think very much as we go out of town in +summer. The summer was the fashionable and social time here, when the +rich people lived together, gave parties, etc. + +_July 6._ The people do not work very willingly,--things are not so +steady as they have become at Coffin's. The district is even more +exposed to the influence of visits to and from the camps. + +We had quite a celebration for the people on the Fourth. A stage was +erected near the old Episcopal church in a cool grove of live-oaks, +all grey with long trails of Southern moss. A large flag was obtained +and suspended between trees across the road--it was good to see the +old flag again. The people had been notified the previous Sunday, and +I should think about a thousand were present, in gala dress and mood, +from all parts of the island. When the ladies, the invited +superintendents from Port Royal, and the General (Saxton)[48] had +taken their seats, the people marched up in two processions from each +direction, carrying green branches and singing. Under the flag they +gave three rousing cheers, then grouped around the stage. The children +from three or four of the schools marched in separately. After a +prayer and some native songs, Mr. Philbrick, the General, and the +_Times_ reporter addressed them, and then one of the old darkies got +on the stage and in an ecstasy of obedience and gratitude exhorted +them to share his feelings, I believe. + +For an hour and a half there was a general press for the hard +bread, herring, and molasses and water. When everything was +devoured, the superintendents rode up to "the Oaks,"--Pierce's +headquarters[49],--and had a collation. So much for Fourth of July. It +was strange and moving down here on South Carolina ground, with the +old flag waving above us, to tell a thousand slaves that they were +freemen,[50] that that flag was theirs, that our country now meant +their country, and to tell them how Northerners read the +Declaration--"All men are born free and equal." The people had a grand +time, they say, and seem really grateful for it. It was a new thing +for them, a Fourth of July for the negro. In old times they worked, if +with any difference, harder than usual, while their masters met and +feasted and drank. + + The rest of this extract is an expression--which will be + followed later by many like it--of the sense that people in + the North were getting too complacent a notion of what had + been done and what could be done for the Sea Island negroes. + +Pierce's report[51] has too much sugar in it. His statements are +facts, but facts with the silver lining out. The starving, naked +condition of the blacks was much exaggerated when we started to come +down here. + +_July 25._ On the whole, affairs conduct themselves pretty quietly and +regularly. The cases of discipline are the most vexing and amusing. It +is a peculiar experience to be detective, policeman, judge, jury, and +jailer,--all at once,--sometimes in cases of assault and battery, and +general, plantation _squows_,--then in a divorce case,--last Sunday in +a whiskey-selling affair; a calf-murder is still on the docket. + + The next letter is the first from C. P. W., who went to Port + Royal early in July, on the same steamer with Charles F. + Folsom of Harvard, '62, who is often mentioned in the + letters that follow, and with several other young + Massachusetts men who had volunteered as superintendents. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Beaufort, July 7._ We got our luggage into the Mayflower and started +for this place [from Hilton Head] about six o'clock. It was droll +enough to find a party of Boston men taking a sail in the old Hingham +boat up Beaufort River under United States passes, to superintend +South Carolina plantations. + +_July 15. Coffin's Point._ The nearest of my five plantations is three +miles distant, along the shore road, and the four on that road extend +about two miles; my fifth is on the upper road, to Beaufort, about +four and a half miles from the Point. The roads are mere tracks worn +in the fields, sometimes through woods, like our wood roads, only more +sandy. In front of my plantations there are bushes on the right-hand +side, for some distance, the field being bounded on the other side by +woods. Fields usually very long, sometimes three quarters of a mile, +divided across the road by fences, gates occurring at every passage +from one to another; the plantation houses and quarters at an average +of one third of a mile from the road, paths through cotton-fields +leading to them. Imagine a perfectly flat country, relieved by belts +of trees, and intersected by rows of brush, single trees standing here +and there in the bare, hot fields. Very little fresh water either in +brooks or pools. Salt-water creeks are to be crossed on the shore +roads; the richest lands in the adjoining meadows. A cotton-field +looks not unlike a potato-field, the rows higher and more distinct, +the plants further apart, usually two feet; the rows five feet. Corn +planted on rows like cotton. You would be surprised to see the soil in +which these flourish; beach sand, in many places, is the principal +ingredient. The fields are very much the colour of the sea-beach. + +We live on the fat of the land. We are allowed $5.24 per month for +rations, but I do not use even that. Rice, sugar, and molasses are our +principal draughts from the Commissary. + + The colonists referred to at the beginning of the next + letter were a thousand blacks from the island of Edisto, + which the United States Government, after taking, had + evacuated, as too troublesome to hold. The place where they + were quartered, as described in the first sentence, was St. + Helena Village. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_July 20._ The Secesh houses there are insufficient to accommodate +them all, and they stow themselves in sheds, tents, and even in the +open air, as best they can. Many of them are to be distributed on +plantations where there are quarters; they will probably be set to +planting slip-potatoes and cow-pease. + +Everything needs personal supervision here; every barrel or parcel +must be kept under your eye from the time it leaves the storehouse in +Beaufort till it is put in your mule-cart, on Ladies Island. Then you +must be at home when the team arrives and see everything brought into +the storeroom. There is a good deal of red tape, too, at Beaufort, the +untying and retying of which is a tedious and vexatious operation.[52] +They are becoming more strict here in Beaufort in several respects; +passes are needed by every one. There is a great deal of running to +Hilton Head and Bay Point, which is to be stopped as far as possible. + +_July 30._ I ride right through the morning, from nine till four, +without suffering from the heat so much as in one trip to town and +back one of our warm, still days at home. I have my white umbrella, +there is usually some breeze, often a very cool one; the motion of the +sulky puts me to sleep, but the heat of the sun has not been +oppressive more than once or twice on this island. If I had attempted +to follow all the directions I received before leaving, concerning my +health, I should have been by this time a lunatic. + +Rust is such a common thing here that we get used to it. Mrs. +Philbrick's needles rust in her work-bag; our guns, even after +cleaning and oiling, are soon covered with a thin coating. Food moulds +here very rapidly, crackers soften and dried beef spoils. Hominy, of +course, is the chief article of food. I think it tastes best hot in +the negro cabins, without accompaniment of molasses, sugar, or salt. + +Our life here is, necessarily, very monotonous: the hired people come +and go, or we go and come to and from them, and the mosquitoes and +flies do very much as we do. Mosquitoes are really a great annoyance +at times. They introduce themselves under the netting at night in a +very mysterious way, and wake us up early with their singing and +stinging. My theory is that those that can lick the others get +themselves boosted through the apertures; the animal is smaller than +ours at the North. I think that they are unaccustomed to human +treatment; they will not be brushed away, and slapping, if not fatal, +only excites their curiosity. There is also a small fly which appears +on warm days after a rain in great numbers. Driving on my beat the +other day, and holding my umbrella in one hand and newspaper scrap in +the other, I was driven nearly wild by their continuous attentions. It +is very easy to read driving here; the roads are so sandy that the +horse has to walk a great part of the way and one is glad to be able +to employ the weary hours with literature. + +This is the greatest country for false rumors that I ever was in. +Communication is very uncertain, nothing but special messengers to +bring us news from the outside world. An occasional visit to Mr. +Soule[53] or to Beaufort enlivens the long weeks, and we welcome the +gathering at church on Sunday, with the gossip and the mail and the +queer collection of black beings in gay toggery, as the great event of +our lives. If it were not for the newspapers, I might forget the time +of year. It is very amusing to be appealed to by a negro to know how +soon the 1st of August is; to tell them it is the 20th of July gives +them very little idea. + +I should like to look in upon you and bring you some of the delicacies +of the tropical clime, waterm[=e]lions, as the "inhabitants" call +them, rich and red; huge, mellow figs, seedy but succulent; plump +quails, sweet curlew, delicate squirrels, fat rabbits, tender +chickens. We fare well here. If the wretched country only had more +rocks and less sand, better horses, more tolerable staff officers,[54] +and just a little more frequent communication with New England, I +should perhaps be content to make quite a long stay, if I were wanted. + +I will only remark at present that I find the nigs rather more +agreeable, on the whole, than I expected; that they are much to be +preferred to the Irish; that their blackness is soon forgotten, and as +it disappears their expression grows upon one, so that, after a week +or so of intercourse with a plantation, the people are as easily +distinguished and as individual as white people; I have even noticed +resemblances in some of them to white people I have seen. They are +about as offensively servile as I expected. The continual "sur," +"maussa," with which their remarks are besprinkled is trying, but soon +ceases to be noticed. "Bauss" is the most singular appellation, used +by a few only. + +"M's Hayyet's brudder" passed through the Pine Grove "nigger-house" +one day and retired, after a distinguished ovation, incubating, like a +hen, upon a sulky-box full of eggs. Promises to show Miss Harriet's +picture, not yet fulfilled, were received with the greatest +satisfaction. + +We have been making out our pay-rolls for May and June; the blanks, +delayed in the printing, have just arrived. Red Tape. The money has +been ready a long time. We ought to pay for July at the same time. +This, understand, is only a partial payment, on account; the full +payment is to be made when the crop comes in. + +_Aug. 7._ Last Friday Mr. Philbrick and I got our money. The people +generally took the payment in excellent spirit. A few seemed +surprised, not knowing what to do with so much money; a few, of +course, grumbled at the amount, though a clear explanation was always +understood and received with reasonable satisfaction. I thought that +one or two were disposed to take advantage of the fact that I had not +taken the account of acres,[55] and so tried to make a difficulty by +telling strange tales. But there was a great deal of manliness and +fairness shown, with a degree of patience and foresight that was very +gratifying. + +_Aug. 16._ Perhaps the best way to give you a satisfactory notion of +"what my work is, how I like it," etc., is to give an account of a +day's work on my plantations. + +[Illustration: rude portal] + +Thursday, Aug. 14. I allow Mr. Philbrick to have his horse saddled +first,--this was polite,--and as soon as he is out of the +gate--"Robert!"--"Surr!" "Put my _smallest_ horse into the sulky." I +retire within, and collect the necessary equipment for a day "out," +viz.: white umbrella, whip (riding, long enough for sulky use), +plantation-book, spring-balance (some rations to be delivered), much +stout twine, for mending harness if need be, paper of turnip-seeds, +two thirds of a pound of powder, and one novel, "An Only Son," for +occupation during the first weary hour, consumed in a three miles walk +over a sandy road. The young horse, caught at last,--our stud of four +graze on the turfy acre fenced in about the house,--is a little +restive at first in the unwonted restraint of the harness, but soon +gets broken in to steady work by the heavy roads. Somewhat over an +hour's slow progress brings me to the rude portal which spans the +entrance of the McTureous estate. The houses of all the plantations on +the Sea Side road are to be found on the eastern, or left-hand as one +rides towards Hilton Head. The character of the fields and quarters +between the road and the water is very much the same on all the +places. The "water" is a creek, separating the island proper from +salt-water marshes and the higher islands outside, against which +latter the ocean itself beats. The distance from the road to the +creek averages half a mile. The quarters, universally called +"nigger-houses," are strung along the bank of the creek, at about 100 +feet from the water, on a ridge between the water and the corn. The +"big house" is a two-story affair, old, dirty, rickety, poorly put +together and shabbily kept. Here lived old Mrs. Martha E. McTureous, +with a large household. The James McTureous place--the other half of +this one--is all in one and the same field. On both these places the +houses are terribly out of repair, with wooden chimneys and mud +floors, the people dirty and suffering from the effects of much +confusion and discouragement in the spring. Limus,[56] their old +driver, did much mischief by striving to keep up the old system, and +at the same time neglected the place to go and earn money for himself. +Then they suffered severely from the black draft, their four best men +being taken, from a population furnishing only "eight men working +cotton," and thirteen full hands in all. Arriving as I did after all +the mischief was done, I have had rather a discouraging time with +them. + +Entering the plantation, I am aware of old Nat. He is hoeing pease. As +I approach, he shouts, and comes to the road, and lays before me a +case of menace, ill usage, and threatened assault. I inspected +convalescent boy, ascertained what work had been done,--in a general +way, that is, learning that corn-blades had been, and were being, +stripped, that all the able-bodied men were cutting marsh-grass for +manure, that Tirah had planted a task of cow-pease for the Government, +but had allowed them to go to grass,--whereupon, after personal +inspection of said task, with an injunction to strip some corn which +was getting dry, I drove over to the James McTureous place. Having +received from Mr. Soule two packages of Swedish turnip-seed, I +enquired concerning the manner of planting, how much seed was required +for a task, etc. Dismounting from the sulky, and leaving it in charge +of a returned volunteer (I like the sarcastic phrase), who was unwell +and therefore lounging under the trees in front of one of the +nigger-houses, I went forth to the field to count the acres of +Government corn with the driver. On the way, I counted up the tasks of +pease, slip, etc., to see if they coincided with the account given me +by the people. Found one and a half of corn worthless, except for +fodder. Conversed concerning marsh-grass, found another hook for +cutting would be acceptable, gladdened their hearts with promise of +turnip-seed, and drove off. + + Not the least curious part of the curious state of things + described in the next paragraph is the matter-of-course view + of it taken by the youthful superintendent. + +By the way, Jim, driver on the James McTureous place, used to be slave +of Mr. Pritchard, residing in Hunting Island,[57] which runs along +just outside of St. Helena. He was a very cruel man,--there are +stories of his burning negroes,--so when the "guns fired at Bay +Point," as he couldn't run from his negroes, as the other masters did, +for lack of transportation, his negroes ran from him, and settled +among their friends on St. Helena. When matters were established at +Hilton Head, Pritchard went and took the oath and got a pass, and has +since lived at home, supporting himself by fishing and raising hogs. +He often visits Jim and others of his old slaves, getting them to go +fishing with him. Now one day last year, Jim and Mr. Pritchard found a +four-oared boat--I give Jim's story--on the beach. Pritchard promised +Jim half the value of the boat, but has since refused to fulfill his +promise. Jim referred the matter to me. I told him to send Pritchard +up to me. I think there will be no trouble, if Jim's story is +straight. + +Cherry Hill, one of T. A. Coffin's[58] places, comes next to +McTureous'. Cherry Hill is one of the most encouraging places I have. +The people are of a more sensible caste, old people, almost entirely, +who see the sense and propriety of right measures, and display a most +comforting willingness to work and be content, though with less +energy, of course, than younger men. The place owes much of its +success this year to Tony, the driver, a person of great discretion, +energy, and influence. The ingenious method by which he induced the +people to plant more cotton than they wanted to is entertaining, +though a little troublesome to us in making out the pay-roll. Mr. +Palmer, Mr. Soule's assistant, counted sixteen acres of cotton on the +place. But the several accounts of the people on the place added up +only fourteen and a half acres. In this perplexity, Tony was appealed +to, who explained the difficulty thus. The land was laid off in rows, +twenty-one to the task, each row being one hundred and five feet long. +Tony staked off the tasks anew, throwing twenty-four instead of +twenty-one rows into the task, thus adding twelve rows to every acre, +which the people blindly tilled, never suspecting but that they were +having their own way about their cotton. + +Mulberry Hill, owned by Captain John Fripp, is a little place, with +not many more hands than Cherry Hill, but they are younger. The driver +here is an extremely nice person, hardly energetic enough, I should +think, for the old system, but a very quiet, gentlemanly man, +perfectly frank and open in his manner, and a little superior in his +conversation to those by whom he is surrounded. He is much respected +in the dark community. It is to his bounty that I owe several huge +watermelons which I have brought home for our table, besides several +partial favors of the same kind, enjoyed under his own roof. + +To these people I was to deliver one month's rations of hard bread. It +comes in fifty-pound boxes; and as a day's ration is three quarters of +a pound, and there are thirty-one days in August, it requires but a +simple calculation to determine that each person entitled to a full +ration should receive twenty-three and one quarter pounds, and that, +one child being reckoned one sixth of a grown person (monstrous, you +will say, when eating is concerned,--but such is law), one box must be +delivered to every two grown-persons-and-one-child. Having the people +together, I took the opportunity to enquire of them the number of +tasks of cow-pease, slip-potatoes, etc., they had planted, likewise +the amount of cotton they had hoed, "since Mr. Palmer took the last +account." It will be a great job making up the next pay-roll. I hope +the people won't lie worse than usual. If they do, if the drivers +should fail me, especially,--if, as will probably happen, their own +accounts, added up, do not tally within several tasks with my count of +the whole, and if at the same time I shall be required to make out the +whole roll in two days, and both my horses should have sore backs at +once--you can imagine what a comfortable, easy time I shall have of +it. + +From Mulberry Hill, after looking at some doubtful cotton in the field +with the driver, Paris, and finally setting it down as not properly +hoed, I proceeded to the next plantation, Alvirah Fripp's, commonly +called the Hope Place. It is the largest, the most distant, and, in +many respects, the toughest plantation I have. There are a great many +men of twenty-five to forty, "tough-nuts" many of them, and all +looking so much alike that it is impossible to remember the name that +belongs to any one face, though all their names and all their faces +are familiar enough. I can see that it is a great drawback to my +obtaining their confidence to have to ask one and another, as I ask, +"how many tasks of slip have you planted for the Government, and how +many for your own use?" to have to ask also, in variously modified +phrase, "What's your name?" Recognize a negro, remember anything in +which he has any interest, and you have his confidence at once. I not +only surprised but made my fast friend a fellow on one of my places +by calling him by his name the second time I saw him. + +The men on the Hope Place are not all of a poor stamp, of course. The +driver, Isaac, is my very ideal of a nigger-driver on a large place, +made alive. Strong of body and up to all the dodges of the plantation +life, he shows the effect--not apparent, in such a disagreeable manner +at least, in Tony and Paris--of having a good many rough fellows to +manage. I do not think he is liked on the place; I doubt his +frankness; I think he is somewhat disposed to kick against the new +authorities, disputing, _e. g._, their right to take away "his" horse, +the little one Mr. Palmer and I foraged from him the first day I came. + +Charles, the carpenter, is a man after my own heart. He attracted me +first by his dignified and respectful demeanor, and by his superior +culture. He has a little touch of self-consideration. He, more than +any other negro I know, seems to me like a white person. I forget his +color entirely while talking with him, and am often surprised, on +approaching a black man, to recognize Charles' features. I think he is +a pretty able fellow,--I should like to give him some regular +employment in his trade. It seems an imposition to expect such a man +to work cotton and corn. + +Beaufort is neither Bofort nor Boofort nor Biufort, but Büft, the ü +pronounced like the umlauted ü in German. Sometimes one hears Biffut. +Hooper, extremist in ridicule, says Biffit. A letter of Mrs. +Philbrick's went, "missent," to Beaufort, N. C., which is, I believe, +Bofort. Had the pronunciation been written on the envelope, as one +hears it among the "black inhabitants," it would have gone to the +Dead Letter Office, unless, by good luck, the S. C. had brought it as +far as Hilton Head. + +We get, first or last, a pretty good notion of one another (you +understand I am speaking of the white population only), though we see +very little of each other, except when we are on adjoining +plantations. The Oaks is a rendezvous where we see each other at +times; we meet occasionally in Biffut; but church is the principal +meeting-house on the island, of course, and all the gossip of the week +is fully aired on Sunday. + +There is very little to tell about General Saxton, except that it is a +great pity that he does not come onto the plantations himself and +learn something, personally, of their state and their wants. He was +extremely surprised the other day when Mr. Philbrick represented to +him the necessity of making the last payment promptly; it was then +twenty days behind time. A good deal of ignorance is shown in various +ways in the orders sent from headquarters--_e. g._, the order that has +been issued concerning marketing, nothing to be sold on the +plantations except by leave of the superintendents and no boats to go +to Hilton Head or Beaufort without a "Market Pass" from the +superintendent. Until I hear that a guard is stationed [at Hilton +Head],--which I shall the day after it is done,--I shall not order men +to report to me before going over. I have no idea of making a rule I +cannot enforce. + +On the whole, our work is succeeding as well as the disappointments +and hindrances[59] of the year allow us to expect. A great deal will +depend on the manner and promptness of the next payments and the +treatment of the people at harvest-time. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Sept. 2._ There is one frightful contingency,--a much talked of +evacuation. Where the people will go, I know not; but possibly to +Hayti. In that case I presume the superintendents will go with +them,--I certainly shall. General Saxton, I am sorry to say, goes +to-morrow in a gunboat--for his health. It leaves us without a head +and worse--renders evacuation all the more likely. It is thought that +his presence and words prevented it several weeks ago. I doubt if he +comes back,--he is not satisfied with his work here, does not enjoy +it. It is properly the duty of a civilian, who should have military +rank merely to give him a position. Saxton and his staff understand +little or nothing of the real wants of the plantations, and though +affairs have of course been improved by his presence and authority, +very little in proportion to our hopes and our needs has been +accomplished. We need a civilian, who is a first-rate business +man,--of force, of forethought, of devoted interest in this +undertaking. But there is no use in writing this,--rather some harm. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Sept. 6._ Things are in a state of suspension generally; I confess +that a decidedly azure hue has prevailed during the last week. Talk of +evacuation, General Saxton's departure, threatened attacks, and even +successful forays on an island behind Hilton Head by the rebels, the +increased inconvenience and vexation of red-tape-ism, threatened +changes in the policy to be pursued towards the people in some minor +matters, involving, however, infringement of our authority with them, +it is feared, besides the breaking of promises already made; the +difficulty of getting them promptly and properly paid, and of getting +the value of their work fairly estimated; the general inefficiency, +ignorance, and indecision of the authorities, wanting a defined system +and hampered by prejudice and ignorance and selfishness,--all these +things make the aspect of affairs dark enough at times, and one gets +discouraged and disheartened and disgusted and disappointed, and is +ready to part and have nothing more to do with the concern. When, in +addition to actual evils, one feels that there is a strong opposition +to the enterprise, and that the difficulties are made as vexatious as +possible, by jealous and hostile army officers, so that, in short, the +spirit of the stronger party here is against us; and when, added to +injury, one has to bear + + "the law's delays, + The insolence of office, and the spurns, + Which patient merit of th' unworthy takes, + One almost swears his homeward voyage to make, + In the next steamer." + +Ignorance and want of confidence are the two evils which we suffer; +want of confidence by the powers in us, by us in the negroes. It is +painful to note how distrust must be the rule; how every one must take +it for granted that those under him are cheats and liars. Hence the +necessity of red tape, and its delays and vexatious inconveniences. +Mr. Philbrick says, "Working for a Corporation is bad enough, but +working for the Government is very much worse." However, it wouldn't +be so bad if the Government officers knew enough of the plantation +work to do the proper thing at the proper time, even though they use +the red-tape method in doing it. I believe I knew more after being two +weeks on my places than the Heads do at Beaufort now about the details +of the work. + +_Sept. 9._ General Saxton went North last Friday. It is more than +hinted that his principal purpose is to obtain greater powers for +himself. Hunter has gone North too, "in disgust," it is said, and +General Brannan, who is said to befriend the enemies of the United +States, and has given Saxton a deal of trouble, is left at the head of +the Department. + + Brigadier-General John M. Brannan was in command for a + fortnight only, pending the arrival of Major-General Ormsby + M. Mitchel. + +_Sept. 18._ The President having sent word not to evacuate, you need +not be anxious about us. I was a little afraid that A. L. would give +in to Hunter, evacuate all but Hilton Head, and colonize the negroes +from the other islands; glad he has more sense. + + Here follows a detailed account of the kind of magisterial + power which the superintendents found themselves called upon + to "assume," though they "had it not." + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Sept. 23._ Alex sent Finnie here before breakfast to request me to +come over at once, for Cato was driving his, Alex's daughter Rose, his +own wife, out of the house. I rode over after breakfast. Found the +whole plantation excited and on the _qui vive_. Cato had broken up +Rose's bedstead and thrown it out of doors and bundled up all her +things. I began to talk with him, but he was very saucy and threatened +to kill the first man who interfered with him in "his own house." I +thought it quite time to test him, and taking hold of his arm told him +he must go home with me. He hung back sulkily at first, but in a +minute yielded and said he would do so. I stepped out of the house and +he after. Caroline asked me to read her a letter from John at Hilton +Head, and while preparing to do so Cato dodged about the house and +made for the woods across the cornfield. I cried out for him to halt, +but he ran the faster. I pulled out my revolver and fired two shots +over his head, but he only ran the harder, and never stopped till he +reached the woods. I then had a talk with his father, old Toby, who +"wished I had shot him and stopped the confusion," and with Alex, both +of whom I enjoined to hold their tongues in future. When halfway home +Cato stood waiting for me in the road, opening a gate as I approached, +touched his hat and said he was very sorry for what he had done and +was willing to go with me. I told him to follow me to the house and I +would talk with him. I found him very humble. I reasoned with him, +telling him I was sure Rose's child was his and that he had done her +great wrong, that he ought not to listen to such scandal after living +peaceably with her for eight or nine years. Cato said he hoped he +should never do so again. I told him that if I ever found him making +any more trouble here I should send him to work on Fort Pulaski. + + Mr. Philbrick's next letter shows him trying to arouse the + slothful by "sharing out" a bale of white cotton cloth, in + bonus form, to the industrious. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Sept. 27._ I gave one yard for every task of cotton hoed in July, +requiring about 600 yards. The Coffin people all got some, but about +half the people on the Fripp plantations had to go without, having +neglected the last hoeing. The people who were too lazy to hoe their +cotton in July looked rather glum, and those who got their cloth +laughed and looked exultant. Some people here got twenty-two yards, +and many got only two or three, but all took it thankfully and seemed +content that they got any. Those who got so little will have to buy +more, which they are doing already. I sell it at about half the price +that is asked by our own quartermaster, so I shall be liberally +patronized. In dividing up this cotton cloth I deducted from the +shares of those people to whom clothing was given last spring the +value of that clothing. The only cases were those of Martha, Amaritta, +and Rosetta, to each of whom Mr. G. gave a dress. Rosetta's cotton was +only _one_ acre and her share of cloth was therefore but four yards, +which was fully paid for last spring. So she got nothing now. She +didn't take it very kindly, and growled about the dress being too +small for her, so she couldn't wear it, whereupon I offered to take it +back, but I haven't heard anything more about it. The more I see of +these people, the more I am opposed to the practice of _giving_ them +anything except in payment for services actually performed. The cases +of destitution are comparatively very few. + + At this time some of the superintendents were trying hard to + instruct the negroes in military drill. A young enthusiast + on one of the Fripp places was very proud of his little + squad of black recruits, but found their attendance on the + daily drill amazingly irregular. Apropos of his own efforts + in this direction, Mr. Philbrick pursues his letter as + follows: + +I have tried in vain to get my young men together to drill for +self-defense; my twenty-five guns are lying useless. One might as well +think of a combination among the Boston kittens to scratch the eyes +out of all the Boston dogs as to look for an insurrection in this +State, if the negroes on these islands are a fair sample of those on +the main. If there should be any insurrection in the South, it will +not be in this State. The negroes in the sugar plantation districts +are different, I suppose, being, a larger portion of them, Kentucky +and Virginia born, torn from their old homes or sent South for bad +behavior, and therefore more revengeful. But you know the people here +are too timid to do any fighting unless driven to it. If General +Hunter had not _forced_ them into his regiment last May, we might do +more at drilling now. As it is, my men won't listen to me when I talk +about it; they only suspect me of wanting to press them into service +by stealth, and lose what little confidence they have in my sincerity. + + C. P. W. opens the next letter with a melancholy comparison + between the autumnal glories of "home" and the absence + thereof on the Sea Islands of South Carolina. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Oct. 3._ Here there are no stones but grindstones, no elevation that +can be called a hill except one mound, forty feet long and ten feet +high, and that is artificial. The roads are sandy, the fields are +broad and flat and full of weeds, the water stands about in great +pools, not running off, but absorbing into the sandy soil. + +I find myself often using nigger idioms, especially in conversation +with them. It is often very difficult to make them understand English, +and one slips into the form of speech which they can most easily +comprehend. O how deliciously obtuse they are on occasions! A boy came +to me for a curry-comb for a Government mule this morning, which I was +to send to the driver on his place. While scratching my name on it, I +asked him if Jim had sent for some tobacco, as he said he should. +"Yes, sarr." "Did he send the money?" "Sarr?" Repeated. "No, Sarr." +"How much does he want?" "Don't know, Sarr." "How can I send the +tobacco, if I don't know how much he wants?" "He send for him, Sarr." +"Did he send you for it?" "No, Sarr." "Whom did he send?" "I dunno, +Sarr." "How will he get his tobacco?" "He come himself, Sarr." "Where +is he?" "Him at home, Sarr." "He is coming to get it himself, is he?" +"Sarr?" Repeated, in nigger phrase. "Yes, Sarr." "Did Bruce send you +for anything beside the curry-comb?" "Yes, Sarr." "What else?" "Sarr?" +"Did Bruce tell you fetch anything beside this?" "No, Sarr." "Is this +all Bruce told you to get?" "Yes, Sarr," with intelligence. "Go home, +then, and give that to Bruce. Good-morning." + +This delay in payments is outrageous. It was bad enough to pay for May +and June work the second week in August; but here is the work of July +and August unpaid for yet, and with no prospect of its being paid for +for six weeks to come. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Sunday morning, Oct. 5._ The President's proclamation[60] does not +seem to have made a great deal of stir anywhere. Here the people don't +take the slightest interest in it. They have been free already for +nearly a year, as far as they could see, and have so little +comprehension about the magnitude of our country and are so supremely +selfish that you can't beat it into their heads that any one else is +to be provided for beyond St. Helena Island. After telling them of the +proclamation and its probable effects, they all ask if they would be +given up to their masters in case South Carolina comes back to the +Union. I tell them there is little chance of such a thing, but a +strong probability that there will be a long, bloody war, and that +they ought to prepare to do their share of the fighting. I can't get +one man to come up and drill yet. They say they would like to have +guns to shoot with, but are afraid of being sent off into the "big +fight," though willing to fight any one who comes onto this island to +molest them. Of course their defense would amount to nothing unless +they were organized and drilled. I do not, however, feel any +uneasiness about the rebels coming here. If they came at all they +would attack our forces at Beaufort or Hilton Head, where I am +confident they would be whipped. Refugees continue to come in from the +mainland every week. They all agree in saying that there are no troops +left about here but boys, and that it would be an easy matter to take +Charleston now. + +I am anxious to get the winter clothing here before next pay-day, so +the people may buy it in preference to the trash they see in the shops +at Beaufort, etc. Nothing is heard of our money yet. Some say that +General Saxton will probably bring it. I only wish he would come; his +picket-guard at St. Helena amuses itself hunting cattle on the Fripp +Point Plantation. As I have no positive proof against them I can't do +anything but watch the cattle to prevent a repetition of it. + +_October 7._ I received on Sunday a copy of President Lincoln's +proclamation. I now feel more than ever the importance of our mission +here, not so much for the sake of the few hundreds under my own eyes +as for the sake of the success of the experiment we are now trying. It +is, you know, a question even with our good President whether negroes +can be made available as free laborers on this soil. I, for one, +believe they can, and I am more than ever in earnest to show it, for +the importance of this question is greater than ever, now that we are +so near a general crash of the whole social fabric in the Southern +States. I don't think the old masters will ever be successful in +employing the blacks, but I do believe that Yankees can be. + +Our people are picking the cotton very industriously, and though they +have only about one third of last year's crop to gather, they are +determined to make the most of it, and allow none to waste. It is +interesting to see how much more economical of food they are this +year than formerly. Every family now feels the responsibility of +providing food for itself. The same rule should be followed with all +tools. I would make the men pay a low price for every tool they want +to use, and pay wages enough to enable them to do so.[61] + +_Oct. 8._ I succeeded day before yesterday in getting thirteen of the +young men on this plantation to come up and drill, but they did not +come again yesterday. I don't believe there is sufficient zeal among +them to enable them to go through the tedious routine of drill with +any regularity, unless held together by some stronger motive than now +exists. I find them rather stupid. About half didn't know which their +right foot was, and kept facing to the left when I told them to face +to the right. They seemed to enjoy it, however. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Oct. 9._ We need people at headquarters who understand the details of +plantation work. There is no one now who knows anything about the +plantations except Hooper,[62] and he knows very little. He confesses +and mourns at it himself; but he has done nothing but go back and +forth between the Oaks and Beaufort ever since he came down. There is +a general want of concerted system on all the places. Each +superintendent has to do as he thinks best in all cases himself. +General plans are usually determined on just too late. + +_Oct. 14._ The steamer which brought your letter brought also the +General. It is said that he comes with additional powers.[63] This +question will probably be settled soon, as a difficulty has already +arisen between him and his old antagonist, Brannan, on a point of +authority, and our General has gone to Hilton Head, probably to see +Mitchel about it. This interference of the military authorities with +our work and our privileges is going to make trouble. One of Mitchel's +first acts was to send to Judd, as Superintendent of Port Royal +Island, for 10,000 bushels of corn for army purposes. Poor Judd had +been rationing his people for some time, owing to a lack of provisions +occasioned by the depredations of the soldiers. We have none too much +provision now, and any considerable drain must throw the plantations, +sooner or later, upon the Government for support. + + In the next letter (October 21) Mr. Philbrick says that the + corn harvest, which is so light on St. Helena as a whole + that it will hardly feed the people in the interval between + old and new potatoes, will nevertheless amount to a surplus + at Coffin's, adding: + +I attribute the greater comparative success on my plantations to my +having abandoned the system of working a common field early in the +season.[64] I now measure the yield of each family's corn-patch +separately, with a view to pay them for it, if they have enough for +their support in their private fields, or to regulate their allowance, +if they need any, by the quantity they raise. + +We had a case of imprisonment here last week. I learned that old Nat's +boy, Antony, who wanted to marry Phillis, had given her up and taken +Mary Ann, July's daughter, without saying a word to me or any other +white man. I called him up to me one afternoon when I was there and +told him he must go to church and be married by the minister according +to law. He flatly refused, with a good deal of impertinence, using +some profane language learned in camp. I thereupon told him he must go +home with me, showing him I had a pistol, which I put in my outside +pocket. He came along, swearing all the way and muttering his +determination not to comply. I gave him lodging in the dark hole under +the stairs, with nothing to eat. Next morning old Nat came and +expostulated with him, joined by old Ben and Uncle Sam, all of whom +pitched into him and told him he was very foolish and ought to be +proud of such a chance. He finally gave up and promised to go. So I +let him off with an apology. Next Sunday he appeared and was married +before a whole church full of people. The wedding took place between +the regular church service and the funeral, allowing an hour of +interval, however. + +Cato never went back to Rose as he promised. 'Siah tells me he is +afraid of his father, old Toby, who has been in a state of chronic +feud with Rose's father, old Alex, and does all in his power to make +trouble. Cato has gone over to Pine Grove and begun to build a house. +I daresay he will take Rose into it bye and bye, when it is done. + +I have been very busy lately weighing pease and cotton and measuring +corn. The latter is not very pleasant, for I have to stay in the +corn-house and keep tally from nine to three o'clock, and the weevils +are more numerous than were the fleas the first week we came here to +live. Mosquitoes are about gone, but we have sand-flies again. No +fleas yet that I am aware of. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Oct. 23._ General Saxton returned, as you know, with full powers from +the President to raise one or if possible five negro regiments. I +think it will be difficult to induce the men to enlist. Their +treatment in the spring and summer was such as to prejudice them +against military duty under any circumstances. They were forcibly +drafted, were ill-treated by at least one officer,--who is a terror to +the whole black population,--have never been paid a cent; they +suffered from the change of diet, and quite as much from homesickness. +I think if their treatment in the spring had been different, it would +be possible to raise a regiment on these islands; as it is, I think it +will be surprising if they fill a company from St. Helena. I think, +too, that it would be very difficult, under any circumstances, to +train them into fighting condition under six months, and if they had +at the first the prospect of coming into actual conflict with the +Secesh, the number who would be willing to enlist would be extremely +small. They have not, generally speaking, the pluck to look in the +face the prospect of actual fighting, nor have they the character to +enlist for their own defense. They can understand the necessity of +their knowing how to defend themselves, they acknowledge their +obligations to help the Yankees, and do their part in keeping the +islands against their old masters; a good many of them express their +willingness to fight under white officers, and some have intimated a +desire to know something of drill and how to handle a musket. But they +are very timid and cautious. They fear that when they have learned +their drill they will be drafted. They are very reluctant to leave +their homes to go and live on Hilton Head or Port Royal, in camp, away +from their families and crops. The mere mention of "Captain Tobey," +with a hint that "General Saxton wants the black people to help the +white soldiers keep the Secesh off the islands," sends them in panic +into the woods. Mr. Philbrick saw the General this morning, and was +told that if the regiment were not raised we should have to give up +the whole enterprise; that the President and the people of the North +were looking to the raising of this regiment as a test experiment. +That if it succeeded and it was found that the negroes could and would +aid the Government, then the Government would be encouraged to hold +the islands, trusting not only that the negroes could aid in defending +them, but that as fast as negroes were freed, they could be used +effectively against the rebels. Moreover, that the success of one +regiment here would make the President's proclamation a more terribly +effective weapon against the Southerners. (There is no doubt that in +many parts of the South, especially on the Mississippi, the negroes +are much more intelligent than here. Those from the main seem a +superior class to those who have always lived on the islands. The +success of armed negroes of this inferior class would indicate the +danger of the masters of other slaves of a higher class, when they +learn that "all slaves of rebel masters who enter into the service of +the United States are forever free," with their families.) + +If, on the other hand, no black troops can be raised, the General says +that the Government will be discouraged from attempting any longer to +protect at such an expense a people who cannot or will not aid in +defending themselves. I hope that General Saxton has not held out too +grand hopes of the success of this undertaking to the President and to +others at the North, and I hope he is exaggerating the importance of +the movement. Perhaps the President wants to try his colonization +scheme on these people. He had better lose a campaign than evacuate +these islands and give up this experiment. This experiment and the war +must go on side by side. I hope that before the war is done we shall +have furnished the Government with sufficient facts to enable them to +form a policy for the treatment of the millions whom the conclusion of +the war, if not its continuance, must throw into our hands. + +I am very much afraid that the Government will look too much to the +material results of the year's occupation for determining the success +of free labor among the slaves. They will neglect to take into account +the discouragements and drawbacks of the year. The sudden reaction +consequent upon the change from slavery to what they hardly knew as +freedom; the confusion incident upon military occupation (and the +contradictory directions given concerning the year's crops); the +abundance of money where the cotton-agents and officers were +stationed, and the high wages promised and often obtained, at Hilton +Head and Beaufort; the lateness of the cotton crop, the poorness of +the seed, the uncertainty and doubt and want of system in regard to +the management of the crops; the drafting of the able-bodied men at a +critical period, their hardships and subsequent distrust and fear, or +idleness and insubordination; the changing of superintendents, the +fewness of both superintendents and teachers; and lastly, the shameful +delay in the payments, causing distrust, carelessness, neglect of +plantation work, and in some few cases, suffering for want of the +means to purchase clothing. It is too bad to treat people so, and it +is wonderful how much they have done and in what an excellent state +they are, under these discouraging circumstances. If they were assured +of a market at the end of the year, and sufficient money advanced them +to enable them to get "sweetening" and clothes through the year, I +would trust my plantations to go right ahead, put their crops into the +ground, and insure to the Government a handsome surplus next November. + +The cheerfulness and hopefulness of the people in regard to next +year's crops, and the interest they take in their success, is +surprising. "If we live to see," "if God spare life," they say, "we +will plant early, and begin in time, and then you will see. O--yes, +sar." + +Mr. Philbrick is appointed cotton-agent for this crop. He is going to +have the cotton ginned here, not at New York. Good seed is scarce. The +improved seed, the result of many years' cultivation and selection, +was lost to the island by the policy of ginning last year's crop in +New York. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Oct. 27._ When in Beaufort last Wednesday, I got leave to pay off my +people with my own funds, through the paymaster, Mr. Lee. So he came +here next day, and I advanced the funds, $649. I sent Joe out to tell +the people to come and get their money, but they didn't come with the +usual promptness; bye and bye two men came to sound the way, the rest +held back. I laughed at them and sent them off with the chink in their +pockets, after which the rest came fast enough. They were evidently +afraid of some trap to press them into United States service as +General Hunter did. I didn't have the slightest difficulty in +collecting what I had advanced last September. Every one paid it +cheerfully and thanked us for what they got. This payment was all in +specie. I don't think I shall be refunded in coin, and shall probably +lose the difference, which is now about $120, but I don't grudge them +this. I had rather let it go than see them paid in the paper currency +which they can't read or judge of. It will come to that bye and bye, +however, for I can't get any more coin here, and half of this money +may not come back again into my hands. + +General Saxton is striving earnestly to fill up his brigade with +negroes, but finds it very slow work. The people are so well off on +the plantations they don't see why they should go and expose +themselves. Moreover, the way they were treated last summer is not +very attractive to them. Many of their officers abused them, and they +were very generally insulted by every white man they met. It will now +require a good deal of time and very judicious, careful treatment to +get rid of these impressions, particularly as some of the very +officers who abused and maltreated the men are still in General +Saxton's confidence and have places in his new organization. + +I took this place[65] more because I want to see the work properly +done and to keep it out of the hands of speculators and sharks than +because I wanted the position. It is a useful position, however, and I +mean to make it so. + +A meeting of superintendents[66] is to be held at the Episcopal Church +next Wednesday, which I shall attend, and employ the occasion by +trying to start some more methodical system of employing the negroes +than heretofore. + +_Nov. 2._ At the meeting we discussed several methods of dealing with +the corn crop, and several of the superintendents reported that the +negroes had raised hardly enough corn to feed the plantation horses +and mules on when at work. The small yield of cotton was also talked +over and its causes discussed. I do not think it will pay expenses +even on this island. My own plantations will yield about $5000 worth, +when I expected $15,000, a good share of my crop having rotted in the +pods during the rains in the early part of October and another share +having dropped off the plant before filling, probably from lack of +drainage after the heavy July rains. + +After returning from the meeting I found a large box of woolen goods +forwarded by Edward Atkinson. I sold $100 worth the next day. Though +providing for their wants quite freely, the people seem more frugal +with their money than last summer, and I am glad to see them so. + +As far as I can learn now there are very few gins able to work[67] in +the department. I have some very good seed here and at Pine Grove +which I think I can gin on the spot. Mr. S.[68] came and spent a night +here. He came to hire some men to go with him to pick up a lot of +stray timber on commission for the Government. So my plans for ginning +cotton here are postponed for a while. I had flattered myself that we +were fairly rid of him, and the men were beginning to take an interest +in plantation work in his absence, but he turns up again just as +disagreeable as ever. + +There have been great exertions made the week past to fill the ranks +of the first negro regiment. A Rev. Mr. Fowler has been appointed +chaplain and is at work recruiting, appealing to their religious +feelings. He spent two nights here and talked in the praise-house, +both evenings. The women came to hear him, but the young men were shy. +Not one came near him, nor would they come near me when he was +present. + +The last time I saw General Saxton he seemed to think our whole +destiny depended on the success of this negro recruitment. It _is_ +certainly a very important matter, but I think as before that it is +doomed to fail here at present, from the imbecile character of the +people. I thought while at work with Mr. Fowler that if I were to go +as Captain I might get a company without trouble, but I failed to get +a single man when seriously proposing it to them. If I had been able +to raise a company to follow me and the same men would not have gone +without me, I think I should have accepted General Saxton's offer,[69] +but although I consider the arming of the negroes the most important +question of the day, I don't feel bound to take hold unless I can give +an impetus to the undertaking. I think it would have been attended +with some degree of success a year ago at this place, directly after +the masters left, when the negroes had more spite in them and had seen +less of their facilities for making money which they have enjoyed this +summer, and if General Hunter had not made his lamentable blunder, the +men would not have been disgusted with camp-life at least, but it is +difficult enough to get any one of them to feel any pluck. We +succeeded in getting Ranty to promise to go, and he seemed quite +earnest, but when he came to start next morning he suddenly found he +had a pain in his chest! his heart failed him and he backed square +out. Next day he came over here and, after begging some time for me to +give him a shirt, without success, offered me in payment for it a +counterfeit half-dollar which I had told him a week ago was such, but +which he had meantime polished up and hoped to pass. So you see when a +man's heart fails him he will stoop to almost anything. + +We had four couples married after church to-day, Andrew and Phoebe of +Pine Grove among the rest. Mr. Phillips tried to tie all four knots at +one twitch, but found he had his hands full with two couples at once +and concluded to take them in detail. They all behaved very well and +seemed impressed with the ceremony, so it certainly has an excellent +effect. We also had an address from Prince Rivers,[70] a black +coachman from Beaufort, who has been in General Hunter's regiment all +summer, and is of sufficient intelligence to take a lively interest in +the cause of enlistment. He has been to Philadelphia lately and comes +back duly impressed with the magnitude of the country and the +importance of the "negro question," but has not sufficient eloquence +to get many recruits. Of course the young men kept away from church +and will keep away, so long as the subject is discussed. They have +made up their silly minds and don't want to be convinced or persuaded +to any change. + +You can imagine what a comfort it is to see Mr. G. again and looking +so well. + + W. C. G., he who in June spoke so lightly of the dangers of + the Sea Island climate, had been dangerously ill during the + summer and had been obliged to go North for some weeks. In a + letter written October 30 he refers to the death of one of + the superintendents, adding, "It greatly startled me." A + month later another of the superintendents died in the same + house, which later proved fatal to still a third white man. + These three were cases of typhoid, but the malarial fever of + the district not infrequently was as deadly; on October 30 + General Mitchel himself died of it. The fact as to the + climate is expressed in one of the letters by the statement + that fevers were "common among the negroes" and "universal + among the whites." A letter of Mr. Philbrick's, written + early in October, speaks of Captain Hooper's "indisposition" + as having cut down "the trio of tough ones" to himself and + Mr. Soule. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Nov. 7._ Everybody has been at work this week digging their winter +crop of sweet potatoes, planted with slips in July. They bear famously +on all three of my plantations, yielding in some cases two hundred +bushels per acre. You know I told every man to plant for his own +family separately, so that each one takes the potatoes home to his own +yard and buries them, for winter use. They dig a hole about four or +five feet in diameter and one foot deep, in which they pack the +potatoes and pile them up above ground in a conical heap about four +feet high. So when done they look like a sort of overgrown muskrat's +nest, or small wigwam.[71] Large families have in some cases seven or +eight of these conical heaps in their back yards. + +The mellowing effect of the potato harvest upon the hearts of the +people is manifest. Yesterday was a rainy day and the women kept +straggling up here in squads all day. Each one brought a basket of +potatoes on her head, from a peck to half a bushel, as a present to +me. Uncle Sam and Joe are making a cone of them in the yard. Many of +the children bring ground-nuts, of which I now have half a bushel. +They have raised a good crop of them this year, and we amuse ourselves +evenings by roasting them in the ashes of our open fire and munching +them at leisure. I endeavor to acknowledge all these good-will +offerings in kind, by making deposits of sugar or coffee in the +baskets after emptying the nuts. + +We live in the dining-room now, that being the only room without +broken glass, and even there I can't get the thermometer above 60° +with all the fire I can build. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Nov. 8._ The only interesting event the day that I was in Beaufort I +was obliged to leave without beholding, viz.: the mustering in of the +first full company of the new regiment,[72] Captain James! They +marched through the streets just before I came away, making a fine +appearance. Many of them were in the first regiment,[73] and the +regularity and steadiness of their marching was very creditable. They +are a fine body of men. The regiment is filling fast, its friends are +much encouraged. A number of men from the regiment (now numbering +about four hundred) have been allowed to return home for a few days, +and I think they will carry back quite a number with them. + +We have been in occupation just a year. The future, with the prospect +of sale, or removal, or renewed blunders and mismanagement, is not +very cheerful. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Nov. 15._ Our island work is acquiring a little more system, but I'm +not sure that the people are as good as they were six months ago. +Great mistakes have been made, and I'm afraid the experiment so far +only shows the absolute necessity of avoiding errors which common +sense pointed out before any experience. Still, my belief isn't +altered that the slaves would speedily become a self-supporting +people, either by a system of wise and humane care, or by the opposite +method of letting them alone to feel the misery consequent on idleness +and the comfort that with very many would at once result from +industry. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Nov. 16._ I had a talk with General Saxton. He was feeling very blue, +had just been to Hilton Head to get some tents for his new recruits of +which he enlisted about a hundred on his recent expedition to St. +Mary's.[74] There are some 3000 tents in warehouse there, but General +Brannan[75] refused to open it for him, alleging the advice of the +Medical Department, which closed it because yellow fever had been near +it. Now it is notorious that whenever one of General Brannan's men +wants anything from the same warehouse, he gives a special order and +it is opened for him, but not for General Saxton, the _Abolitionist_. +So the new recruits have to sleep in open air these frosty nights, +dampening their ardor somewhat. General Saxton agreed with me that if +there is no more earnestness and sincerity among other army officers +than among the specimens we have had here, we should all go to the +dogs. His expedition was so successful that he was in good spirits +till balked by General Brannan. The best item in it was that one of +the rebel prisoners taken was marched to Beaufort jail guarded by one +of his former slaves! The conduct of the negro troops was very well +spoken of by their officers, but is the subject of a good deal of +ribaldry among the white soldiers at Beaufort, who exhibit a degree of +hatred really fiendish towards the black regiment, taking their cue +from their commanding officer, of course. + +We had a very interesting discussion on Wednesday about the future +management of the plantations. I advocated the subdivision of the +land, allotting to each family what it could cultivate and measuring +their crops separately. Mr. Bryant, who came from Edisto last +June,[76] preferred working the people in a gang with a foreman, and +paying them by the month. His people had worked very well in that way, +but it would be impossible to work the people on this island in that +way. They are too independent and too ignorant to see the advantages +of it, and too deceitful to enable any foreman to discriminate between +the lazy and industrious. Such a system, with the insufficient force +of white foremen we could supply, would be only a premium on deceit +and laziness, and would fail to call out the individual exertions of +the people. + +The cotton crop will be worth, on this and Ladies Island, about +$40,000. I have stored twenty-five thousand pounds stone cotton[77] on +my plantations which will be worth at least $4000. The Pine Grove +people have done picking and commenced ginning this week. All the men +take hold of it readily. I can't find foot-gins enough here to gin +more than one fourth the crop, and I don't think it worth while to gin +by steam or horse-power, so remote as we are from mechanical +repair-shops. There are several power-gins which might be readily +fitted up in time of peace, but now it would cost too much. The +engines have been appropriated to sawmills in some cases, and worn out +in others, while the belting and other movable parts have all been +stolen by the negroes. + +I have not yet decided whether or not to take care of these +plantations another year. General Saxton says he don't think our +relations with the people will be disturbed by the tax-commissioners, +but, if the estates are offered for sale[78] as they expect to do, I +don't see how he is to help it. I think I should like to buy this one +and see what could be done with the people. I should not expect to +make anything out of it. I don't believe much can be made out of this +generation by free labor, nor out of the next without teaching them to +read, and am sorry so little has been done as yet in the teaching +department. It is difficult to get people to stick to it, especially +in summer and during the unhealthy season. + +I have already started ginning on nine plantations along this seaside +road and shall succeed in saving on the spot sufficient seed to plant +this island, I think. General Saxton has given me _carte blanche_ as +to ginning and general management of the crop. It seems to be his way +to leave all details to his subordinates, whom he holds responsible +for a proper result. If I had the same authority in New York I could +save something as compared with last year's crop, which was nearly all +eaten up by the brokers and agents and contractors, through whose +hands it passed, leaving but $200,000 net proceeds from a shipment of +about a million dollars' worth. + +Mr. Lee has paid me the amount I advanced on my plantation pay-rolls +for July and August. I have finished up my pay-rolls for September and +October and intend to get him to go and pay off my people for these +months with my funds when paying the other plantations for June and +July. + +In the prolonged absence of window-glass, I have resorted to other +expedients known to Irishmen, etc., but can't keep the wind out of my +chamber these frosty nights by any amount of ingenuity. Shingles might +do it, but they are as difficult to obtain as the window-glass, and +the towels won't stay put in a high wind. + +We are very sorry to hear of Captain Hooper's serious illness. He had +kept up his strength so long on quinine during the summer, that a +break-down must be dangerous now. I imagine that General Saxton misses +his indefatigable zeal and straightforward gentleness. + +I want to see what is to be done at the tax-sale and what sort of a +title is to be given. For I don't think I shall stay here another year +unless I can control my men better than I have done, and I don't +believe a better control can be had with the long-delayed payments +rendered almost necessary by the lumbering machinery of the +Quartermaster's department. + + The next letter is from C. P. W., and sets forth the result + of his cogitations on plantation methods. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Nov. 16._ The slip-potato crop is the only crop by which to judge of +the negroes' capacity to take care of themselves. This crop they have, +as a general rule, raised entirely by themselves, and for their own +consumption; they found their own manure, and received no help except +the use (small) of the Government teams on the place. The crop +exceeds, on the average, one hundred per cent. that raised by their +masters,--I mean that each man gets twice as much as he used to when +they worked and shared in common; and in some cases the tasks bear +twice as much. "They beer uncommon." "If we live to see," all the +crops next year, under a management that will encourage and +stimulate, will be proportionally as good as this 'tater crop. One +thing the people are universally opposed to. They all swear that they +will not work in gang, _i. e._, all working the whole, and all sharing +alike. On those places where the root 'taters were thus worked this +year, the crop did very poorly, and gave out long before its time. +Where the Government corn was thus worked, the yield averages, I +suppose, six to ten bushels, the nigger-field, meantime, bearing twice +as much, where they had manure. + +Wherever the people have been able to look forward to the result of +the crop as beneficial to them, they have shown industry, care, and +energy in putting it through. There is much laziness to be overcome in +them, however; even in tending their own crops they sometimes neglect +well-known precautions because they cost too much trouble. But the +best of them have carried their own crops well, and their example is +beneficial in stimulating the lazier ones to exertion. There is a good +deal of emulation among them; they will not sit quietly and see +another earning all the money. And it is far better to adapt the +system to the intelligence of the best than to treat them all, as one +occasionally has to treat one or two, in special matters, like mere +children. I am sure a large number of them could get through the year +without any pecuniary aid from Government, on the simple assurance +that they should be paid for their crop when they had picked it. I am +often urged by the best of the people not to trouble myself about the +means of doing work, but just to tell them to do the work, and expect +to see it done, and not encourage them to ask for help to do +everything. "They kin do it, sir; don't you worry yeurself, sir; they +kin find herself, sir." They have not been working cotton for nothing +for so many years under their masters. They recollect how their +masters used to treat the land and crops, and what treatment proved +most successful. They need supervision and direction constantly, if +only to prevent fighting when one says "I free," "I as much right to +ole missus' things as you," etc., and more than all, they need the +presence and conversation of a white man, not only to elevate them, +but to encourage and stimulate them. + +There is but one opinion expressed. "We won't be driven by nobody;" "I +don't want no driving, either by black man or white man." "We don't +want de whole valler of de cotton. De land belongs to de Gover_ment_, +de mule and ting on de place belong to de Gover_ment_, and we have to +'spect to pay somef'n for um. But you just pay us our share, accordin' +as we make crop, and if you live to see, Marsa Charlie, and God spare +life, you'll _see a crop on dis place next year_." "There will be a +difference in de land, sir, but we can't help dat; each one work his +own and do as well as he kin." It is mere fortune that one is on one +soil, another on another, kept in better order, perhaps, by the Secesh +master. + +The negroes ought not to bear the burden of the loss of their crop +through any external cause, as the caterpillar, drought, etc. The +Government ought to stand in the gap and bear the loss. But I should +not tell the negroes anything about such atonement before it is made, +else one would be overwhelmed with applications from those who had +become tired of cotton-hoeing, and a thousand plausible stories would +be fabricated, to show that this man or that was peculiarly afflicted +in his crop. + +_Nov. 25._ The people have begun ginning cotton on several places. The +gins are of the rudest construction. Two rollers, about the size of a +spool of thread, one above the other, horizontal, just touching, are +turned in opposite directions by two upright fly-wheels, moved by a +single treadle. The cotton, with the seed in it, is presented to these +rollers, which catch it and draw it through, leaving the seed behind. +Ginning is considered "light work." Thirty pounds of the clean cotton +is considered a good day's work. It is pretty severe for the knees. +Women gin with the men. The movement of "jump and change feet" when +one knee gets tired should be introduced into the ballet; it is very +elegant. + +We have been reduced to the old system of rationing.[79] For the last +two months we have had liberty to draw the value of the soldier's +ration which is allowed us, in any kind of food. Consequently +everybody has rushed for sugar, rice, candles, and molasses, +disdaining hard bread, salt beef, and such low fare. Of course there +was soon a deficiency of the better articles in the Department, the +Army Commissary at Hilton Head declaring that we used up more candles +and sugar than any regiment; so we have got to draw soldier's rations +again, a few candles, a little dab of sugar, a big hunk of salt food, +and hard biscuit. They can be swapped for duck and chickens, but what +a bother to get them. + +_Nov. 26._ I hear that Hunter's reappointment[80] causes some +dissatisfaction among the pro-slavery army officers here, as might be +expected. + +_Dec. 2._ It is now rumored that we are likely to receive but little +help from Congress this winter, and that the Cotton Fund[81] is +getting low. It is said that the taking of Charleston would benefit us +more than anything else could; that any way we must take some place on +the main to attract attention and inspire confidence. The black +regiment may do something for our interests. General Saxton is going +to send a report of the year's work to Headquarters, and it will +doubtless be laid before Congress. Commissioners, if appointed to +investigate the matter, would probably have their notions of the +character, ability, and prospects of the "Universal Nigger" much +revised, with additions and corrections, before their investigations +were completed. You at the North know nothing about niggers, nothing +at all. When more is known of their powers and capacity and character +more attention will be paid to the cultivation of free black labor. + + The next letter again focuses attention on the white + population. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Nov. 29._ The wives are multiplying on St. Helena. Since Mrs. Bryant +came, two other superintendents have made their houses homes,--one our +Baptist parson, and the other a young fellow who went home shortly +before me to marry his betrothed on our salary of $50 a month. Brave +youth--in these times! One man has brought his sister and established +her as the beauty of the island; one his mother; and one an older +sister, a perfect New England housekeeper, who makes his home the +paradise of mince-pies and family bread. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Dec. 10._ (At the Oaks.) I like the General[82] ever so much. He is +so simple--straightforward, and earnest, so evidently pure and +unselfish and so kind in his manner. + +I rode down to Dr. Jenkins' with Mr. G., but found all the "white +folks" gone to Hilton Head. I visited the cotton-house, where about a +dozen of the people were ginning cotton. They had just packed two +bales of it, which I ripped open to inspect, and found, as I had +feared, that it wasn't half cleaned. I left a note for Mr. Bryant +telling him I didn't want to send the cotton off so and told his +driver. Mr. B. was not acquainted with the way the staple is usually +prepared for market, concerning which I had taken pains to inform +myself before leaving home, and the negroes had taken the chance to +shirk. I started off to take the tour of Ladies Island and see their +cotton. I visited about a dozen cotton-houses during the day along the +east side of the island, and rode on to Cuthbert's Point to sleep with +Joe Reed and Mr. Hull. I found them delightfully situated in a small +house on Beaufort River surrounded by a superb grove of live-oaks, +clear of brush and nicely kept. It is the finest situation that I have +found in the State, but the greater part of the plantations on Ladies +Island are miserably poor, being the property of small proprietors who +had not sufficient capital to make planting profitable. The soil is +poor and the negroes for the most part have not sufficient food on +hand for the coming year. The cotton crop is proportionally small and +poor. No ginning apparatus being found there, I shall have it all +taken to Beaufort for the steam-gins. + +Leaving Cuthbert's Point this morning, I rode with Mr. Hull to the +superintendents' meeting at the Episcopal Church, about eighteen +miles, and back here to sleep. We have matured a plan of operations +for the employment of the negroes next year, at these meetings, and it +is to be presented to General Saxton for his approval this week.[83] + +I have made some further inquiries of Dr. Brisbane, one of the +tax-commissioners, about the sale of lands, which is to take place on +the first of February next. He tells me it is to be a free sale and +that the Government warrants the title, subject, however, to +redemption by such proprietors as can prove themselves loyal within +one year. I think it highly important that the welfare of these +negroes should not be intrusted to speculators, and have written to +Dr. Russell[84] to see if Boston people can't be interested, +individually or collectively, in buying these lands and employing the +laborers. I am ready to go into it as far as I am able alone, and have +offered my time in Boston to carry out any plan they think best. If I +can't get any coöperation, I mean to buy some of the estates alone, if +they don't go very high, and carry them on by means of such agents as +I can get. I can find several first-rate men among the superintendents +here who would work for me and do well, but I don't think I should +care to stay here next summer, for sanitary reasons if nothing more. +My experience here will enable me to act to good advantage in carrying +on any such undertaking, and I hope to be of use in a permanent way to +these people with whom I have been thrown in contact this year. I have +given [to Dr. Russell] an exact statement, in dollars and cents, of +the expenses and products of my three plantations this year, showing a +profit to the Government of about $2000,[85] besides providing a +year's supply of food to a population of four hundred and fifty +blacks, "big and little." This island is very much more favorably +placed than Ladies, Port Royal, or Hilton Head Islands, which are all +much exposed to the depredations of the Union soldiers. I find on the +north end of Ladies Island the pickets are changed every little while, +and have killed nearly all the negroes' poultry. The people don't dare +to leave their houses, and take all their hens into their houses every +night. They shoot their pigs and in one case have shot two working +mules! All these things are duly reported to General Saxton, but it +does no good. Two regiments have come to encamp at Land's End on St. +Helena, and Mr. Hammond says they have burnt up a mile of his fences, +and burn the new rails just split out in the woods; they burn the +heaps of pine leaves raked up for manure and take possession of all +his cotton and corn houses. It is certainly of no use to try to carry +on any planting near these fellows. They would steal all the crops if +any grew near them,[86] and if the whole military establishment is to +be transferred to this side the harbour, it is of little use to try to +do much on that end of the island. Coffin's Point is, however, remote +from all these disturbances, and I hope it will remain so. I am +anxious to continue this free-labor experiment through a term of years +and under circumstances more favorable than those under which we have +this year been placed. I do not see how I can do much good in any +other way. + + The next letter is the first from H. W. on her return to + Port Royal after spending the summer at home. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Coffin's Point, Dec. 14._ As we drew near the Fripp Point place at +last, the people began to gather on the shore to watch us, and when +the boat stopped the people were all on the banks, pressing forward, +and Sammy rushed into the water and took me ashore in his arms. Then +they got my trunks in the same manner, and such a shaking of hands! +"So glad for see you! Glad for see you come back." Boys were sent off +at once to catch the mules to take me over, while I went into 'Siah's +house to wait, and had some hominy and chicken, as I was very hungry. +Everything was as neat as a pin here--the children were kept out of +the house while I was eating, and then the hominy and chicken were +mixed and passed round among the women when I had finished. Mr. +Philbrick's sulky happened to be over there to be mended, and as it +was finished I drove off in it, Sammy, Peter, and Tony on the +mule-cart with all my traps, and Chester following me. The children +all asked about school at once, and as I was waiting I drew words for +them to spell in the sand to see how much they remembered. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Dec. 14._ I am glad H. came, for Mr. Philbrick has decided that he +cannot attend to his plantations and his cotton-agency at the same +time, and needs some one to take his place here. He thinks of buying +the place in the spring, when the lands are sold (Feb. 1), and I have +agreed to work it for him part of the time. So that, as some one must +take Mr. Philbrick's place, and as the people had better have me than +a stranger, and as I had better become acquainted with them at once, +if I am to have charge of them in the spring, I have decided to take +the places off his hands, stay here with H., and let my own +plantations go to as good a person as I can find. H. is most welcome +and much needed here; I am thankful to have her here, if only for the +children's sakes. The only difficulty is that she may be devoured on +her first visit to Pine Grove. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Dec. 16._ Had the children sent for to school. They brought eggs, and +were pleased enough to begin school again. + +_Dec. 18._ Told the children yesterday that I wanted them to bring me +some corn "shucks," as they call them, which are all left on the +stalks in the fields. Mr. Philbrick thought I could get enough to +stuff a bed with. I thought so too when the children all appeared with +sheets and bags full on their heads, some containing two or three +bushels! + +_Dec. 20._ C. managed to get the piano downstairs this morning before +he went off. I went with him in the double sulky as far as the +cotton-house and then made an expedition to the quarters, where I +shook hands with every man and woman to be seen, inspected every new +baby (there have been a dozen born since I went away), visited Bacchus +in his school, was kindly greeted, though the people hardly knew me +and I don't know their names at all, was told that I looked "more +hearty" than when I went away, and returned with two dozen eggs and +the morning school at my heels. + + Two dozen eggs at fifty cents a dozen was no mean proof of + affection! + +_Dec. 21._ We started for church. C. rode his largest horse and +preceded or followed me in the double sulky, an unpainted box with a +seat in it, of Mr. Philbrick's manufacture and quite "tasty" for these +parts, on a single pair of wheels; and though it is on springs the +exercise is not slight which one gets in driving over these sandy, +uneven roads. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Sunday evg. Dec. 21._ The cotton on this island is nearly all ginned. +I have not been able to start the steam-gins in Beaufort yet--am +waiting for authority to use the steam, which comes from the +condensing boiler under the control of General Brannan's +quartermaster. I asked General Saxton about it the other day, but he +said he didn't know as they would let him have it. The General feels +very blue about his position here, and I don't wonder. He declares he +will not stay if he is not sustained, and says that General +Halleck[87] sympathizes with Brannan and don't mean to let him be +removed. + +_Wednesday evg._ I looked over the Coffin people's cotton Monday and +found it was not yet clean enough to pack, so refused to weigh it, and +set the women at work picking over the whole of it again. Each woman +keeps her own pile--the same that she and her husband raised. + +I find rumors here that General Saxton and staff are to be relieved. +General Saxton believes in his being relieved, but no mail has come +yet to confirm it. + +I want to keep R., G., C. P. W. and Bryant on plantations which I may +buy, and they are all anxious to stay. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Dec. 22._ Joe doubled up and went off into convulsions when C. +mentioned to me at table that he had been to call on Mrs. Jenkins +(Wil'by) and did not find her at home! I gave Joe a piece of +gingerbread for her the other day, and he informed me this morning +that she found it very "palatiable"! He inquired how my "palate was +satisfy" with some oysters he fried for me the other day. + +_Christmas._ C. took me in his double sulky to see the Pine Grove +people, driving first to the quarters here, where I went into Bacchus' +school and distributed toys. I had also armed myself with a hundred +cents and several pounds of candy. At Pine Grove the people crowded +about to shake hands, and as I went through the street, stopping at +every house, they were pleased as possible that I remembered their +names. They were very eager to know if I was not going to teach +school, the children all rushing home to wash face and hands and dress +themselves in their best, after the old fashion, when I told them I +wanted to have them go to the praise-house. Flora followed me about, +as usual. I saw York for the first time. He is a very fine-looking +specimen of a thorough black, large, manly, courteous, and +straightforward. + +Once more in the old praise-house, I heard the children spell, and +then distributed toys among them, with candy to the babies and grown +people! and gave to each of the girls who have been married since I +left a Bible with her name in it. All seemed honestly glad to see me +there--there was no mistaking their shining faces. I was there two +hours and then went to Fripp Point, where I gave candy to all the +grown people and children, and a toy to each child. I do not know all +names and faces anywhere except at Pine Grove. + +_Dec. 26._ I was in the midst of school when Joe announced two +strangers on horseback. They were the Quartermaster and Adjutant of +the 1st S. C. V., come for a dozen cattle to be roasted on New Year's +Day at General Saxton's grand celebration. C. and the officers went +off to select the cattle. They had a very long tramp of it and did not +get back till some time after dark. They are very pleasant and +gentlemanly and give a charming impression of their intercourse with +Colonel Higginson, and of his with the regiment. They had no "taps" +Christmas Eve or night, and the men kept their "shout" up all night. +One of the Captains heard a negro praying most fervently, contrasting +their "lasty Christymas and thisty Christymas," greatly to the +advantage of that in the "Yankee Camp" with "too much for eat." + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Dec. 26._ The preparation of the cotton for ginning goes on very +slowly. I am out of all patience with some of the superintendents. +They are slower than the negroes. I don't believe in putting Reverends +in places where prompt business men are required. Some of them don't +get through morning prayers and get about their business till nearly +noon, and then depend entirely upon their black drivers for their +information in regard to plantation matters. I saw Captain Hooper for +a few minutes last evening and he relieved my mind about General +Saxton's removal. It seems it was all a false report got up for a +sensation by the _Herald_. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Dec. 28._ I was in the midst of school when it was announced that Mr. +G. was coming. The children's eyes glistened and they audibly +expressed their delight, but kept their seats very well till he was +fairly in the room and had shaken hands with one or two near him; then +their impatience could resist no longer and they crowded about him +with great delight, tumbling over the benches in their eagerness to +shake hands with him. It was a very pretty sight. + +Mr. Philbrick has been entertaining us with an account of his week's +experience, which ended at church to-day in a funny way. A couple came +forward to be married after church, as often happens, when Sarah from +this place got up and remarked that was her husband! Whereupon Mr. +Philbrick was called in from the yard and promised to investigate and +report. Jack said he had nothing against Sarah, but he did not live on +the plantation now, and wanted a wife at Hilton Head. + +General Saxton was at church to-day to invite the people to camp +Thursday, telling them that they need not be afraid to go, as no one +would be kept there against their will. They are afraid of a trap, as +they were at the Fourth of July Celebration, but I hope a good many +will have the sense to go. + +Mr. Philbrick and C. are having an amiable comparison of relative +plantation work and which has raised the most cotton. The cotton +raised on these places and C.'s and R.'s is more than half of that +raised on all the islands. + +The Pine Grove house has been broken into and the furniture we left +there carried off. The way in which those people have degenerated and +these improved since we moved here is a proof of how necessary it is +that they should have the care and oversight of white people in this +transition state. When we lived there, that plantation was the best +behaved and this the worst; now the reverse is the case. The Point +Plantation has not been affected so much any way, as they never had a +"white house" and have the same excellent driver. + +Finding that Maria, the old nurse, and some babies were sick, I made a +pilgrimage to the quarters, visited the invalids and also Bacchus' +school, and told the people I hoped they would go to the Celebration +at camp. As I went through the long street, women were washing outside +their doors, sitting on their doorsteps sewing or tending babies, +while the smaller children were rolling in the dirt. In one of the +cabins I accidentally encountered Sarah, the deserted wife, and coming +out found Grace, Jack's mother, holding forth in her dignified way +upon the subject, condemning her son, quietly but earnestly. She +turned to Sarah as she came out and, gesticulating with her hands +respectively, said, "I take Becca in dis han' and carry her to +punishment, an' Sarah in dis right han' and carry her to Christ." She +is a "fine figure of a woman"--I wish I could have drawn her as she +stood. She did more work than any one on the plantation on cotton this +year. Her husband was coachman and was taken off by the overseer the +day after the "gun was fire at Hilton Head." + +Minda gave me an amusing account of a conversation she heard between +Mr. Cockloft, the overseer, and his niece, Miss "Arnie," about the +prospect of the Yankees coming here, she telling him, when he was +expressing his gratification at the very large crop raised last year, +that he did not talk sense,--he was just raising it for the Yankees. +And when they had to run off, in the midst of all the crying and +dismay, she could not resist telling him she was glad of it, to prove +her right. Minda said that she knew more than her uncle because she +had been to school, and had "high edicate." They sent Henry to the +other end of the island to see if the forts were really taken, and he +came back and told them that they had better be off, for all the +Yankee ships were "going in procession up to Beaufort, solemn as a +funeral." + +_Dec. 30._ My occupation was interrupted by the arrival of William +Hall,[88] bag and baggage. You can think of us as a household of +three[89] pursuing our several occupations, of which more hereafter. + + + + +1863 + + _Celebration of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation--The + land-sales of 1863, Mr. Philbrick's purchase of + plantations--"Shop"--Visit to Camp--Arrest of General + Stevenson--Difficulties with army officers--More drafting by + Hunter--Encouraging signs among the negroes--"The black + draft"--The siege of Charleston--Assault on Fort + Wagner--Care of the wounded--Depredations of the soldiers on + the plantations--Interest in the former owners of + plantations--The "Plantation Commission" an informal civil + court--Negro speech and negro ways--Attacks on Mr. Philbrick + as a "speculator"--Discouraging signs among the + negroes--Plans of the Government for selling land to the + negroes--The cotton crop of 1863--The black draft again._ + + + The first letter of 1863 gives an account of the ceremonies + with which the Sea Islands celebrated the Emancipation + Proclamation. The place was the Smith Plantation, on Port + Royal Island, where the First South Carolina had its camp. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Jan. 1, 1863._ We started [from R.'s] at ten o'clock with four +oarsmen, under a cloudless sky, which remained undimmed through the +day. The men sang and we sang, as we wound our way through the +marsh-bound creek, reaching the Smith Plantation just as the _Flora_ +was landing her first load from the Ferry. We followed the crowd up to +the grove of live-oaks with their moss trimmings, which did not look +so dreary under a winter's sun, but very summer-like and beautiful. +The regiment, which had been drawn up at the wharf to receive the +guests from Beaufort, escorted them to the platform in the middle of +the grove, where we found it--the regiment--in a circle round the +stand, where they remained quiet and orderly as possible through the +whole proceedings, which lasted about three hours. Guests, white and +colored, were admitted within the line, and as ladies we were shown +seats on the platform. The general arrived in his carriage with the +Mission House[90] ladies. + +It is simply impossible to give you any adequate idea of the next +three hours. Picture the scene to yourself if you can,--I will tell +you all the facts,--but if I could transcribe every word that was +uttered, still nothing could convey to you any conception of the +solemnity and interest of the occasion. Mr. Judd, General +Superintendent of the Island, was master of ceremonies, and first +introduced Mr. Fowler, the Chaplain, who made a prayer,--then he +announced that the President's Proclamation would be read, and General +Saxton's also, by a gentleman who would be introduced by Colonel +Higginson. And he rose amid perfect silence, his clear rich voice +falling most deliciously on the ear as he began to speak. He said that +the Proclamation would be read "by a South Carolinian to South +Carolinians"--a man who many years before had carried the same glad +tidings to his own slaves now brought them to them, and with a few +most pertinent words introduced Dr. Brisbane, one of the +tax-commissioners here now, who read both proclamations extremely +well. They cheered most heartily at the President's name, and at the +close gave nine with a will for General "Saxby," as they call him. +Mr. Zachos then read an ode he had written for the occasion, which was +sung by the white people (printed copies being distributed, he did not +line it as is the fashion in these parts)--to "Scots wha hae." I +forgot to mention that there was a band on the platform which +discoursed excellent music from time to time. At this stage of the +proceedings Mr. French rose and, in a short address, presented to +Colonel Higginson from friends in New York a beautiful silk flag, on +which was embroidered the name of the regiment and "The Year of +Jubilee has come!" + +Just as Colonel Higginson had taken the flag and was opening his lips +to answer (his face while Mr. French was speaking was a beautiful +sight), a single woman's voice below us near the corner of the +platform began singing "My Country, 'tis of thee." It was very sweet +and low--gradually other voices about her joined in and it began to +spread up to the platform, till Colonel Higginson turned and said, +"Leave it to them," when the negroes sang it to the end. He stood with +the flag in one hand looking down at them, and when the song ceased, +his own words flowed as musically, saying that he could give no answer +so appropriate and touching as had just been made. In all the singing +he had heard from them, that song he had never heard before--they +never could have truly sung "my country" till that day. He talked in +the most charming manner for over half an hour, keeping every one's +attention, the negroes' upturned faces as interested as any, if not +quite as comprehending. Then he called Sergeant Rivers and delivered +the flag to his keeping, with the most solemn words, telling him that +his life was chained to it and he must die to defend it. Prince Rivers +looked him in the eye while he spoke, and when he ended with a "Do you +understand?" which must have thrilled through every one, answered most +earnestly, "Yas, Sar." The Colonel then, with the same solemnity, gave +into the charge of Corporal Robert Sutton[91] a bunting flag of the +same size; then stepping back stood with folded arms and bare head +while the two men spoke in turn to their countrymen. Rivers is a very +smart fellow, has been North and is heart and soul in the regiment and +against the "Seceshky." He spoke well; but Sutton with his plain +common sense and simpler language spoke better. He made telling +points; told them there was not one in that crowd but had sister, +brother, or some relation among the rebels still; that all was not +done because they were so happily off, that they should not be content +till all their people were as well off, if they died in helping them; +and when he ended with an appeal to them to above all follow after +their Great Captain, Jesus, who never was defeated, there were many +moist eyes in the crowd. + +General Saxton then said a few words, regretting that his flag had not +arrived as he intended, and introduced Mrs. Gage, who spoke to them of +her visit to St. Croix and how the negroes on that island had freed +themselves, and telling them that her own sons were in the army; she +might any day hear of their death, but that she was willing they +should die in the cause and she hoped they were ready to die too. +Quartermaster Bingham led the regiment in singing "Marching Along." +Mr. Judd had written a hymn which he and a few friends sang. Judge +Stickney spoke. The whole regiment then sang "John Brown," and was +dismissed in a few words from the Colonel to the tables for the twelve +roasted oxen,[92] hard bread, and molasses and water, except one +company and certain corporals whom he mentioned, who came to the foot +of the steps to escort the colors. + +Lieutenant Duhurst was waiting to escort us to dinner at his +mess-table. We walked into the old fort, part of the walls of which +are still standing, made of oyster-shells and cement, very hard still. +It was built, say the authorities, in 1562, half a century before the +Pilgrims landed. + +Miss Forten[93] had a letter from Whittier enclosing a song he had +written for the Jubilee and which they have been teaching the children +to sing at church next Sunday. + +After dinner we went up to the camp, and a very nice-looking place it +was. The tents only hold five, so that there were a great many of +them, making the camp look very large. The officers' tents are in a +row opposite the ends of the streets, but with only a narrow street +between. The Adjutant took us into his, which is a double one with two +apartments like the Colonel's, as his wife is coming out to live there +and teach the first sergeants to read, write, and keep their accounts. +As dress-parade was to come off at once, we stayed to see that. Only +the commissioned officers are white; the uniform of the privates is +the same as any others, except that the pantaloons are red,[94] faces +and hands black! The parade was excellent,--they went through the +manual, including, "load in nine times." There were eighteen men +absent without leave, a circumstance not to be wondered at, as they +had kept no guard all day, and a negro thinks to go and see his family +the height of happiness. Colonel Higginson said, "Think of a camp +where there is no swearing, drinking, or card-playing among the +men,--where the evenings are spent praying and singing psalms, and it +is the first sound you hear in the morning!" He is a strong +anti-tobacconist, but he lets the men have all they can get, and helps +them get it. + +We started just after sunset, and at the same time with the band, who +were rowed up to Beaufort as we went across the river. They played +"Sweet Home," and the music sounded delightfully, but made Mr. +Williams exclaim, "Now that's too bad, when a fellow is going to an +old South Carolina whitewashed house, with a broken table and chair in +it!" Nevertheless, he was very merry, and we had a fine row. The +sunset was perfectly clear, the sky retained its brightness for a long +time, and the moon was so bright that it did not grow dark. Our delay +made us against tide for the second hour, so the negroes turned out of +the main creek into the narrow creeks among the grass, which at high +tide are deep enough, though very narrow. Our oars were often in the +"mash" on one side, but the men knew their way and brought us safely +through. They grew very much excited as they rowed and sung, shouting +with all their might, and singing song after song the whole way home. +The singing while they row always sounds differently from [that] at +any other time to me, though they always sing the same, religious +songs. + + In the following letter Mr. Philbrick begins by defending + himself against the charge of rashness in proposing to buy + land of which the legal title was so insecure as to make it + a most unsafe investment, and the geographical situation + such as to make it unfit for habitation by Northerners. The + point of view of his critic is amusingly different from that + of the good people who subsequently accused him of buying + with the expectation of making large profits. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Jan. 2._ As to the title, the right of redemption expires at the end +of two years in all cases, and fifteen per cent. interest must be paid +by the redeemer before he can take possession. Now I never thought of +paying more for these lands than the net value of two good crops, and +don't undertake it for the sake of making money at all, but for the +sake of carrying out to a more satisfactory issue the present +short-lived and unfairly judged experiment of free labor, and for the +sake of keeping the people out of the hands of bad men. You will of +course admit that such an enterprise is worthy of my assistance and +worthy of the time of such men as are now engaged in it. The health of +every white man who has lived on the seaward side of St. Helena, from +Coffin's Point to Land's End, has been perfectly good, and that is +where I intend to buy, if at all, including perhaps the places under +R.'s charge which he wishes to retain, and those of Captain John Fripp +and Thomas B. Fripp, which could easily be managed by a person living +on Cherry Hill or Mulberry Hill, directly adjoining them on the south. + +We had a flare-up with Ranty about the furniture left in the big +house [at Pine Grove]. The people broke in on Christmas and took out +what we left there, appropriating it to their private uses. I found +Frank had the side-board in his new house (the old carriage-house). I +told him to give it up and asked where the rest was. Mily had taken +the desk, for safe-keeping, and offered to deliver it when wanted, but +the bedsteads are not reported. Ranty had locked up the large +dining-table in the pease-house. I blew him up for not reporting such +things instanter, and hired June to sleep in the big house nights and +be responsible for its safe-keeping. Otherwise the doors and windows +would soon disappear. + +The future of our country looks darker than ever. I can't see much +prospect of an improvement in the conduct of the war, so long as the +mass of our people do not see in slavery the great cause of all the +trouble. Neither do I believe that the war will terminate slavery +unless the blacks will voluntarily take a part in it. The 1st Regiment +is at length filled here, by means of a great deal of coaxing and the +abandonment of St. Simon's Island,[95] taking all the men for +recruits. They have made two raids upon the Florida coast, where they +met with little resistance and accomplished but little. If they can +once gain a footing on the mainland and add to their numbers as they +advance, they could easily carry all before them. Any other race of +men under the sun would do it, but I doubt yet whether there is the +requisite amount of pluck in them to fall into such a scheme even when +we are ready to lead them. I feel as if this winter were the +turning-point of the whole question. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Captain Oliver's, Jan. 4._ Mr. Philbrick has very generously offered +to assist three or four of us poorer superintendents in buying +plantations. If we do not buy, the occupation of most of us is +probably gone. Government will probably retain possession of many +plantations from the lack of purchasers,--but they will be the poorer +ones and those where the people will be subject to such influences +that our purposes will meet with little success. For such plantations +superintendents may be needed, but, besides doing little good, their +own position I think will be very unpleasant. Nor do I think it +unmanly to withdraw from such plantations. The irregular wayward life +which the people on such places would probably lead undoubtedly +will help to develop their self-reliance, but our style of +development--that of regular, persistent industry--is so wholly +different, that I doubt the wisdom of attempting to yoke the two +styles together. In one point experience confirms what theory would +suggest,--that their own increasing comfort or _misery_ will be a far +stronger agent in the development of these people than any amount of +outside human effort. + +I think I shall accept Mr. Philbrick's offer. I wish to stay down +here, and I see no satisfactory way of so doing, except by this +arrangement. It may turn out disastrously,--so be it; the Government +will probably refund the purchase-money in case the lands return to +the Confederate States either by capture or compromise. But with +success, I doubt if I should realize the amount of my present salary +and support. If the lands sell at a nominal price, however, they are +worth that risk. To stay in the work is my object. + +I am having a pretty hard time at present. The people are very +wayward,--now they work and then they stop,--and some stop before they +begin. Several men have been acting badly, too; I actually knocked a +man down the other day,--and think I did right,--for the first time in +my life. It very much hurts one's popularity to be often severe,--and +one's reputation with higher authorities also, I fear. My places have +the disadvantage--to me--of being very near headquarters, and my +people have learned through a very unwise act--the removal of a +superintendent on the complaint of the negroes--the benefit of +appealing from me. I have always been sustained--otherwise I should +probably have resigned; but it very much weakens my authority, and, as +I said, probably my reputation. But the worst is that it discourages +and dulls one for the work. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Jan. 7._ I went into Ellen's house to see her sick children. It was +her children who were so sick last summer, and Nancy died. They had +swollen throats and I promised red flannel--then went all through the +quarters talking and giving to all the old women some of our ration +coffee and sugar. The women went on talking, Louisa winding up with an +attempt to solve the to them great mystery--"Miss Hayiat, you not +married? when you going to be married? What, and you so smairt?" C. +says they are constantly asking him the same question. "Oh, Mass' +Charlie," said a woman to him the other day, "if I was as pretty a +woman as you are a man I should be so glad!" I find I shall have to +give up going to the quarters if they insist upon giving me so many +eggs--I had two dozen and a half given to-day--I can't use them up so +fast! I found C. in colloquy with a man who came down to see if he +could not move here so as to be under him. "But how do you know you +shall like me?" said C., "and get along with me?" "See it in your +countenance, sar, first time I eber see you!" Nat talked some time (he +was a sort of Major Domo here and kept the keys) about the necessity +of some white people's staying here, and of the people's confidence in +Mr. Philbrick and C. They are very desirous that Mr. Philbrick should +buy. "You see, sar; you won't have no trouble 'bout cotton dis +year--Mr. Philbrick pay more money than any other man--de people know +now you here to see justice. People all work cotton dis year. I don't +care if you neber go 'way--like you much." + +_Jan. 8._ General Saxton said he was here on the Coast Survey seven +years ago, cut that gap through the trees for his triangles, which +caused us so much speculation last spring,[96] and landing at the +Point one day dined here with Mr. Coffin. + +_Jan. 12._ Just as we were going to sit down to lunch, Tim came +running up with a line from C. for his revolver, which I sent. Tim +said two of the men were fighting, so Mr. Philbrick[97] took his +pistol and went to see what was the row, and soon came back to say +that a former husband of the woman who had been married the day before +at church had turned up, and C. had ordered him off the place. It is a +complicated story and I do not know its merits and demerits. I wish C. +would write it out as a specimen of that part of his business. It is +equal to Indian Cutchery. + +_Jan 16._ Woke to find it very blowy and cold. The changes seem to be +as great here as in New England, of their kind. It is funny to see how +the people feel the cold. I got no milk, because they could not milk +in such weather, and it was so warm the day before that all we had +soured. The children wore sheets over their shoulders and +handkerchiefs on their heads to school. + +_Jan 17._ Went to the quarters to see the people, who wondered to see +me out such a cold day! Found those who were out of doors on the sunny +side of the street against the houses to keep warm. + +This afternoon I had to sew up a bad cut in Hester's arm. She sat all +through school without a word to me, and then I could not close the +wound with sticking-plaster, so there was no alternative. She behaved +like a Spartan--her black skin made it easier for me, but not for her, +I fancy. So much for my first attempt at surgery. It was an ugly job. + + +FROM E. S. P. TO C. P. W. + +_The Oaks, Jan. 21._ I got a letter from Mr. Forbes, who says he can +raise $12,000 for land, etc., to put in my hands, with the +understanding that when I get tired of managing the thing I shall +close up and divide what shall be left.[98] So I shall certainly buy +that end of the island, provided the lands are sold, which in Boston +they feel very sure they will _not_ be, and provided nobody else bids +over one dollar an acre or so. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Jan. 21._ C. was gone all day tramping over the Pine Grove plantation +to see and map out the land so as to allot it for corn and cotton to +the people for this year's crop,--Flora's York for guide, who was much +amused at his maps. He brought me home as a present from Susan half a +dozen delicious sausages and a piece of fresh pork, which is very nice +here, as the pigs run wild and feed on the potatoes left in the field, +and other roots. Having had to wait for my washing for over a week, as +Judy went first to Beaufort to see "him niece," a man grown, who was +sick and died, and then was too sick herself, I hunted up some one +else and had our washing done. Housekeeping with such young things to +look after as Robert and Rose[99] only is not an easy or thoroughly +satisfactory proceeding, with so much else to see to in this great +house. + +_Jan. 22._ Sam sent word that buckra and white lady were coming. I +went to the door. There stood Miss R., Mrs. Clark, and Mr. De la +Croix, and coming up the path were the rest of their party, Mrs. +Bundy, Mrs. Williams, Mr. R., and, still on the beach, Mr. Williams +and Dr. Bundy shooting. I flew down to Uncle Sam to give him +potatoes, white and sweet, and rice and hominy, telling him to have +the tea-kettle boiling so that I could give them a cup of coffee. We +had eaten our last loaf of bread that morning, so I mixed some +griddle-cakes, and Robert, who enjoyed the fun of so many people, set +the table and did very nicely, Rose running up and down stairs with +the hot flap-jacks. I don't wonder that country-people eat "griddles" +so much,--they are so much easier and more quickly prepared than +anything else. But nothing is done quickly in this region, and all +this was a work of time, during which I entertained my guests and they +entertained themselves in the "shop," and they became great +purchasers. Then the boatmen who had brought them came up for sugar +and tobacco, and Mr. De la Croix opened the new box for me, and they +were very much amused to see me diving into the depths of the +sugar-barrel and handling the tobacco at "eight cents a plug!" They +were very merry and jolly and seemed to enjoy themselves,--certainly +Mrs. Bundy did at our piano, and we in hearing her. Robert and Rose +could not put the things on the table--they were fixed, as soon as +they entered the room, with delight. It was funny work getting +together dishes enough, but I made out. My table was full and my +guests hungry, though they protested they only came for a call and did +not want any luncheon. We got up from table about three, I got Dr. +Bundy to take the stitches from Hester's arm and dress it, and then +they said they must be off,--they had stayed too long already. And so +it proved, for the tide had gone out and the boat was high and dry on +an oyster-bank! They did not seem much distressed, and all betook +themselves to a walk towards the quarters, which they visited in a +body, to the delight of the people. I was informed, "Miss Hayut, +buckra-man on hos-bahck," and Mr. Thorpe appeared on business with C.; +as it never rains but it pours, two officers from our blockading +vessel now landed, to see the pickets they were told were here. They +did not stay long, and then I went to find Dr. Bundy and see what time +they would get off. I found they could not get away till seven, so +began to make preparations for tea. I knew my table would not be large +enough, and was quietly taking all the books and papers off the big +round one in the corner, when the ladies discovered what I was about; +they rose in a body and protested they would not have any tea. But the +gentlemen equally protested I should do just as I chose, and set them +to work if I would, so they wheeled out the table and Mr. De la Croix +went with me to the milk-closet to take down the shelves, which were +the leaves. The table is a monstrous great round one, solid mahogany, +and with its leaves in made my table-cloth look like a towel on the +grass, so we took to the bare boards. We sat down twelve to a +repetition of the lunch, with the addition of Susan's pork and +sausages, as our boys had had no dinner. I could not persuade any of +them to stay all night, though I showed them that I had bed +accommodations for four, and sofas for more, to say nothing of a +floor! There was a little moon and they all got home safely--we had a +suspicion we might see them about midnight! + +_Jan. 23._ In the midst of all the fun and frolic yesterday there came +a sudden pause, when Mrs. Williams drew down the corners of her mouth +and remarked, "And this is a band of Missionaries!" + +I had the room in the basement cleaned to-day by Samson's Betty. She +is the woman whose old husband turned up and gave C. so much trouble. +This thing is happening a good deal now, and must. A man who was sold +six years ago to Georgia came up from St. Simon's with the troops not +long ago to find his wife here married again. He gave her leave to do +so, however, when he was sold off, so had nothing to say. To go back +to Betty. I gave her as careful directions as I could and left her to +her own devices. When I went to her once I found her in the middle of +the room with two great tubs of water, her skirts all tied up to her +knees, the floor swimming in water which she was flinging about with a +handful of shucks _i. e._, corn-husks! It would be easier to keep +house in a small country house at home and do my own work (minus the +washing) and live better than we do here. However, I am very +philosophical, and ignore dirt and irregularity. + +_Jan. 24._ I had promised to go to the quarters and rode down, C. +walking by my side to take down the amount of cotton and corn land +each hand wished to work this year. He stood with his back against a +fence, the "gang" collected in front of him, book in hand, taking down +the number of tasks each agreed to work, talking to them about the +crop, laughing with them and at them. A not less unique picture +certainly was his sister riding his little horse, whose back her large +shawl nearly covered behind, in her ordinary dress and hoops, stopping +at door after door to look at this sick baby, talk to that old woman; +give a comb out of one pocket and put an egg into another; dismount to +show Amaritta how to make yeast and raise bread, examine some sore +throats, go to Louisa's house and repeat the yeast operation there, +then remount and proceed through the street in the same style, only +that now the flour and warm water are brought to the door and she +stirs on horseback! Sunday is the "Quarter meeting-day"--over a +hundred are to be baptized and they want some bread to carry, as they +will have to stay all day. I ride back through the overseer's yard, +stop at her door to speak to Judy, then have a talk with Abel, who +wants to know how I find Rose, says he knows character is better than +all the riches of this world, and that he was taught and teaches his +children not to lay hand on anything that does not belong to them. I +took her partly because I knew it was a good family. Demus[100] +attends me, and I ride home followed by half a dozen little boys who +are coming up to school and run races by my side. The wind has turned +east, and a thick fog is driving in visible clouds over the dreary +cotton-fields, raw, chilly, and disagreeable enough. I come out of +school wondering what I am going to have for dinner and what for +Sunday, knowing that Uncle Sam, whose daughter Katrine is "going in +the water," will probably be away all day and that the R.'s are coming +to spend Sunday. You know there was trouble last summer about the +superintendents who were not Baptists remaining to the Communion +Service--there has been more since, and the negro elders have become +so excited about it that they will not allow them to stay, so the R.'s +did not wish to go to church, and planned when we were there at New +Year's to come down here to spend that Sunday. They told me when they +were here Thursday that they were coming, so I ought to have been +ready, but except my three loaves of bread I had made no preparation, +and was expecting them momentarily. The Fates were propitious, +however, for Minda sent me a piece of fresh pork, and a note from Mr. +Philbrick said he would send us a piece of fresh beef for our rations +Sunday. I had just time to wash my hands when my guests arrived. That +is a process, by the way, which I have to go through with, at the +least, twice in an hour--sometimes oftener than that in fifteen +minutes--with sand-soap and brush! + +There was a great church-going from this place, as fourteen people +were to be baptized, and Sam when he was rigged was a sight, with his +beaver over his head-hankercher. Carts were in requisition to bring +home the wet clothes--Louisa told C. that she couldn't wear hoops into +the water and should be so cold she should wear eight coats (they drop +the petti-) and she couldn't bring them all home. It was foggy and +chilly, though the sun came out at noon when the proceedings must have +been at their height, as the tide was high then. There were one +hundred and forty-nine dipped on this occasion. + + The next two letters are largely occupied with the + beginnings of the new working year. + + +C. P. W. TO E. S. P. + +_Jan. 25._ I went down to this nigger-house yesterday morning, called +the people up and told them what they were going to get on their +cotton besides the pay for picking already paid, and then, after +talking over plantation matters a little, got their acres for next +year. They seemed "well satisfy" with the additional payment, fully +appreciated the pay according to crop and according to acre combined, +and started on this year's work with "good encourage." I suppose Mr. +Forbes and you are two bricks, serving as the beginning of a good +foundation for these people's prosperity. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Captain Oliver Fripp's, Jan. 26._ We are very busy now on the +plantations. A new system of labor to inaugurate,--lands to +allot,--grumbling to pacify and idleness to check,--my hands--with +nine plantations--are perfectly overrunning. The worst of it is that +my people are in pretty bad disposition,--the new system has been +received with joy and thankfulness in most parts of the island,--here +with suspicion, grumbling, and aversion. How far it is the fault of +their past and present superintendents, I cannot tell,--it has been +known as a hard district ever since we came here,--but it must be our +failing in some degree. I devoutly hope that by the middle of February +it will be over as far as I am concerned. It is a little remarkable +that while the Abolitionists and negroes' friends up North are +striving so hard to have the sale postponed,[101] we superintendents, +without exception that I have heard, are very desirous to have it +effected. This "superintendence" is a most unsatisfactory +system,--temporary and unprogressive in every element. Of course, +nothing else could well have been tried this last year, and perhaps +the time has not yet come to abandon it. But we all think it has. I am +satisfied that the sooner the people are thrown upon themselves, the +speedier will be their salvation. Let all the natural laws of labor, +wages, competition, etc., come into play,--and the sooner will habits +of responsibility, industry, self-dependence, and manliness be +developed. Very little, very little, should be given them: now, in the +first moments of freedom, is the time to influence their notion of it. +To receive has been their natural condition. They are constantly +comparing the time when they used to obtain shoes, dresses, coats, +flannels, food, etc., from their masters, with the present when little +or nothing is given them. I think it would be _most unwise and +injurious_ to _give_ them _lands_,--negro allotments; they should be +made to _buy_ before they can feel themselves possessors of a rod. +There are some who are now able to buy their houses and two or three +acres of land,--by the end of the year their number will probably be +greatly increased. These will be the more intelligent, the more +industrious and persistent. But _give_ them land, and a house,--and +the ease of gaining as good a livelihood as they have been accustomed +to would keep many contented with the smallest exertion. I pity some +of them very much, for I see that nothing will rouse and maintain +their energy but suffering. + +In regard to the immediate sale,--even should speculators buy some +plantations, I don't think the people would suffer much oppression +during the years of their possession. It would be for their interest +to continue or increase the wages which Government offers,--and +probably many would let the places almost alone. Should oppression +occur, the negroes will probably have an opportunity to move,--such +cases would be closely watched and loudly reported,--and the people +would be all the more dependent on their own exertions. I should think +the great injury would come at the end of the war, or whenever the +speculators sell the lands: then, instead of selling at low prices and +in small lots or of consulting the people's interest in any way, they +will simply realize the greatest advantage for themselves. Other +places, however, will be bought by friends and by the Government,--on +the whole, great good would result to the people. Moreover, the work +will then have very much more value as a test of their capacity and +ambition,--as an experiment in American emancipation. + +I feel that outside of directly spiritual labor, this emancipation +work is the noblest and holiest in the country. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Jan. 27._ Both schools were very satisfactory. If any one could have +looked in, without the children's seeing them, they would have thought +we presented quite an ordinary school-like appearance. I have a +blackboard with numerals and figures and the second line of the +Multiplication Table written on it, all of which the oldest school +know tolerably, but they make sorry work trying to copy the figures on +their slates. I let them use them every day now, however, for they +must learn, by gradually growing familiar with the use of a pencil, +not to use it like a hoe. There are furrows in the slates made by +their digging in which you might plant benny-seed, if not cotton! + +_Jan. 29._ Am trying to teach the children how to tell time on the +dial-plate of an old English clock, "Presented by Sir Isaac Coffin, +Bart.," as its face informs you--one of the many valuable things +demolished. + +_Jan. 31._ Started directly after breakfast to spend the day and night +with H. We broke down, as usual, had to stop and be tinkered up, so +that William was late for the ferry, and when we got to the Oaks +avenue I got out with my bag and basket and let him go on. I trusted +to fate to find some one to carry my traps for me the mile up to the +house. The drive was lovely, and I found some people waiting by the +roadside for Mr. Soule, to get passes to go to Beaufort. A boy readily +took my things for me without promise of any payment. On the walk I +found he was one of the Edisto refugees who are quartered at the +village and supplied with rations by Government, but he had left home +with only two pieces of hardtack in his pocket and without breakfast. +"Think we'll go back to Edisto, Missy?" he asked most earnestly, +hoping that a stranger would give him some hope that he should see his +home again. He was a nice boy; as a general thing the Edisto people +are a better class of blacks, more intelligent and cultivated, so to +speak, but those brought from there were then refugees from many other +places. + +Mr. Philbrick brought word that the North Carolina army[102] had +arrived at Hilton Head, and we were excited to know who of our friends +had come. + +_Feb. 1._ A message came back from Mr. Philbrick that General "Saxby" +was coming to dinner. The General was decidedly blue about affairs +here at present. He wants to stop the sale of lands very much, though, +as he can control the sale so as to keep it out of the hands of +speculators, I hope the sale will take place. You cannot understand +how much we long to have the sale over. If it could only have taken +place a month sooner it would have been all the better, as then the +purchasers could have stocked their places by the time work began. As +it is, the people have gone into the fields without the necessary +number of cattle or mules, and with only their worn-out hoes; the +Edisto people who are now being distributed onto the plantations have +nothing. With the chance of giving up the control so soon, Government +has not supplied all that is necessary and work bids fair to be as +behindhand here as it was last year. Where the people have gone to +work at all--at this end of the island--they have started with "good +encourage," but at other places it has been impossible to get them to +start any cotton, though they work corn. This is partly due to the +fact that this end of the island is removed from the demoralizing +effects of the camps, and partly, too, to the confidence the people +have in the superintendents here, who have mostly been with them +steadily now for nearly a year. It seems to us on the spot as if +things could not go on another year as they are now, and we long for +February eleventh and things to be settled. The auctioneer is at +Washington trying, not to have the sale postponed, but to have lands +set apart and given the blacks beforehand, and we dread lest any day +we should hear that it has been delayed. Some of the blacks mean to +buy--we don't wish them to till the war is over, as our tenure here is +too uncertain for them to sink their money. + +C. on horseback, I in the double sulky started homeward, reaching +home--and we agreed that it was certainly homelike--by half past six. +Rose came up from her house acknowledging that though she wanted to +see me she could have waited till to-morrow, but her mother made her +come! + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Feb. 2._ The sale is a week from Wednesday. General Saxton (proclaim +it not from the house-top) says he shall take the liberty to use the +Cotton Fund to outbid any troublesome speculators. Glory Hallelujah! + + +FROM H. W. + +_Feb. 4._ Cold as ever again--can do nothing but try to keep warm. +Have a good fire in the school-room, and quite a full school--those +who stay away for the cold being jeered at as not wishing to learn by +the others. I think they have done well for a year with the amount of +teaching they have had. + +_Feb. 7._ Found C. was going to Pine Grove, so thought I would go too, +as I have not been to see them since Christmas. I went round to see +the people who were at home; many of them had gone into the field, +where C. went to deal out the land to them. Then I followed him in the +sulky to bring him home, but when I reached the field, Flora, who came +running out to see me, crying out, "my ole missus!" informed me that +"Mass' Charlie have much long jawing, people in confusion." Mr. +S.,[103] it seemed, had disturbed them about the land-sale, and York +vowed if anybody but Mr. Philbrick or C. had the place he would pack +up and go to New York with his family. Went home alone, forced to +leave C. to walk. Found some of his old people waiting for him--they +are very much attached to him and he to them--it is hard for him to +give them up. One man met him at church last Sunday, took off his hat, +rolled up his eyes, and remarked pathetically, "I goes to sleep and +dreams of you, Boss!" + +_Feb. 8._ Dr. Russell sends me word that after March 1st my salary +will be $20 instead of $25. + +We all went up to church this morning for the chance of finding John +L.[104] there. We go to church to see our friends, and generally +manage to get there just as service is over. If it were any good to +the people we could bear it, but they get stones, not bread, I am +sorry to say. We did not find any friends from the Twenty-Fourth. + +I shall hope to send you Colonel Higginson's report of his +expedition[105] with the Black Regiment, which was a great success. +Oh, if the formation of the regiment last spring had only been +differently managed! we should have had a brigade by this time. +January, who I wrote you was taken from here one night as a deserter, +and who was found up his chimney, almost frightened to death at going +back, he was so badly treated before, came for a day or two since he +got back from the expedition and told C. he would not take a thousand +dollars to leave now, he had such a good time. + + On February 10, the very eve of the eagerly awaited day set + for the land-sale, H. W. writes: "The cart went up for + rations, so I sent some sausages for H. and got some cake at + night, with a note saying the sale was stopped." True to his + extreme record as friend of the negro, General Hunter had + been the means of postponing the sales, in the hope, as has + been said, of eventually turning most of the plantations + into negro holdings, by gift or the next thing to it. More + will be heard of all this shortly. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Feb. 14._ It is supposed that the postponement of the land-sales till +the allotment of lands is made will be for a year at least. I expect +to find the people, though they are all members, will become profane +immediately. They are depending on a chance to buy or hire land. + + W. C. G. writes the next letter after having had a talk with + a friend in the Twenty-Fourth Massachusetts. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Feb. 17._ He seemed very well, more contented than most of the +soldiers and talking more rationally and humanely than four fifths of +those with whom I have conversed. The troops will probably be here a +month or two at least, before any attempt is made in any direction. +The commanding generals have quarreled,[106] and one has gone North; +the troops are insufficient, the enemy on the alert and strongly +defended. The history of the Department so far might read: the forts +were taken, one thousand-odd children were taught to read, and one +negro regiment was formed.[107] Hunter seems to be a narrow, +self-willed man--to me--who don't know much about his affairs. At +first the soldiers were allowed to go wherever they pleased; +consequently they poured over our end of the island, confusion coming +with them. They cheated, they plundered, they threatened lives, they +stole boats, poultry, hogs, money, and other property, they paid for +dinners with worthless Richmond money, taking good bills in exchange. +They behaved like marauders in an enemy's country, and disgraced the +name of man, American, or soldier. The houses of one whole plantation +they burnt to the ground in the night. For three whole days and far +into the night I did nothing but chase soldiers and ride about to +protect the people. The consequence of it all is that the soldiers are +now tied up in camp pretty firmly. + +The sales have been postponed to my and many persons' great +disappointment. And yet it does seem absurd, in view of the increasing +uncertainties of the moment here, to sell land. But I am so heartily +sick and weary of this system! What I shall do if the lands are not +sold within a month or two, I don't know. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Feb. 19._ You will see by this copy of the _Free South_[108] the +outrages that have been committed by the troops who were landed at +Land's End, but it can give you but little idea of the outrages that +have been committed or the mischief done. Besides the actual loss to +the people,--and in many cases it has been their all,--the loss of +confidence in Yankees is an incalculable injury. The scenes some of +the superintendents have had to go through with are beyond +description. Sumner had a pistol put at his breast for trying to stop +the soldiers and protect the negroes, and Mr. Hammond, when he went +with General Saxton to tell Hunter of what had been done under his +very eyes on his own plantations, burst into tears. It is disgusting +that any Massachusetts regiment should be mixed up with such savage +treatment, and that the Twenty-Fourth should be is shameful in the +extreme. + +_Feb. 20._ To-day all the people were on the Bay "drawing seine" when +I came out of morning school, and as that is a process I have wished +to see I ran down to the beach myself between whiles. Here was a droll +enough scene indeed. They had made one "drawing" and were just casting +the seine again as I walked along for half a mile towards the +drum-hole.[109] The shell-banks, which are exposed at low tide, were +fringed with small children with baskets and bags which they were +filling with oysters and conchs. Rose followed me as guide and +protector, jabbering away in her outlandish fashion to my great +entertainment, and was very much afraid that the oyster-shells, over +which she walked with impunity with bare feet, would cut up my heavy +leather boots. I could go out to the very edge of one of these curious +shell-banks, and the seine was drawn up almost at my feet. The net was +laid on a boat which was hauled out into the water by the men, who +were up to their waists, then dropped along its full length, which is +very great, and gradually hauled in shore again with two or three +bushels of fish in it, and any number of crabs, which the children +pick up very carefully and fling ashore. There were about thirty men, +and you would have thought from the noise and talking that it was a +great fire in the country, with no head to the engine companies and +every man giving orders. They were good-natured as possible, but +sometimes their gibberish sounds as if they were scolding. The boys, +with their pantaloons, or what answer for sich, rolled up to their +knees, were hauling at the rope or picking up the crabs and making +them catch hold of each other till they had a long string of them. +Another mode of proceeding with them--for a crab-bite is a pretty +serious thing--is to hold an oyster-shell out, which they grab, and +then with a quick shake the claw is broken off, and they are harmless. +A large bass having been taken in the haul I witnessed, it was laid at +my feet for my acceptance, and then, the girls following, most of the +boys staying to see the third drawing, I wended my way back to school. + +_Feb. 21._ Such steady shop that C. could not get off very early and +sold a barrel of flour before he departed. Shop is a great nuisance, +but I don't know what the people would do without it and don't see how +it can be given up for a long time. They can't get things as cheap +anywhere else, but they cannot understand that it is of no advantage +to us. When I told them yesterday they must not hurry me, for I had to +put everything down so as to keep a correct account to send to the +Quartermaster and people who sent the things, they were quite +surprised, and when in explaining the state of the case to them I +remarked that I was not even paid for the trouble, Binah said she +would not take the trouble then; and they can't understand that any +one should. + + Other comments on this laborious shop-keeping are: [Feb. + 23]. What with sugar and dry goods upstairs, and flour, + pork, and salt down, it's busy, not to say nasty work. [Apr. + 9.] Mr. P.'s molasses fell short about $5.00 on the barrel! + Yet you can't convince the people he is not making heaps of + money, and I, too, for the matter of that. [June 6.] A + stranger the other day asked me for a looking-glass that he + might see how his new hat looked, and then informed me that + I ought to keep lemonade for my friends! But such things are + rare, and so ludicrous that one doesn't mind. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Feb. 22._ I heard Uncle Sam read the first three chapters of Genesis, +which he translated into his own lingo as he went along, calling the +subtile serpent the most "amiable" of beasts, and ignoring gender, +person, and number in an astonishing manner. He says "Lamb books of +life," and calls the real old Southern aristocracy the gentiles! His +vocabulary is an extensive one--I wish his knowledge of the art of +cooking were as great! + +_Feb. 25._ I was in full tide with my A B C's when I saw two mounted +officers pass the window. They presently appeared at the door of the +school-room, one of them with a General's stars, addressing me and +asking about the school. But he did not introduce himself, and I was +in profound ignorance as to who it might be. They came, apparently, to +see the place, and while they walked on the beach I got up what lunch +I could. The title had an immense effect upon Robert; when I told Sam +I must have the water boiled to give the General some coffee, he +opened his eyes as wide as the gate, and Rose, who came to ask for the +key of the corn-room for him to feed the horses, was such a comical +sight, as she stared with mouth and eyes and then dropped a curtsey in +the middle of the room, that if any one had been here I think I should +have disgraced myself and snickered! Unfortunately the dignitary did +not see her. + +_Feb. 26._ I had scarcely done breakfast when I was called upon to +serve in the shop for half a dozen men from the blockading vessel off +Otter Island, all negroes. They come every once in a while and buy +large amounts of sugar and other little things. They evidently think +their patronage of great advantage to us. + +Five grown men have come in to swell the evening school. I can't do +much for them, as they don't all know their letters, but they have +books and I hope the children will help them on out of school. + +Have I told you that the path to the beach has been bordered with +flowers for several weeks, jonquils and narcissus, so far as I can +make out, though unlike any I ever saw before? They are in great +profusion, and there are a few snow-drops, very pretty, but a foot or +more high, and losing their charm in the height and strength. The +jasmine and hawthorn are just coming into blossom, and I see what +looks like a peach-tree in full bloom in Sam's yard. + +_Feb. 27._ C. came home before night, with the news that the sales had +begun[110] and that our fate would be decided by next week probably. +He brought no other news of importance except that my unknown guest +was probably a General Potter[111] on Foster's staff. When I came out +of school this morning I found Rose asleep on the rug in front of the +parlor fire! She is quite a Topsy in some things, playing all sorts of +tricks with her voice and actions, but I have never had reason to +doubt her truth or honesty in the smallest particular, since the +first, and I have been very watchful. + +_Feb. 28._ Before I was up I heard a perfect babel of tongues, a +magpie chattering, which, on looking out of the window, I found came +from about twenty women at work in our new garden getting out the +"jint-grass," swinging their great, heavy hoes above their heads. Dr. +Dio Lewis should have seen their gymnastics and the physical +development therefrom. It was a droll sight--red, blue, and bright +yellow in their costume, and such a gabbling! Hindustanee is as +intelligible as their talk among themselves. How C. astonished a man +who was muttering away to himself the other day at the Oaks by +laughing at him and telling him he understood Nigger as well as he! + +Old Deborah walked from Cherry Hill this morning,--she has lately +moved there from here,--and came into the early school, which greatly +delighted her. She is Rose's grandmother, and heard her +great-grandchild reading to me, yet she is a smart old body and +carries on her own cotton this year. Her delight over Raphael's +angels--we have Mr. Philbrick's photographs of them here--was really +touching. "If a body have any consider, 'twould melt their +hairt,"--and she tried to impress it upon Rose that she was a greatly +privileged person to be able to see them every day. + + In the next letter is described a visit to the camp of the + "North Carolina army" at Land's End. + +_Sunday, March 1._ We started off in time to reach church before the +sermon was over, I in the sulky with my things to stay all night,--if +it should prove practicable for me to go to camp, by staying at G.'s +or the Oaks. H. got into my sulky and we drove off, the question to be +decided after dinner. The road to-day was lined with the jasmine in +full bloom running over everything. I was too late to see it last +spring and as I had not been out of the house for a fortnight the +change was very marked. Some trees are putting out fresh, green +leaves, the peach and wild plum-trees are all in blossom. Our large +field, too, had been "listed"[112] since I passed through it last, and +altogether things had a very spring-like look. After dinner it was +decided to take the carriage and Northern horses, with Harry, and make +our expedition to the camp in style, escorted by Mr. Sumner on +horseback. + +Behold us, then, starting about ten in the morning, Monday, March 2, +driving for fifteen miles through the woods, a perfect spring day, +till, as we reached our journey's end, we found the woods cut down and +fields cleared for the camps over an immense space. Tents in every +direction and masts beyond, looking very busy and thriving. Real war +camps, not such as we see at Readville, for most of the regiments +coming on such an expedition, from which they expected to return +before this time, had only shelter tents, as few things as they could +possibly get along with, and their worst clothes. There were men +washing (with a bit of board in a half of a barrel with a +horse-brush!), cutting wood, mending the road very much cut up with +the army-wagons, sticking down trees in front of their tents, and in +almost every camp we saw some men playing ball. Horses and wagons, +rough stables, and the carpenters at work with plane and saw getting +up comforts. The Twenty-Fourth was at Land's End indeed, so we passed +through all the others before we came to it, each additional one +causing a louder and more wondering exclamation from Harry at the +sight of so many men, till the oxen, evidently waiting to be +slaughtered, and of a size so vastly superior to those indigenous to +these regions, quite dumbfounded him. + +The Twenty-Fourth reached at last, we went at once to James's tent, +where he greeted us very kindly, and inviting us in, went off for +John. Glad as I was to see them at last, it only made me doubly sorry +that they should have been so near us and unable to come down to the +few home comforts we could have offered them; but they have both tried +to get away in vain. We found the Twenty-Fourth was in a very excited +state over General Stevenson's arrest;[113] and speaking of his +release and return to camp the day before, James said--"We gave him +such a reception as the Twenty-Fourth _can_ give." The whole North +Carolina division were feeling very sore over the quarrel between +Hunter and Foster which has so unjustly, as they feel, deprived them +of going under Foster on this expedition, and over the general +treatment of them and their officers which they have received ever +since they came into this Department.[114] This I heard from James +first, but more at length and in detail from the surgeon afterwards. +For as we drove home a gentleman passed us on horseback, and we +presently saw him racing with Mr. Sumner, and then riding by his side. +They soon turned. Mr. Sumner introduced to me S. A. Green. Mr. Sumner +had never seen him before, but asked him to join us at lunch at Mr. +G.'s, where we were to stop on our way. + +G. was expecting us, and such a dinner as he spread before us! A +little roasted pig, over which Mr. Sumner grew pathetic as he +described its baby-like appearance before it was cooked, when Tamah, +their invaluable cook, brought it in to show them--potatoes, rice, +etc., and for dessert, trifle, cake, muffins, waffles of a most +excellent variety, and I don't know what. But the spice of the dinner +was a long and animated discussion over the cause of General +Stevenson's arrest and other matters appertaining thereto. Dr. Green +was present at the time Stevenson had his discussion with Major +Barstow and is reported to have said that he would rather be defeated +than gain a victory with the aid of black soldiers,--and says that he +said no such thing. The question was asked as a leading one, and +before General Stevenson replied, Major Barstow exclaimed, "You hear +that declaration?" and went off and reported. Pretty small business, +anyway, though the General and most of his officers apparently are not +at all waked up to the question, and oppose the idea of negro soldiers +very strongly. They seem to have been living for a year with their old +prejudices quietly slumbering--without coming in contact with the +subject and its practical working as we have here, and so are not +prepared for the change of opinion which has been silently advancing +here. We did not think a year ago that these people would make +soldiers, though it might be a wise measure to organize them for +garrison duty to save the lives of our men in a climate they could not +bear well and where no fighting would be necessary. Now it is a matter +of fact, not opinion, as Colonel Higginson's report shows, that they +will fight in open warfare, and will succeed in a certain sort of +expedition when white men would fail, thus being too valuable an aid +in putting down the Rebellion for us to give way to the prejudices of +the mass of the soldiers. But I do not think it strange those +prejudices exist, and they can only be removed by degrees. + +The sales are to go on--how glad I shall be when the whole thing is +settled! Dr. Brisbane thinks he has proof that Mr. Coffin is in jail +in Charleston for Union sentiments,[115] so that he shall reserve his +plantations for him. Mr. Philbrick may be able to lease them till the +war is over, but if we take Charleston and if Mr. Coffin claims his +own again, behold us! I don't know what the negroes would do, at +first, if they thought Mr. Coffin was coming back to take possession +of the lands--though they all acknowledge that when he was here there +was no "confusion"--"that was all along de overseer." I suppose, if +they were not taken by surprise and could understand matters, they +would work for him as well as any one else; but a great deal would +depend upon whom they had over them--they would not work under +Cockloft again "first." They will be disappointed if Mr. Philbrick +does not get this place. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_March 1._ The sale of lands, which was arrested by General Hunter's +order, has recommenced by authority obtained from Washington. The +generals commanding--Hunter and Saxton--are both interested in terms +and regulations which will favor the negroes. I hear they are both +added as, in some way, joint commissioners to those who have been +acting in that capacity, with full powers to retain all lands in +Government possession which may be wanted for military or educational +purposes.[116] What plan they may adopt is not yet known; but we have +already been called on for a complete census of the population, with a +view to a land allotment of some kind. I pray it may not be by _gift_. +I used to dread the effects of immediate emancipation and think it +was the duty of a Christian nation to ease the passage from slavery to +freedom with all kinds of assistance; but I am nearly satisfied that +the best thing our Government can do, for the good of these people +themselves, is simply to offer and enforce their acceptance of the +advantages of civil law and education. I should hope that for a time +the relations of employer and employed might be also watched and +determined by law,--but more than this, anything in the form of +_gifts_ and _charity_ will, I'm pretty sure, only relieve momentary +distress at the expense of their development in manliness and +independence. Very few will take a responsibility which they can in +any way avoid, and not one in a thousand will refuse charity if +offered, even when there is no slightest need of it. At the same time, +they perfectly understand the rights of property, almost +superstitiously appreciate the advantages of education, and will +eagerly seize any opportunity they may have of acquiring the one or +the other. As to these island people I feel no doubt that at least +three out of five of the present children will be able to read and +write when men and women, and that of the present generation of grown +people, half a plantation at least would own land in their own right +before four years had past,--if they were permitted to buy. Then how +much better to throw them on themselves, to leave them to their own +ambition and intelligence, when they have so much of both. Their +inveterate suspicion of white kindness, too, joined to their +ignorance, so clog the wheels of any system of charity like this of +superintendence that for this reason alone I think it should cease. +But they only too thoroughly comprehend the idea of _law_,--and are +therefore well able to understand and be grateful for beneficent law, +which at once protects and leaves them to themselves. "Let us +alone"--the cry of their masters--really belongs to them and is their +wisest demand. + +I am anxiously hoping to be freed from this place by the sales and to +return to my old neighborhood, and there to be able to accomplish +something. This is but a stand-still experience, compared to our +wishes. The people advance in spite of it. I believe almost the only +real good I've done was to partially protect these people for three +days from the soldiers. + + +FROM H. W. + +_March 5._ C. came home at night with the news that the First South +Carolina Volunteers started on an expedition[117] to-day which Colonel +Higginson considers of very great importance, which will have very +great results, or from which they will probably never return. Also +that drafting has begun in Beaufort by Hunter's orders. + +General Saxton has _passed his word_ to the people here that they +shall not be forced into the army--I don't see what is to be the +upshot of it--they will lose all confidence in us. Anywhere but here! +Saxton himself gave Colonel Montgomery[118] leave to draft in Florida +and Key West, but he had no need to--more recruits offered than he +could bring away with him. I don't wish to find fault with my +commanding general, but I have yet to be shown the first thing Hunter +has done which I consider wise or fine. Saxton has had to go down +more than once and persuade him not to execute his orders. + + In the following letter the reference to Mrs. Wolcott and + McClellan has to do with that visit to Boston of the deposed + general which was made such a triumphal progress for him by + the conservatives of the town. The reference to Hallowell, + who had a commission in the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts, the + first colored regiment raised by a state government, is + interesting as further evidence of the prejudice against + negro troops. + +_March 6._ C. brought me last night a long letter from S. descriptive +of Mrs. Wolcott's party, McClellan, the fashions, and Hallowell's +feeling at the position in which he places himself in going into a +negro regiment. I wish he could see Colonel Higginson and his, but a +Northern black regiment will be a very different thing from a Southern +one--the men will have the vices of civilization from which these are +free. Colonel Higginson is an enthusiast, but I do not see that he +exaggerates or states anything but facts. + + Then follow specimens of the conversation of Robert and + Rose, with which may be put here two others, really of later + date. + +"Miss Hayiut, that your home?" Robert asked me this morning, looking +at some colored pictures of the Crystal Palace I found in a _London +News_ and nailed up in the entry yesterday! He's bound to go North +with Mass' Charlie. If he expects to live in such a mansion I don't +wonder he wishes to. + +_Saturday, March 7._ If you could have seen Rose's astonishment this +morning when she comprehended that the clock was not alive! I made +her tell me what time it was, which she did successfully, and then, as +she stood gazing at the minute-hand "move so fast," I said, "Yes, it +is going all the time--it never stops." "No rest for eat?" she said +with the utmost innocence; and when I told her it was not alive and +did not need to eat, she was quite sure the pendulum must be if the +hands were not. + +[_March 10._[119]] Some instructions about cleaning up led me to ask +Rose if she liked dirt, to which she replied, like a true Yankee, with +the question, "Miss Hay't, you like um? You no like um, I no like um." +A little while after, she got talking about "Maussa" and Cockloft; +when I asked what she would do if she should see Mr. Coffin come here, +she said, "I run," "dey bad." Oh, no, not bad, I guess. "Miss Hay't" +(you have no idea how short it is, almost "Hat"), "you shum? [see 'em] +Well, you do'no; I shum, I know." + +[_Nov. 1._] "I say praise for you, 'cause I mind you," said Rose to me +in her affectionate way this morning. She tames slowly, as Mr. Soule +and I thought when we came home from riding this morning and saw her +waiting for us at the entrance of the path on the beach turning +somersaults on the sand! Her hands would appear high in the air, when +suddenly her heels would be in their place! Yesterday morning she +said: "Miss Hayiut, you gwine let me go home to-day for wash?" Yes, +Rose, if you are a good girl. "Yes, _Ma'am_, me gwine be good girl, my +contans [conscience] say, 'Rose, you be good girl, not make Miss +Hayiut talk.'" + + To return to H. W.'s letter of March 7: + +We drove up to church and heard the text read for the first time! H. +was not there, so we went there to dinner again, probably for the last +time, as we found the places are really to be sold to-morrow. Mr. +Philbrick hopes to be through with collecting the cotton in a +fortnight, and then they will be able to come down here, as he can go +to Beaufort once a week for a night or two until it is all ginned and +shipped, and then they will go home. + + The next letters return to the all-absorbing matter of the + land-sales. The opening paragraph refers to them and the way + they were being managed, as well as to the old question of + negro character and negro labor. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_March 8._ I should like to come home and make inquiries among my +friends concerning Port Royal matters. I should like to take the part +of an intelligent foreigner desiring to obtain information concerning +this interesting experiment of free black labor. And when I had heard +and written down their description of this enterprise, I should return +to my friends here and read for their entertainment. How we should +laugh; I must try it some day. + +When the lands are finally sold, a great many entertaining questions +will arise. Only the real estate will be sold; what is to be done with +the cattle, the mules, the boats, the furniture, the carriages? How is +the Government to be repaid for what it has spent on this year's crop? +How are the reserved plantations to be worked by the Government? + + The sale having taken place at last on March 9, the list + with which C. P. W. begins his next letter is of plantations + reserved from sale by the Government. + +_March 10._ The Oaks, Oakland, where Mr. Hunn's Philadelphia +Commission store is, Eddings Point, T. B. Fripp, my two McTureous +places, the Hope Place, and a few others on the Sea Side road, about +four at Land's End, etc., etc. Mr. Eustis and a Mr. Pritchard, living +on Pritchard's Island, near Land's End, paid taxes before the sale. +(Most of the places reserved were selected for the purpose of selling +land to the negroes next year, after this crop is in.) + +The General [Saxton] is afraid that some speculators may interfere +with the plan for this year which has been started.[120] He has made +certain promises to the people in regard to this year's crop, and he +feels that he ought to be able to impose some conditions on +purchasers. Of course he could not impose conditions under which the +lands should be sold, but he still may, as Military Governor, enforce +justice toward the people. + + +FROM H. W. + +_March 10._ C. and Mr. Philbrick stopped at the nigger-house to see +and tell the people of the result of the sale. At Fripp Point, which +he also bought, the people were as usual unmoved and apparently +apathetic, but here they were somewhat more demonstrative, and +slightly expressed their pleasure. All the places he most cared for +Mr. Philbrick was able to bid off, and two of C.'s old places, which +he wanted but did not expect to get. So much is settled; but there is +a great deal besides that it will take a long time and a deal of +trouble to arrange--we don't know yet how much goes with the +plantations, or when possession will be given. + +The confirmation of the report that Hunter is going to draft these +people causes a great deal of feeling, as Saxton has publicly promised +them that they shall not be forced to join the army. They seem to +understand that Hunter is in authority and Saxton can't help himself, +C. says, and so have no ill feeling towards the latter; but they will +hide, if possible, and it is hard to feel that they have been so +treated as to make them as suspicious of a Yankee's word as they have +always been of a white man's. I think it right they should go if they +are needed,--the war is of more importance even than the experiment of +free labor,--but to have them lied to so! Why was Hunter ever sent +back here? + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_March 14._ Mr. Philbrick has bought in all thirteen plantations,[121] +at an expense of about $7000: three places for R., two for Wells, two +for Hull on Ladies Island, six places within five miles of this place. +I remain here, and shall probably assume Cherry Hill and Mulberry +Hill, my old places; G. comes to Pine Grove, and takes that, the +Point, and Captain John Fripp Homestead. The people are all starting +well, we are in excellent spirits, and are in proper season for the +crops; and "if God spare life," "if nothing strange happens," "if we +live to see," we shall "_see_ crop make, sir." + +This drafting business is simply folly. Hunter is an ignorant, +obstinate fool.[122] General Saxton is very much opposed to the +measure, especially after promising the men again and again that they +would not be taken unless they were willing to go; but he says he has +done all he can to dissuade Hunter without any effect, and if he +should go further in the matter, either he or Hunter would have to go +home, and he is not willing at this crisis to raise this additional +difficulty. Hunter's order was published in the _New South_[123] last +Monday. For a full week before the negroes had been anxiously +questioning us about this strange news that "they want to take we to +make soldiers." Up to Monday I was able to tell them that I had heard +such stories, but did not believe them; but Tuesday night, when I got +home, I told them how matters stood, and they confessed that for a +full week before hardly a man on the plantation under sixty years of +age had slept in his bed. A strange white face drives them from the +field into the woods like so many quails; they will not go to church, +they will not go to the Ferry. Two Sundays ago I happened to ask one +of the elders at church, to make talk merely, how soon the next +Society meeting took place at Pine Grove. It was last Saturday +evening. My question to Demus was reported at the meeting, they +immediately became suspicious of some trap to catch them, they grew +anxious, a cry arose that there were soldiers out on the plantation, +the men left the praise-house, and the meeting, instead of continuing +all night, broke up about midnight with some confusion.[124] They were +caught last year, they will not be caught again. They cannot +understand how it is that the Government, for whom they have been +working, and in whom they have learned to place confidence as a +protection, should wish to interrupt their work here. It is a terrible +discouragement to them, just as they are starting their first fair +trial for themselves, to be forced, I do not say into the military +service, for very few will be caught, but forced to abandon their +crops, and skulk and hide and lead the life of hunted beasts during +all this precious planting season. The women would be physically able +to carry on for some time the men's share with their own, but they +would be very much disheartened, and would need constant +encouragement. Under this terrible uncertainty and fear, the work has +begun to slacken. Even the head men on the plantations are losing +courage. I make as light of the evil as I can, but I am always met by +the remark: "We are a year older than we was last year, sir." Their +trust in me is a little surprising. They converse in my presence about +their dodging life, and I could easily take any ten of them I chose +alone; or, with the aid of one other, I could take the whole +plantation. "If we didn't trust to you, sir, we should have to leave +the plantation entirely; you are the only person to protect we now, +sir." It is hardly necessary to remark that their confidence is not +misplaced. Help catch them? "I wouldn't do it first." + + In accordance with Hunter's order, referred to above, Saxton + issued a general order to superintendents, which bade them + send to Captain Hooper a list of all able-bodied freedmen + between eighteen and fifty on the plantations, and + instructed them to urge the negroes to enlist by appealing + to "their reason, sense of right, their love of liberty and + their dread of returning to the rule of their late masters," + adding: "The General Commanding expects to form a pretty + correct judgment of the comparative efficiency of the + different superintendents and the amount of influence for + good they are capable of exerting over their people, by the + proportion of the whole number subject to draft which they + are able to bring in without the aid of physical force." + Referring to this last sentence as a "mean insinuation," C. + P. W. goes on: + +For my people, I know there is about as much use in asking them to +enlist as in requesting my horse, a very intelligent animal, to drink +salt water. I hope they will draft, they may possibly enlist, the +loafers at Hilton Head and Beaufort, and those whose proximity to +camps, or general worthless character, prevents them from taking much +interest in their crops. But these men, who have been paid up in full +for last year's crop, and have seen that their crop, slim as it was, +brought them a fair compensation, are bound to show _a crop_ this +year. Crop-raising is their business, their trade, and they intend to +show what they can do at it this year for the Government, which +protects them, for me, who "see them justice" (they have a vague idea +that I reap a certain percentage from their crop--they say, "You will +have a bigger crop of cotton than Mr. Philbrick, sir"--they also think +that if I "overlook" four hundred hands, I ought to get more pay than +a man who only sees to two hundred), and last, and principally, for +themselves. They have not been learning cotton-raising, perforce, all +these years for nothing. Now their enforced knowledge comes out in +tending a crop of which they are to own a share, and the little tricks +of the trade, which had to be watchfully enforced in the old time, are +now skillfully produced, especially in the food crops, which are more +evidently their own. I let them go ahead very much as they choose; I +make regulations for the good of all, as in the matter of carts, oxen, +etc., but the minutiæ I do not meddle with, except as a matter of +curiosity and acquirement of knowledge. They work well, some of them +harder than in the old time; the lazy ones are stimulated to exertion +for their own benefit, the energetic ones _race like sixty_. + + +FROM H. W. + +_March 13._ I had the sick people to visit, and C. was going over to +the _Kingfisher_, our blockader, for coal-tar to plant corn with, so +he went to the field and I was to make my professional calls for the +Doctor, and meet him at the Creek at the nigger-house to take the row +with him. Just as I came out of school, however, two officers of an +Illinois regiment rode up to look about and see what they could see, +and asked if they could have food for man and beast. So I left orders +for some lunch, dressed, and started on my tour. I went through the +quarters--not a man was to be seen. There lay the boat, and the women +were coming in from their work, but said the men would not come till +the officers had gone--they were afraid of being taken. C. had to beg +the officers to go off the plantation, for he could not get his crew. +Not a man sleeps at night in the houses, except those too old to be +taken. They have made a camp somewhere and mean never to be caught. +There is no question that they can hide; a slave here hid himself for +two years on one of the little islands, though the whole district was +after him; he finally came out himself. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_March 14._ On March 9th the estates were at last offered for sale. On +our island two thirds were bidden in by the Government and I presume +they will remain under the system of superintendence. The other third +was bought by Mr. Philbrick and two or three sutlers. No agents of +Southern owners and no dangerous speculators made their appearance, to +my knowledge. Where any person evinced a desire to buy, the +commissioners, by their bids, forced an offer of one dollar per acre +and let the place go for that price. Several plantations, perhaps one +in five or six, were bidden in for the special purpose of negro +reservations; but in what way they will be offered to the people is +undecided. Indeed, nothing is certain except that the sales have been +made and titles given. I should have bought only two of my places in +any case,--and that for the benefit of the people,--but it happened +that both were among the number reserved. So I own none of the sacred +soil. + +In regard to your questions concerning the condition and capabilities +of the blacks, I hardly feel like writing anything at length, my +opinion, as far as it is made up, is so short and decided. Every one +says that these island negroes are more ignorant and degraded than the +great majority of the slaves, and I feel no doubt that, under +conditions of peace, three years would find these people, with but +very few exceptions, a self-respecting, self-supporting population. +Almost everything about them, even to their distrust and occasional +turbulence, has that in it which suggests to me the idea of capacity +and power of development. Their principal vices,--dishonesty, +indolence, unchastity, their dislike of responsibility, and unmanly +willingness to be dependent on others for what their own effort might +bring,--their want of forethought and inability to organize and +combine operations for mutual benefit,--nearly all their mental and +moral weaknesses can be traced naturally and directly to +slavery,--while on the other hand, the fact that at my close view I +cannot make them out to be characteristic traits confirms that opinion +as to their origin. Industry is very certainly the _rule_; there is +much idleness, but apply the spurs of which you think a white man +worthy, and you are sure to obtain earnest and persistent exertion. +Manliness and self-respect are sufficiently strong and common to +excite an expectation of finding them. Instances of plan, contrivance, +forethought are very numerous; you are constantly meeting "smart" +fellows. Their eagerness and aptitude in learning to read surprises +every one. Their memories are usually excellent, their power of +observation pretty keen, and their general intelligence is in most +striking contrast to the idea of chattel and wonderfully harmonizes +with that of man. I am only stating the grounds on which I have hopes +of their development, not trying to describe their characteristics or +the course or limit of that development. The discussion whether they +will ever be equal to the white race in anything seems to me to be +entirely irrelevant to everything. The only question of importance is +whether they can become a moral, self-supporting, and useful part of +our population, and of this I cannot feel the slightest doubt. That +they ever can leave the country I regard as impossible, that they ever +ought to leave it, as ill-advised. That the period of transition will +be one of great difficulty and considerable suffering is certain. The +best heads and hearts in the country will find work in it. As I think +now, I would recommend no gradual system of preparation and training. +Strike the fetters off at a blow and let them jump, or lie down, as +they please, in the first impulse of freedom, and let them at once see +the natural effects of jumping and lying down. Then if the Government +would simply provide or enforce education, and with few laws but very +many eyes would watch over the new relations of laborer and employer, +I should trust that in ten years America would again raise her head +proudly among the nations. But all this supposes that we gain our end +and have the work to do. Till the common head of the people +understands and the common heart of the people feels that this _is_ +the work of the war, that Emancipation should be the means, and not +only the best means but the holy _end_ of the war,--I tremble, and +fear neither our strength nor God's help will give us the victory. + + +FROM H. W. + +_March 20._ C. amused himself and us by making two or three of my +children who were waiting for school read to him upside down, which +they did as readily as the right way. + +Just a year to-night since Mr. Philbrick spent his first night in this +house. He has been telling us about it: a file of soldiers were drawn +up at the gate and refused him admittance till his credentials were +examined; now he is lord of the manor. I reminded the children +to-night that a year ago they did not know their letters; now they are +reading Hillard's Second Reader for the second time. + + The feat of reading upside down might seem to suggest that + they were reading Hillard's Second Reader for the second + time chiefly by the aid of memory! + + The next letter, written by Mr. Philbrick to a Northern + correspondent, was printed at the time on a broadside, for + distribution. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Coffin's Point, March 20._ Just a year ago to-night I entered this +house for the first time. If our Northern croakers could only be made +to realize as we do here the ease with which we have reduced a +comparative degree of order out of the chaos we found, and see how +ready this degraded and half-civilized race are to become an +industrious and useful laboring class, there would not be so much +gabble about the danger of immediate emancipation, or of a stampede of +negro labor to the North. + +We found them a herd of suspicious savages who regarded their change +of condition with fear and trembling, looking at the cotton-field as a +life-long scene of unrequited toil, and hailing with delight the +prospect of "no more driver, no more cotton, no more lickin'." They +had broken up the cotton-gins and hidden the iron-work, and nothing +was more remote from their shallow pates than the idea of planting +cotton for "white folks" again. + +Now they have, without the least urging, prepared for planting some +two hundred acres of cotton-land upon this plantation, having spread +on it sixteen hundred ox-cart-loads of manure, and worked up every +inch of the ground with their hoes. They have also planted one hundred +and thirty acres of corn, and have begun ploughing to-day, banking up +into ridges with the ploughs the cotton-land into which the manure had +been first hoed. The ploughs run over twenty acres per day on this +place. They were made at Groton, Mass., and astonish the negroes by +their efficiency. + +As a sample of the change of feeling in regard to working on cotton, I +will relate how I got the cotton ginned on this and the various other +plantations in this neighborhood. I walked through the negro quarters +one day in December and told the people I would pay them three cents +per pound of clean cotton if they would gin, assort, clean, and pack +their cotton ready for market. They said in reply their gins were all +broken up. I told them that was their own fault, and that, if they +wanted other people to gin their cotton and get their seed away from +the place, they would do so, and so get all the money and leave them +no good seed to plant. "Dat' so, Massa," said they, and I passed +along. The next time I came they had hunted up the broken pieces of +twenty-five gins, and patched them up, and had ginned and packed all +their cotton, in two weeks, wanting to know what I would have them do +next, for they did not want to lie still and do nothing. + +So you see there is some satisfaction in being among these people, +although they are not exactly companions for us. + + +FROM H. W. + +_March 23._ C. came home to-night, having resigned his position under +the Government. + + H. W.'s next letter, after describing a drive towards Land's + End, narrates the events of her return trip as follows. + +_March 25._ I opened the first gate myself, then met a man coming from +his work, who took off his hat with rather a surprised look at seeing +a lady alone, and an "Evening, Missus, how far you come from?" "From +Coffin's Point, and am going back again--Mr. Charlie's sister." +Whereupon another bow and a pleased grin as I go on. Soon I met +another man coming out into the road with a piece of paper, which he +asked me to read to him. I took the precaution to ask him his name +before opening it, to be sure he had not another man's pass, and then +read him an autograph pass from General Hunter for him to go to St. +Helena and back to Hilton Head, to see his wife. He was a servant of +Hunter's and _afraid of some trick_. He seemed satisfied, and thanked +me. When I asked him where his wife lived and if he had seen her, he +said, "Shum dere?" pointing to a woman hoeing, towards whom he made +his way again. At the next gate I was cutting cherokee-roses before +opening it, when a slight sound behind me attracted my attention to a +boy on a mule who had come noiselessly up, so I got into the sulky +again, and as he followed me along and I questioned him, found he was +coming here to see his "aunty." In a few minutes a loud whistle +attracted my attention and Sharper[125] announced Mass' Charlie, who +came cantering up behind me. He had sent the boy with a note to me and +exemption-papers for the old and feeble on his places, as he could not +go home and had met the black soldiers out taking the men for the +draft. With Sharper for attendant I drove on to Pine Grove, where I +gave C.'s note to William and the papers to distribute on both the +Fripp places while I went on to deliver those here. Heard one man say +to William that he wished his old master was back,--he was at peace +then. Poor fellows! + +By the time I reached our quarters it was bright moonlight, and in +that light I drove through the street, read the names on C.'s papers +and the contents to the men named as they came out at Primus' knock. A +little group gathered about to hear what I had to say as I explained +to the men,--a sober, disturbed set, saying nothing, but receiving the +explanation with a sad silence that went to my heart. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Coffin's Point, March 31._ You see I write from my first home. In +truth it seems like a home. Mrs. Philbrick and Miss W., Mr. +Philbrick, and Mr. Hall are here, besides Mr. Folsom--of '62, +Harvard--who is to be my future house-mate. A week ago, after settling +up all business at Captain Oliver's, I resigned my place of Government +Superintendent, and last Friday came down here. To-morrow we shall +take up our quarters at the "Pine Grove." I am going to take charge of +the two William Fripp places. The people are old friends. I used to +teach school for them. I think I shall like the work here much better; +the people are far better and the locality less exposed to outside +influences. It is a much better opportunity for trying the experiment +of free black labor. I manage the places, Mr. Philbrick supplies money +to carry them on, and at the end of the year, after deducting all +expenses, we share the profits, if any. + +The draft is either taking or frightening off most of the men, but it +should be made, I think. + + +FROM H. W. + +_April 3._ Cæsar came home on a furlough, and it was fun to see him in +the street afterwards, surrounded by a great gang, talking away as +eagerly as possible. I should like to have heard him, if I could have +understood him; he had had a "firs' rate time" and he and January have +been trying to get some of the men to go back with them, but they +can't succeed any better than C. or Mr. Philbrick. + + The next few letters are entirely occupied with incidents of + the draft. + + +E. S. P. TO C. P. W. (IN BOSTON) + +_April 7._ Nothing has been done yet about enforcing the draft on our +island, but Captain Bryant[126] told me yesterday he should probably +strike the last of this week, taking every point at once as near as +may be. Colonel Montgomery's regiment[127] are given him for the +purpose, with orders not to _shoot_ except in self defense! + + +FROM H. W. + +_April 14._ The soldiers had been there [at Fripp Point] in the night, +but had only caught old Simon and Mike, a boy of about fifteen, though +one of them had shot at Dan's Peter, about seventeen, and wounded him +in the head slightly. They went in squads all over this end of the +island except Pine Grove and here. They got sixty men in all, most of +them old, a waste of Uncle Sam's money. Of course our people here are +warned and all off again. The white officer said they took what men +they could get without reference to the superintendents' lists. + +_April 15._ Hamlet's wife, Betsey, came to buy salt, said her husband +was carried off the other night and she left with ten children and a +"heart most broke, shan't live long, no way, oh my Jesus!" My new +cook's husband was shot (and killed) as he ran away when the Secesh +tried to make him go with them--how are they to understand the +difference? Captain Dutch[128] says he thinks that six or eight have +gone onto the Main from this island; they openly say, some of them, +that they wish the old times were back again. + +_April 23._ The men at Fripp Point are said to have fired on the +soldiers from their houses. They are very bitter that negroes should +be sent against them. They would not mind white men, they say. R. has +persuaded all his men to go up to Beaufort,[129] and only a few were +retained. The rest have come back as happy as kings--no more bush for +them! I wish all would do the same. + +_April 29._ Mr. Philbrick went off to the wharf before breakfast, and +as he was coming back met Phillis on her way to tell the men who were +at work on it that the soldiers had come. As we sat down to lunch we +could see the gleaming of the bayonets as they came through the first +gate, and Primus sent up to say that he was taken and wanted Mr. +Philbrick to come down. Mr. G. appeared from Pine Grove, where they +had taken only two men, who will probably be let off. Soon William +appeared, saying they had been at the Point, too, but had got no one. +Mr. Philbrick rowed down to the [Fripp Point] quarters and presently +returned with Captain Hoyt and Captain Thompson, who were very tired, +to lunch. They all received him very crustily and coldly at first, but +they were prejudiced against him and vexed at their want of success, +and I think it did something towards removing ill feelings to see him. +When they reached the nigger-house here, where the men [the soldiers], +about fifty, had been waiting, they found they had tracked two men +down through the marsh from Fripp Point and caught them just here, +after shooting one. The people were in a wild state of confusion. The +soldiers had been telling our people all sorts of stories--that they +had orders to shoot because Mr. Philbrick had said in Beaufort that he +had a battery here to defend his people, etc. They came flocking round +him, all women of course, and all talking at once to try and get at +the truth of things, and Mr. Philbrick had to quiet them before he +could make out a word. Then Amaritta naturally stood forward as +spokeswoman to get "satisfaction," and they were easily made to +understand that the soldiers had been telling lies, and their +confidence in Mr. Philbrick quieted them. + + +E. S. P. TO C. P. W. + +_Beaufort, May 1._ We are led to admire more than ever the cool +discrimination of the General commanding the Department. The other day +some officer conceived the idea that the superintendents of St. Helena +in general, and W. C. G. in particular, were opposing the draft, +_employing_ able-bodied men, etc.; also that shots had been fired at +the black soldiers on his plantation. It was so represented to General +Hunter, and he ordered on the spot that he should be arrested and sent +out of the Department. Fortunately Captain Bryant, who was to have +executed the order, was a man of sense and consulted Captain Hooper, +who told him that General Saxton didn't want to spare Mr. G., and that +as he had no written orders he had better hold on. The editor of the +_Free South_ has been amusing himself by throwing out owlish +insinuations to the effect that speculators and others on St. Helena +had better take heed of General Hunter's orders, for the prospective +profits of a speedy fortune would hardly warrant the risk, etc., etc. + + The next paragraph gives another version of the search for + black recruits. + +Captain Thompson came to Coffin's on Wednesday with about fifty men. +They caught no one but Primus, who felt safe and didn't hide. If he +had behaved himself he wouldn't have been taken, but got into a +passion and talked so wild that he was taken out of punishment for his +impudence, and then held on the ground that his influence must be +against the draft, and as he was foreman, his power must be +considerable! Captain Thompson pretended to have orders to shoot men +running, and scoured the Fripp Point place through Lieutenant O. E. +Bryant and some black soldiers. They met no young men except Sancho +and Josh, whom they chased down into the marsh opposite Coffin +nigger-house, and then shot Josh. He was taken with a bullet in his +leg and a buckshot in his head, carried to the village, and placed +under Dr. Bundy's care. Of course, Sancho was taken, too, and brought +up to camp. He had an Enfield rifle with him, and admits that he fired +it to "scare away the soldiers," after Josh was hit, but not before. +The black soldiers all say he fired first, and no white man was +present to see. I came up to lay the matter before the General, but he +is not well. Captain Hooper has taken it in hand and promises to +investigate it. The Major of the Second Regiment[130] was down here, +but I couldn't see him. He may have given such orders to Thompson as +he pretends. They seem to have got enraged because they couldn't find +any men on those three plantations after having been quartered at the +village for two weeks, and imputed their want of success to G. and +myself. I shouldn't be surprised if I am ordered out of the Department +at any moment. + + Then comes the sequel. + + +FROM H. W. + +_May 17._ Primus has come home. He deserted a week ago and has been +all that time getting here. He says that he has not drilled but once +since he was taken to camp, that he has been sick all the time, but +that he has not been in the hospital. Of course, not being volunteers, +there is a great deal of shamming, and they have to be very strict; in +short, they pursue the old masters' system of believing they lie until +it is proved they have spoken the truth,--a most elevating process! +and he had a large blister put on the back of his neck and was kept in +his tent. Finally Captain Hoyt took him to Colonel Montgomery and told +him that he thought the man was really sick and not fit to be kept, +but the Colonel was very short with him and said drill was the best +cure for him. Then Primus ran away, and is now in his bed here. Mr. +Philbrick has seen him and says it is impossible to tell whether he is +sick or not, but he understands fully the consequences of desertion, +and that Mr. Philbrick and C. cannot employ him again. Mr. Philbrick +told him that he should not inform against him, but that if the +officers asked him if he had come home he should have to tell them +that he had. "I know dat, massa, but I won't stay dere." He +understands that we are helpless. He says, and we have learned in +other ways, that all who were drafted have been deserting. One day +they brought in fourteen, and the next day twelve of them had gone, +and the next the other two. They can't pretend to get them back again, +and of course the demoralization must be great. It will be very bad +for Primus now, if they do not take him, to live on here an outlaw, +working his wife's cotton but not able to resume his plow or his old +position in any way--yet if he is taken again he will never make a +good soldier. The whole thing is wrong from the foundation, and should +be given up, and all those who did not volunteer sent to their +homes--if any are then left in the regiments. Yet I don't see how that +could be done unless Hunter went off, and some other Major General +repealed his orders. + + To return to matters of plantation management. + + C. P. W. had recently been sent home by Mr. Philbrick to buy + and send a schooner-load of provisions, merchandise, etc., + for the "store." He found himself "an object of regard and + curiosity," "engaged out to dinner and tea to 'talk Port + Royal' many days ahead." Apropos of the things he bought for + Coffin's Point, he wrote: + + +C. P. W. TO E. S. P. + +_Boston_, [_April 27._] I received permission from the Secretary of +the Treasury to ship the powder, shot, saddle, bridle, tar, pitch, and +rope, but I had to consign these, with the hats, to General Saxton, +from whom you will have to obtain an order for them. The tobacco, +shoes, rice, and buggy are not contraband. They were going to stop the +hats, on the ground that they were "adapted for military uniforms," +and I had to get a "character" from one of my friends, a clerk in the +Custom House, and then assure the crusty old Collector that the hats +were not to be used for any illegal purpose, before he would let them +pass. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Pine Grove, May 17._ The schooner has but just come round to +Coffin's, and the rain has prevented our plundering her with energy. +But Friday I got up my molasses and gave some out yesterday. You ought +to have seen the little ones dance as the mothers came home with their +piggins full. We are going to give some molasses and bacon monthly for +the present,--in lieu of an increase of wages. Most of the proprietors +are offering rather better terms than the Government,--some in money, +others in a larger share of the crop. We keep the Government scale of +prices, but give them the "poke" and "sweet'ning," and I think have +touched their sensibilities much more certainly thereby. + + This same day Mr. and Mrs. Philbrick left Port Royal and + went home. The next extracts are from two of H. W.'s + letters, full of details about the home life and the + wonderful ways of the "people." + + +FROM H. W. + +_June 10._ As we drove up under the shade of a buttonwood-tree [at +Fripp Point] we found a group of children under it, three or four boys +and girls washing at wash-tubs, others sitting round taking care of +younger children. They were just like children all over the +world,[131] playing and teasing each other, but very good-naturedly, +and as happy as you please. This weather the children wear nothing but +a shift or shirt, and the other day Lewis and Cicero appeared in the +yard entirely naked. Aunt Sally, from Eddings Point, amused us with +her queer, wild talk a long time. The story is that she was made crazy +by her master's whipping her daughter to death, and very sad it was to +hear her talk, though it was funny. She knows any number of hymns and +parts of the Bible, and jumbles scraps and lines from the one with +Genesis and Revelation in the most extraordinary manner, talking about +Mr. Adam and Madam Eve, who brought her and her race all their woe, +whom she knows but will never forgive. She stands and reads everything +out of her "heart-book," which she says tells her everything, looking +all the time at her left hand, which she holds out like a book. Her +epithets against her old master and the rebels were voluble and +denunciatory in the extreme, and she left us with many warnings to +remember "Det and de Jugment." I had sent for the "Widow Bedotte," to +whom I presented some tobacco and who was very funny indeed. She is in +her right mind and delights in making herself agreeable. I wish I +could describe to you this extraordinary specimen of humanity--a short +little old body with an intelligent face--all her wool carefully +concealed by an enormous turban, from beneath each side of which hung +four black strings, looking like an imitation frisette of false +curls, her odd figure enveloped in shawl and cape, rubbing her hands +nervously and sinking into the floor, as it seemed, as she curtseyed +to us lower than I ever saw anybody go and get up again straight. And +then her conversation and manner were as comical as her appearance. + + Another characteristic of the "Widow Bedotte" H. W. + describes elsewhere. + +She prides herself upon her good manners, which she says she gets +because she belongs to the church, which every now and then she joins +again. She has just done so here, so is full of extra flourishes. + + On June 12 Hunter was replaced by Brigadier-General Quincy + A. Gillmore.[132] Here follow comments on Hunter's last acts + before leaving, as well as on the impression made by his + successor. + + +FROM H. W. + +_May 28._ Mr. Williams brought word that Hunter has issued an order to +all civilians to enter the army or leave the Department! Twenty days' +notice. You need not be afraid of C.'s enlisting here; he wouldn't do +it "first." I don't think many of the superintendents would now like +to serve under Hunter. He imprisoned two of them upon the evidence of +their people without inquiring into the matter, and ignored Saxton in +the most insulting manner. Mr. Hammond was released by a court-martial +with honor. + +_May 30._ In the evening came a note from R. saying that there was no +danger from the draft for the superintendents, but they would probably +have to get exemption-papers. + +_June 20._ C. came home after church Sunday with the information that +General Gillmore had given out that he should carry out Hunter's +orders, but that he took the liberty of believing a white man as well +as a negro! + +_June 24._ We hear but little about the new General. He is General +Saxton's junior in rank, but a fine engineer, so it is supposed he was +sent to conduct the siege of Charleston. + + The siege of Charleston,--another attempt, "prompted more by + sentiment than military sagacity," to capture "the city in + which the secession had begun,"[133]--is the subject of the + next dozen extracts. The expedition failed to justify the + high hopes that accompanied it, yet one event in it has + attained undying fame. + + When, in the first week of July, all the troops left Hilton + Head, Land's End, and Port Royal Island, the regiment + followed with the keenest interest by the writers of these + letters was the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts (colored), + Colonel Robert G. Shaw. + +_July 10._ It was strange to be waked this morning by the incessant, +thundering roar of heavy guns. It was just at sunrise, and as I +gradually woke to the full realization of what it must be--though as +it mingled in my dreams, I was conscious that our masked batteries had +opened at last--it was very exciting to feel my bed shake under me +from such a cause. I could hear the people talking excitedly in the +yard. About seven o'clock the heavy firing ceased, and we hoped that +Morris Island was ours. C. went to the beach and reported a very heavy +cloud of smoke resting in the direction of "Town." + + The following extract is a good specimen of the groundless + rumors, all with copious circumstantial evidence, that + infested the islands. + + +FROM H. W. + +_July 11._ About ten o'clock came Juno's daughter Fanny from "Pope's" +to spend Sunday, bringing us the apparently reliable intelligence that +"Town taken." It seemed too much to believe, but her story was this: +her aunt, Juno's sister, and one of Dr. Whitredge's servants, is +washing at Hilton Head and was there yesterday, when a vessel came +from Charleston with the news and many people (prisoners, we infer), +and the first who came ashore were Mass' Alonso and Mass' John, +Whitredge, who said to her, "How d' ye!" She says that five boat-loads +put off to the Yankees and gave themselves up. "Mass' John know too +much to fight 'gainst de Yankee--him get college at de Nort'--him say +him got no nigger--him no gwine fight." It is preposterous to write +you all this. You will know everything with certainty before this +reaches you. + +_July 12._ The good news was most welcome from Vicksburg and +Pennsylvania, and our attack on Morris Island was successful, if Town +was not taken; but Colonel Higginson's attempt to reach the railroad +was a failure,[134] and he was wounded, thought not, it is said, +badly. + + The successful attack on Morris Island on July 10 had + resulted in the occupation of all the ground south of Fort + Wagner. On July 18 was made the famous assault on the fort + itself,--an assault hopeless from the start,--in which the + attacking column was led by the Massachusetts negro + regiment, its colonel at its head. + +_July 20._ C. came back with the terrible accounts of the Charleston +fight and the almost total destruction of the Fifty-Fourth. +Beaufort[135] is in amaze at the spirit of "that little fellow, +Colonel Shaw." Certainly it is one of the most splendid things ever +known in the annals of warfare. I long to be doing, and not living so +at our ease here. C. offered everything, and Mr. Eustis has been with +Hallowell and James[136] all day. The greatest want is of +physicians--there is no proper medical staff for the Department, and +surgeons are scarce. Drs. Bundy and Wakefield were sent for yesterday. +The officers are in the Fripp house, where the Forbeses were. + +There has been very heavy firing again to-day. You see we hear it all, +though sometimes very faintly. + +_July 24._ William took farewell of his schools and came home, having +received six dozen eggs as tokens of regret--an ovation at his +departure.[137] He left them to go up to the sick and wounded +to-morrow with contributions from the people. All vegetables, etc., +are seized by the Provost and paid for, for the use of the sick, and +there is some one on this side the ferry to receive the gifts. We send +all we can, but it is unsatisfactory not to be on the spot. + +_July 25._ William is just off for Beaufort. He will stay to watch +to-night, if needed. But "no ladies" is the cry. + +[Later.] William went to the hospital for the officers, of which Dr. +Bundy has charge, where he was set to watch and administer to a very +badly wounded captain of the Forty-Eighth New York, Paxton by name. He +cannot live, and knows it, but bears his terrible wounds with the +utmost fortitude. William was with him Saturday and Sunday, parts of +the day, and G. and Wells divided the night between them. Everything +seems to be well conducted, and the hospitals in good order. I suppose +the _Fulton_, which is expected daily, will bring supplies and +surgeons. Captain Hooper is invaluable--busy as possible, as he always +is--I don't know what the Department would be without him. Yet he +found time to write me a long note to tell me about the wounded, and +that there was no doubt of Colonel Shaw's death. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Beaufort, July 26._ Last night several of us passed in Beaufort at +the hospitals. The wounded have been brought down and all the +hospitals in Beaufort are full. Wednesday we heard at the +superintendents' meeting that there was a great scarcity of fresh +fruits and vegetables; so at the Thursday night praise I told the +people about it, and yesterday came up with nearly two cartloads of +provisions, most of it contributed by the people. Another gentleman +had done the same and between us we supplied five hospitals. It is my +first experience in such work. It's surprising to see how cheerful and +jolly all the wounded are--all who have any strength. A wound means +home and a vacation to many of them, and with few exceptions these men +with holes in them lie on their beds like boys waiting for the word +which gives them recess. To-night I shall try to go to one of the +colored hospitals. + +A boat is just in from Charleston. A cartel of exchange had been +agreed upon, by which all the wounded on our side were to be exchanged +for all the wounded upon the other, so that reference to negro +soldiers is avoided. The negro soldiers appear to have received the +same care as the white; on the other hand, some of the rebel officers +told with much gusto how Colonel Shaw's body had been thrown into a +common pit and those of two of his men tossed on top of him. + + +FROM H. W. + +_July 31._ In at our open door walked Captain Hooper, and with him +Captain Rand of the First Cavalry, now on General Saxton's staff. +Captain Rand told us that our wounded who came down from Charleston +had been miserably cared for--the rebels acknowledged that they could +not take care of them. The surgeon said but one man had been properly +operated upon, and his wound had been dressed by one of the navy +surgeons, a prisoner. No men or officers of the Fifty-Fourth among +them: they said the officers we should hear of by way of Richmond; the +men, I suspect, are not. No one knows who are among the dead or +living--only that Colonel Shaw is dead, and probably Cabot Russel. It +is said to have been a very imposing sight, when, in the midst of +heavy firing from every fort, battery, and gunboat on each side, the +_Cosmopolitan_, with the rebel wounded on board, her hospital flag and +flag of truce flying, steamed up toward the city. Instantly every gun +ceased, and white flags appeared from each fort and ship till she had +passed, met the rebel steamer (a very fine one, which had run the +blockade in the morning!), exchanged her wounded cargo, and returned. + + To give complete the story of the siege of Charleston as + seen from St. Helena Island, some letters have been included + in advance of their chronological place in the series. + Therefore the next letter goes back to an earlier date. + + +FROM H. W. + +_July 3._ We were all standing at the back door when a small crowd +became visible at the first gate. We watched to discover what it +meant, as it was an unmistakable "gang" drawing nearer. 'Siah's boy +had come over from the Point to tell C. that some white soldiers were +there from the village stealing corn, etc., after the manner of the +soldiers in this region, but so far our plantations have been very +free from such depredations C. had just told Tony that he did not feel +well enough to go over, and that the men would be gone before he could +get there--and turning to Mr. Soule he said that those Point men were +just the men to catch white soldiers, if they could do it, and he +should not be surprised if they did. The words were hardly out of his +mouth before the "gang" appeared, so you may imagine we watched it +with great curiosity as it drew near. On they came, a compact body of +people, among whom we tried to discover some white faces. Presently +the gleaming of muskets was distinctly visible, and as one of the men +stepped forward and threw the gate wide open for the company to pass +through, three white soldiers appeared in the front ranks. They were +all perfectly quiet, not a word was said; and as C. ran down the steps +to receive them and they came to a halt, the men brought the muskets +to the ground and the women emptied their aprons of corn-shucks at his +feet, waiting quietly for him to do what he thought right. I did not +hear one loud or angry tone while I stood listening as C. heard their +story and then questioned the soldiers. They were perfectly quiet, +too,--young fellows from the One Hundred and Fourth Pennsylvania +Volunteers, a new regiment,--and they evidently thought that C. was a +person of authority or the blacks would not have marched them three +miles to him. He took from them their dirks and pistols, and the +musket which one of them had, and they made no resistance--nor did +they say a word when he called to me for "three pair of hand-cuffs" +(all he brought down), and asked the three men from the Point who had +guns, if they would stay and guard them all night. It was rather a +troublesome elephant and he did not quite know what to do with it now +it was in his possession. It was a good chance to do something if he +would be sustained, but General Saxton has not conferred any +magisterial powers[138] on the superintendents yet, and if he +undertook too much and was not sustained, it would be worse than +nothing. At any rate, he would have to take them to the village in the +morning, so he decided to do so that night, and went off with his +prisoners and their guard, driving his light sulky, and carrying the +light arms, one of the men taking the musket again. He did not use the +hand-cuffs. + +It was strange to see how very quiet and apparently unexcited the +people were. After the first few minutes they came up to me to buy, +and then all went off when C. did, as quickly as possible. + +_July 5._ When two buckra were reported as approaching while we were +at breakfast it turned out to be two men from the village picket with +a note from the Lieutenant to C. I did not find out the sequel to the +story the other night, but it seems that C. and William crossed the +creek with the soldiers, only taking two men to row. The blacks +certainly behaved extremely well, and Moll told the men they might +have the corn, which of course they refused to take. And as they went +into the boat a boy put in the watermelon they had taken, saying, +"B'longs to you, sah," but the man sent it ashore. The coals were +rather hot, I guess, and the men were heartily ashamed of themselves +and thoroughly penitent. C. went with them to the mess-room and saw +the sergeant, who expressed great regret and said it was the first +time any of their men had been guilty of such acts. The Lieutenant was +away, and as C. drew paper towards him to report the case in writing, +they looked very blank and begged him not to report. After some +consideration he concluded not to report them, as he could not see the +Lieutenant and they had behaved so well about it, and told them he +would not unless some further acts of the kind were perpetrated by +their men. They were very grateful, but C. did not feel sure that the +Lieutenant would not hear of it. And so he did, in some way; +investigated the affair and sent the men to Beaufort to be punished by +the Commander of the post, who is now not General Saxton but, as it +happens, is their own Colonel,[139] who is not likely to be lenient +towards them. The Lieutenant sent a note to this effect to C. this +morning, and also wished to know what would repay the negroes for the +damage done. (The soldiers had already promised to make it good to +them, and were to have been paid off yesterday, but their pay was +stopped in consequence of this very occurrence.) So the whole affair +has ended very satisfactorily. I am sorry for the poor fellows, for +they will probably suffer not so much for what they actually did +themselves, but to serve as an example to all other offenders. + +_July 7._ Mr. Wells was to come at nine o'clock to the wharf to take +Mr. Soule[140] to Morgan Island, one of his plantations. Mr. Wells +appeared at the door to say that he had a large sail-boat--it was only +a half-hour's sail to the island, and would not I go too. So I put up +a little lunch and C. had his horse saddled and down to the wharf we +went, and were soon at our destination. The only white-house on the +island now occupied is on quite a bluff looking directly out to sea, +pleasantly shaded, with a fresh breeze all the time up the Sound, and +is a very healthy situation. But the house is of the roughest +description, without paint inside or out, very much like a New +Hampshire farmhouse in the back-woods a quarter of a century ago, but +not so large, clean, or thrifty-looking, by any means. Here we stopped +to see an old man who was brought from Africa when he was over twenty, +and remembers his life in his own country, from which he was sold by +his brother to pay a debt. Mr. Soule said he was bright and talkative +when he last saw him, but now he is very much broken; and after +sitting a few minutes we went on to the driver's house, a great +contrast in neatness, and the gentleman left me in a rocking-chair +under the shade of the large Asia-berry tree in front of the house, +while they went off with Bacchus, the foreman, to see the +cotton-fields. Here I stayed for a couple of hours, I should think, +talking with Elsie, Bacchus' wife, who was not in the field because +she had a headache, and very neat and nice she looked in her calico +gown. She has no children, but made up for the want as far as she +could by the number of chickens and ducks she had round. By and bye +she got up, and picking up a piece of brick, pounded it up with an +axe, and began to clean a large knife, which I knew meant watermelon. +And when the gentlemen came back, Bacchus brought out a small table +and put a melon on it which was almost large enough for a tablecloth; +then he produced plates, and Mr. Wells carved the huge monster, which +we nearly devoured. The air and grace with which one of the men, who +came up to clear off the table for Mr. Wells to pay the people, +touched his hat with a bow and a scrape would not have misbecome a +Commencement Dinner or Wedding Party. + + The keen interest which these Northern interlopers took in + everything that concerned the people into whose shoes they + had stepped, and their constant sense of the strangeness and + romance of their situation appear in the extracts that + follow. Again the chronology of the letters has been + somewhat disregarded. + + +FROM H. W. + +_July 14._ G. came over here and spent the day. He told us that a man +who belonged on his place came back with the troops on one of their +late expeditions, and told him that his master, T. J. Fripp, was +killed at Darien. He said he (Fripp) had been past here in a boat and +came back with his hands all blistered from rowing; they had been +hailed by the _Kingfisher_, but told some story of having come from +here, and escaped. He said his master swore the Yankees were +everywhere, and that there was a light in every window of Tom Coffin's +house. + + +E. S. P. TO C. P. W. + +_Boston, Sept. 30._ I heard the other day that Captain Boutelle of the +Coast Survey, who used to enjoy the hospitality of the planters of St. +Helena, Edisto, etc., was dining at Cambridge, Mass., with a classmate +of T. A. C.'s. The host inquired what had become of the Captain's +former friends, the South Carolina planters. "Oh, they are all +scattered and their property ruined." "Well, what has become of my +classmate, Thomas A. Coffin?" "Oh, he is gone with the rest, and his +fine plantation is in the hands of that confounded Abolitionist, +Philbrick." + + +FROM H. W. + +_July 10._ William has been overhauling the old letters and papers in +the garret and has come across many very interesting bits of +information among them. They are mostly very old. Old plantation books +of Mr. Eben Coffin, the first proprietor of the name of this estate, +dated 1800, containing lists of the slaves of former generations, in +which some of the oldest here now, like Uncle Sam, are mentioned as +two years old; estimates for this house and the building in the yard, +etc. + +_Aug. 5._ C. has found a spike of papers in the old overseer house, on +which he and Mr. Soule are now expending their eyesight. Letters from +Mr. Coffin to Cockloft, etc. They have found out how much he was paid +for the year--also some references to an exciting time on Frogmore +where the overseer seems to have mismanaged--somebody was shot and +there was a trial! We shall ask the negroes about it all. + +_Aug. 6._ I entertained myself to-day reading over these same letters. +It made me feel very queerly--they were mostly written during the +summer of 1860, from Charleston and Newport. It seemed so short a time +ago, and every thing and person spoken of about the plantation was so +familiar. It seems that the overseer of Frogmore, Benjarola Chaplin, +was a bad man, and, suspecting a boy and girl there of poisoning him, +had them tried and sentenced to be hung without letting Mr. Coffin +know anything about it. We find that the sentence was not +executed,--for Peter and Katy are still living,--but don't know why +they were pardoned, though apparently there was no proof of their +guilt. + +_Sept. 22._ This morning I had a call from Henry, Mr. Coffin's old +cook, a very intelligent mulatto who wanted me to read some letters to +him and then talked a little while about Mrs. Coffin, to whom he seems +very much attached, and says he would serve her to the end of his +days. He and his wife would like to go North to her, and he was very +glad to hear from Captain Boutelle that she was safe there; he says +she suffered so the last part of the time she was here, he could not +bear to look at her. "The first Mrs. Coffin was a very nice lady, but +she _succeed_ her." He talks very well. He was much pleased that I +offered to write to her for him sometime, and said he had not liked to +ask any one to do so for fear they should not think it right to have +anything to do with the old people--"but she's a Nort' lady, you +know, Ma'am, a beautiful lady, I would serve her all my life." + +_Sept. 27._ Have I told you of an interesting talk we had from one +Pompey, who said that it was the poor whites in Beaufort who made the +negroes "sensible" about the war? That if it had not been for them he +should have believed his master and gone away with him, but that they +let him into the secret.[141] He says that [the poor whites] wished to +stay, but were driven off by the rich men, whom they hate, and are now +in the ranks fighting the rich men's battles. He has heard several +times from the Main, through his old fellow servants who have run off, +and mentioned two or three of the old proprietors here who are now in +jail for trying to escape, among them Dr. Clarence Fripp, of whom they +all speak with great affection. He never wanted to go, but was carried +off by his brothers, one of whom, Eddings, has since died. + +_Oct. 15._ As soon after breakfast as Robert had finished his regular +work we mounted two pair of stairs "to clear up the attic." Do you +think you know what that means? You have not the least idea. So far as +we can make out, this house was built in 1809, and I think Robert +dragged out from under the eaves the original shavings. It was +melancholy to see the spoiled and demolished furniture which would be +of so much use to us now, bureaus without drawers, sofas with only the +frames, and those all broken, pieces of washstands and bedsteads, +etc. + + It seems that such wonders were afterwards performed in + renovating this broken furniture that the parlor became + almost a parody of its ancient splendor. + + The letters now return to chronological order. + + +FROM H. W. + +_July 18._ The cotton-fields are quite full of yellow and pink +blossoms. We rode through many cotton-fields, and a pretty sight they +were, some good, some poor,--those belonging to the Government as a +general thing showing marked inferiority to those of the "Concern." + +C. has been in the field all day, and has come home with a strong +feeling of how much the people in general have gained and improved in +the last year. There are poor ones among them, of course,--some he +says he should like to send off the place, another year; but the +majority of the people are very much ashamed of them, and for some +time have been very anxious he should go over the fields to see who +"work for deir money and who shirk." To-night he has been distributing +the pork and molasses and has refused the bonus to those who have not +done their work properly, preferring to make the distinction here +rather than in the pay, and most of the delinquents have appreciated +the justice of the proceeding, only one or two making any fuss at all, +and the others were very much ashamed of them. C. says he thinks that +school has improved the children, too, their manners are improved, as +have the grown people's,--less cringing and subservient, but more +respectful and manly. Tim does not pull his forelock at every word he +speaks, as he did last year, looking like a whipped dog, but looks you +full in the face and speaks out as if he were not ashamed of himself, +and is perfectly respectful withal. + +The names of the people have often puzzled me as to what they were +originally intended for, and in taking down the names of the children +"Rode" puzzled me completely, until old Maria, in talking of her +"crop" the other day, told me that one child was born in the _road_ on +the way from the field the day "gun fire at Bay Point, and I give him +name o' Road"! + +I don't think any of the heirs will find that these people are +deteriorated when they redeem this property. I only hope young Mass' +Julian, who is in Europe, will be glad to find them so far in training +for free laborers and be grateful that they are not ruined, as some of +the people are! + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Aug. 3._ The people say, all in good earnest, that the best of the +[cotton] crop (including nine tenths of it) equals and excels the +"Secesh own." There are a few lazy, who have allowed their crop to +grow grassy, and some young ones, who need careful instruction or +severe admonition from the elder ones. But the large majority are +careful, faithful, honest, enthusiastic, and are doing much better for +themselves than they would have for their "obershere." The people +anxiously inquire for cotton sheets to pick in. They are hiring hands +now to pick for them; some of them will be tight pushed to save all +their crop. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Pine Grove, Aug. 22._ We are all very busy, all day and every day. +And it is well that it is so, for in this climate the only way to keep +one's faculties from rust is to keep them constantly in use. It is +encouraging, however, to find the good results of our labor so +apparent. I think our people are improving very fast, and they are +very contented and happy. (Next week don't be surprised, however, to +find the thermometer lower.) + +A great step has lately been taken. On the whole the people have been +growing more lawless this year; to remedy the evil, civil law has just +been introduced. The first Commission[142] was appointed a few days +ago, and as I am one of its members, it gives occupation for another +day or two days of a week. I hope it will be able to do much good; at +all events it will be abundantly supplied with cases. This life is +very narrowing,--we talk nothing but negro, we think nothing but +negro; and yet it develops a man at almost every point. From +house-carpenter to Chief Justice is a long way. And in one who uses +the opportunity aright it develops patience and faith marvelously, but +through many failures. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Aug. 15._ Just as we got up from the dinner-table, a woman came +running up for C. because the people were fighting. Poor thing! she +was dreadfully frightened and had run the whole way with her baby in +her arms and looked as if she had just stepped out of the river. I +don't know what the trouble was--it was the tongues of the women, and +they fired shells and tore each other's clothes in a most disgraceful +way, much to the mortification of the better part of the community. +Jealousy is the foundation of a great deal of trouble among them, and +there is often too much foundation for it. + +_Aug. 31._ Mr. Soule had planned to go to Beaufort and see the +General, and C. wished especially to get permission to turn all the +young men from outlaws into private citizens by employing them and +paying them regularly, for he could not help their aiding their wives +and being employed by each other, a species of evasion which was +eminently calculated to give them high ideas of the power and value of +the law in the hands of the present authorities--C. helpless, and they +doing as they pleased! It looked like rain, however, and they gave it +up for that day. + +_Sept. 1._ We had breakfast very early, and Mr. Soule and C. went off, +to discover as usual that our clock was about an hour fast! I thought +I would go out and dine and see how Mr. G. was, as he had had a fever +turn. So I mounted and started alone on my expedition, after carefully +locking the house. It was cloudy and cool, but I found my beast +beastly hard, so had to content myself with a walk. It was very +pleasant, as I rode along, to see how brightly the people looked up to +bow and speak. First old Richard in the overseer-yard, watching the +arbors, as they are called--the frames where the cotton is spread out +to dry; then men and women coming from the field with great sheets of +cotton on their heads which made them almost unrecognizable, little +Susie staggering under such a pile that I saw she never could get it +onto her head again alone as she was, if I asked her to put it down +and run back to open the gate for me, so after more than one trial I +succeeded in opening it for myself. Then I took my sack off and rode +in my white jacket, putting the sack round the pummel and fastening it +there by the extra stirrup which, as the only saddle we had for a long +time, was rigged onto it for Mr. Philbrick and still remains, a relic +of our early, barbarous days. But in a canter I lost it off, and had +to call a child to pick it up for me. Then Miller came along, going +out to help his "old woman" pick cotton, and walked by my side talking +of the fine crop, and that next year there would not be land enough +for the people--"dey work better nor Secesh time--encouragement so +good!" He was as bright and jolly as you ever saw any honest farmer +when his crops were in fine condition, and as we came in sight of +Phillis and Katy, his wife and daughter, and Amaritta in a task just +behind them, the latter called out to him, "Hi! Hi! bru' Miller, where +you go? my back mos' broke!" as if it were the pleasantest news in the +world. He answered, "Oh, I go walk, I got people pick my cotton," with +such a hearty ha! ha! as did me good to hear. Many of the men laugh +just like little children--Abel does. Next came Nancy, Peg, and Doll, +Demus' mother and sisters, and such a nice family--the bright, smiling +faces they raised to me and the cheerful "Hahdy, Missus," was worth +seeing and hearing, and when Nancy sent Peg running after me to open +the gate I was "fighting" with, she looked so bright, strong, and +handsome as she strode along so splendidly, her dress caught up at the +waist and let down from the shoulders, that I wished I could +daguerreotype her on the spot. + +I found Mr. G. in a very decided chill on the sofa in front of the +parlor fire. I stayed an hour or two, and then, the fever coming on +quite severely and affecting his head a good deal, I rode home as fast +as possible to signal for Dr. Westcott.[143] I could not get through +the cotton-field, however, without being stopped two or three times by +applications for "suthin" for this child's boils or that one's sore +eyes, all of which I referred to the house, where I afterwards +administered to the best of my knowledge--one of my constant +occupations. + +Mr. Soule and C. came back, with no news from Charleston, having found +the General and his staff just starting on a visit to the scene of +action, but C. had obtained permission to employ the men and made them +very happy the next day by telling them so. + +_Sept. 5._ I have been endeavoring to instill habits of cleanliness +into Rose and in many ways have succeeded--she has regular days when +she goes home to wash, changes her "linen" twice a week, takes a warm +bath every Saturday, and keeps her head and feet in a condition to +which they were strangers previously. I can see, too, that it has had +a decided effect upon her sisters. One of the important items has been +pocket-handkerchiefs, with which I provided her, and she has to keep +them in her pocket. For two or three days lately she has forgotten +this essential article, and I finally told her that if it was +forgotten the next day I should have to send her home for it. I had +forgotten all about it, till, the next morning when she came to pour +the water into my tub for me, a most inordinate snuffling betrayed the +absent wipe. "Rose, where's your pocket-handkerchief? have you +forgotten it again?" No answer, but a hiding of the head under her arm +like a duck, which often takes place when she is in fault. "Then, +Rose, put the coffee on, sweep the parlor, and go home for it." This +elicited, "me no gwine home," a pert rejoinder I could not understand, +till on calling her to me I saw by her face how excessively green I +had been. I reprimanded her with a sober face as she again repeated +"me no gwine home," at the same time untwisting the handkerchief from +about her waist, but when she had left the room I should have shaken +the bed, if that had been my style of laughter. Robert is a great wag +in his way, though we do not see so much of his fun, as, having been +used to the house in "Secesh time," he is utterly undemonstrative +before white people and is only gradually thawing into a little more +communicativeness. But we overhear him sometimes talking with the +others. A most entertaining but not quite so pleasant exhibition of it +(and C. and I could not help laughing at Rose and Hester's +good-natured, amusing account) was his riding after the two girls one +day when he had been out for the horses, extolling himself and +insisting that they should call him "Maussa" or he would ride them +down, with his spurs on! Hester gave in, but Rose wouldn't--"him too +mannish!" + +There is a great deal of tyrannizing over each other. "Mind now, min', +run quick or I knock you,"--or "kill you dead" it is as likely to +be,--is an ordinary method of getting anything done, while "cursing," +as they call calling names, etc., is one of the hardest things I have +to contend with in school, they are so quick to interpret any look or +act into an offense and resent it on the spot with word or blow. + +_Sept. 9._ I had a long talk with some of my big girls who had been +very noisy and fighting--they do "knock" each other most unmercifully, +and I can't instill any better notions into them. "Anybody hurt you, +you _'bleeged_ to knock 'em," is the universal response, and they have +no idea of letting any difficulty be peaceably settled. + +The definite reply which these people require to the ordinary +salutation of Hahdy? or Huddy? into which it has degenerated here, is +very amusing, and a corresponding inquiry is expected in return, to +which they give the most minute answers. "Good morning, Hacklis +(Hercules), how are you to-day?" "Stirring, tank you, Ma'am, how +youself?" and if I had a headache I should no more think of saying +"pretty well" than if I were being cross-questioned at the bar--the +inquiry is so sincere and expects such a particular reply. "Dunno, +Missus--tank de Lord for life," is a common rejoinder, as well as "Not +so well, tank you, ma'am." + + This is as good a place as any for some more examples of + negro speech and negro ways. The sayings of Rose, in + particular, were a constant source of interest and + amusement. H. W. writes that she "tells me everything, in + her simplicity, even to the fact that her father has silver + money which he keeps buried, and that her mother sends her + to the pen for milk before it comes up here!" + +[_May 16._] Rose commented, "You lub Miss Helen," and then in a few +minutes, "Miss Helen lub you. All two (both). I love Miss Helen, too. +Miss Helen one _nice_ buckra. You more rough 'long er Miss Helen. Miss +Helen _so_ softle--when him touch me I no feel 'um--me feel you--you +so strong." All this with inimitable gesture and expression and a +"leetle" and "middling-sized-bear" voice that was inexpressibly droll. + +[_May 17._] As I sat down to write this morning, Rose came in to dust. +"Miss Hy't, you gwine write Norf?" Yes, Rose. I told her that little +Robert sent me the pictures and a letter from little Mary. It pleased +her very much, and she said she wanted to see them. "Me lub Robert and +Mary." Thinking I should like to get at some of her notions, I asked +her, What do you mean by love, Rose? "Me dunno--brothers and sisters." +Don't you love any one else, Rose? "Me dunno." Why, you said yesterday +that you loved Miss Helen, and just now that you loved Robert and +Mary. "Me lub dem." By this time the top of her head was in contact +with the floor, when she suddenly raised herself to a kneeling posture +and pointing up, said a moment after, "Me lub God," and in a few +minutes, as if she were quoting, "An dem dat foller arter Christ." +What do you mean by that, Rose? "Me dunno," and I found she had not +the least idea. Presently she enumerated Mass' Charlie, Mass' Willyum, +and Mister Philbrick in her category, and then went on with her +dusting. By and by she said--"Miss Hyut, me no say your name." No, +Rose. "Well, me lub you an' Miss Helen de _morer_." + +Mr. Thorpe has a boy, Strappan, who is even more noted than my Rose, +and who has given some remarkable answers to questions which Mr. +Thorpe puts to him, and which he takes down verbatim. The only one I +know is his definition of Love. "Arter you lub, you lub, you know, +boss. You can't broke lub. Man can't broke lub. Lub stan', he ain't +goin' broke. Man hab to be berry smart for broke lub. Lub is a ting +stan' jus' like tar; arter he stick, he stick. He ain't goin' move. He +can't move less dan you burn um. Hab to kill all two arter he lub, 'fo +you broke lub." + +[_Aug. 15._] This morning Rose was sewing with me in my chamber, and, +as she is very apt to, got talking about the time when they ran away +from the "robbers" and the Yankees first came. It is always +interesting, and I wish I could give you her language, though it would +be little without her emphasis and expression. The first time she saw +a Yankee--"Great dairdy!" she said, "So Yankee stan'?" I don't think +she knew what sort of an animal to expect. + +_Sept. 15._ When Rose came into my room this morning, she came up to +my bed to ask how I was and express her contrition that she did not +stay all night with me! "Me couldn't sleep, me think all night Miss +Hayiut sick, me should stay long him--when I go bed, me say, 'Hester, +Miss Hayiut sick, I oughter stay wid her;' Hester say, 'Come, go 'long +me, take you shum,' but me wouldn't go den!" She is very trying +sometimes, but full of character, as you see, and it is hard to know +just how to deal with her. I am afraid of being too lenient to her and +so spoiling her, or too stern, for fear I _should_ spoil her, and so +losing her affection, which ought to be the controlling influence. +With all their subserviency, which I am happy to say is disappearing, +they have little idea of obedience. + +_Sept. 17._ This morning there was no milk, as in this benighted +region if it rains they don't "pen cow" at night, and for the same +reason Abel did not catch one in the field this morning that we might +have a drop for breakfast! + +[_Oct. 19._] The doctor wanted some wormwood, and thinking I had heard +the people speak of it, I asked Elsie. "Me dunno, me dunno nothing; me +jis' born yestiddy!" she answered. + +[_Nov. 16._] Rose came to tell me this morning that there was no milk. +Henry had dropped the bucket (from his head) and spilled it all. "See +Henry here." Why, Henry, where did you spill the milk? I asked in +dismay; but he looked blank till she interpreted for him--"Which side +de milk churray?" (throw away). _How_, _when_, and _where_ they do not +use or know the meaning of. _Which side_, is _where_--_What time_, +_when_--but they do not understand a sentence with _how_ in it. + + The next four extracts give a good idea of Mr. Philbrick's + letters to his superintendents and of the far-sighted, + honest thought which he put on his Port Royal undertaking. + The first was written in the summer; the others appear in + their proper place in order of time. + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +_Boston, July 28._ If you can induce some old man who is a good judge, +I would let him pick select cotton all through the season for seed, +going over the whole field, or such parts of it as he finds the best +cotton, culling the best pods from the best plants. In this way you +can get seed enough to plant some acres next year, which would yield +enough for the whole plantation another year and of a superior +quality. This is the way the most intelligent planters got up their +famous varieties of seed, and we ought to be able to use as much +brains as they did. Perhaps you can get some refugee to do this, +without giving offense to the mass, but he must be a good judge. + +I hope you will not feel it your duty to enlist in the army, for I +consider your position there a very useful one and difficult to +replace. I don't mean useful merely to the people with whom you come +in contact, but politically, upon the solution of the great social, +political problem which we have got to solve, viz., the worthiness and +capacity of the negro for immediate and unconditional emancipation. I +intend to publish the results of this year's operations next winter +and want to be able to show that we have raised cotton at a lower +price per pound than the former proprietors did, counting the interest +upon their capital invested in negroes as a part of their expenses, +which is no more than just. + + This point, as regards the raising of cotton by free labor, + Mr. Philbrick did successfully make later, as will be seen + (see page 265). Another inducement to Northern capital to + come South was offered by him at this time in a letter which + appeared in the Boston _Daily Advertiser_ on July 20. It was + entitled "A New Market for Manufactures," and tabulated the + results of his operations in the "shop" during the fifteen + months of its existence so far. Between March, 1862, and + March, 1863, for instance, a population of four hundred and + twelve had spent there $3047; during the months of May and + June, 1863, a population of nine hundred and thirty-three + had spent $3800; the articles bought had included a variety + of dry goods, provisions, hardware, etc., almost all of + which supplied needs entirely new to the blacks. The letter + concluded: "It may readily be seen that a considerable + demand may arise for the articles above-named and others of + kindred nature, when a population of some millions shall be + in a position to apply their earnings to the supply of their + rapidly increasing wants. Should not the manufacturing + interests of the North be awake to this?" This letter, + written for the express purpose of bringing means of + civilization to the blacks, was taken by many Northern + friends of the negro as proof that its writer's motive was + to exploit the black race for the benefit of the white. Of + course, Mr. Philbrick knew perfectly well to what + misconstruction he exposed himself when he told the public + that there was profit to be made on the old plantations. The + following letter was written in reply to a warning from C. + P. W. on this very head. + + +E. S. P. TO C. P. W. + +_Boston, Sept. 24._ I don't agree with you about avoiding publicity +for our enterprise. I hold that the pecuniary success we are likely to +meet with is the very best reason why the whole thing should be made +public, for it is the only sort of success which can make our +enterprise a permanent thing and take it off the hands of +philanthropic benevolence, which, though well enough for a spurt, can +never be relied on to civilize the four millions of darkies likely to +be on our hands. If we succeed financially, it will prove that free +labor is self-sustaining, and that the blacks are capable of becoming +a useful laboring class immediately after leaving their masters' +hands, and this fact is of vast importance. If we attempt to keep +quiet, we shall incur with much more justice the accusation of being +mere speculators than if we make the most of our success by bringing +it before the public as a political experiment, of great influence +upon our future social system, thus giving the public the full benefit +of the experiment. The fact is just this. Negro labor has got to be +employed, if at all, because it is _profitable_, and it has got to +come into the market like everything else, subject to the supply and +demand which may arise from all kinds of enterprises in which it +chances to be employed. It is not likely that it can be protected on a +large scale by the amount of disinterested philanthropy which happens +to be present on the Sea Islands, but if it can be open to private +enterprise, by an occupation of lands free from unnecessary +restrictions and under a proper sense of the security of property, it +can afford to _lose_ some of the Methodism now bestowed upon it at +Beaufort. We want first to prove that it is profitable, and then it +will take care of itself. + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +_Sept. 24._ Limus' seine was shipped in the schooner. I have not yet +ordered any for 'Siah, for I thought it would be too late for him to +use it this year, and he had better wait and see if Limus' seine was +all right. Moreover, entre nous, I don't believe it will do him any +good to spend his time a-fishing. It has a sort of excitement, like +gold-digging, which unfits a man for steady, plodding industry, +witness Limus. Now the present demand for fish will not be permanent. +After the war the negroes will have to fall back upon field-labor for +a living, and it will be better for them if in the meanwhile they do +not acquire a distaste for steady labor and get vagrant habits. I +would talk this over with 'Siah and ask him in serious mood if he +really thinks best to spend so much money in fishing-gear, when he +could buy land with it by and bye. + + Here begins again the rambling narrative of plantation + happenings. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Sept. 26._ C. was very busy paying for cotton, and we found him on +the piazza, sitting at a little table with the drawer full of money +and the gang of women standing and sitting about at the foot of the +steps, while he called them up one at a time. He paid old Nancy first, +asking her how much she thought it was. "Me dunno, Massa, you knows." +As much as ten dollars? "Oh yes! Massa, I tink you gib me more nor +dat." Fifteen, perhaps? Five for you, Doll, and Peg, each? "Yes, +Massa, I tink so." And it was pleasant to see the corners of her mouth +go as he counted out $48--which she took in perfect quietness and with +a sober face, a curtsey and "Tank'ee, Massa." Sinnet was more +demonstrative than anybody, lifting up hands and eyes, and ending with +"Tank de Lord; I mus' go praise." Amaritta drew for her gang $78--they +have picked over three thousand pounds. C. paid out over $1000. + + H. W. further reports that when C. told old Grace he had + weighed altogether a bale for her, "Good God!" she cried, + "me lib to raise bale o' cotton! Come along, Tim, less get + some vittle." + + The next letter is Mr. Tomlinson's reply to one from W. C. + G., in which he had complained of negroes who refused to + pay their "corn-tax,"--a rent in kind for their private + patches of corn-land,--and had suggested their expulsion + from the plantation as the best remedy. + + +REUBEN TOMLINSON[144] TO W. C. G. + +_Sept. 30._ I have just read yours on the "corn question." I have told +Government Superintendents, when the people refuse or neglect to bring +their corn to the corn-house, not to interfere with them until it is +all broken in;[145] then to tell them how much is expected from them, +and give them a certain length of time to bring it in. If it is not +done, get a "guard" from the "Jail," and go to their houses and take +it. Of course the superintendent is to use a sound discretion in +making his demand, making due allowance for failure of "crop," etc. +Your plan is in my opinion open to serious objections as a matter of +_expediency_. I have no doubt that there are people on your places +whom you would be well rid of. If you can endure them patiently a +little while longer, I think it will be to your advantage to do so. +The Government is commencing at once the erection of a large number of +houses, and after they are finished those turbulent and unruly people +may be disposed of without the scandal and excitement which would +otherwise accompany their removal. After this season is terminated, +you can refuse any longer to employ such persons, and the Government +having then provided homes for them, there will be no longer an excuse +for boring you with them. + + Mr. Philbrick's advice was as follows: + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +I am not surprised at the prospect of some meanness about the +corn-tax. The negroes would be a marvelous race if it were not so. If +any difficulty is encountered in collecting the tax, I should take it +out of their pay at $1.50 per bushel, which is about what it costs me +to send corn there. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Oct. 13._ Mr. G., who had just come from the Point, told me a very +nice thing about the men there. It seems that a few weeks ago Mr. +Tomlinson made an address to them at church about there being five +church-members in jail for shooting cattle, and after he got through, +'Siah, the foreman and elder of the Fripp Point Plantation, rose and +indorsed what he had said, adding that the thing had never happened on +his place. That very week an ox was shot there, and Mr. G. has been +unable to find out who did it, all the men protesting that they did +not know. So to-day he called them all up and talked to them, and then +spoke of the ox and asked them what they thought they ought to do. One +man rose and proposed to pay for it--another seconded the motion, and +they passed the resolution to do so by a vote of sixteen against two! +Mr. G. was very much pleased, and gave notice that if the perpetrator +of the deed would come to him and confess within four days he should +be let off without paying the fine. + +_Oct. 20._ Thomas seemed much better, but very weak, and asked me if +I would not give him some liquor! I asked if he had ever been in the +habit of drinking it, and he said yes, that he bought it by the pint +at camp! He belongs to the First South Carolina Volunteers, Colonel +Higginson's Regiment. It is dreadful to think of such means of +civilization being introduced among these poor people. It made me +heartsick. + +While I was dressing for dinner C. came up to ask me if I had "any +prejudice against color," as he had asked the steward of the +_Wabash_[146] to dine, "a Boston boy who speaks English as well as you +do." We found him a very bright, intelligent young fellow and very +modest and unassuming withal--gave his name only as "Joseph" both to +Mr. Soule and C. He had come foraging for the Admiral, and as C. found +him waiting for the people to come from the field, he took him about +with him and brought up at the house. He was on board the _Mohegan_ +when Port Royal was taken and had then just come from the coast of +Africa where they had taken Gordon, the slave-pirate, on board the +barque _Ariel_, and he gave us a most interesting account of the whole +affair, as he went on board with the Captain when he ordered the +hatches to be opened and the nine hundred blacks were discovered. C. +says he overheard Amaritta say to him, "You free man? I t'o't so, when +I see you walk wi' buckra," and old Grace, when he asked her if she +had any eggs, answered, "No, Maus--my dear," her first impression +being that as he walked "wid buckra" she must be respectful, and then +remembering that she must not say "Maussa" to a black man. He is black +as Robert, but with Saxon features. Speaking of Henry, he asked, "Is +he short and stout and about my complexion?" Henry is almost white! + +_Oct. 22._ Limus is full of amazement at the men of the +Fifty-Fifth[147] and could not express his surprise at their walking +up to their post-office kept by a black man, and opening their letters +to read "just like white men!" They don't know what to make of +educated blacks,--it upsets all their ideas on the relative position +of the two races! I expected some remarks from Rose about our sable +guest--she was not here, but the next day she began: "That stranger +man eat up here? Which side him eat?" In the dining-room with us. "Him +free man?" Yes, he was born in Boston. "Him read and write?" Yes, as +well as I can. This made her open her eyes, and when I told her that +in Boston there were schools for the black children to go to just like +those for the white children, where they could learn the same things, +she departed with a very quiet, "Yes, Ma'am." + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Oct. 24._ Nothing happens here now, so that even this delightful +country, with its charming variety of scenery and its delicious +climate, its bracing air, its sparkling streams, its richness of +autumnal tints, the ever-varying play of light and shade upon the +steep hillsides and through the green valleys often cease to charm. +For myself, I may say that even the continual excitement incident to +the task of weighing cotton, selling sugar, or counting rails, not to +mention the no less important duty of seeing that my hat is not stolen +from my head, or the shingles off my roof,--even these interesting and +exciting occupations sometimes grow wearisome, and fail to afford that +continued gratification and satisfaction to enjoy which is the object +of a life in this Department. Although the statement seems absurd, I +must nevertheless affirm, that it is more bother to take care of a +plantation of one hundred and twenty working hands than it is to +exercise that number in the "School of the Company;" and that the +satisfaction derived from the faithfulness and honesty of perhaps +thirty is hardly sufficient to atone for the anxiety and distrust with +which one regards the remaining ninety, who lie by habit and steal on +the least provocation, who take infinite pains to be lazy and shirk, +who tell tales of others, of which themselves are the true subjects, +and from whom all the artifices of the lawyer cannot draw a fair +statement of fact, even when it is obviously for their own interest to +tell the whole truth. "Wherefore he is called the everlasting Niggah." + +I have had my grumble, and I feel better. What I have said "has truth +in it, only distorted." I am not actually miserable, though one might +draw that inference from these remarks. The fact is that, the novelty +of this life having worn off after fifteen months of the "useful +experience," the life, as was to be, and was expected, loses something +of its satisfaction, and one is more open to the effect of the +vexations and annoyances than when the interest was fresh and the work +new and untried. It is not so much that one is annoyed by the work +itself, but the imperfections of the system under which we are +obliged to work grow more clear and are continually presented in +various forms. The only satisfactory thing would be to reconstruct the +system on the plantation, first, by turning off all the hands not +wanted; second, by adopting a new system in regard to the privileges +and compensation of the people. The privileges are, free houses, free +land for provision crops, free use of wood, and, with certain +restrictions, of the animals and implements. I should do away with +these privileges, making them pay house-rent and land-rent, making +them pay for their wood, if of certain qualities, and for the use of +teams and implements--for their own work. Then I should increase their +wages, with fixed prices for the various kinds of work. I should wish +to be able to discharge any one whose work did not suit me, and remove +him from the plantation. These reforms cannot possibly be instituted +now, and can never be, probably, on this island. In the meantime, if +the people were only honest and truthful, other matters would be of +comparatively little account, but they are the most provoking set, in +this respect, that you can easily conceive. They are almost +incorrigible. + + +REUBEN TOMLINSON TO C. P. W. + +_Oaks, Oct. 30._ I have appointed you one of a "Commission" of three, +to meet in the "Study" at R.'s place on Wednesday, November 4, at +10 A. M. The first case that will probably come before you will be +that of the disputed ownership of a "boat," now in the possession of +one "Limus," purveyor to General Gillmore, but which is claimed by +"Barkis," who lives at Hilton Head. Both the parties have been to see +me, and Barkis is not "willin'" to give up his claim. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Nov. 8._ I found C. had two men locked up in separate rooms +downstairs--there had been some trouble, and one, who was half drunk, +had used a knife. One man he let go, the other is still shut up, and +sent to see me this evening. It is dreadful to have such things +happening, but it will do good for the people to find that there is +some law over them. + + Early in November Mr. Philbrick went down to Port Royal + again to gin and export his cotton crop. + + +E. S. P. TO MRS. PHILBRICK. + +_Coffin's Point, Nov. 10._ Arrived here about 6. I found people in the +field picking cotton at R.'s places, and found on nearly all my fields +the cotton still green and blossoming, while on most of the Government +plantations the grass had stopped its growth long ago and the crop was +about over. I find old Frank (the wily) in confinement in the +harness-room for some row among the people last Sunday, awaiting +trial. Oh, the horses, how they do look! A few months among our +Northern fixings make everything look so wretched down here. + +There is a circular just issued by General Saxton, pointing out the +plantations which are to be sold to the negroes, and advising them to +stake out their claims and build cabins on them as preëmptors, which +will not attract many of my people, I think. The McTureous places, T. +B. Fripp's, Hamilton Fripp's, and others are to be so sold, as soon as +the necessary surveys are made. I doubt the policy of this sort of +thing until the time shall have passed for the redemption of the land +by the old owners, though none may ever appear to redeem. I am afraid +some rows may arise from the difficulty of fixing and recording +boundaries among a lot of negro squatters, should there be many such. + + These plantations, about to be sold at auction to negro + preëmptors, were those which had been reserved for this + purpose from the sale of March 9, 1863 (see p. 171). The + order of the President (dated September 16), from which + General Saxton got authority for his circular just + mentioned, also provided for the sale at auction of about + twenty plantations in lots not to exceed three hundred and + twenty acres. This latter provision, which might possibly + result in preventing many negroes from owning any land at + present,--since the plantations reserved for them alone were + not large enough for all,--presently brought about infinite + trouble, through disagreement among the authorities. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Nov. 15._ The people are quite disturbed about General Saxton's new +order, which Mr. French and Judge Smith have been trying to explain to +them at church;--in vain, apparently,--for some of the most ignorant +of our people thought they should be obliged to buy land, and came to +C. in distress at leaving the plantation. Others we hear are selecting +their lots, but now comes General Gillmore's order to stop all sales; +I am afraid these poor people, who hate all change and "confusion," +will have their brains hopelessly confused. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Nov. 18._ General Saxton has given orders that all work on the +plantations[148] in preparation for next year's crop shall be stopped, +for he expects to give them up either to the purchasers or the +tax-commissioners very soon. The tax men are here, as amicably +disposed towards each other as cat and dog, and as they are not +remarkable for their efficiency in matters of business, I do not think +it very likely that they will accomplish much this winter. They have +two parties of surveyors at work, but they don't seem to be doing much +but chop vines and sail about the creeks in boats. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Pine Grove._ [_Sept. 23._] I think you would be quite astonished at +the refinement and homelikeness of our parlor. Bright table-cloths, a +most elegant couch lately developed,--a comfortable old sofa, pictures +all around, a fancy bookcase almost full of books,--a glass-topped +secretary with an ample supply of pigeon-holes and writing +arrangements,--papers lying around loose,--and a wood fire burning in +the big chimney-place,--won't that do for philanthropists? One door +opens into a large dining-room,--the windows upon a portico, looking +out upon the creek winding among the green marsh grass, with broad +water and islands in the distance. For contrast now and then a pig +squalls vigorously under the house,--for it is getting cold now and +the pigs eagerly seek the shelter of the "big house." It is in vain +to try to keep them out, though I've had a fence built round the +house. + +_Nov. 14._ I shall have to take to contraband pants, I'm afraid, as I +did last winter. The negroes can hardly hold me to be of gentle kind, +when they see me doing their own work in their own clothes. I wish you +would come down to see me, if it is only, by the sight of a white +cravat and shining beaver, to convince them that I am a "boss" born. +You shall have your fill of clearing up and improving, too; I need +just such energy to make respectable my own premises. At present they +are the pigs' playground, except on Sundays, when a lot of the +plantation urchins are allowed very quietly to peep in at the windows +and learn manners from white folks. At present a young fellow, who has +lately waked up from a slouch into a man, is patiently leaning against +the sill, waiting, I suppose, for his lesson. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26._ We sat down to dinner--sixteen +Massachusetts people, six ministers' sons. Mr. Folsom and William +Allen, Miss R. and Mr. G. went home; all the rest spent the night, and +no one on a sofa. We wondered what was the last [dinner-party] as +large that had dined in this old house, but Robert says he never saw +such a large party here--Mr. Coffin used to give his dinners in +Charleston. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Nov. 26._ We got to R.'s house, where he told us he had been helping +Mr. Wells all day before in boating his cotton from Morgan Island to +his home place.[149] There was about $3000 worth on the island, and he +did not choose to expose the rebels to any further temptation in +regard to it. It seems that Tuesday morning the cow-minder had gone +out to the pen with his milk-pail and never returned. Search being +made, the milk-pail and his jacket were found, and some new tracks of +shoes on the beach, also traces of a bivouac breakfast and marks of a +boat's keel on the Coosaw River beach. Nothing more is known than +this. The presumption is that a scouting party had come over Coosaw +River and bivouacked on the beach, hauling up their boat, and that, +seeing this poor man in the morning, they gobbled him up and cleared +out as they came. He was an Edisto man, of considerable intelligence, +and it is hoped his information will not be so reliable as the rebels +might wish. Mr. Wells immediately informed Captain Dutch and got Mr. +R. to help him boat over his cotton. Captain Dutch sent a guard to +patrol the island and sent his little schooner up opposite Morgan +Island in Coosaw River as an outpost. + +We had an immense rush at the store yesterday, four hundred and sixty +odd dollars during the day here. R. and Wells have taken over fifteen +hundred dollars in the three days after opening their goods. Amaritta +bought over forty dollars' worth at once, and poor Juliana staggered +off with a load on her head that she could hardly carry. The trunks go +like smoke, so do the firkins and other domestic wares. + + +From H. W. + +_Dec. 1._ Uncle Nat, who has carried the plantation keys for forty +years, giving out all the allowance for people and creatures, and has +done no field work for that length of time, has had an acre and a half +of cotton this year, and has raised the largest proportion, six +hundred pounds seed-cotton per acre, of any one on the place. He lives +at Pine Grove with his wife, but plants here for old association's +sake, and the other day, when C. made the last cotton payment, he gave +Nat's money to his sister, Nancy. The next morning Nat was up here +early and took his hat off to the ground to C. "Came to thank you for +what you send me yesterday, Sar--much obliged to you, Sar (with +another flourish and scrape). I well sat-is-_fy_, and jest as long as +the Lord give me life and dese ole arms can do _so_ (imitating the +motion of hoeing), I work cotton for you, Sar!" + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Dec. 5._ Our cotton crop is about all in, though some people are +still in the field gleaning. They glean very carefully now, and don't +allow a single pod to escape them. I have about one hundred gins now +in running order, and expect to have fifty more, all going in another +week. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Dec. 10._ I rode down to see the work. It was a busy scene--a whipper +on each arbor with a child atop to fill the machine, which is used to +lash the dirt out of the cotton before ginning and make it easier to +gin; then the gins were all at work--the women were sorting--the men +packing--potato-vines were being brought in to be weighed, carts and +oxen carrying seed--altogether such a busy piece of work as one does +not often see here. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Dec. 10._ We were surprised by a green carryall coming down the road +drawn by some army horses, hay-fed and round. The passengers were a +Mr. Paige, a correspondent of the _Tribune_, and his friend, a Mr. +Baldwin from Cleveland. I had met them in one of my trips between +Hilton Head and Beaufort, and after answering several questions asked +them to come and see me, but I didn't think they would take the pains. +Mr. Paige asked questions enough to pump me dry while here, but I +don't believe he will be much the wiser, for he asked some three or +four times over. I took them down to the praise house in the evening +and, Uncle Sam being ill of "fever and pain in head," I helped with +the hymns and read a chapter from the Bible. Old Aaron and George +prayed, Doll's Will told off a hymn from memory, and George repeated +one, as I think, from his own brain, putting in all the couplets he +could remember, and hunting over his brain for each one while they +were singing the last. My visitors were very much interested, and were +chiefly pleased with the earnestness and simplicity of their worship, +remarking that they were fortunate in not being bothered with +doctrine. I am afraid they didn't get much of an idea of our schools, +for the only girl they asked to spell happened to be Caroline, whom +they met in the street. She is only half-witted, you know, and didn't +do her teachers much credit. I should like to see what Mr. Paige has +to say about our doings in the _Tribune_. I asked him not to mention +the name of this plantation, for I didn't want to call the attention +of the Coffin family upon us any more than I could help. He asked me +for the names of any superintendents and teachers here, but I told him +they didn't care to be brought before the public. + +I was curious to know how much cotton could be got from a certain +amount of seed. I ginned just five pounds of cotton and had thirteen +pounds of seed left, being over a peck, for it weighs forty-four +pounds to the bushel. The people were very much amused to see me gin +so long, and wondered that I had the strength for it. You know they +consider us rather effeminate in regard to strength, but I did not +find it nearly so hard work as I supposed. It is not half as hard as +mowing. + +_Dec. 13._ Mr. Wells had his cotton about half ginned when there came +a posse of men from the First South Carolina Regiment, without a white +officer, to hunt after deserters on his plantation. They met the men +they wanted and shot them all three in broad daylight; one is badly +wounded and may not recover, but the others probably will. After +shooting one man they were going away to leave him, and Mr. Wells went +and took care of him and sent him to the hospital. + +_Dec. 17._ The people were all at work ginning cotton, and the new +mechanic Nero, whom we found at the White place, was putting the +engine in order. This engine serves as a moral stimulus to keep the +people at work at their hand-gins, for they want to gin all the +cotton by hand, and I tell them if they don't get it done by the +middle of January I shall gin it by steam. The result will probably be +that there will be little left for the steam-engine to do. But it will +do no harm to put it in order and then I can grind corn with it next +summer. The weight of all my cotton is now 287,790 pounds[150] in +seed. The samples which I sent to Liverpool were appraised there as +worth forty-eight to fifty pence, which, if exchange remains as high +as at present, would make our crop worth $100,000 in Liverpool. This +is as much as I had ever estimated I should realize from it. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Dec. 17._ The cotton packing continues; twelve bales are already +prepared for the market, stamped with the old Coffin trademark. The +initiated know what it means, but I doubt if any one else would +recognize the significance of the headless and footless box! + +[Illustration: Old Coffin trademark] + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Dec. 27._ The children came up about half-past two o'clock on +Christmas afternoon [to see the tree], but being told not to come +until sunset they hung around outside the gate till Mr. Hall was ready +for them. About dusk they were all marshaled in by classes, and we all +helped distribute the presents. The children seemed struck aghast with +the brilliant sight, and when William Hall wished them all a Merry +Christmas, they threw up their hands and shouted with all their might. +It wasn't a cheer, but more like a yell, evidently in answer to his +good wishes. The presents were taken with the usual apathy shown on +such occasions, and as soon as they had time they began to compare +them with each other and some to complain how they didn't get enough. + +Yesterday morning we made our preparations for Hunting Island. It was +a fine day, wind east, and rather warm. We had four negro oarsmen. +Seven white folks made up the load, including Mr. Eustis. We landed on +the Island just as G.'s boat did. After unloading our grub and firing +off our guns to dry them and let the deer know that we were coming, we +scattered about in various directions in search of game. I then went +to see the ruins of the lighthouse in the middle of the point, a few +rods from each beach. It was a brick structure and must have been over +one hundred feet high in order to overlook the pine trees about it. +There is nothing left now but a mass of brick and rubbish about forty +feet high, covering an acre of ground. It was blown up by the rebels +at the beginning of the war, and they did the work thoroughly. Great +blocks of granite and plates of iron lay bedded in between the masses +of brick-work, some of which are still coherent in masses, and several +feet in thickness. It is the first real ruin I ever saw in this +country. The keeper's house close by has been all torn to pieces by +the negroes for rebuilding their own cabins and corn-houses. + + The next extracts tell of more raids for soldiers, fresh + despair, and renewed hope that they might at last be + stopped. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Dec. 27._ On getting up this morning the people were found all in a +hubbub. The soldiers had been there in the night, some fifty strong, +and had carried off not only Cæsar, a deserter, Abel's son, but also +old Miller, Tony, and Jonas and David, neither of whom had ever +belonged to any of the regiments. Of course all the people were +enraged, and justly, for they have been assured by General Saxton over +and over again during several months past that they needn't be afraid +of any more drafting, for it was all over. As soon as we had done +breakfast I walked down to the quarters to see what facts I could +gather. It seemed they [the soldiers] had come by rowboats to the +village creek, thinking they had got to our creek, and landed at Fripp +Point. There they found no deserters, for there were none, but took +all the men they could find, viz.: Pompey's boy Isaac, Fortune's boy +Jimmy, and Alick's boy January. They got old Dan to show them the way +to Coffin's and came along the road, arriving just after +praise-meeting; they set a guard all about the houses and shot at +every man that tried to run away, catching the men named above and +carrying them off. Tony and Jonas got away at Fripp Point, but they +carried off the others. C. and I got into our little boat with Jim to +help, and rowed around to the village in hopes to find the party still +there, but they had gone, carrying Dr. Hunting's cook. So we rowed +back and ate our dinner in disgust. This raid will break up my ginning +on this end of the island and put it back at least two weeks, for the +men are so scared that they won't dare to go to work, and the women +can't do much without them. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Dec. 27._ Mr. Philbrick has gone up to-night to see General Saxton, +and Mr. Eustis says that if he can't (or won't) stop it, he shall +write to Washington. It is the unauthorized work of the officers whose +commissions perhaps depend upon their keeping full ranks. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Dec. 28._ I rode off for Coosaw Fort on Ladies Island, where the +pickets are. I found Captain Bryant at camp. He was very pleasant and +told me that the descent upon Coffin's Point Saturday night was not +made by his orders, but by one of Colonel Higginson's captains. The +men were brought to him, however, and he discharged all who didn't +want to enlist. So I came off content. + +The holidays and the hunt for deserters have so broken up the labor +that nothing of any consequence can be done now till after New Year's, +when I hope the work will move on smoothly again. + +[_Jan. 1, 1864._] My errand to Beaufort on Tuesday was not very +successful. I could find neither Colonel Higginson nor General Saxton. +So I had to content myself with writing to the latter an account of +how the soldiers had been behaving here. On getting back, I found the +people more quiet than I had expected. The return of the men from camp +had reassured them, and most of them have gone to work again. + + The year closes with W. C. G.'s reflections on the progress + of the "Port Royal Experiment." + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Dec. 27._ We are busy ginning and packing. Both men and women are +hard at work, and till 3 o'clock P. M. the scene is almost one of +Northern industry. There is more noise, less system and steadiness. +Now and then two or three break out into a quarrel, in which they +excel all other people I ever saw with their tongues,--tremendous +noise, terrible gestures, the fiercest looks,--and perhaps by evening +they are friends again. Meanwhile the others sit still at their work, +listening to it as a matter in the common course of things,--and will +tell how _they_ love peace and quiet; it will be their own turn next! +In all their faults,--passion, lying, stealing, etc.,--they are +perfectly conscious of the sin; and the same ones whom it would be +impossible to stop, except by force, in their tempests of rage, will +when quiet talk as sensibly of their folly as any one could desire. +They seem to have a very delicate conscience without the slightest +principle. That this want of principle is not innate and not their own +fault, I think is proved by their consciences remaining true. Their +state of morals I should say is decidedly better than it was under +slavery,--less of licentiousness, lying, and stealing,--and more +general manliness and self-respect. But they are very far behind, in +character as well as intelligence, and I suspect that most +abolitionist views of their character are exaggerated in their favor. +It increases the need and it does not decrease the interest of helping +them, to think so. Many a talking abolitionist would be disgusted into +indifference, and many a hearty hater of the talk would be surprised +into interest and favor, if they lived here for six months. It's +pretty hard sometimes to find your best men lying to you, or your most +trusty people ungrateful and distrusting you,--and then again a light +breaks out where you thought there was neither fuel nor fire. The most +encouraging symptom is the clearly increasing influence which the best +of the people are acquiring,--so that there certainly is a _general_ +improvement. + + + + +1864 + + _The land-sales of 1864, contradictory orders--Discontent + among the negroes about wages--Small-pox on the + plantations--The chattel sale--Labor contracts for the + season--Newspaper attacks on Mr. Philbrick--The raid on + Morgan Island--Mr. Philbrick's plans for the future--The + black draft--Red tape--Approach of Sherman and the battle of + Honey Hill._ + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Jan. 3._ I don't know how low the thermometer would have stood out of +doors here. R.'s was at 19°. The one in our parlor was at 28° some +time after lighting the fire. + +You will probably in due course of time see the tintypes of Rose and +Demus. Old Judy and Minda got theirs taken some time since, but there +has been no opportunity of sending them to you. As they went up all by +themselves, the arrangement of their toilet was original; hence a +display of jewelry rather more characteristic than tasteful. + + The subject of the approaching land-sales now becomes the + all-important topic. + +_Jan. 20._ There was notice given for all the people to meet at St. +Helena church on Sunday last to hear the President's new instructions +about land-sales. These new orders were obtained, as nearly as I can +learn, by Father French, who went to Washington at General Saxton's +request to urge the matter. The plan defeats that of Dr. Brisbane, +who meant to sell at auction.[151] Now, as you will see by the papers, +all the lands that were bid in by the United States are offered at +private sale, to black or white, in lots of twenty or forty acres at a +uniform price of $1.25 per acre, like Western public lands, with the +privilege of preëmption, but to those only who have resided on lands +belonging to the Government for at least six months since the +occupation of the island by our forces. So this gives all the +superintendents and teachers a chance to buy as well as the negroes, +but excludes all new-comers. I found Dr. Brisbane as much disturbed as +it is possible to conceive. + +Of course I stayed over with Mr. R. another night to attend the +church. It was a fine morning, and we found a pretty large attendance, +both black and white. Parson Phillips was there and opened the +services. Mr. French followed, urging them to go ahead at once and +locate their lots. General Saxton followed, saying but little, but +urging them not to sleep till they had staked out their claims. + +Father French begged leave to differ, for he wanted them to respect +the Sabbath. Mr. Hunn followed, saying they had better do it _to-day_, +for it was no worse to drive stakes Sunday than to keep thinking about +it. He condoled them on the small pay they had been getting from +Government and private speculators, saying, "What's thirty cents a day +in these times for a man who has to maintain himself and his family?" +(Great sensation among negroes, and a buzz, with mutterings of "that's +so," etc.). Then a paymaster made a spread-eagle speech. Then Colonel +Ellwell was called out by Mr. French. Then Judge Smith mounted the +pulpit and explained to the negroes the meaning of preëmption, how it +was formed of two Latin words. Colonel Ellwell contrived to mystify +the people a little as follows. After expatiating on the goodness of +President Lincoln, he said he was so kind he had even offered pardon +to the rebels, and perhaps we should see their old masters back here +some day, with a whole county of scoundrels to swear they had always +been loyal Union men, etc. The whole fandango lasted till nearly three +o'clock, and then we had the usual amount of shaking of hands, etc., +outside. I lost no time in finding Mr. Hunn and informing him that I +had paid an average of over fifty cents a day through the whole season +of working cotton. If he had been a younger man, I should have said, +as I thought, that it was not a true kindness to these ignorant people +to say anything tending to make them discontented with the rates of +pay that had been established with a good deal of care by men who had +been quite disinterested and well calculated to judge of such things. +In fact, I might have told him, what I certainly believe, that a much +higher rate of pay than they have been receiving would tend to +diminish the amount of industry rather than to stimulate it, by +rendering it too easy for them to supply their simple wants. I held my +peace, however, and was content to hear him apologize, disclaiming any +intention of referring to me in what he had said, etc., and admitting +that my case was an exception, adding that he didn't suppose I should +be _allowed_ by Government to pay higher rates than those established +by General Saxton! We were accompanied home from church by Mr. +Eustis, and Mr. R. came as far as G.'s. They all met here Monday, in a +pouring rain, to talk over the subject of wages for the coming year. +It was concluded to pay in money entirely instead of in molasses and +bacon, believing that the days of rationing in any form had passed, +and that the negroes would be better pleased to handle all the money +and spend it as they pleased. So we raise the pay of cotton hoeing +from twenty-five cents to thirty-five cents per old task, and add five +cents more, making it forty cents, besides the premium on the weight +of crop, which remains as before, making the average wages about sixty +or sixty-five cents for cotton work, which we think none too high for +the present prices of dry goods, etc. Of course, the smart hands earn +more than this in a day, for they do one and one-half times or twice +as much per day as they used to, and these prices are based upon the +old master's day's work or task. I have some men who gin fifty pounds +a day and earn their dollar, while they never ginned more than thirty +pounds for their master. I spent most of the day with G. on his +plantations, talking with him and his people about the prospect of +success with the new system. I haven't yet found a single man on any +of my places who wants to risk buying land. They all say they had +rather stay where they are and work for me. The more intelligent +foresee many difficulties in owning land, such as having no access to +marsh, or woodland, no capital for live-stock, plows, harness, carts, +etc., and they don't like the idea of having to wait a whole year to +get their reward for planting the cotton crop. The people seemed +highly satisfied to work on and well pleased with the prospect of +higher nominal wages to talk about, and slightly higher in reality, +with the privilege of spending them as they wish. + +_Jan. 27._ Last Friday I made an expedition to Eddings Point in our +little boat. Arriving about one o'clock, and leaving the boat in +charge of the boys, I walked up to Mr. Wells' house on the Mary +Jenkins place, about one and one-quarter miles. I went down to the +nigger-house to see the people. I found the people in a state of +confusion about buying land. They had got the impression at church +from the earnest way in which they were urged to buy, that they _must_ +buy land _nolens volens_, and wanted to have my consent to stay where +they were and work for me as long as they pleased! Of course I laughed +and told them they were welcome to stay as long as they wished and +behaved well. They seemed "well satisfy" with this, and all in good +humor. + +I stayed at home Monday to see Mr. Hull, who came down with another +big boat-load of cotton for our people to gin. They had finished +ginning what he brought last week in two days. As soon as his boat +came to the landing near Nab's house, the people made a rush for the +cotton, the men carting it and the women carrying the bags on their +heads and hiding it, so they might have some of it to gin. It was like +rats scrambling for nuts. + +Mr. B. has a letter from Secretary Chase, urging that a bale of free +labor cotton be sent to the Sanitary Fair at New York, and I offered +to present a bale for the purpose. It will be worth about five hundred +dollars; but is not a very great contribution, considering that we +have two hundred of them nearly. + +I see that my letter to Alpheus Hardy[152] is going the rounds, being +copied in Providence _Journal_ and New York _Evening Post_, with a few +blunders as usual. Did you notice the expression "extend the arm of +charity" was printed "area" instead of "arm," making a very absurd +appearance? The Providence _Journal_ put in an extra cipher, +multiplying my figures by ten. In order to correct this blunder, which +was a serious one, making the cotton cost ten times as much as I +stated, I wrote to the editor, giving him some more information about +my crop, for the benefit of the Providence cotton spinners.[153] + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Jan. 29._ Outside of our plantations, the people for once are excited +with good reason. In the most awkward, incomplete, bungling way the +negroes are allowed to preëmpt twenty and forty acre tracts; so +everybody is astir, trying to stake out claims and then to get their +claims considered by the Commissioners. These gentlemen meanwhile are +at loggerheads, the land is but half surveyed, and everything is +delightfully confused and uncertain. Still it is the beginning of a +great thing,--negroes become land-owners and the door is thrown open +to Northern immigration. Years hence it will be a satisfaction to look +back on these beginnings,--now it is very foggy ahead and very +uncertain under foot. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Feb. 4._ Sunday morning I met the whole female population on the +road, coming to church. It was baptism day, and the women had all put +on their best dresses, their summer muslins and turbans, making a fine +show. On arriving at the Captain John Fripp gate, by the avenue, I +found a knot of young men seated there, with one of their number +reading to the rest from the Testament. I asked them why they didn't +go to church with the women! They said they had heard that "soldiers +had come to catch we," and "we were scary." Poor fellows, what a +strange life of suspense they are leading! General Gillmore has +ordered a complete census of the islands, black and white men +included, for enrollment on the militia lists, and no white citizen is +allowed to leave the Department until after it is found whether he is +wanted for military service, _i. e._, after a draft. + + Having got the cotton all shipped, Mr. Philbrick prepared to + go home, but he was not to leave without receiving from his + employees more than one expression of their growing + consciousness of power. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Feb. 9._ The women came up in a body to complain to Mr. Philbrick +about their pay,--a thing which has never happened before and shows +the influence of very injudicious outside talk, which has poisoned +their minds against their truest friends. The best people were among +them, and even old Grace chief spokeswoman. It is very hard, but not +to be wondered at in the poor, ignorant creatures, when people who +ought to know better are so injudicious,--to use the mildest term the +most charitable interpretation of their conduct will allow. I don't +see what is to be the end of it all, but at this rate they will soon +be spoiled for any habits of industry. + +_Feb. 14._ As we went to the back steps to see Mr. Philbrick off, we +found the people collecting with eggs and peanuts for him to carry. He +told them that he could not carry the eggs to Miss Helen, but would +tell her. Then Grace begged his pardon for her bad behavior and +complaining the other day, and, collecting all the eggs which he had +refused, told C. they were for him, and sent them by Rose into the +house. She, with the other women, had complained of C. to him, and I +suppose she meant it as a peace offering. + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +_Boston, Feb. 22._ I regretted that you were not present at the +pow-wow after church on the 14th. Mr. Tomlinson talked very "straight" +to Pompey and others about their having no right to live on my land +without working for me at fair rates. He expressed his opinion very +freely about the fairness of our prices and told them they must go +and hunt up another home or work for us at these rates. I promised to +sign a "pass," which you can do for me, promising to Pompey or any +other man who works for us that as soon as he gets a piece of land of +his own, gets a deed of it, and gets it fenced in, we will sell him a +cow at cost, but I would not agree to allow their cows to run at large +on the plantation, and Mr. Tomlinson said I was perfectly right. +During the confab I overheard mutterings among the crowd such as "we +shan't get anything," "it's no use," etc., serving to convince me that +the whole subject would be quietly dropped unless stirred up by some +such men as J. H. and F. J. W. again. Considering the prospect of high +prices of molasses and bacon, etc., I think we may find it advisable +to pay fifty cents all summer for what we had promised forty. But +would do nothing about it till I have made my purchases of molasses, +etc., and know just how the thing will stand. + + An unexpected danger in the shape of an epidemic of + small-pox made its appearance in the middle of the winter + and lasted for two or three months. + + +FROM H. W. + +[_Jan. 29._] Mr. Philbrick vaccinated all the children here last year, +and the few cases we have had have been among those grown persons who +were vaccinated many years ago, and have all been very mild. It may +run through the place, but it is not likely to be violent, and the +quarters are too far off to expose us. + +_Feb. 26._ Rose came up as usual, but had such hot fever that I sent +her home to add one more to the sick list there, where all but one +have "the Pox," taken from Hester. I expected Rose would not escape. +Moreover, Uncle Sam now has it, so Robert may give out in a few weeks; +but no one has been very ill, and no one yet has died here. It seems +to be a milder form than that which appeared at the Oaks and at Mr. +Eustis', where a number have died, or else they give them more air +here, which is I believe the fact. I do not go to the quarters now at +all. I can do no special good in going, and they send to me for what +they want. + +[_March 21._] Monday morning just after breakfast Rose came into the +parlor with a funny expression on her face and asked me if I had been +into the kitchen. "Well, Aunt Betty got de Gove_ment_ lump, for true; +I shum yere and yere," pointing to her chin and cheek. So I went +downstairs, and there was Betty on the floor, fairly in for the +small-pox. I find the people call it "Govement lump," and those who +have it "Union," those who don't "Secesh," while the fever which +precedes the eruption goes by the very appropriate name of "Horse +Cavalry!" + +_March 9._ In the evening, a little after nine o'clock, the air was +suddenly filled, as it seemed to me, with a strange wild, screaming +wail. At first I thought it must be the mules; but it rose and fell +again and again in such agony, as I thought, that Mr. Soule and +William went out to investigate, while I opened the window to listen +more distinctly. It seemed to come from Uncle Sam's house, and though +now more subdued I thought it the sobbing of strong men, and that I +could distinguish Titus' and Robert's voices. But the gentlemen soon +came back, saying that there were evidently a good many people in +Uncle Sam's house having a merry time. I said that was strange, for +he was not well, and that it sounded so like distress to me that I +should think, if I supposed him sick enough, or that they ever +manifested grief so audibly, that he had suddenly died. Several times +before I went to bed I thought I heard the same sound, though more +subdued. As I went upstairs to bed there began, at first quite low, +then swelling louder with many voices, the strains of one of their +wild, sad songs. Once before when Uncle Sam was sick they have had +their praise-meeting up there, for he is the Elder. But it was not +praise-night, and as the hymn ceased and I could distinguish almost +the words of a fervent prayer, I was quite sure that, as is their +custom, they were sitting up and singing with the friends of the +dead,--all of the plantation who were not watching with the sick in +their own homes. And so it proved. The night was wild and stormy, but +above the tempest I could hear, as I woke from time to time, the +strangely "solemn, wildly sad strains" which were continued all the +night through. At sunrise they ceased and separated; the air of their +last hymn has been running in my head all day. Then came the stir in +the house--Robert making fires--I knew his step--and then Betty at my +bedside to ask about the breakfast. "And Bu' Sam dead too," was her +quiet remark when her business was done. "I dunner if you yeardy de +whoop when he gone." + + This practice of sitting up all night with the dying, H. W. + justly enough condemns as "heathenish:" "The houses cannot + hold them all, of course, and they sit round out-of-doors in + the street, the younger ones often falling asleep on the + ground, and then they 'hab fever.'" But of course it was + useless to expostulate with them; to their minds the + omission of the watch would be a mark of the greatest + disrespect. + + The next two extracts furnish further comments on the + mismanagement preliminary to the land-sales. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Feb. 22._ Did you know we had long ceased to be philanthropists or +even Gideonites? We are nothing now but speculators, and the righteous +rail against us. A great crowd of our brethren have just come down to +be present at the late sales. Mr. Philbrick and the purchasers of last +spring paid about $1.00 or $1.25 per acre; now prices run from $5.00 +to $27.00 per acre.[154] There has been the most disgraceful +squabbling among the tax-commissioners, General Saxton, Rev. Mr. +French, and other authorities. The people are the victims. At first +most of the lands were to be sold at auction in large lots; that +brought in white settlers--and only a little was for negro sales. Then +one commissioner sends up to Washington, gets orders for a Western +preëmption system, and with a grand hurrah the negroes were told to go +and grab the lands. The other commissioners then throw all possible +obstacles in the way till they can get dispatches up to Washington +too, and the answer comes back,--Preëmptions don't count, sell by +auction.--And so!--This is a precious Department of ours. + +_March 14._ The past two months have been full of unpleasant +work,--the people were unsettled, discontented, and grumbling. I hope +their growling is nearly over, and look for quieter times soon. The +disputes among the tax-commissioners have been very unintelligible and +prejudicial to them. On some places I understand that the negroes +refuse to have anything to do with the new proprietors. On others they +have agreed to work, and the year as a whole will probably witness +much more industry than either of the last two. + + At about this time an appraisal was at last made of the + "chattel property" which had been found on the plantations, + with a view to selling it at auction. Of course Mr. + Philbrick and his superintendents, who had been using these + things ever since they came into possession, desired, in + most cases, to buy them. At the Fripp Point auction the + negroes showed their ungracious, not to say ungrateful + spirit, by bidding against W. C. G. and actually buying all + the mules, oxen, and cows away from him. In looking forward + to the auction at Coffin's Point; where the movables alone + had been appraised as worth more than Mr. Philbrick had paid + for the entire place, H. W. writes: + +_March 6._ We were doubtful how far the behavior of the Fripp Point +people might affect ours, though C. was quite confident there would be +no trouble--and moreover expected a good many outsiders, as R. said +Beaufort people had been inquiring all through the week when the sale +was to take place here, with the significant remark, "Coffin's Point's +the place!" and we knew if they did come things would be run up very +high. So that it was impossible not to feel a most uncomfortable +anxiety all day. + +_March 7._ Monday morning the first thing I heard was Mike in excited +tones calling to C. that the Fripp people were coming over "to buy +everything out de gate"--that they would leave everything on top +Massa Charlie, but that he must not let the stranger black people get +anything. + + Fortunately Mike's fears proved to be exaggerated, and Massa + Charlie got practically everything that he wanted. + + The next letter, from Mr. Philbrick to W. C. G., is + concerned with several different matters. The last paragraph + will serve to introduce a number of extracts all concerned + with criticisms directed against Mr. Philbrick by + Abolitionists and negroes. + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +_Boston, March 24._ I hope no cases of merchandise will be opened +without carefully comparing contents with the invoices, and if any +errors are found they should be reported immediately. I am sorry to +see that a considerable deficit was found in some of the stores, which +I can only account for on the supposition of theft. I think sufficient +care has not been taken to guard against theft from carts on road. The +value of the property lost is not a matter of so much consequence as +the demoralization to the thief and to others who are encouraged to +similar practices by his example. I don't think the negroes one bit +worse in this respect than the laboring classes of other countries, +and not nearly so bad as the lower classes in all large cities. But we +ought to be very careful how we expose them to temptations which they +are not strong enough to resist, till such time as they acquire more +self-respect than they are likely to in this generation. + +I shall not be able to make any dividend to the shareholders this +year. After paying my advances and settling with superintendents, +there will not be any surplus over the needs of the current year. + +Mr. F. J. W. has been quite talkative and rides his hobby to +death,[155] concerning the rights of the negro to have land for +nothing, etc., etc., expatiating upon the tyranny of the newly forming +_landed aristocracy_, the gigantic speculators who are grinding the +negro down, etc., etc., ad libitum. He held forth on these topics at +length at a meeting of the Educational Commission about two weeks ago, +and succeeded in making Professor Child and some others believe that +the whole labor of the Commission for two years past had been wasted +or overthrown by the recent changing policy, which had ousted them out +of their promised rights and cast them out upon the merciless open +jaws to devour them alive, etc., etc. + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +_April 18._ Just now it would seem as if the Sea Islands were to be +abandoned to the negroes and wild hogs. I had heard some things of +General Birney[156] before which led me to regard him as having +injudicious sympathies, and should not be surprised at any time to +have him send you home as a "fraudulent coadjutor" of an unrighteous +speculation, upon the representation of Pompey and John, if they +should happen to gain an audience after dinner some day. Joking +aside, however, I think it would be a good plan to get Colonel S. to +retract some of his nonsense, and I have no doubt he will do it at +your request, for he is one of the most good-natured and +well-intentioned men in the world. He is very likely to have said what +the negroes say he did, indiscreetly, of course, and without dreaming +what effect it might have. If the people continue to refuse to receive +their money, as I don't believe they will long, I would consult Mr. +Tomlinson about it. I think he will sustain us in anything reasonable. +I think if Mr. Tomlinson were to tell John or Pompey that they would +not be allowed to take any of their cotton and would be severely +punished if they attempted it, it would have a good effect. Any way I +think the matter will blow over soon. It is not strange that the +negroes should act like fools when they have such examples before them +as we see nowadays. + + +FROM H. W. + +_April 18._ At night came Mr. Soule from Beaufort with an account of +the investigations going on there concerning the tax-commissioners +before Judge Smith, an agent sent by the President for the purpose. +Mr. Soule found that he had also been commissioned to look into the +affairs of our "concern," as the Fripp Point men had sent a petition +to the President to be relieved from Mr. Philbrick's oppression! Mr. +Soule and Mr. Tomlinson both saw Judge Smith, and had some talk with +him at the meeting, which was a public one, and he was invited to come +down here, see Mr. Soule's books and investigate all the charges +thoroughly. Whoever drew up the petition (of course it had been done +by a white man, but who we could not tell, for his name as witness had +been omitted in the copy given Judge Smith) had so overshot the mark +that it was palpably absurd to all who knew the facts, and happily Mr. +Soule had found Judge Smith to be a fair-minded, able, clear-sighted +person, who could not have dust thrown in his eyes. + +_April 21._ Sat waiting the arrival of Judge Smith, when about one +o'clock Robert called to me that a carriage was coming. To my +amazement, instead of the Judge alone or with only a friend, a great +vehicle with four white horses and "sofas inside,"[157] as Rose said, +dashed up to the front door with four gentlemen, Mr. Tomlinson and Mr. +G. being on horseback besides. Of course I had to fly round about my +dinner and get up tables large enough to seat thirteen people. By +three dinner was ready and my guests at table--a very pleasant +company: Judge Smith, a round, smooth-faced _gentleman_ between fifty +and sixty, active and wide-awake; Judge Cooley, the new +tax-commissioner, a Westerner and also very pleasant. Judge Smith took +Mr. Soule's statement before dinner, and afterwards Mr. G.'s, all +simply facts and with no waste of words. C. was not questioned at all. +Then Mr. G. went over to the Point for the men there, for, though the +Judge was satisfied that Mr. Philbrick was not a scoundrel and all of +us aiders and abetters of his iniquities, we knew the men there would +never be satisfied with the statement from any of us or Mr. Tomlinson, +who had been talking to them for two hours that morning. Poor things, +they are much more sinned against than sinning. They came flocking +over so closely upon Mr. G.'s heels as to get here nearly as soon as +he did, and the session of the Court began by the examination of John +Major before tea, the others crowding about the door and filling the +piazza, quiet and orderly, but eager listeners. Not a single one of +our people came up. John Major is a discontented, conceited fellow, +who has never worked for Mr. Philbrick, though his wife and children +have, and he headed the petition. It was splendid to see how quickly +the Judge saw through him, when he has been only a week in the +Department, and could hardly understand what he said; but he showed +the man pretty plainly what he thought of him, telling him, when he +said the Government could not find him out [know him] that it _had_ +found him out, that it had his name in Washington, and that if he +thought Secesh times were so much better, the Government loved him so +well it would let him go back to his old master! After tea came 'Siah +and Pompey, two very different men,--intelligent, hard-working, and +honest, the former particularly truthful and reliable, men whom we all +respect,--and it was a fine sight to see these men, only two years out +of slavery, respectfully but decidedly standing up for what they +thought their rights in a room full of white people. 'Siah only said +that he thought he ought to have fifty cents for what he is now paid +forty for[158] (about four hours work), but that he had given his word +to Mr. Philbrick for this year and he would stand by it. He says he +never signed the paper, or saw it, but that he answered the question +the two officers asked him and told his name. Pompey afterwards +stated that the two officers asked who owned the adjoining plantations +and that one,--and that on being told that Mr. Philbrick had bought +them all, said: "Then we need not go any further"--which looks like +malice aforethought. The paper was, apparently, written at Hilton +Head and there signed with the men's marks--if so, it is a +forgery. Pompey's great difficulty seemed to have arisen from a +misunderstanding of statements made by Mr. Philbrick, in which he +considered that Mr. Philbrick took back his word, and so he had lost +confidence in him and was ready to appeal to any one who promised to +see him righted and relieved from his "confusion." He says, and all +the men say so too, that Mr. Philbrick promised when he bought the +land to sell it to them when the war was over for what he gave for it, +and that when he was here last he told them he should ask them ten +dollars an acre. This they all stand to, and cannot be convinced they +have made a mistake, but have lost their faith because he has broken +his word,--and outsiders have fanned the flame, telling them that if +they did not work for Mr. Philbrick for what he chose to pay +them,--and that he was paying them nothing,--he would turn them out of +their homes, and more to the same effect. It was a most interesting +occasion, and it was pleasant to feel that there was a man of so much +sense in the Department. He tried to pacify the men, and then +privately told Mr. Soule that he should advise Mr. Philbrick to pay +the fifty cents. + + The next day the gentlemen departed, Mr. Tomlinson going to + the smaller Philbrick plantations to make the newly-ordered + written contracts with the people. By the terms of a + circular issued April 1 by General Saxton, each + superintendent was ordered, before April 15, to make to his + general superintendent and to sign a statement of the + agreement existing between himself and his laborers. The + general superintendent was then ordered to visit the + plantation, explain the contract to the negroes, and affix + to it the names of all who agreed to the terms of it; any + laborer who objected to the terms was warned to leave his + employer or stay with him at his own risk. H. W. records the + reception given to Mr. Tomlinson by the Pine Grove people. + +_April 22._ They were silenced, but not convinced, but agreed for this +year. Mr. Tomlinson had trouble with the people at Mr. Folsom's and +Mr. Harrison's both. He had meant to do the job here, but could not, +as C. was away. C. did not expect any difficulty, and I suspect that +he was right, for just after all had gone, two of our men, "Useless" +Monday, the stuttering cow-minder, and Hacklis, the sulkiest-looking +man on the place, came up and, with the brightest smiles and cheeriest +manner, began to ask me so earnestly how I was, that I felt as if I +were not honest if I did not mention that I had a slight headache. +"Mebbe de confusion make you sick, sorry for dat. Not one our people +come up yere. We bery sorry for dat,"--and much more of regret, and +assertion that "so long as Mass' Charlie on de place dey satisfy." Old +Monday wished to know if the milk satisfied me, and was very much +delighted when I told him that if he had not sent some up the night +before I should have had none for the gentlemen's breakfast, and kept +exclaiming, "I glad for dat," as if he had wished to express his +sympathy by deeds as well as words. Then Hacklis said, "Come, let's +go," as if they had come up simply to assure me that our people would +give no trouble. I was touched. + + The end of the story was a month later. + + +FROM H. W. + +_May 27._ Mr. Tomlinson came home last night with C. and Mr. Soule to +spend the night and make the contract with the people, so C. sent word +to them to assemble in the cotton-house yard before they went to their +work, and he and Mr. Tomlinson went down before breakfast, so that +they need not be interrupted in their work. They were gone so long +that we began to fear some trouble--indeed C. said he expected some +"jawing," and that it would be strange if this was the only place +where there was none; but not a word was said--the people apparently +are so ashamed of the conduct of the women when Mr. Philbrick was here +and so indignant with the "Fripp People" that they are on their best +behavior. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Early May._ We have been having a funny time with our people lately. +One of my plantations is decidedly ahead of all the others in +intelligence and energy. They were so energetic about March 1 as to +get a petition sent up to President Lincoln, praying for redress +against their various oppressions. The matter was referred to some +gentlemen coming down here to make other investigations, and two or +three weeks ago they pretty thoroughly examined our affairs. I believe +the result was pretty satisfactory. The originators of the movement +were two dissatisfied men who have given me great trouble. There was +much reason for some of their feeling, but very little for their +complaints. As a result of the whole affair, however, I believe we all +think it would be politic to increase our wages still more. At present +we pay rather less than some, but our cheap stores far more than make +up the difference. This, however, the people, instead of appreciating, +only make the subject of more complaint. + +When that was nicely settled, I made the discovery that both +plantations had thought it proper to plant a great deal of corn among +my cotton. I had given them corn-land for themselves, but they, in +pursuance of a Secesh custom of planting a little corn between the +cotton rows, had done so to an outrageous extent. And they in many +cases refused to take it out. The truth is here,--that we are rather +more in the power of the negroes than they in ours. I shall insist on +every grain being out, but actually shall probably have to do it +myself. Well--such disputes are almost the only excitement I have; +better some, perhaps, though unpleasant, than none. + + +E. S. P. TO C. P. W. + +_Boston, May 3._ As soon as I can get complete information from +Liverpool about my claim on the insurance company,[159] I shall settle +with them and be ready to settle with yourself, G., and Folsom. Are +you not ashamed to put in your own private pocket the proceeds of the +hard labor of the poor abused negro? I think you cannot have read the +_Tribune_ and _Independent_ lately, or you would not be so depraved. + + The sarcastic allusion in this last letter to the _Tribune_ + and the _Independent_ refers to two letters which had lately + appeared in those papers respectively, the one signed "J. A. + S.," the other anonymous. Both were from Beaufort, and both + attacked Mr. Philbrick for a letter which he had recently + written (February 24) to the New York _Evening Post_. This + letter was the presentation which he had planned to make + proving from his own experience that it was possible to + raise cotton cheaper by free labor than had been possible by + slave labor.[160] In it Mr. Philbrick had also stated his + belief that the land-sales would be an injury to the negro + if they enabled him to buy at $1.25 an acre land which was + already worth much more and would, after the war, rise still + higher in value, for such purchases would be made largely as + speculations, and would destroy all incentive to labor. The + points of attack selected by the writers in the + _Independent_ and the _Tribune_ were Mr. Philbrick's rate of + wages,--why did he not pay his hands $2.50 a day?--his views + on the land-sales, which, they said, showed his desire to + make of the negroes an "agricultural peasantry," as + dependent upon great landed proprietors as ever they had + been in their days of slavery, and the course he had pursued + relative to his own purchases in land. "His own statements + of his intentions induced the almost universal belief that + he desired to buy land for the purpose of testing the + industrial capabilities of the negroes, and when they had + justified his confidence in this respect, that he would sell + them the lands in small allotments at the cost to himself." + His actual performance now, on the other hand, was to put + the price of his lands "further from their reach than + before," fixing it "according to the increased value which + their labor and proved capacity have given them." To these + three accusations Mr. Philbrick made reply in two letters. + First, as to the auction-sales, he agreed "that the good + faith of the Government should have been kept in regard to + the promised homesteads, however we may differ in opinion as + to the expediency of making the promise at this time." + Second, as to his scale of wages, he maintained that, on his + plantations, "whenever the amount of work done in a day + approaches the standard of a day's work in the North, the + wages also approach the limit of Northern wages, under + similar conditions."[161] Third, as to his alleged promise + to sell his land to negroes at cost, he said, "I am not + aware that I have ever committed myself to any definite + plans for disposing of this land; for I have not been able + to digest or mature any plan satisfactory to myself."[162] + + There is nothing vital in these two letters of Mr. + Philbrick's which is new to the reader of these pages. They + are based on his firm belief that it was no kindness to the + negro to make discriminations in his favor. + + Mr. Philbrick's message to his superintendents about the + increased pay demanded by 'Siah and Pompey, and his advice + to W. C. G. in the matter of corn planted between the rows + of cotton were as follows: + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +_Boston, May 18._ I have already written expressing my assent to the +rise of wages at any time when you shall all agree, and also write C. +P. W. to-day that I should at any time assent to any change in the +management, sustained by the unanimous approval of the corps upon the +spot, without waiting to hear from me. You can avail yourself of the +change to get rid of the corn in cotton-fields. I hope you will not +pull it up yourself. I think such a step would lose more in dignity +than you would gain in consistency of purpose. We must expect these +people will take any undue advantage of us they think they can do with +impunity, but I think such cases can be more readily reached through +their pocket nerves than their moral sensibilities. Moreover, it is +always better to do nothing in which we should not be sustained by the +authorities, whose tender sympathies are not always judicious, as you +know. I would not allow a hill of corn in the cotton-field, _i. e._, I +would not pay the extra price till it is pulled up. + + The next letter shows that the freedmen were waking up to + their rights in more ways than one. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_May 19._ We had a queer scene here on Tuesday. It is probably the +first time that the slaves--contrabands--freedmen--have asserted +themselves our fellow-countrymen by claiming the right of voting. A +meeting was called in Beaufort to elect delegates to the Baltimore +convention.[163] It was assumed that we could stand for the sovereign +state of South Carolina, and so we sent her full complement of sixteen +representatives, and furnished each with an alternate. There are +hardly thirty-two decent men in the Department, it is commonly +believed. A large half of the meeting consisted of blacks, and _four +black delegates were chosen_, Robert Small[164] among them; the others +I believe were sergeants in the South Carolina regiment. At one time +there was considerable excitement, and white paired off against +black,--but on the whole both colors behaved very well. + +The whole affair will be laughed at by the North, and it is hardly +probable that the delegates will be received. I hope they will. + + In this hope W. C. G. was to be disappointed. Not one of the + delegates was received. + + With a group of H. W.'s letters the story goes back to home + life. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Sunday, May 8._ I have been wanting to see a Baptism performed as it +is here in the creek, and as there was to be one to-day C. arranged +yesterday for us all to go up. We had a lovely drive, reaching the +bridge by the church just as the Baptism began, and, sitting in the +wagon where we could see and hear everything, we witnessed the whole +ceremony and saw the vast crowd that had collected for the same +purpose. As the last came up out of the water the people began to +sing, and we moved with the crowd towards the church, which was +presently filled, as many more people outside sitting about. We sat +for about four hours, through all the services. The minister soon +changed his clothes and came in, but in the meantime the people sung. +Mr. Parker took occasion in his sermon to express very liberal views +towards other denominations of Christians, and then invited "all +members of sister churches to remain to the Communion service." There +has been so much talk and trouble about this, and all who were not +Baptists have been so vigorously excluded,[165] that we were very glad +to see the new minister take a different ground, and remained gladly. +While the deacons were arranging the Table, those who chose went out, +after which the elders went to the doors to call them back. "Member, +member, what you keep de church waitin' for?" and again the church was +filled, floor and gallery,--I never saw such a sight,--but the +minister's earnestness and the general seriousness of the people made +it unlike a spectacle, and a serious, most interesting occasion. Then +there was a collection taken up in the elders' hats, the people making +change while old Robert would attempt to persuade them to leave the +whole bill! Then two couples were severally married, not both at once +after Mr. Phillips' heathenish fashion, pronouncing them all husbands +and wives! + +_May 16._ I found that the Court was to meet here at nine o'clock. Mr. +Soule asked me to be present, and I listened all day to the +examination of the various witnesses. It was very interesting; but it +was very sad to see how little dependence could be placed upon their +word. Men and boys took the oath one after the other and then lied as +if they had sworn to do so. Their ingenuity was wonderful, and we had +to come to the conclusion that if those who we supposed spoke the +truth had been on the other side they would have lied as badly as the +others. It has now become very important to carry the case through and +discover if possible who have perjured themselves, as they must learn +how important it is for them to speak the truth. But little additional +light was thrown by the labor of to-day, and they adjourned at night +till Thursday, at Pine Grove. + +_May 19._ The court sat at Pine Grove, but though the moral certainty +was very great, it was almost impossible to convict on the evidence, +because they lied so. + +A man came in great excitement to tell us that the rebels had made a +raid during the night onto Morgan Island and carried off all the +people. F. and R. immediately took the sailboat and went over to the +gunboat to let them know. + +_May 22._ F. went to church to find out about the poor Morgan Island +people, and heard from Mrs. Wells that eleven people, men and women, +had been carried off by fifteen Secesh--three of Hamilton Fripp's sons +were among them. They took all the clothes, money, and eatables they +could find, and told the people that they were living well and earning +forty cents a day while their old mistress was starving and had no one +to work for her, and they thought it was time they went to take care +of her. One man escaped after his hands were tied, and one woman +refused to get into the boat, and they knocked her down and left her. +They have frightened poor Mrs. Wells pretty effectually by saying they +should like to carry Mr. Wells off on the points of their bayonets. +"That man that pays them forty cents a day." A picket has been +stationed there and another on Eddings Point. + +_May 27._ My "seamster," Maria, has a little girl who she sent me word +should be my little chambermaid, and she wished me to name her. Her +youngest child, Noble, I did not know, he is such a great boy, and I +remarked that he was bigger than Cicero was two years ago. "Too much, +Missus, him lick Cicero now," and she explained that it was because he +was a Yankee child, and then she and Rose enlarged upon the general +superiority of the Yankee children, who could all "lick" all the +Secesh children of twice their years! It was very funny, but I daresay +there is some truth in it, as the women only work when they feel able +to do so, and moreover they all have a greater variety of food. + +The boys returned from the gunboats with full accounts from the +officers of the disgraceful abandonment of the expedition[166] and its +complete failure, owing in the first place to the drunkenness of an +officer and then to the failure of common sense. General Foster has +arrived[167]--I hope he will prove to be somebody; this poor +Department seems doomed. General Birney seems to have shown as little +sense in this matter as on the negro question. + +_May 31._ To dine at Pine Grove, stopping on the way to see if I could +find any of Pierce Butler's[168] people among the St. Simonians who +have settled on the deserted plantation of Hamilton Fripp. Found one +woman who was nursery-maid at Mr. Hazard's, who she said was a cousin +of "Butler's;" she remembered him well and his two daughters, also +Mrs. Butler. "She was a very great lady--a _very_ great lady, and a +most beautiful lady--slender-like: she tell Mr. Butler if he give up +the slavery, she would likes to live there, but she couldn't stan' +that; but he wouldn't 'grees to that, so she goes 'way and she get a +dewoce. Oh, but she could ride hos'!" She said that Mr. Butler was a +very kind master to his servants indeed, "but sometimes he have bad +overseer." + +_June 15._ Rode through the quarters to tell the people myself that I +was going home for a visit. "But you comin' back dough--arter we get +use' to you you mustn't lef' we--and you sarvice to we when we sick +too much." "Hi!" said old Betty, "you brudder an' sister been eat you +like one oyshter!" "Dey tink you like one angel come down," said old +Judy, "and they no ben see you so long time." + + The long letter that comes next is perhaps the most + interesting and convincing of all that Mr. Philbrick wrote. + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +_Boston, July 8._ Your long letter has received due attention, but I +do not yet feel as if it would be advisable to sell lands any sooner +than I had always intended, viz., at the end of the war. I agree with +you that the present system is unsatisfactory and annoying, tending to +develop the evil as well as the good that is in the negro character. I +had about concluded to propose next winter something like the +following plan, but don't think it good policy to promise _anything_ +now for two reasons: first, such promises would be distorted and +misrepresented by the negroes among themselves in the interim, so +that when the time comes, nothing but dissatisfaction and growling +would result; second, because something may turn up in the meantime to +change my mind as to what is best. My rough plan is to sell to the +people at cost all live-stock and implements we could spare,--nearly +the whole,--for which they can doubtless pay cash next winter. Then +divide the lands among them to be used as they see fit for the +remainder of the war, they to pay either a certain share of the cotton +they raise, say one half, or a certain amount of cotton, annually. +(Don't like this last.) A small farm to be reserved on large +plantations to be sold to or worked by some white settler, who can +devote his time there and act as our agent to look after our rights, +and if possible work a little cotton on his own account, experimenting +and introducing improved methods of culture. It might be almost +impossible for such a man to get labor, but there will be some negroes +too dependent in their habits to want to wait a year for their pay and +some old people and widows who would prefer wages paid monthly. This +white man's farm is, however, not a necessary part of the plan, and if +labor can't be got, of course it wouldn't succeed. Teachers and +store-keepers to be kept on the ground at our expense, who will look +after the houses they live in and do whatever else they can to keep +things straight. + +Another plan is to sell life-leases to the negroes, instead of the fee +simple, disposing of the lands you propose to sell. This occurred to +me as a means of avoiding the terrible and disastrous confusion which +it will be next to impossible to avoid after a term of years, if the +fee should be conveyed, when the purchasers die and sell or change +land as they will to a certain extent in time. It is bad enough to +trace a title and find out whether it is good for anything here in +systematic New England, and difficult enough, too, to fix boundaries +and maintain them against encroachments; but it makes my orderly bones +ache to think of a time when, after some men now purchasing land shall +die, leaving two or three sets of children, some born under wedlock +and some not, some not their own but their wives' children, some even +of questionable parentage, and some who were never heard of before, +all claiming a slice of the deceased man's land, and of course all +claiming the best. Suppose it was bounded by a "stake and stones" as +of old here, minus the stones which are absent; suppose some of the +claimants think best to set up a new stake where one has gone to +decay, and suppose they are not over exact in placing it; or suppose, +as is more than likely, their neighbor thinks the new stake encroaches +on him and pulls it up entirely, stamping on the hole and putting it +in according to his own ideas, etc., etc., ad infinitum. Now, as you +must admit that all this is likely to occur, and worse too, would such +a state of things tend to bring about a healthy and rapid development? +Any one who has watched the minute subdivision of lands among the +French peasantry knows that after a few generations a man has not land +enough to live on or work economically, and hence a vast amount of +time and energy is wasted in France for lack of organization;--that, +too, where they have an administration of justice the most minute and +exact to be found in the whole world, an organization of the judiciary +which reaches to every man's case, however minute or inconspicuous. +The life-lease system would avoid these troubles, but would be open +to this objection, a serious one, too, viz., the negro ought to feel +that in building up a home for himself, it shall be a home for his +children, for he has too little of the feeling of responsibility for +his offspring, which is one of the best stimulants to good order and +civilization. + +The future value of the lands is a question I don't think of much +consequence, neither is the question of profit to the present holders +to be considered, when conflicting with the future welfare of the +community. If we only had clearness of vision, the wisdom to see what +would really be best for the masses, I sincerely believe that it could +readily be adopted without in any way prejudicing the present profits +of the holders. You speak of the probability of having less cotton +planted for us in case your plan is followed. I shouldn't consider +that of _any consequence whatever_, except that, as a general thing, +the amount of cotton planted will always be a pretty sure index of the +state of industry of the people, and their industry will always be the +best measure of their improvement. It might take them some time to +find out that cotton was the best thing for them to work on, but +present prices are fast teaching them this fact. + +The objection noted above against a life-lease is a serious one, and +perhaps sufficient to balance those future annoyances likely to grow +out of selling the fee. + +I do not agree with you in what you say of the _unnatural_ dependence +of these people. I don't see any people on the face of the earth of +their rank in civilization who are so independent as they are. + +I don't see the justice of the claim to the soil now made in their +behalf by Mr. J. A. Saxton[169] and others, and with which you seem to +sympathize somewhat. The fact is that no race of men on God's earth +ever acquired the right to the soil on which they stand without more +vigorous exertions than these people have made. This is apparently the +wise order of Providence as a means of discipline, or the misfortune +of man, as a consequence of his failings, perhaps both; but I cannot +see why these people should be excepted from the general rule. If they +_have_ acquired the necessary qualifications to be benefited by +becoming landholders, then there is no reason for delay; but here is +the very point of difference between us, whether they would be in the +long run so benefited. + +As to price, I never considered the question of profit to myself or +those I represent as of consequence in fixing the price. It is no +doubt an expression of this kind which gave rise to the general +belief, claimed by some whites as well as blacks, that I would sell at +cost, "was bound" to do so, etc. It did not occur to those who so +believed that I could have any good or disinterested reasons for +selling for more than cost. It may be difficult to fathom one's own +motives in such cases, but I can say honestly that I do not believe in +the success of a system of selling to any people any property whatever +for less than its market value, with a view to confer a lasting +benefit upon them. That is, I think the immediate ease which such a +course would confer would beget idleness and unthrifty habits when +compared with a system by which every man should be required to pay +full price. No man or race of men ever truly appreciate freedom who do +not fight for it, and no man appreciates property who does not work +for it, on the same terms with those around him. I think they would be +better off for paying ten dollars an acre for land, if the land is +worth it, rather than one dollar, because they would use the land for +which they had paid full price more economically, would be likely to +get more out of it, and would be taught a feeling of independence more +readily than by being made the recipients of charity. + +In this case, however, we have a complication of circumstances +entirely unique. We have a number of people who have bought land at a +rate fixed by Government, and a certain amount of "discouragement" +would ensue if our people were charged more per acre than their +neighbors for similar land. They couldn't be expected to see the +justice of such an arrangement, and it is difficult for us to explain +why it should be so. This is a very strong argument for selling cheap, +for we should avoid any course which we should not be able to easily +prove just, when dealing with such a defenceless people. Of course +there would be a grand howl among the so-called philanthropists at the +mention of any plan on my part of selling at any rate above cost, +witness the sensation produced by my letter to the _Evening Post_; but +I don't care much for that, and ought not to care at all. We couldn't +sell the land as you propose[170] without calling forth a similar +howl from this sickly sympathy, which would have me sell all the land +and would accuse me of a tendency to aristocracy if I retained any +lands to be disposed of otherwise. Of course the negroes wouldn't be +satisfied either. I don't expect to satisfy them by any course which +would be consistent with common sense. I think it possible that I may +fall into such a plan as you suggest after I get down there next +winter. In the meantime I don't want to make any promises. + + The next three letters are full of the irritation engendered + by unintelligent orders from official superiors. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_July 17._ Do people look with any interest toward this Department, +either for military achievement or civil improvement? The former +require better men--generals--than we are blessed with; the latter may +come,--after the war. + +Do people expect much of the negro of Port Royal? Let them expect. It +is amusing to hear M. W.[171] She understands all the peculiarities of +affairs down here with wonderful quickness and penetration; I have +learned to respect her judgment and opinion. To hear her rail at these +people, and slip out sly hints about the conduct of the "friends of +the freedman" is a treat. + +Rose was sitting disconsolately on the wood-box the other evening; I +began chaffing her about her melancholy looks. She did not say much, +but presently she asked if I had heard from Miss Harriet again; I told +her no, and she heaved a big sigh, and asked when she would come +back. "Mass' Charlie, no one _know_ how I miss Miss Hayyut. If my own +_mudder_ go Nort', I no miss her mo'." I asked her if she missed Miss +Harriet more than I missed my "farmly," whom I hadn't seen for so many +months. She couldn't tell. "Ebry man hab e own feelin'." + +_Aug. 17._ The unexpected opportunity to send off my letter was the +visit of one Lewis Keller, from the provost marshal's office at Hilton +Head; he came down to make inquiries concerning deserters, able-bodied +men, etc., etc. He also obtained a map of the island, with plantations +marked thereon. The provost marshal, I am sorry to say, is conceited, +opinionated, and wanting in common sense and discretion. He has ideas +which, if founded on anything, rest on reports only, and very vague +reports too. He thinks, or rather (as the notion, once in his head, +must stick there) he is certain, that there is communication between +the negroes who buy at our stores and the rebels; that there is a camp +of deserters (black and white) on Hunting Island, and that these +deserters are employed in carrying supplies to the main; that the +proximity of our stores to the rebel country is a dangerous state of +things, not only inciting the rebels to come over, but likely to +supply them with all they want if they do come. Also he thinks that +the negroes have no business to have guns. Also he does not see what +they can want with all the stuff sent on the _Kelley_. Now the +_Kelley_ arrived just before the regulations which allowed plantation +supplies to enter insurrectionary districts. The treasury agent at +once offered to permit the _Kelley's_ cargo to come on shore. The +provost marshal, who by this time appeared to be very willing to +"help us all he could," took the invoice to General Foster, and came +back with permission to land all of some things, one half the dry +goods, one third only of the grocery supplies, flour, bacon, etc. We +shall probably have to sell the rest at Hilton Head. Very provoking. +Some of the supplies were small enough as they were; what is left will +be about a mouthful apiece all around; _e. g._, one hundred and eighty +barrels of flour came; my share would be about thirty-five. I could +have sold twenty-five whole barrels, and peddled out the rest in six +weeks. My share of sixty barrels will be about twelve! The provost +marshal could not see what the people wanted of so much provision. Yet +he has at his office the census of all these plantations, besides a +written statement prepared by Mr. Soule of the amount bought at these +stores within the last six months and the lists of purchases over five +dollars at a time (we have to keep these lists, as one condition of +keeping store). + +Besides restricting the quantity of goods, all the stores are to be +closed except those at R.'s and Folsom's. I may sell what I have on +hand, but not take in anything more. Ignorance, stupidity, and +conceit. + + +E. S. P. TO C. P. W. + +_Boston, Aug. 24._ The recent assumption of authority by the military +officials seems to have extinguished the Treasury Department in Port +Royal. It is a difficult case to reach, for this officious +intermeddling bears the semblance of earnest and zealous watchfulness +of the public interests. Any representations at Washington will avail +nothing, so long as Colonel H. cherishes the idea, or pretends to, +that it is not for the public welfare to have us sell bacon and +'lasses at Coffin's Point. Any permission from the Treasury Department +which would appear to him as too lenient would only give him another +chance to exercise his authority, which tickles his vanity and makes +him appear a big man. A difference of opinion between him and myself +would hardly be listened to at Washington, so long as it is upon a +subject on which his superiors think him qualified to judge better +than myself. Suppose the Secretary of the Treasury were to allow goods +to be taken from Hilton Head without restriction, General Foster and +Colonel H. would still think the rebels would get them, and, having +the power in their own hands, would not be likely to allow us to avail +ourselves of any such privileges. I should like to have the question +asked him, "How the Coffin's Point people are to get supplies?" If we +are forbidden to keep a store there, it certainly cannot be forbidden +us to send a wagon-load of goods there for the supply of that +plantation whenever needed, which will answer our purposes well +enough. In order to avoid any trap-springing by parties who might +think it a smart thing to tell Colonel H. we had not discontinued the +store, it would be best to have a plain talk with him on the subject. +We don't want to _keep store_, but supply the plantations, and need +not keep any considerable stock on hand at these "exposed" points. + + The next group of letters returns to the subject of negro + recruitment. By this time various Northern States, in + despair of finding enough men at home to make out the number + of recruits required of them by the general Government, + were getting hold of Southern negroes for the purpose, and + their agents had appeared in the Department of the South, + competing for freedmen with offers of large bounties. At the + same time General Foster made up his mind that all + able-bodied negroes who refused to volunteer, even under + these conditions, should be forced into the service. If the + conscription methods of the Government up to this time had + not been brutal, certainly no one can deny that adjective to + the present operations. Yet it will be seen that experience + has tempered the indignation of the superintendents, though + not their distress. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Aug. 9._ Lieutenant-Colonel Rice, agent for Massachusetts, has come. +After looking about a little, he does not think the prospect of +getting recruits _very_ brilliant, but his agents are at work in +Beaufort streets, and may pick up a few men. He intends to send native +scouts on to the main to beat up recruits; $35 a man is offered for +all they will bring in. Colonel Rice intended to come down here +to-day, but had to go and see General Foster and Colonel +Littlefield,[172] Superintendent of Recruiting. (He--Colonel L.--calls +it recruiting to conscript all he can lay hands on.) There is to be, +not a draft, but a wholesale conscription,[173] enforced here. +Lieutenant-Colonel Strong of the First South (Thirty-Third United +States Colored Troops)[174] enrolled all colored men last month. It is +possible, if the men can be made to understand this, that a few can +be induced to volunteer, but I hardly think that many will be secured, +either by enlistment or draft. Colonel Rice comes down here this week. +Mr. Soule (just returned from Beaufort) describes him as a pleasant +man, simple in manner, with great good sense, shrewd enough, and of an +inquiring turn. He has gone right to work, not bidding for men, but +offering the whole bounty, etc., at once, and at the same time he is +trying to find out all he can about things and people here. I long to +"shum" and keep him over night. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Sept. 23._ I'm glad to say that my plantations have at last +contributed their share to the regiment. With two or three exceptions +all my young men have gone,--twenty, more or less,--which has deprived +me of at least half my stock of labor. They are carrying out the draft +with excessive severity, not to say horrible cruelty. Last night three +men were shot,--one killed, one wounded fatally, it is thought, and +the other disappeared over the boat's side and has not been seen +since,--shot as they were trying to escape the guard sent to capture +all men who have not been exempted by the military surgeons. The draft +here is a mere conscription,--_every_ able-bodied man is compelled to +serve,--and many not fit for military service are forced to work in +the quartermaster's department. + +_Oct. 12._ You ask more about the draft. The severity of the means +employed to enforce it is certainly not to be justified, nor do the +authorities attempt to do so,--_after_ the act is done. The draft here +is carried on by military, not civil, powers. We have no civil laws, +courts, officers, etc. Consequently the only way in which public +operations can be accomplished is by issuing a general order and +instructing the provost marshals to see it carried into execution. The +only agents to be employed are necessarily soldiers, and the only +coercion is necessarily that of guns and arbitrary arrests. The state +of society--as far as regards the draft and also many other things--is +one in which most men conspire to escape the voice of the law; so +that, when such unfortunate occurrences happen as the late shooting +affair, there seems to be nothing for it but indignation and sorrow, +and perhaps an examination into the circumstances to discover if they +justified recourse to such extreme action: _e. g._, the shooting seems +to have stopped further proceeding in the draft. If there were any +civil power here, such things would be as unjust and horrible as they +seem. As it is, each case has to be weighed by itself and may prove +better than it seems. The Massachusetts recruiting agents, of course, +have nothing to do with enforcing the draft. But their presence seems +to have increased its activity and their bounty contributes to its +success. Nearly all my men have gone voluntarily (_i. e._, felt they +must go, and, for the bounty offered, concluded to go without +violence), and all are constantly writing home letters expressive of +great satisfaction. + + The letter following from T. E. R. (one of Mr. Philbrick's + superintendents, frequently referred to in these letters as + "R."), gives a capital idea of the pleasures of living under + military rule. + + +T. E. R. TO C. P. W. (AT HOME ON A VISIT) + +_St. Helena Island, Oct. 17._ An order was issued just before or about +the time you left to take away all the boats, to prevent intercourse +with the rebels; so they attempted to enforce it, but, after the first +day, boats all went out into the _mash_ or up on dry land in the bush, +and then alas for _General Order_ or any other man. Several +applications were sent to General Saxton in reference to the matter, +and these he forwarded to Foster, and he let his dignity down easily +by permitting all the boats taken to be returned and all not taken to +be retained, on the presentation to the provost marshal of +_triplicate_ certificates describing the owner (age, height, color of +eyes, hair, complexion, and occupation), describing boat (a pine +dugout), certifying to the strict loyalty and _good citizenship_ of +the owner, signed by general superintendent, and approved by general +commanding. Isn't that red tape to perfection? They never went to +Coffin's to take the boats, nor did they ever go there to get +soldiers--strange, when it is thought by many that there is nearly a +regiment on that plantation. Perhaps they feared _Coffin's +Battery_.[175] + + The next letter is from H. W., at the time of her return + with C. P. W. to Port Royal. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Coffin's Point, Nov. 12._ There had been so much delay and +uncertainty over our arrival that Rose had gone home, but Rodwell +stopped to tell her we had come as he went down with the cart, and she +exclaimed, "Pray day come for me go see Miss Hayiut." In the morning +she came early into my chamber, bright and eager. I knew Robert was +black as the ace of spades, but they both of them did look blacker +than anything I ever saw before, but it was good to see them. + +The next group of extracts is again occupied with the everyday events +of plantation life. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Nov. 12._ As usual I managed to miss the last mail. Now that the W.'s +and their party have returned, perhaps we may be assisted into greater +punctuality. Fortunately for us they live farther from the human race +by two and a half miles than ourselves, and can't reach it without +passing within half a mile of our house. Politeness usually obliges +them to come up and take our budget. We live on our friends in a great +many ways here. Without attempting any system or intending to set a +wrong world right, we realize all the best fruits of socialistic +communities. If any one has anything good, he is expected to enjoy +only a small piece himself; and most things that are done have a +reference to our united, not to any individual interest. Our own +geographical location is such that we are peculiarly fitted to receive +the benefit of this interchange of good offices,--while we can hardly +reciprocate as we ought to. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Nov. 19._ Alden and I were put on Plantation Commission work as soon +as we got here, had a session Wednesday and tried several cases. The +untrustworthiness of these people is more apparent and troublesome +than ever. I feel as if it would not be safe to allow them to gin the +cotton--it seems certain that a great deal of it would be stolen. +Their skill in lying, their great reticence, their habit of shielding +one another (generally by silence), their invariable habit of taking a +rod when you, after much persuasion, have been induced to grant an +inch, their assumed innocence and ignorance of the simplest rules of +_meum_ and _tuum_, joined with amazing impudence in making +claims,--these are the traits which try us continually in our dealings +with them, and sometimes almost make us despair of their +improvement--at least, in the present generation. It is certain that +their freedom has been too easy for them,--they have not had a hard +enough time of it. In many cases they have been "fair spoiled." + + +FROM H. W. + +_Nov. 27._ Rose is a trump. She does all my cooking neater and better +than I have ever had it done--makes bread and biscuit and puddings as +well as I could myself, and until this morning, with our help, of +course, has done the chamber-work too. With those three children I +have got along as well as I could ask. I begin to appreciate what and +how much they have learned the last two years. + +[_Dec. 11._] Over seventy children at Sunday School. I had a very nice +time with them indeed, and was much struck with their progress in +general intelligence. Their eager, intelligent faces and earnest +attention and interest in all I said to them were a great contrast to +anything they would have manifested two years ago. Indeed, I could not +have talked to them, and they would not have understood me if I had, +in anything like the same way that I did to-day. + +_Nov. 23._ We saw Mrs. Vaughn, who seems to find life here very hard, +and repeats the inevitable experience of all those who have ever had +anything to do with the blacks previously, that these are the most +degraded and barbarous of their race in the country. + +We met C. Soule and Captain Crane,[176] with their two servants, +coming down to spend Thanksgiving. We had a right pleasant evening. +Captain Crane played and sung, and we were very glad to hear the +piano, and he to touch one. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Nov. 27._ On Thanksgiving Day we gathered together all our +friends,--all our "set," at least,--and sat down, twenty-six of us, +together, to eat turkeys and pies. It was a rather formidable thing to +attempt, with negro servants and St. Helena supplies, but we had quite +a good time, and have done our duty in giving the party. It is +probably the last time that we'll all meet together. Those who are to +stay next year are all bemoaning their fate; together we have had a +very courteous and friendly circle,--rather peculiarly so for such a +rough kind of life and surroundings,--and the loss of so many as will +go will probably rob the work here of much of its pleasantness. + + War, in the person of the triumphant Sherman, was again + drawing near, and the two young officers of the Fifty-Fifth + had barely celebrated Thanksgiving with the people from home + when they were summoned to take their part. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Nov. 28._ C. brought word that all the troops had been sent to +Savannah to meet Sherman, and that citizens were on guard at Beaufort. + +_Dec. 1._ To-night comes C. from Beaufort with news of the Grahamville +fight.[177] It is said we have been twice repulsed, and the fight is +not over. + +_Dec. 2._ A cart came down from R.'s and brought a note from him to +the effect that Captain Crane, who was with us such a short time ago, +has been killed in the fight at Grahamville, but that C. Soule was +unhurt. + +_Dec. 3._ The rumors with regard to the expedition are various and +contradictory, but the impression seems to be that we have been +whipped, but hold on and have intrenched at Grahamville. Mr. and Mrs. +Soule are cheerful and brave, but very anxious, and it makes our +hearts sink to hear the guns as we do. Pray God we may succeed this +time and Sherman may come through. It will be such a day as has not +been seen in this Department since Dupont took the place. + +_Dec. 4._ We have repulsed the enemy since we intrenched, and +deserters say Sherman is coming. + +_Dec. 6._ Captain Crane found that his company was left behind at +Morris Island, but begged so to go, that Colonel Hartwell[178] took +him on his staff, sending a Captain Gordon, who had just come from the +North, to take charge of his company. Colonel Hartwell was wounded and +Captain Crane killed in one of the first charges, in which our troops +were repulsed, so that Captain Crane's body was left in the hands of +the enemy. To-night we hear that ten thousand troops have come from +Fortress Monroe to reinforce us, and deserters tell of Sherman's +advance and successes. You may imagine we are all on the _qui vive_, +and anxious, for we hear all the firing. + +_Dec. 11._ Savannah is in Sherman's hands and Pocotaligo in Foster's. +We hope and trust this is no South Carolina rumor. + +_Dec. 15._ To-night Mr. Soule brings word that Sherman breakfasted +with Foster yesterday morning, on a boat that came to Beaufort to-day. + + Just after Christmas Mr. Philbrick went back to Port Royal + to see to shipping his cotton. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Dec. 28._ Arrived this evening. No fellow passengers that I knew. +Most of them were Sherman's officers who had left him at Atlanta for +various reasons and now come to join him. Very pleasant men, with a +degree of hearty good sense and whole-souled patriotism that was truly +refreshing. + + + + +1865 + + _The Georgia refugees--Sherman's army at + Beaufort--Discontent of the negroes about wages--W. C. G.'s + work at Savannah for the refugees--Return home of most of + the letter-writers--The death of Lincoln, its effect on the + negroes--End of the war and return of the planters--Stealing + of cotton by the negroes--Superintendents "demoralized on + the negro question."_ + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Jan. 1._ Yesterday morning I had a talk with Mr. H.[179] in the yard, +where he is at work framing the school-house. I like him very much. He +is a somewhat rare combination of a refined gentleman, without much +education, but very well informed and wide awake, and a modest and +quiet industry with the most practical common sense. He is truly +interested in the negroes, without the least bit of sentimental or +ill-advised sympathy. He is very glad to come here and take charge, +and I think he is the best superintendent I have had here at all. + +I saw some of the people who came about the house by chance during the +day, and who seemed truly glad to see me. They have got quite over +the land-fever, and say they prefer to work along as they have, +wherein they begin to show sense. Rose is still the only cook and does +very well, except that she sometimes bakes potatoes longer than she +boils hams, etc., etc. I suspect H. helps her put things together +somewhat. The Christmas tree was to have been last evening, but the +rain prevented. C. P. W. has gone up to bring down Mr. Eustis and his +two ladies to dine. The house being an elastic one, I suppose it can +be made to hold several more people than at present, if they will only +bring their own blankets. The old diet of sweet potatoes and hominy, +ham, fresh pork, and waffles, holds its sway yet, with grunnuts in the +evening, of course. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Jan. 2._ At sunset we all adjourned to the cotton-house, where the +tree was all ready to be lighted. It was a very pretty sight, and +after we had let the children in I sent word that the grown people +might come and see, if they liked. Then, before anything was cut down, +the children sang a number of the songs I have taught them, standing +in classes, the smallest in front, their little eager faces +irresistibly comic. The older people soon filled up the building, +making rather a crowd, and a less manageable one than the children +alone; but they were pleased at the sight, and when the noise became +overpowering, I could stop it for the time being by starting a song, +which the children would instantly catch up. Then I let the children +sing some of their own songs in genuine, shouting style, a sight too +funny in the little things, but sad and disagreeable to me in the +grown people, who make it a religious act. It is impossible to +describe it--the children move round in a circle, backwards, or +sideways, with their feet and arms keeping energetic time, and their +whole bodies undergoing most extraordinary contortions, while they +sing at the top of their voices the refrain to some song sung by an +outsider. We laughed till we almost cried over the little bits of +ones, but when the grown people wanted to "shout," I would not let +them, and the occasion closed by their "drawing" candy from C. as they +passed out. I daresay this sounds pleasant, and I know they all had a +good time; but if you could have looked in, you would have thought it +Bedlam let loose! + + The "Georgia refugees" referred to in several of the + subsequent letters were hundreds of negroes who had followed + Sherman's army northward. "They are said," says C. P. W., + "to be an excellent set of people, more intelligent than + most here, and eager for work. They will get distributed + onto the plantations before a great while." + +_Jan. 6._ Miss Towne gave us quite an interesting account of the +Georgia refugees that have been sent to the Village. The hardships +they underwent to march with the army are fearful, and the children +often gave out and were left by their mothers exhausted and dying by +the roadside and in the fields. Some even put their children to death, +they were such a drag upon them, till our soldiers, becoming furious +at their barbarous cruelty, hung two women on the spot. In contrast to +such selfishness, she told us of one woman who had twelve small +children--she carried one and her husband another, and for fear she +should lose the others she tied them all together by the hands and +brought them all off safely, a march of hundreds of miles. The men +have all been put to work in the quartermaster's department or have +gone into the army, and the families are being distributed where they +can find places for them. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Jan. 8._ Miss Towne told some amusing stories of the Georgia +refugees. Some of them, being very destitute, were bemoaning their +condition, and wishing they had never left their old plantations, +feeling rather abashed at the responsibility of taking care of +themselves. The old Edisto people, who have been there a year or two, +encourage them, saying, "Look 'o we," "We come here wi' noffin at +all," "Now we have money for cotton and all the tater and hominy we +can eat," etc. One woman said, "Bress the Lord, I have striven and got +enough to give _seven_ gowns to these poor folk." So it seems they do +what they can for the new-comers. I guess these Edisto people, who +have their own recent destitution fresh in mind, are more kind than +the natives of St. Helena, who are rather inclined to be jealous of +the new-comers, who make the labor market rather easier than before. + +_Jan. 6. Monday._ I had a talk with the people, who came up to see me +in a crowd in the forenoon. They seemed jolly, and had no complaints +to make about the past, but wanted higher wages for the future. I +talked with them very quietly for an hour, told them I would give +higher wages if I felt sure the price of cotton a year hence would +pay me as well as the past crop,[180] and told them if they wanted to +share this risk with me, I would give them a share of the cotton for +their wages. They all objected to this except one or two of the men, +who said they would like such an arrangement, but their _families_ +couldn't wait so long for their money. On the whole they preferred +wages, and therein showed their sense, I think. I find that when my +last cargo arrived in the _Redwing_, the people who had worked for me +had their pockets full of money and bought what they wanted, but the +men who had been cultivating cotton on their own hook looked on with +envious eyes and empty pockets, creating a very general impression in +favor of the _wages system_. Under this impression, I think they will +fall to work gradually at similar wages to what I have been paying, +but will probably lie idle a few weeks to think about it, in hopes I +will offer more. + +_Tuesday morning._ I heard that the schooner was at Fuller Place to +take our cotton. We have been at it ever since till yesterday noon, +when we put in the last we had, nearly filling her up. There was about +half of it negro cotton, brought from one hundred and seventy-six +different proprietors, for whom I act as agent in forwarding and +selling it. I drove over to spend the night at Mr. Wells' house on +Wednesday. He had gone to Morgan Island to receive and stow away some +one hundred and fifty Georgia refugees, which were expected by a +steamer from Beaufort. After he had waited for them all day, they +arrived about sunset, and he spent half the night there in the rain, +stowing them in houses and getting their baggage up from the steamer, +which lay at anchor in the river discharging into small boats. They +came from the shore counties near to Savannah, and brought a good deal +of truck, beds, and blankets, and some rice and peas. Mr. Wells gave +them rations for a week, and I suppose will continue to do so, for +they can't get anything to eat till next harvest in any other way. The +able-bodied have all been taken either by the rebels or our Government +for fatigue duty and quartermaster service, so those who come here are +all women, children, or cripples, such as we had before. They will +doubtless be so glad of a home, however, that they will do a good deal +of work. Of course it is not an economical class of labor, for it +takes too much land to feed the non-workers to allow a great deal to +be planted in cotton. In the morning I walked out with Mr. Wells and +sold him both the plantations of which he has had charge for me, viz., +the Jenkins place, where he lives, for $1600 or $10 per acre, and +Morgan Island for $1200, or about $5 per acre, which is more than any +one would have given a few weeks ago, when we couldn't get a negro to +stay there for fear of the rebels. I daresay he may do very well with +it now, but it is a vexatious thing to get rations to them in such an +out-of-the-way place, and, after all, young Mr. Fripp may make them +another visit some night and carry off some more negroes. + + +FROM C. P. W. + +_Jan. 8._ Howard's[181] corps came to Beaufort early last week, and +carpenters and engineers have been busy putting the Shell Road[182] to +the Ferry in order and building a bridge across the Ferry. It looks as +if a move were to be made towards Charleston or the interior soon. +Beaufort presents a lively spectacle; the Western soldiers are rough, +unkempt customers, whose hair, falling over their shoulders, suggests +vows of abstinence from the shears till they shall have accomplished a +great work. The first few days of their stay in Beaufort were marked +by acts more amusing to the soldiers than to the owners of property +"lying round loose." The first night was chilly, and three thousand +feet of lumber furnished bonfires at which the soldiers of the +"movable army" warmed themselves. Shopkeepers do a tremendous +business, and their shops look "fair dry;" but they do not always get +pay for their goods, but are requested to look on the battlefield for +their money. The troops were paid off just before leaving Atlanta, and +are "flush." Bread is very scarce. The troops fared very well on the +march,--one continued Thanksgiving through the richest part of +Georgia. + +The schooner _Horace_ for New York, with the rest of our cotton and +the first of the negroes', is loaded. The negroes' crops did not turn +out very well, as a general rule; want of manure and careless working +being the principal causes; the caterpillar did a great deal of +damage. They seem somewhat discouraged at the prospect of having to +wait so long for their money; but the advance paid them on shipping +the cotton (a dollar a pound of ginned cotton) will be a great help to +those who have done well. + +It is an excellent thing for the property here that Mr. H.[183] is +here to keep it in repair. He is a regular trump, the best man down +here. I feel more contented at leaving the place with him than with +any one here. + +If I could have a place down here all to myself, and have what help I +wanted, I think I should stay another year and try the experiment on a +little different plan. But, as Mr. Folsom said one day, when we agreed +that it would be pleasant to stay and hard to leave, "But, after all, +one must remember that one has an immortal soul." + + +FROM H. W. + +_Jan. 11._ Mr. Soule, coming from R.'s, tells us that a salute fired +the day before was for Stanton's arrival, come to confer with Sherman. + + The next paragraph suggests that the Secretary of War had + come for something besides a conference with Sherman; at any + rate, he took speedy action in one important direction. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Jan. 18._ We stopped at Miss Towne's new school-house to see them all +in it, and found to our pleasure that General Howard was addressing +the children. General Saxton, too, was there, in his new +major-general's straps. I was very glad to see General Howard, who +has superseded General Foster here. He has a very nice face indeed, +and his one arm seemed to make quite an impression on the children. +Stanton has been investigating the conscription business, and Foster's +removal is the result, apparently, while Saxton has been promoted. + + The next letters, Mr. Philbrick's last from Port Royal, + contain various pieces of Sea Island news, chiefly in + connection with his plans for the next year and his + difficulties with his laborers. + + +FROM E. S. P. + +_Jan. 9._ I started for Coffin's Point, meeting a long procession of +the people on the way to church. More than half the number were in +sulkies or some sort of go-carts, with all sorts of animals pulling +them, mostly quadrupeds that had once been horses,--and some might +still bear that name. I had to stop and shake hands every few rods, of +course. I have spent most of the day at Fripp Point, with Mr. York. +Mr. G. had not been able to collect the rent of corn-land there, to be +paid in corn, most of the men refusing to pay. He had withheld enough +from their pay to cover the amount of corn due. I took over the money +due, with the pay-roll and corn-list. After a long talk on the part of +Pompey and John Major and others, which I listened to patiently, most +of them still refused to bring their corn. But I felt pretty sure that +when some began they would all do it, and so opened the door of the +corn-house and told the willing ones to bring in their corn. Jack came +first, then Katy, Louisa, and Moll. Pretty soon John Major came along +with a cart-load, and all the rest followed but Pompey. Then I began +to pay off the women for ginning and preparing their cotton. All went +smoothly except that Celia wanted her "yellow-cotton-money"[184] +"by himself," and as I couldn't tell exactly how much the +"yellow-cotton-money" was, I had to take her money all back and tell +her to go over and see Mr. G. After paying the others, however, Celia +came up and concluded to take her dues. They all took their money +excepting Pompey, who stoutly refused, and I came off without paying +him. Then came the talk about next year. I introduced Mr. York as +having leased the plantation for the year, which fact was received +with less dissatisfaction than I expected; but when it came to talk +about prices, which I left for Mr. York to settle, they all demanded +_a dollar a task_, evidently having been preparing their minds for +this for some time back. Then followed the usual amount of reasoning +on my part, enlarging upon the future uncertainty of prices of cotton, +etc., but we made little or no impression on them. They had evidently +been listening to an amount of talk about the wealth I had acquired at +their expense, and felt aggrieved that they were not making money as +fast as those who planted their own cotton, on Frogmore and other +places. I told them that the proceeds of last year's crop had all been +expended by me in carrying on this year's work, but they wouldn't +believe it. John Major said he knew very well they had been jamming +the bills into that big iron cage (meaning my safe at R.'s) for six +months, and there must be enough in it now to bust it! It had been +raining for the last half-hour pretty steadily, and we finally +withdrew, the choir of hands hanging about me, singing out "A dollar a +task!" "A dollar a task!" as we went off. + +_Jan. 15._ I went out and introduced Mr. Jackson on Tuesday morning to +the Pine Grove people, who expressed very little surprise or feeling +of any kind, but met him with the same cry which had greeted me and +Mr. York at the Point about _a dollar a task_. I left him with them +and rode over to Cherry Hill with old Mr. Waters. The Cherry Hill +people received us very well. Tony had a long list of grievances to +relate, for Mr. Folsom had had him in jail for a fortnight for +refusing to bring out his cotton, raised for me, which he kept in his +own house. I listened quietly, and then told Tony I couldn't go behind +the decision of the court, but if he had any other matters in dispute +with Mr. Folsom he had better come up to the house in the evening and +we would talk them over together; but he never came, probably from a +sense of guilty conscience. + +Primus and Mike and several other negroes were there [in Beaufort], +buying horses from officers and men in Sherman's army, titles very +uncertain, for they mostly belong to the quartermaster. I advised them +not to buy a horse till the ownership was certified by an officer, but +they were too much in a hurry for that and hooked on to the first +quadruped they could find offered for sale. The fact is that thousands +of horses are attached to this army which are picked up by the +privates in their march through Georgia, and which these privates +pretend to own, and sell without authority, pocketing their money as +fast as they please. Some of them are very good horses, and some are +not. The town was crowded with the army, on a general leave to ramble +about, and new troops continually arrive. One entire corps marched +over Port Royal Ferry yesterday, and two more army corps are said to +be following. Some twenty steamers arrive daily at Beaufort direct +from Savannah, bringing the troops and wagons, artillery and animals. +So you can imagine what a confusion appears in the streets as they +disembark and march out to camp. The greater part of the whole army +seems to be coming around this way and marching over the Ferry towards +Pocotaligo. Secretary Stanton is said to have arrived from Savannah at +Beaufort last evening. It seems that Primus and the other negroes were +about to get their new horses over the Ferry, when the provost marshal +sent down a guard to seize men and animals, and marched them all off +to the guard-house for the night. The horses will probably be taken +away from them and the men allowed to pursue their way this morning, +with more sense and less money than they came with. I don't pity them +much, for they were fairly warned, and their eagerness to own horses, +for which they pay from $200 to $300 each, is perfectly absurd.[185] + +_Later._ An interesting scene has just taken place. May's Comba +knocked at the door and asked me to come out in the entry a minute. +Thinking there might be some domestic trouble, though she looked +smiling, I went out and found about twenty women (representative +women) about the door. Comba disappeared in the mass with a giggle, +and old Grace spoke up, about as follows: "I'se come to you, +sir"--pause--"I'se been working fer owner three years, and made with +my chillun two bales cotton last year, two more this year. I'se a +flat-footed pusson and don't know much, but I knows those two bales +cotton fetch 'nough money, and I don't see what I'se got for 'em. When +I take my leetle bit money and go to store, buy cloth, find it so +dear, dear Jesus!--the money all gone and leave chillun naked. Some +people go out yonder and plant cotton for theyself. Now they get big +pile of money for they cotton, and leave we people 'way back. That's +what I'se lookin' on, Marsa. Then when I come here for buy 'lasses, +when Massa Charlie sell he sell good 'lasses, then when Mister W. sell +he stick _water_ in 'em, _water enough_. Molasses turn thin, but he +charge big price for 'em. Now I'se done working for such 'greement. +I'se done, sir." Whereupon chorus of women join in like a flock of +blackbirds all talking at once. After a while I got a chance to say +about as follows: "If any one wants to work on this plantation I will +give them so and so (naming terms), but if any one don't like my +wages, they may go and find better, but they can't use my land to +plant their corn and 'tater on. That's my rule." Chorus interrupts +with discordant shouts: "I stay right here, sir--I will work this +land for myself, sir--I will sell the cotton," etc., etc. Amaritta +and Petra stood silent all this time, and finally Amaritta quietly +asked me to repeat my terms, which I did. She repeated them after me +word for word, but said nothing more, only nodded and grunted a sort +of assent. The chorus became wilder and more noisy, and I walked off +into the house. Presently Demus came to the door and said Amaritta +wanted to see me by heself. So I went to the door, and Amaritta called +Tilly, Petra, and one or two others. Thus said Amaritta: "I'se work +for you dis lass year, sir, what I was able. I been sick, you know, +wi' small-pox and didn't get much strength all summer, but I don't +mind much what them people say, sir, they'se got no manners. Now you +say you'll give so and so (carefully repeating my terms). Well, sir, +I'se come to say I'se 'gree for work. I 'speck to work, sir. I want to +lay my bones in dat air bush (pointing to cemetery), and don't want to +go nowhar else; that's what I wanted to say, sir." Then the other two +or three women chimed in with smiling faces and said the same in fewer +words, and so I bid them good-morning. I told them, too, that if some +of those people who made so much noise didn't look out, they would get +turned off the place, just as Venus and her gang got turned off last +year. The fact is, they are trying to play brag, as such people often +will; but they will all go to work in a few days, I feel sure. + +_Jan. 17._ Mr. Folsom went over to Port Royal Island with Mr. G. on +Sunday, taking their own horses, and rode over Sherman's pontoons at +Port Royal Ferry, without a challenge, and then up the mainland as +far as Pocotaligo Bridge, around which the 17th Army Corps is +encamped, in full possession of the railroad. Mr. G. called here an +hour ago on his way back, and told some of his experiences. He says +they were taken for "Secesh" by our own troops, all the way, just as +we all are in Beaufort, for the officers themselves seem to be hardly +aware that we are all Yankees, taking us for the old residents of the +island, made loyal by our experiences. + +Every one wonders what brought Secretary Stanton here. He seems to +have done something, at any rate, viz., hauled General Foster over the +coals severely for his negro conscription last summer, promoted +General Saxton to a brevet major-general, with enlarged powers; and, +report says, put General Howard in place of General Foster. The +newspapers will tell you all I know, and more, too, without doubt. Mr. +Tomlinson, who was about disgusted with things here as he found them +when he came back from the North, and had concluded to go to +Philadelphia to take some position offered him there by the +Philadelphia committee, now thinks he will remain here,--for which I +am very glad. Very few men could be so useful as he in this place; for +though he has a weak spot on the question of negro character, he has a +vast deal of good sense in detail, and is perfectly unimpeachable in +his stern regard for justice, never allowing himself to be _used_ in +any way for the furthering of the designs of interested parties. No +one who has not spent some time under martial law knows how hard it is +and how _rare_ for men in office to follow such a course, unswerved by +either flattery or ambition. + +_Jan. 22._ General Saxton came over to the St. Helena church last +Sunday, and set all the Edisto people into a stew by telling how he +was going to send the black troops there to defend the islands, and +how they might all go back to their "old homes," etc., forgetting that +they were not natives of Edisto, but only refugees when there, and +that they were now more comfortably settled here than they were there +in 1862. The Georgia refugees are coming along by hundreds and +thousands, and he "wanted to make room for them," etc. Of course the +Edisto people all say the General has ordered them to pack up and he +will carry them back, etc. So, many refuse to work, but pack up and +sit still, waiting for the General to come along and tote them across +the sound! The Georgia negroes are a superior-looking set to those of +these islands. Many are taken in outbuildings, etc., and have given a +good start to labor by giving the impression that if the old residents +don't work, _somebody else will_. They have gone to work for Mr. York +at Fripp Point, and here for Mr. H., and all along the road generally. +George Wells has got over a hundred Georgians on Morgan Island doing +well, and I guess the rebs won't trouble him, they are too busy. + +Mr. Tomlinson is to take the place on General Saxton's staff formerly +held by Captain Hooper, but without military rank. C. F. Williams is +to take Mr. Tomlinson's place here. + +We hear by your letter the list of the passengers lost on the +_Melville_. All our worst fears are confirmed, and you were right in +supposing that it was our acquaintances who were lost. This miserable +steamer I once talked of coming on, by her previous trip, but gave it +up when I found her character. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Jan. 23._ I think I suggested in a previous letter the possibility of +my staying here. Sherman's operations have opened a wider sphere for +negro work and thrown a great number of refugees into our hands. And +his approaching campaign will have a similar effect. General Saxton +has been appointed "Inspector General," with control of all negro +affairs from Key West to Charleston and thirty miles inland. The first +thing proposed is to recolonize Edisto and the other deserted Sea +Islands with the refugees, and men are wanted to assist in their +settlement. I have been offered a situation of this kind, or rather +the General has simply asked a few of us to stay, and Mr. Tomlinson, +Folsom, and myself will all remain for the present at least. I know +nothing more than this, but I look forward to a rough life, something +like our first year here. I shall probably go to Edisto in a day or +two. There will be no danger from attack, etc., as a regiment is to be +stationed there. The island is described by all as the finest and +healthiest of all the Sea Islands. + +If there is any movement afoot in Boston for the assistance of the +negro refugees that Sherman's operations throw into our hands, it can +be of the greatest benefit. The efforts three years ago were made +chiefly for persons left in their own homes, and with their own +clothing and property, besides their share of the plunder from their +masters' houses. And in many cases too much was given. But now +hundreds and thousands are coming in, shivering, hungry, so lean and +bony and sickly that one wonders to what race they belong. Old men of +seventy and children of seven years have kept pace with Sherman's +advance, some of them for two months and over, from the interior of +Georgia; of course little or nothing could be brought but the clothing +on their backs and the young children in arms. Since their arrival in +comparatively comfortable quarters, great sickness has prevailed, and +numbers and numbers have died. The Government gives them rations, and +has tried to give out clothing. But if clothes, cooking utensils, +etc., can be sent by Northern friends, nowhere can generosity be +better extended. + +_Savannah, Feb. 16._ As you see, my destination has been changed. +General Saxton needed a kind of colonization office here, and I am +sent as an assistant. How long this will continue my headquarters I +don't know. I am writing in a very large and fine house formerly +occupied by Habersham, rebel. It is full of fine furniture. Our +office, too, is one of the City Bank buildings. The prices are regal, +too--$15 per week for board, _e. g._ + +_Mar. 7._ The work at the office continues the same in kind, and the +stream of waiters increases. We hope to send quite a company off to +some of the more distant islands before long, but are terribly +embarrassed for want of transportation. First, no steamer! then no +coal! And when one can be had, the other can't. General Saxton is +still, as ever previously, left to get round on one leg. His work is +of course always inferior in importance to the needs of the military +service, so there is never an absence of reason for refusing him what +he wants. "Bricks!--without straw," has so far been the usual +fortune. Soon a gentleman is going out towards the Ogeechee to report +numbers and condition there. It seems to be a Central Asia, from the +population that swarms in for rations. Compared with those who apply, +few are allowed them. No one who can show a finger to pick with and +reports an oyster to pick, is allowed to come on the Government for +support. + + Here follows the last letter from G., written three months + later, not long before he came away. + + +FROM W. C. G. + +_Savannah, June 9._ Our business has slacked greatly, and is now +mainly kept up by recent refugees from the up-country. We have stopped +more than half the rations, and almost every family within a dozen +miles has been represented at the office and been furnished with the +proper papers. But slavery still exists in the interior and is +spending its last moments in the old abominations of whipping and +punishing. Of course it is nearly dead,--the people know they are free +and the masters have to own it,--but the ruling passion is strong in +death. + + W. C. G. left the South in June; H. W. and C. P. W. had gone + several months before him. The letters written at intervals + during the next two years are mostly addressed to the latter + by F. H. and T. E. R. They report the gradually changing + conditions and increasing difficulties of plantation + superintendence. + + +R. SOULE, JR., TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's Point, April 29._ Mr. H. is getting on pretty smoothly, +though he has occasionally to take a dose of what Mr. York calls +"Plantation Bitters," in the shape of complaints, faithlessness, and +general rascality on the part of the "poor negroes." + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. (IN SAVANNAH) + +_Boston, May 1._ You will see by the papers all about the fall in +prices. The Liverpool cotton men had lost twelve millions sterling +upon the depreciation of their cotton in store before they heard of +the fall of Richmond and Lee's surrender. There is a terrible panic +there, and some of the best firms are failing. After things have come +to an equilibrium, and the manufacturers begin to buy cotton for +spinning, there will be a demand for ours, but it may take several +months, for they haven't got to the bottom of the trouble yet. + +The affairs at St. Helena seem to be progressing quietly. The chances +are that all the cotton we raise this year will cost nearly if not +quite as much as we shall get for it. I advanced a dollar a pound on +the negroes' cotton, you know, and it has cost me about twenty-five +cents a pound more to gin it, etc., etc., while I am offered less than +a dollar. Query: how much commission shall I get for doing the +business? + + +T. E. R. TO C. P. W. + +_St. Helena, May 6._ The Coffin's Pointites had a gay old blow-out +over at church, owing to Mr. Williams' telling them that they must pay +Mr. Philbrick for pasturing their horses. They called Mr. P. a thief, +robber, liar, and everything else that was bad. + +The death of Lincoln was an awful blow to the negroes here. One would +say, "Uncle Sam is dead, isn't he?" Another, "The Government is dead, +isn't it? You have got to go North and Secesh come back, haven't you? +We going to be slaves again?" They could not comprehend the matter at +all--how Lincoln could die and the Government still live. It made them +very quiet for a few days. + +Secesh are coming back quite freely nowadays and looking about as much +as they please: Old Ben and young Ben Chaplin, several of the +Pritchards, and Captain Williams, that owned a plantation on Ladies +Island. + +The negroes begin to clamor about the final payment for their cotton, +and we have to tell them that the probabilities are that there will +not be any more. Then they think we have cheated them, and so the +world goes in South Carolina. Rather a thankless task. + + +F. H. TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's, May 21._ The honesty of this people and their disinterested +benevolence are as apparent as ever. Please don't exaggerate these +valuable qualities, either in the papers, to the Educational +Commission, or in your private conversation; because it is better that +those who are interested in the welfare of these people should not be +deceived into the notion that they are so nearly perfect as to need no +further expenditure of benevolent effort. Of course, we know the great +danger of your wreathing your account of them in roses and laurel. +One's enthusiasm is so excited in their behalf by a few years' +residence here, that his veracity is in great danger of being swamped +in his ideality, and his judgment lost in his admiration. So pardon my +warning to you. + +The McTureous lands have recently been sold, and about every family +upon this place has got its five or ten acres. I tell them they had +better move or build houses upon their lots and be independent of "we, +us, and co." But the idea seems to meet with little favor. A good many +of them are expecting these lands to be offered to them the coming +year, now that the war is about over, Dr. Brisbane, General Saxton, +and others assuring them that such was Mr. Philbrick's promise when he +bought them. I think there would be some important advantages to white +proprietors as well as black laborers, if they had some ten acres of +land of their own,--at least enough to raise their own provisions +upon, and to keep their own hogs and horses upon. Such an arrangement +would rid us of many annoyances, and help define the rights of each +party. + + "G.'s article," referred to in the next letter, was entitled + "The Freedmen at Port Royal," and appeared in the _North + American Review_ for July, 1865. + + +R. SOULE, JR., TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's Point, Sept. 10._ G.'s article is well written and +interesting. He was evidently disposed to report as favorably as +possible for the negroes, while at the same time he seems to have +suspected that the reader would be a good deal impressed by the darker +shades of his sketch, and the conclusion of the whole is: There is +ground for hope, but the case is a pretty desperate one. A conclusion +to which, I confess, my own observation and studies lead me, whichever +way I turn. + +The furor among the negroes here just now is to have a Union Store, +and they are contributing their funds for this purpose. They propose +to put up a building for the store near Smallwood's Bakery (at the +corner where village road branches from main road), and to make Mr. +Smallwood President of their Corporation! This project will probably +have one good effect in the end, namely, to open their eyes to see +some things which nobody can make them see now. + + +F. H. TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's Point, Sept. 18._ Cotton is opening well now, but we have +rather unfavorable weather for picking and drying. The caterpillars +have finally run over a good deal of ground, doing some damage, hard +to tell how much. + +R. thinks he don't care to try the experiment of cotton-raising +again--the risks and vexations are so great. I find that feeling quite +general here this year among planters. William Alden says it is his +last year. I doubt whether he pays expenses this season. His cotton is +late, and now the caterpillars are destroying it. + + +F. H. TO C. P. W. + +_Sept. 24._ Much of my time has been occupied of late in service on +Plantation Commission. The most important case is still on +trial,--that of the stealing of twelve hundred pounds of seed cotton +from Mr. De Golyer. There is a "cloud of witnesses"--a very dark +one--and it is hard, as yet, to discern in it any glimmering of +truth. + + +T. E. R. TO C. P. W. + +_St. Helena Island, Sept. 25._ With the dry weather of July and the +wet weather now, with the worm, we shall lose a third sure of our +crop, if not more. + +The negroes on the island are very quiet--all absorbed in a scheme of +establishing a "St. Helena Protective Union Store," J. Smallwood, +President. They have got the frame out and on the ground. I have a +great deal of curiosity to see the working of the thing, for they +never did succeed in the North among intelligent white people. If they +can read and write, or _keep a Union Store, I think they ought to have +the right of suffrage_. + +Nearly all the Secesh are back in Beaufort, confidently expecting that +they will get their land back in season to plant next year. + +All the Georgians will go back this fall, but all the people +Fuller[186] _took_ with him (excuse me, I should say _went_ with him) +will return here in a few weeks. Fuller hasn't any cotton this year, +only corn and potatoes. When he returned from here he told them the +people down here were very poor and in miserable condition; +nevertheless, they seem willing to come down and share the misery of +freedom to staying up there with Fuller in comfort. At the time he was +here, 17th of June, he never had said a word to the people with him +that they were free, and did not until they made a plan among +themselves to go up to him in a body and make him tell them. Then +Fuller took the old driver one side and told him he wanted him and all +the people to stay with him and plant another year, and wanted him to +use his influence to persuade the people to stay. So next morning he +called them all up and had them stand on his right hand, and as he +called their names he wanted those who were willing to stay with him +another year to step over to his left hand. So he commenced with Old +Gib, the driver (January's father). He turned right round and walked +towards the negro quarters. Fuller says, "Why, Gib, you will stay, +won't you?" "No, Sir." Then he went through the whole list, and every +one marched straight home and none to his left hand, much to his +disgust. + + The next extract reports E. S. P.'s final decision as to the + price for which he should offer land to the negroes. + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G.[187] + +_Boston, Oct. 5._ C. F. Williams has gone down to finish surveying my +land, and will cut up and sell for me to the negroes about as much +land as they have been in the habit of using,--good, arable land, at +$5 per acre, where they are not already provided. + + +R. S., JR., TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's Point, Oct. 9._ I have no reason to complain of my people +for any extraordinary delinquencies, for they have worked as well as +we shall probably ever be able to get these negroes to work; but I +have frequently had occasion to be vexed at their slow, shiftless +habits and at their general stupidity. It is a very great trial to +any Northern man to have to deal with such a set of people, and I am +satisfied that if Northerners emigrate to the South and undertake +agriculture or anything else here, they will be compelled to import +white laborers. In the first place, they will not have the patience to +get along with the negroes, even if there were enough of these +freedmen to do all the work. But, in the second place, there will not +be one quarter enough of them to supply the demand there will be for +laborers when the uncleared land at the South is brought under +cultivation. The old slaveholders could never get hands enough, and +yet they cultivated only about one tenth of the land that is fit for +cotton. + + It need hardly be said that this prophecy has not yet been + fulfilled. + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. + +_Boston, Oct. 15._ I have had a letter from Charleston written by a +lawyer on behalf of Captain John Fripp and his three daughters! The +writer says but little about his legal rights, but appeals to my +"sense of justice and generosity," to see if some compromise can't be +made. He doesn't say exactly what he wants, but intimates that both +parties could profit by such an arrangement and save the vexations of +a law suit. I don't see exactly what he has got to give, except his +old title, which he probably values a good deal higher than I do. I +wrote him telling him I was hampered in acts of "generosity" by the +fact that the present title was not in me alone, but that about a +dozen other gentlemen were interested, and asked him to make us a +definite proposition. You may see by the papers that General Howard +is sent by the President to see if he can reconcile the claims of the +negroes on Edisto and other islands with those of the former owners +who clamor to be reinstated in their position. I guess General Howard +will have a tough job. I don't envy him. + +_Nov. 21._ There is a large number of old planters who are offering +their lands at very low rates, and so many tempting chances are +offered to Northern men. The tide of emigration southward doesn't yet +set very strong, however. I think the great drawback is the feeling +that the South is still intolerant of Yankees. The rabble and the +young men are still clinging to the hope that they are going to have +their own way about managing the nigger, somehow or other, as soon as +they get rid of the United States forces, and they know very well that +Yankees who come among them will not agree with them about the best +way of "making him work," for they won't believe that he will ever +work till he is _made_ to. Now, to tell the truth, I don't believe +myself that the present generation of negroes will work as they were +formerly obliged to, and therefore the race will not produce so much +cotton in this generation as they did five years ago. The change is +too great a one to be made in a day. It will take many years to make +an economical and thrifty man out of a freedman, and about as long to +make a sensible and just employer out of a former slaveholder. It is +not at all likely that the Southern community will tax itself to +educate the negro yet for a good while, and I have my doubts whether +the system of education thus far carried on through the benevolence of +Northern and English communities can be kept up much longer. It is a +laudable and a noble work, but I fear it can't be sustained after the +novelty is over. There seems to be a lethargy creeping over our +community on this subject, which is very hard to shake off. The +feeling is somewhat general that the negro must make the most of his +chances and pick up his a, b, c's as he can. Moreover, there is a mass +of ignorance in the South under _white_ skins, which is likely to give +us more immediate trouble, politically, than the ignorance of the +negro, for that latter is not as yet armed with the suffrage. Of +course there is not much enthusiasm about sending teachers South to +teach the poor whites, so the negro suffers from the magnitude of the +undertaking, from his remoteness from view, and the general +disposition among mankind to let everybody hoe their own weeds so long +as they don't shade one's own garden. + +I hear that General Howard went to Edisto with the view of reconciling +the squatter negroes with the claims of the former owners, as +requested by the President, but that the task was rather difficult, as +you may imagine; and though the former owners had promised to "absorb" +the labor, and provide for the negroes' wants, etc., they found the +negroes had ideas which they were not quite prepared for, and, in +short, got so disgusted with the prospect of getting the said negroes +to work for them under the new order of things that they did not seem +so anxious to "absorb" them as before, and as General Howard did not +feel like driving off the negroes to put the old owners in possession, +he left things pretty much as he found them,[188] except that the old +owners, who went there confidently expecting to have all their own +way, went off with a flea in the ear. I have nothing more from the +Charleston lawyer, but Mr. Tomlinson reports that Charleston lawyers +told him they didn't see how to get around our tax-titles, though they +would doubtless carry them into court as soon as they have courts, and +give the lawyers plenty of work.[189] + +Dr. Clarence Fripp began to practice medicine on St. Helena, living +with John Major, but afterwards got a contract surgeon's berth from +General Saxton, and is now in the Village, next door to his old house, +now occupied by Miss Towne! He made a professional visit at Coffin's +Point and dined with them! + + A picture of Clarence Fripp on his return to St. Helena, and + a glimpse of his situation from his own point of view, are + given in a letter to the New York _Nation_ from Dennett, a + special correspondent (see page 320). Dennett writes that, + among the Northern soldiers and traders in the hotel at + Hilton Head, there was also "a person who had the easily + distinguishable appearance and manners of a South + Carolinian. This gentleman, a person of some fifty odd years + old, dressed tolerably well in a suit of grey clothes, with + a large display of crumpled linen at the collar and cuffs of + his coat, sat before the stove smoking, and talking very + freely about his present poverty and his plans for the + future." After explaining that he had left St. Helena when + Dupont forced an entrance, leaving his plate and furniture + behind, and that his plantation had been sold, Dr. Fripp set + forth the situation in which he now found himself. "Some + Massachusetts man had bought it, and he didn't know when + he'd get it back.... Up in Greenville he soon spent all his + money to support his family, but if he'd had money he + couldn't have saved his property. How was he to come back + inside the Yankee lines and pay the tax? The Commissioners + knew very well it couldn't be done; the sale was a perfectly + unfair thing." In coming back now to Beaufort, he said "he + hoped to be able to pick up a little medical practice; but + if his profession failed him, he supposed his son and + himself could put up a cabin somewhere in the vicinity, and + get fish and oysters enough to live on." He even talked of + circulating a handbill at Greenville asking for money for + his needs, and Dennett adds: "This gentleman, it is + currently reported, has made several visits to the + plantation which he formerly owned, and the negroes living + there have collected for his use nearly a hundred + dollars."[190] + + +T. E. R. TO C. P. W. + +_St. Helena, Dec. 10._ Your letter has been a reminder of my duty, but +cotton ginning is my only excuse. It has proved much more of a bore +this year than usual, for it is nothing but _tief, tief_, all the +time. We do not get more than one fifth[191] of the weight of seed +cotton after it is ginned, and the probabilities are that they steal +the balance; but we are perfectly helpless, for we cannot prove it +against any of them. I have had about a bale of cotton stolen at the +"Oaks" since I put it in the cotton-house. I can assure you there is +nothing to be made this year. + +We had a call from Dennett (correspondent of _Nation_) on his +Southern tour, a few weeks ago. He said he was disappointed in not +getting better reports of the negroes here on these islands, for he +had been looking forward to this place, feeling sure he should find +something good to offset the many evil reports he had heard of them +all the way down through the country. He thinks Mr. Soule and Mr. H. +very much demoralized on the negro question.[192] + +General Gillmore was removed for being unfriendly to Freedmen's +Bureau, and General Sickles is now in command. He told Saxton[193] to +let him know what was wanted and he should have it, so things are +moving on very smoothly now. Tomlinson[194] has been on a trip through +South Carolina to see what the condition of the people was and at what +points he could establish schools. They have them started in nearly +all the principal points. He says the whites do not know that they +have been whipped yet, and many of the negroes don't know they are +free. + +Mrs. Bryant has opened a pay school [at T. B. Fripp's], older scholars +paying one dollar per month and young ones fifty cents. She has about +sixty scholars. Alden has opened a store on the place. + +The negroes' Union Store is raised and covered, but I guess will never +be stocked.[195] + + +R. S., JR., TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's Point, Dec. 17._ I suppose you have heard that our +plantation operations here this year have been a failure. Nobody has +raised more than half a crop. The drought in the early part of the +summer and the caterpillar in August and September contrived to +diminish the yield. Most of the planters, however, thinking that two +bad seasons will not come in succession, are making vigorous +preparations for next year in the way of gathering marsh-grass and +mud. I have about concluded to sell or to lease Mulberry Hill, and if +I succeed in doing either I shall probably go home about the first of +February. + +There is a universal feeling of dissatisfaction, not to say disgust, +with our colored brethren here at the present time, on account of the +extraordinary development of some of their well-known characteristics. +They are stealing cotton at a fearful rate. Captain Kellum of Dathaw +lost a whole bale a few nights since, and to-day Mr. Williams, who has +just come down from R.'s, tells us that the cotton-house has been +broken into and one packed bale cut open and about one hundred pounds +taken out of it and carried off! This bale belonged to Mr. York. We +none of us feel secure against these depredations. + +Two of the thieves at Coffin's Point were caught with ginned cotton in +their houses, Peter Brown and William White. Before Mr. Towne could +apprehend them they escaped to the main. Another, Jonas Green, had +cotton-seed hid away in his corn-house. He was caught, and a +Plantation Commission sentenced him to two months' imprisonment. This +is the first fruit of making land-owners of the negroes. While they +raise cotton of their own and no restraint is put upon them in making +sale of what they bring to market, it is impossible to ferret out +their robberies in most cases. Such rascality on the part of the +negroes is more discouraging than caterpillars and drought. + + +F. H. TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's, Dec. 26._ I expect my sojourn at Coffin's Point is nearly +closed. The attractions of the place or the people are not sufficient +to keep me here another year. The climate is bad enough, the general +"shiftlessness" of the people is disgusting enough; but when I see +that the disposition to steal the crop is very general, that the +people have done and can do it with impunity, I am discouraged about +cotton-raising here. I believe they have not taken any of ours since +it has been packed, but large quantities of it before. And as they all +raised cotton on McTureous[196] for themselves, they could mix and +secrete it very successfully. + +Mr. Soule has this moment learned that his cotton-house has been +entered and cotton stolen, but to what extent has not been determined. + +I think Mr. Soule will be glad to get away from this "Sodom." He is +too good a man to be worn out by the barbarians of this latitude. + + +R. S., JR., TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's Point, Dec. 31._ How well Grant appears in everything he +writes as well as in everything he does! In the _Weekly Advertiser_ +just received by me, I find his report of his recent Southern +tour,[197] and, if I mistake not, he intimates pretty clearly that +General Saxton has not managed his Department judiciously. + +Mr. Philbrick has made an effort to sell the most of the plantations. +As yet, however, no purchaser has appeared, and he has now about +concluded to dispose of them as follows: to lease Fuller Place to N., +R., and W. (the new firm who have purchased the stock on hand in +store), and Cherry Hill[198] to Mr. Waters, to intrust the management +of Homestead to the latter gentleman, and that of Coffin's Point to +Mr. H. for account of E. S. P., and to let Mr. Williams sell the whole +of Corner[199] and Fripp Point to negroes. I have leased Mulberry Hill +to Mr. Waters. + +Negroes continue to steal cotton, and we continue to be helpless +against their depredations. + + + + +1866--1867--1868 + + _Mr. Philbrick's sales to the negroes--Persistent + discouragement with the negroes--H. W.'s visit to Coffin's + Point in 1868--Tribute of the negroes to Mr. Philbrick._ + + +E. S. P. TO W. C. G. [IN EUROPE] + +_Boston, Jan. 12, 1866._ The Freedmen's Aid Societies have all +consolidated, and lately have united with the big Orthodox society for +helping refugees, the latter class being no longer so needy except +that the poor whites need education as much as the blacks, and I have +made up my mind that we can't help the blacks much except by helping +poor whites at the same time. The combination enlarges the begging +field immensely, and by putting white and black schools under the same +control will give negro schools a sort of footing which they wouldn't +otherwise have, after our troops get scarce. The old feeling has +already blossomed out and borne fruit in Louisiana, where all the +freedmen's schools have just been extinguished or snuffed out at a +single pinch, except in New Orleans city, one lady teacher being shot +through the head. + +A sweeping order has mustered out over a hundred generals of the +Volunteer Army, General Saxton among the rest. I don't know who takes +his place in the Freedmen's Bureau. This institution will probably be +continued by Congress with enlarged powers, but it is but a drop in +the bucket, after all. + +C. F. Williams is busy sharing out land. He sells the whole of Fripp +Point in small lots to the negroes of both places, and some others +from outside. The whole place measures only four hundred and sixty +acres, bought for seven hundred and fifty, and the Captain John Fripp +place is only four hundred and sixty instead of one thousand for which +I bought it! By the way, the old man is dead, leaving his three +daughters in poverty, to earn their living as they best may. Julian +Coffin has visited Mr. Soule, etc., asking leave to go into his old +room, to take some of his father's old books, and left after a few +hours, since which none of us have heard anything further of them. + +There seems to be less law than ever there. I am about making +representations at Washington to see if I can't get some improvement. + +I lost about $2800 on the negro cotton ginned in New York, and paid +over about $2500 on account of the cotton which they ginned there! I +also lost some $2000 on cotton taken from Mr. ---- in Beaufort, he +turning out a knave. Our crop of 1864 paid our Company a profit of +about $19,000. I shall just about pay expenses on the crop of 1865, +not much more, I think. The caterpillar and the drought didn't leave +much cotton. + + +T. E. R. TO C. P. W. + +_Feb. 3, 1866._ I am a _gentleman of leisure_ and, like most every one +else here, am living on the interest of what I have lost. I am no +longer a member of the noted firm of N., R., and W. We dissolved +January 1, and N. and W. continue the business at the old stand. I +decided that there was not salt enough for three certainly. There is +no money here to speak of, and what there is will go to Beaufort where +there is liquor sold or given away. I have also given up +cotton-planting; it is not a very lucrative business when it brings +only sixty-six cents. + +I made arrangements with Mr. Pope to still occupy this half of the +house free of rent until August, if I wished, and was calculating on +having a rich time seeing a native plant cotton with these island +negroes, but alas, my hopes are all blighted, for every blessed soul +but one man and his wife has moved away and will not work for him; so +he has decided not to move here until after we are gone. He has sent +one man here who was an old servant and has been with him all the +time, and he is very industrious, works from morn until night; it is +quite refreshing to see him. Pope was the only one of the natives who +bid off places at auction[200] that came to time in paying up; so the +places were put up again and bought by Northern men. + +The present planters are in a dubious frame of mind these days over +the prospect for another year, for it is very hard to bring wages +down, and one cannot get his money back at the present price of +cotton, so most of them will work on shares;[201] but that is a sure +way of running a place all out, for the people will not manure it +sufficiently to keep it up. Mr. Eustis is always good-natured, and is +about the only man here who is not utterly demoralized on the negro +question. + + +F. H. TO C. P. W. + +_Coffin's Point, Feb. 16, 1866._ Really the people have met with a +great change of late, since I have sent away Anthony Bail. They love +and respect me _hugely_, which I hope will last another whole week. + +Dr. Oliver and Captain Ward, who have bought "Pine Grove," have taken +the usual disgust for the people. They have got it bad; say they would +not have bought here had they imagined half of the reality. They have +some friends who would have bought Coffin's Point if they could have +made a favorable report of the people. But they tell them not to think +of buying to use the labor that is now here. I say the same when I say +anything about it, though I have no friends who think of buying here. + + +T. E. R. TO C. P. W. + +_May 21, 1867._ I don't suppose we shall be able to make any new +additions to your collection of negro songs.[202] They sing but very +little nowadays to what they used to. Do you remember those good old +days when the Methodists used to sing up in that cotton-house at +Fuller's? Wasn't it good? They never sing any of them at the church, +and very few in their praise-meeting. + +Crops on the island are looking worse than I ever saw them at this +season before. + +_We are all American citizens_ now, and there has been an effort to +form a Republican party, but it has not succeeded very well yet. They +are too suspicious to be led by the whites, and there is not sense +enough in themselves to go ahead. + + The last extract in the series is from a letter written by + H. W. exactly one year later, when she made a trip to Port + Royal, staying with Miss Towne and Miss Murray at St. Helena + Village. The tardy tribute of the negroes to Mr. Philbrick + makes the story complete. + + +FROM H. W. + +_Thursday, May 21, 1868._ When I inquired at breakfast if I could have +Jacob's horse for the day, I found that, as he was in use for the +crop, Miss Towne had already had her horse put singly into their +rockaway for school, and Miss Murray's into the chaise for my use. So +when they started for school, I followed along in company as far as +the end of the Village road, where Mr. N. now has a store, and, +turning on to the more familiar road, soon found myself crossing the +creek over Mr. Philbrick's bridge,--one of the very few in decent +repair,--and on my way to Captain John Fripp Homestead. The entire +absence of gates, and as a consequence of pigs, or _vice versa_, made +my drive an easy one, and I did not have to get out once. It had +seemed hot early, but light clouds and a fresh breeze kept it cool all +day. I turned up the familiar avenue to Folsom's, after passing +through one field in which the houses are still, though more +scattered. The avenue was clean and trim, and the house +corresponded,--a new piazza and steps all freshly painted, fresh paint +inside, and paper on the walls made everything look uncommonly +spruce. The schoolroom is now the parlor, and my sofa and cushion +grace it still! + +Mr. Alden met me very cordially at the foot of the steps, and I went +in to see the other occupants, Mr. and Mrs. Waters and their son. I +had a pleasant call and talk, and then, refusing their earnest +invitation to spend the day, as Coffin's Point was my one object, I +pursued my lonely way. Trees cut down, and houses moved and built in +the middle of the field, with the absence of fences, gates, and pigs, +were the most noticeable changes, and I drove along, meeting no one, +until I came to the pine woods on the right opposite old Frank's +ground, just before you turn into the Pine Grove field. The woods were +all thinned out, logs lying in every direction. Hoeing the corn +planted there were two women I thought I recognized, and, walking the +horse, I leaned forward to see who was the man further on. Then I +stopped and asked him whose the land was he was working, when he began +an account of how "it used to be McTureous and Mr. Thomas Coffin buy +'em,"[203] which I cut short with--"Yes, I know that, but is it your +own now? What is your name?" "My name Able, ma'am; dis lan' mine, yes, +ma'am"--and then--"Oh! my Lord! Der Miss Hayiut, an' me no know um!" +and he dropped his hoe and came scrambling and running to the road. +Sarah and Elsie, whom I had just passed, and Martha further on, came +out at his call, grinning and pleased, and then he and Martha began +directly upon what I had done for Rose,[204] their gratitude, and +willingness that I should keep her forever. Then they talked of how +hard the last year or two had been, and there were many reiterations +of "Ebery word Mass' Charlie and Mr. Philbrick tell we come true." +"Tell 'em tousan howdy over for we--long too much for shum. We fin' +'em out now." + +A few steps more brought me into the Pine Grove field, and I turned +towards the house, followed by half a dozen small children, only one +of whom I knew or knew me,--little Abigail. Towards the house whom +should I come upon but Flora and her Sarah, a great girl. She was +pleased as could be, but told me I should find no one at the Grove. +Old Monah was dead, and all the old people had bought land and lived +at the Point. They were working for Mr. Ward, glad enough to earn a +little ready money for food. I went on to see Mrs. Vaughn, and as she +had not come up from school, walked down to the praise-house, seeing +no one I knew but old Binah. + +School had dispersed, so I walked back to the house, and dined there, +and then for Coffin's Point. Once inside the line--for the gate is +not--I met the familiar breeze of the Big Pasture, but its altered +face. The houses are back as far as the creek on one side and the +woods on the other,--two or three quite large and with piazzas,--the +praise-house near the corner of the wood. I was a long time passing +through it, for they all dropped their hoes and came down to shake +hands. I got Uncle George to follow along with hammer and nails to +mend the chaise, as the floor was so broken I could not put my feet on +it, and the bag of oats had dropped through on the way. I had tied the +halter to the dasher and wound it round the bag, so there was no loss. +The dilapidation was a pleasing reminiscence of old times, and George +was pleased enough to earn a quarter by patching it up. Then I drove +on to the house, where are only a Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair left in +charge. Mrs. S. was very polite, and asked me up into our old parlor, +which did not look as pleasant as in the old time. Garibaldi was out +at pasture, so I could not have the ride I coveted while my horse was +eating his dinner. As I had never been into the schoolhouse since it +was finished, I borrowed the key and walked down to it. As I pulled +the rope to hear the sound of the unused bell, Robert came in, quiet +as ever, but greatly pleased, and asking many questions about Mass' +Charlie and Mr. and Mrs. Soule. I found the people were coming up to +be paid, so I went back to the yard and stood there as they came up to +the schoolroom door, across which was the old school table, with +Primus behind it, and Mr. Sinclair, looking over his list. Then I +walked on the beach, and Robert put my horse in and I drove off. + +Mike had followed me up the road, loud in his regrets for the "good +ole times when Mass' Charlie and de fust gang white people been here." +"Mr. Philbrick de fustest man in de worl'. General Bennett[205] +couldn't--couldn't--fetch de fust feathers round his heart!" whatever +that may be. + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +When the end of this record is reached, undoubtedly the feeling +uppermost in the mind of the reader is one of disappointment. At first +blush one is ready to believe that the members of the little colony, +in proving the free negro capable of raising cotton to good advantage, +had still more completely proved him unfit for freedom. Yet the more +one reflects on the story, the more plainly one sees that the +discouraging state of things described in the later letters was merely +the inevitable result of Emancipation, and would have been the same +had any other race been concerned, whatever its characteristics. The +ferment of Freedom worked slowly in the negroes, but it worked +mightily, and the very sign of its working was, as a matter of course, +unreasonableness, insubordination, untrustworthiness. This result +might have been foreseen, and probably was foreseen. It was not a +pleasant thing to contemplate, nor is it pleasant to read of, but it +proved nothing as to the powers and possibilities of the negro people. +It is not probable that any of the "missionaries," however +discouraged, came to think that the black man was too stupid or too +dishonest to become a self-respecting member of society. Nor does it +appear that W. C. G. was justified in fearing that their efforts were +worse than wasted, inasmuch as the negro might have acquired manhood +more rapidly if left to himself from the start. They had established +two facts, the very foundation-stones of the new order in the South; +that the freedman would work, and that, as an employee, he was less +expensive than the slave. Their reward was not in any one's gratitude, +but in their own knowledge that they had served their unfortunate +fellow-beings as far as, at the moment, was possible. And it must not +be forgotten that some stayed on, putting their energies where there +was no question, even, of waste or of ingratitude. There is no telling +the service done for the Sea Islands by the education that has been +given to it these forty years, or indeed by the mere presence of the +women who have devoted their lives to this service. + +Looking at the letters as a whole, perhaps the reader finds that the +chief impression they have made upon him is that of profound respect +for the negro wisdom shown by the writers. Keenly as they felt the +past suffering and the present helplessness of the freedmen, they had +the supreme common-sense to see that these wrongs could not be righted +by any method so simple as that of giving. They saw that what was +needed was, not special favor, but even-handed justice. Education, +indeed, they would give outright; otherwise they would make the negro +as rapidly as possible a part of the economic world, a laborer among +other laborers. All that has happened since has only gone to prove how +right they were. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Later "The New England Freedmen's Aid Society."] + +[Footnote 2: The name Port Royal, in ante-bellum days used only of the +island on which Beaufort is situated and of the entrance to the +Beaufort River, was given by the United States Government to the +military post and the harbor at Hilton Head, and to the post-office +there. Hence the Sea Island district came to be referred to in the +North as "Port Royal."] + +[Footnote 3: Collector Barney of the Port of New York.] + +[Footnote 4: Edward L. Pierce (see Introduction).] + +[Footnote 5: Richard Soule, Jr.] + +[Footnote 6: Edward W. Hooper, afterwards for many years Treasurer of +Harvard College.] + +[Footnote 7: G. is W. C. G. of these letters.] + +[Footnote 8: John M. Forbes, who had hired a house at Beaufort for a +few months.] + +[Footnote 9: Rev. Mansfield French had already spent some weeks at +Port Royal.] + +[Footnote 10: Thrown up by the island planters after the outbreak of +the war.] + +[Footnote 11: Thomas A. Coffin's large plantation at the eastern end +of St. Helena Island.] + +[Footnote 12: F. A. Eustis of Milton, who was part owner of the +plantation in question.] + +[Footnote 13: Mr. Philbrick had gone down to Hilton Head again to see +about his luggage.] + +[Footnote 14: See page v.] + +[Footnote 15: Pine Grove and Fripp Point.] + +[Footnote 16: The drivers, negroes holding a position next below the +white overseers, were found by the Northerners still keeping the keys +and trying to exert their authority.] + +[Footnote 17: For clothing their masters had been in the habit of +giving them material for two suits a year; a pair of blankets every +few years made up the sum of gratuities.] + +[Footnote 18: Mrs. Philbrick.] + +[Footnote 19: Miss Laura E. Towne of Philadelphia. She never returned +to live in the North. The school she started in 1862 is still in +existence, under the name of the Penn Normal, Industrial, and +Agricultural School.] + +[Footnote 20: Known as the Smith Plantation.] + +[Footnote 21: The ferry to Ladies Island, across which ran the road to +St. Helena Island and Mr. Philbrick's plantations.] + +[Footnote 22: The plantation "praise-house," as the negroes' church +was called, was often merely "a rather larger and nicer negro hut than +the others. Here the master was an exemplary old Baptist Christian, +who has left his house full of religious magazines and papers, and +built his people quite a nice little house,--the best on this part of +the Island." + +(Letter of W. C. G., April 22, 1862.)] + +[Footnote 23: Pine Grove was in this respect an exception among the +Sea Island plantations.] + +[Footnote 24: See p. 33.] + +[Footnote 25: Mrs. Philbrick.] + +[Footnote 26: "The true 'shout' takes place on Sundays or on +'praise'-nights through the week, and either in the praise-house or +some cabin in which a regular religious meeting has been held. Very +likely more than half the population of the plantation is gathered +together. Let it be the evening, and a light-wood fire burns red +before the door to the house and on the hearth.... The benches are +pushed back to the wall when the formal meeting is over, and old and +young, men and women, sprucely-dressed young men, grotesquely +half-clad field-hands--the women generally with gay handkerchiefs +twisted about their heads and with short skirts--boys with tattered +shirts and men's trousers, young girls barefooted, all stand up in the +middle of the floor, and when the 'sperichil' is struck up, begin +first walking and by-and-by shuffling round, one after the other, in a +ring. The foot is hardly taken from the floor, and the progression is +mainly due to a jerking, hitching motion, which agitates the entire +shouter, and soon brings out streams of perspiration. Sometimes they +dance silently, sometimes as they shuffle they sing the chorus of the +spiritual, and sometimes the song itself is also sung by the dancers. +But more frequently a band, composed of some of the best singers and +of tired shouters, stand at the side of the room to 'base' the others, +singing the body of the song and clapping their hands together or on +the knees. Song and dance are alike extremely energetic, and often, +when the shout lasts into the middle of the night, the monotonous +thud, thud of the feet prevents sleep within half a mile of the +praise-house." (New York _Nation_, May 30, 1867.)] + +[Footnote 27: Miss Lucy McKim, in a letter to the Boston _Journal of +Music_, November 8, 1862.] + +[Footnote 28: This old woman Mr. Philbrick had found "keeping guard +over her late master's household goods--_i. e._, selling them."] + +[Footnote 29: A few weeks earlier than this, one of the drivers told +Mr. Philbrick that Washington Fripp had just been shot near Charleston +for refusing to enlist.] + +[Footnote 30: A "title" was a negro surname of whatever derivation.] + +[Footnote 31: The following description of Limus and his subsequent +doings is copied from a letter of W. C. G.'s (June 12, 1863), which +was printed by the Educational Commission in one of a series of +leaflets containing extracts from Port Royal letters: + +"He is a black Yankee. Without a drop of white blood in him, he has +the energy and _'cuteness_ and big eye for his own advantage of a born +New Englander. He is not very moral or scrupulous, and the +church-members will tell you 'not yet,' with a smile, if you ask +whether he belongs to them. But he leads them all in enterprise, and +his ambition and consequent prosperity make his example a very useful +one on the plantation. Half the men on the island fenced in gardens +last autumn, behind their houses, in which they now raise vegetables +for themselves and the Hilton Head markets. Limus in his half-acre has +quite a little farmyard besides. With poultry-houses, pig-pens, and +corn-houses, the array is very imposing. He has even a stable, for he +made out some title to a horse, which was allowed; and then he begged +a pair of wheels and makes a cart for his work; and not to leave the +luxuries behind, he next rigs up a kind of sulky and bows to the white +men from his carriage. As he keeps his table in corresponding +style,--for he buys more sugar ... than any other two families,--of +course the establishment is rather expensive. So, to provide the +means, he has three permanent irons in the fire--his cotton, his +Hilton Head express, and his seine. Before the fishing season +commenced, a pack of dogs for deer-hunting took the place of the net. +While other families 'carry' from three to six or seven acres of +cotton, Limus says he must have _fourteen_. To help his wife and +daughters keep this in good order, he went over to the rendezvous for +refugees, and imported a family to the plantation, the men of which he +hired at $8 a month.... With a large boat which he owns, he usually +makes weekly trips to Hilton Head, twenty miles distant, carrying +passengers, produce and fish. These last he takes in an immense +seine,--an abandoned chattel,--for the use of which he pays Government +by furnishing General Hunter and staff with the finer specimens, and +then has ten to twenty bushels for sale. Apparently he is either +dissatisfied with this arrangement or means to extend his operations, +for he asks me to bring him another seine for which I am to pay $70. I +presume his savings since 'the guns fired at Bay Point'--which is the +native record of the capture of the island--amount to four or five +hundred dollars. He is all ready to buy land, and I expect to see him +in ten years a tolerably rich man. Limus has, it is true, but few +equals on the islands, and yet there are many who follow not far +behind him."] + +[Footnote 32: Major-General David Hunter, who on March 31 had taken +command of the newly created Department of the South, consisting of +the states of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.] + +[Footnote 33: Dr. Wakefield was physician for that end of St. Helena +Island.] + +[Footnote 34: On Cockspur Island, Georgia.] + +[Footnote 35: As the quarter-acre "task," which was all that the +planters had required of their slaves each day, had occupied about +four or five hours only, it will be seen that the slaves on the Sea +Islands had not been overworked, though they had been underfed. Like +the "task," the "private patches" were also an institution retained, +at E. L. Pierce's suggestion, from slavery times, with the difference +that their size was very much increased--often from a fraction of an +acre to ten times that amount.] + +[Footnote 36: By the rebels.] + +[Footnote 37: He had already had sent down from the North a quantity +of articles to sell to the negroes.] + +[Footnote 38: Brigadier-General Isaac I. Stevens, then at Beaufort, +commanding the Second Division.] + +[Footnote 39: The "Brick Church" was a Baptist Church which had always +been used by both blacks and whites. Less than a mile away stood the +"White Church," Episcopalian,--closed since the flight of the +planters.] + +[Footnote 40: Issued May 9, and on May 19, nullified by President +Lincoln.] + +[Footnote 41: South Carolina corn is white flint corn.] + +[Footnote 42: The cotton-agent who had been at Coffin's Point.] + +[Footnote 43: The Government not only had made no definite promise of +payment, but it was of course unable to bring to bear on the negroes +any compulsion of any sort. They worked or not, as they liked, and +when they liked.] + +[Footnote 44: The old system of labor--the system in force in slavery +times--had been the "gang system," the laborers working all together, +so that no one had continuous responsibility for any one piece of +land.] + +[Footnote 45: For Coffin's Point.] + +[Footnote 46: As a result of Lincoln's proclamation of May 19 (see p. +50 n.), the regiment, all but one company, was disbanded in August.] + +[Footnote 47: This burying-place was "an unfenced quarter of an acre +of perfectly wild, tangled woodland in the midst of the cotton-field, +halfway between here [the 'white house'] and the quarters. Nothing +ever marks the graves, but the place is entirely devoted to them." + +(From a letter of H. W.'s, June 5, '62.)] + +[Footnote 48: Saxton's first general order, announcing his arrival, is +dated June 28.] + +[Footnote 49: E. L. Pierce had changed his headquarters from +"Pope's."] + +[Footnote 50: From the first the anti-slavery Northerners at Port +Royal had had no hesitation in telling their employees that they were +freemen. Indeed, they had no choice but to do so, the tadpoles on +these islands, as Mr. Philbrick said, having "virtually shed their +tails in course of nature already."] + +[Footnote 51: Pierce's second report to Secretary Chase on the Sea +Islands, dated June 2, 1862.] + +[Footnote 52: "We have to spend more than half our time," writes Mr. +Philbrick in September, "getting our limited supplies."] + +[Footnote 53: Richard Soule, Jr., was General Superintendent of St. +Helena and Ladies Islands, and was living at Edgar Fripp's +plantation.] + +[Footnote 54: The first of many references to the frequent lack of +sympathy shown by army officers.] + +[Footnote 55: That is, the account had been taken before he came +South.] + +[Footnote 56: See page 37.] + +[Footnote 57: The term "Hunting Island" was applied to several of the +outside islands collectively.] + +[Footnote 58: Thomas Astor Coffin, of Coffin's Point.] + +[Footnote 59: The chief "hindrance" was, of course, the late date at +which work on the cotton crop had been started; the land should have +been prepared in February, and the planting begun at the end of +March.] + +[Footnote 60: The preliminary proclamation of emancipation, dated +September 22, 1862.] + +[Footnote 61: It will be seen that this excellent idea was not adopted +by the authorities.] + +[Footnote 62: Edward W. Hooper served on Saxton's staff, with the rank +of Captain.] + +[Footnote 63: He came with authority to raise negro troops.] + +[Footnote 64: See p. 58.] + +[Footnote 65: As Saxton's agent to collect and ship the cotton crop. +See p. 99.] + +[Footnote 66: The superintendents of the Second Division of the Sea +Islands.] + +[Footnote 67: The negroes had broken the cotton-gins by way of putting +their slavery more completely behind them.] + +[Footnote 68: Again the cotton-agent.] + +[Footnote 69: Evidently the offer of a captaincy.] + +[Footnote 70: Of Prince Rivers, who became color-sergeant and +provost-sergeant in the First South Carolina Volunteers, Thomas +Wentworth Higginson, its colonel, writes: "There is not a white +officer in this regiment who has more administrative ability, or more +absolute authority over the men; they do not love him, but his mere +presence has controlling power over them. He writes well enough to +prepare for me a daily report of his duties in the camp; if his +education reached a higher point, I see no reason why he should not +command the Army of the Potomac. He is jet-black, or rather, I should +say, _wine-black_; his complexion, like that of others of my darkest +men, having a sort of rich, clear depth, without a trace of sootiness, +and to my eye very handsome. His features are tolerably regular, and +full of command, and his figure superior to that of any of our white +officers, being six feet high, perfectly proportioned, and of +apparently inexhaustible strength and activity. His gait is like a +panther's; I never saw such a tread. No anti-slavery novel has +described a man of such marked ability. He makes Toussaint perfectly +intelligible; and if there should ever be a black monarchy in South +Carolina, he will be its king." (_Army Life in a Black Regiment_, pp. +57, 58.)] + +[Footnote 71: "These heaps are, _lucus a non_, called holes." C. P. +W.] + +[Footnote 72: The First South Carolina Volunteers (colored), Thomas +Wentworth Higginson, colonel.] + +[Footnote 73: Usually referred to as the "Hunter Regiment."] + +[Footnote 74: A town very near the extreme southern point of the +Georgia coast.] + +[Footnote 75: After Mitchel's death, Brannan again acted as head of +the Department, till General Hunter's return in January, 1863.] + +[Footnote 76: To the Dr. Jenkins plantation.] + +[Footnote 77: Stone or seed-cotton is unginned cotton.] + +[Footnote 78: Of course on almost all the plantations no taxes had +been paid, so that the Government was at liberty to sell them at +auction.] + +[Footnote 79: That is, of drawing their own rations.] + +[Footnote 80: General Hunter did not actually arrive until January. +See note 1, [now Footnote 75] p. 108.] + +[Footnote 81: The $200,000 (mentioned on page 110) received by the +Government for the crop of 1861.] + +[Footnote 82: Saxton.] + +[Footnote 83: This plan of operations was adopted by General Saxton.] + +[Footnote 84: Dr. LeBaron Russell, of the Committee on Teachers of the +Educational Commission.] + +[Footnote 85: Taking the plantations as a whole, the Government lost +in 1862 the whole $200,000 which it had cleared from the planters' big +cotton crop of 1861.] + +[Footnote 86: On Port Royal Island "whole fields of corn, fifty acres +in extent, have been stripped of every ear before hard enough to be +stored."] + +[Footnote 87: Henry W. Halleck, since July 11 General-in-Chief of the +Army, with headquarters at Washington.] + +[Footnote 88: Another young Harvard graduate, cousin of H. W., come to +teach the two Fripp schools.] + +[Footnote 89: Mr. Philbrick had changed his residence to the Oaks.] + +[Footnote 90: An institution situated in Beaufort, managed by the New +York Commission.] + +[Footnote 91: Of Corporal Sutton Colonel Higginson says: "If not in +all respects the ablest, he was the wisest man in our ranks. As large, +as powerful, and as black as our good-looking Color-sergeant, but more +heavily built and with less personal beauty, he had a more massive +brain and a far more meditative and systematic intellect. Not yet +grounded even in the spelling-book, his modes of thought were +nevertheless strong, lucid, and accurate; and he yearned and pined for +intellectual companionship beyond all ignorant men whom I have ever +met. I believe that he would have talked all day and all night, for +days together, to any officer who could instruct him, until his +companion, at least, fell asleep exhausted. His comprehension of the +whole problem of slavery was more thorough and far-reaching than that +of any Abolitionist, so far as its social and military aspects went; +in that direction I could teach him nothing, and he taught me much. +But it was his methods of thought which always impressed me chiefly; +superficial brilliancy he left to others, and grasped at the solid +truth." (_Army Life in a Black Regiment_, p. 62.)] + +[Footnote 92: Mr. Philbrick describes the feast: "I walked about for a +half hour watching the carving, which was done mostly with _axes_, and +the eager pressing of the hungry crowds about the rough board tables, +by which each ox was surrounded. The meat didn't look very inviting."] + +[Footnote 93: Miss Forten was of partly negro blood. H. W. says of her +elsewhere: "She has one of the sweetest voices I ever heard. The +negroes all knew the instant they saw her what she was, but she has +been treated by them with universal respect. She is an educated +lady."] + +[Footnote 94: When General Hunter, bent on raising his negro troops, +asked the Secretary of War for 50,000 muskets, "with authority to arm +such loyal men as I find in the country, whenever, in my opinion, they +can be used advantageously against the enemy," he added: "It is +important that I should be able to know and distinguish these men at +once, and for this purpose I respectfully request that 50,000 pairs of +scarlet pantaloons may be sent me; and this is all the clothing I +shall require for these people." (Hunter to Stanton, April 3, 1862.) +Of the privates of the First S. C. V., when clothed in these trousers, +Colonel Higginson writes: "Their coloring suited me, all but the legs, +which were clad in a lively scarlet, as intolerable to my eyes as if I +had been a turkey." (_Army Life in a Black Regiment_, p. 7.)] + +[Footnote 95: On the Georgia coast.] + +[Footnote 96: See p. 60.] + +[Footnote 97: Mr. Philbrick was staying at Coffin's for a few days.] + +[Footnote 98: The agreement made on April 8, between Mr. Philbrick and +fourteen gentlemen, all but one of Boston, provided that Mr. +Philbrick, in whose name the land should be bought and who should have +complete responsibility for managing it, should, after paying the +subscribers six per cent. interest, receive one fourth of the net +profits. Mr. Philbrick was to be liable for losses and without the +right to call for further contribution; on the other hand, no +subscription was to be withdrawn unless he ceased to superintend the +enterprise. On his closing the business, the net proceeds were to be +divided _pro rata_.] + +[Footnote 99: Joe having gone back to his trade of carpenter, the +domestic force now included a boy and a girl (daughter of Abel and +sister of Hester), marvelously ignorant, even for a Sea Island +field-hand. Uncle Sam, Robert's father, was acting as cook.] + +[Footnote 100: A boy lately added to the corps of house-servants at +Coffin's Point.] + +[Footnote 101: From unwillingness to see the land owned by any one but +negroes.] + +[Footnote 102: A detachment from the Eighteenth Army Corps, under +Major-General John G. Foster, had come to help in the operations +against Charleston.] + +[Footnote 103: The new postmaster for Beaufort.] + +[Footnote 104: A cousin in the 24th Massachusetts, which had come to +Land's End as part of the "North Carolina army."] + +[Footnote 105: For lumber up the St. Mary's River, which separates +Georgia from Florida.] + +[Footnote 106: See p. 162.] + +[Footnote 107: The history of the Department had been defined as "a +military picnic."] + +[Footnote 108: A paper published at Beaufort.] + +[Footnote 109: Haunt of the drum-fish.] + +[Footnote 110: The War Department ordered the sales to go forward, +leaving the restrictions to be arranged by Hunter, Saxton, and the +Commissioners in charge. See p. 165.] + +[Footnote 111: Brigadier-General Edward E. Potter, Foster's Chief of +Staff.] + +[Footnote 112: That is, hoed over again and new furrows made for the +next crop.] + +[Footnote 113: Brigadier-General Thomas G. Stevenson, originally +colonel of the Twenty-Fourth Massachusetts, was arrested by General +Hunter and soon after released.] + +[Footnote 114: The immediate cause of this trouble was a disagreement +about the extent of Hunter's authority over Foster and his command +while they were in the Department of the South, but the underlying +difficulty was that Foster and his officers distrusted Hunter as an +anti-slavery zealot. + +Finding that the operations against Charleston could not go forward +immediately, Foster returned to North Carolina within a few days after +his arrival in the Department of the South. His troops remained, so +restive under Hunter's command that Foster's whole staff was presently +sent back to North Carolina for alleged insubordination.] + +[Footnote 115: This report turned out to be a mistake.] + +[Footnote 116: That is, the revenue from the cotton on certain +plantations was used for these purposes. A plantation thus devoted to +the educational needs of the people was called a School Farm.] + +[Footnote 117: To capture Jacksonville, on the St. John's River, +Florida.] + +[Footnote 118: Of the Second South Carolina Volunteers (colored).] + +[Footnote 119: The bracket is used for unimportant dates which are out +of their chronological place.] + +[Footnote 120: See p. 147.] + +[Footnote 121: Two of the thirteen were merely leased.] + +[Footnote 122: H. W., commenting more mildly, says (Mar. 18): "He +certainly has not a clear idea of what the superintendents and +teachers are doing, and unfortunately classes them as in opposition to +himself,--as preferring the agricultural to the military department. +This I do not think is the case, but they most of them feel his want +of wisdom in dealing with the subject, which has made his own especial +object as well as theirs harder to accomplish."] + +[Footnote 123: A short-lived newspaper published in the Department.] + +[Footnote 124: H. W. describes another service that was broken up by +this fear of the draft: "[May 2.] At church yesterday a squad of +soldiers with their officer came from Land's End to the service, when +a general stampede took place among the men, and women too, jumping +from the windows and one man even from the gallery into the midst of +the congregation."] + +[Footnote 125: The boy.] + +[Footnote 126: Captain J. E. Bryant, of the Eighth Maine.] + +[Footnote 127: The Second South Carolina Volunteers (colored).] + +[Footnote 128: Of the _Kingfisher_, the blockader.] + +[Footnote 129: To be examined, adjudged not "able-bodied," and given +exemption-papers.] + +[Footnote 130: Second South Carolina Volunteers.] + +[Footnote 131: A noticeable thing about the children of slaves was +that they had no games.] + +[Footnote 132: In the words of the order the command of the Department +was taken from Hunter and given to Gillmore "temporarily."] + +[Footnote 133: Rhodes' _History of the United States from the +Compromise of 1850_, vol. iv, p. 332.] + +[Footnote 134: Colonel Higginson had been sent up the South Edisto +River, to cut the railroad at Jacksonboro.] + +[Footnote 135: Whither the wounded had been brought.] + +[Footnote 136: Edward N. Hallowell and Garth Wilkinson James, Major +and Adjutant of the Fifty-Fourth.] + +[Footnote 137: For the North.] + +[Footnote 138: A few weeks later (July 15) General Saxton authorized +the general superintendents to appoint plantation commissions, or +courts for the administration of justice. The people eligible for +these commissions were Government plantation superintendents and Mr. +Philbrick's six plantation superintendents, and they were instructed +"that in cases where immediate arrest is in their opinion necessary, +the plantation superintendents, and the persons above named, are +hereby authorized themselves to make arrests of civilians upon the +plantations. But they must exercise this power with great discretion, +and will be held responsible for any abuse of it."] + +[Footnote 139: Colonel W. W. H. Davis was in command of the post at +Beaufort during Saxton's temporary absence.] + +[Footnote 140: R. Soule, Jr., now one of Mr. Philbrick's +superintendents, who, upon the departure of the Philbricks, had come +to live at Coffin's Point.] + +[Footnote 141: The rebel masters had told their slaves that the +Yankees intended to sell them "South,"--that is, to Cuba or the Gulf.] + +[Footnote 142: See note, p. 201.] + +[Footnote 143: On board the _Kingfisher_.] + +[Footnote 144: A Pennsylvanian, General Superintendent for St. Helena +and Ladies Islands, since Richard Soule had resigned that position.] + +[Footnote 145: That is, gathered.] + +[Footnote 146: Admiral Dupont's flag-ship.] + +[Footnote 147: The Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts Volunteers (colored), +which was in camp at Port Royal.] + +[Footnote 148: Meaning, of course, plantations belonging to the +Government.] + +[Footnote 149: The "Mary Jenkins" place.] + +[Footnote 150: Two hundred and sixty-five thousand pounds was "about +as much as there was raised in the whole Department" in 1862.] + +[Footnote 151: See p. 230.] + +[Footnote 152: A letter dated December 28, 1863, inclosing $100 for +the relief of families of freedmen. The letter gives figures that +prove the success of the free labor experiment on Mr. Philbrick's +plantations, and concludes as follows: "I mention these things to show +how easy it is to render the negroes a self-supporting and +wealth-producing class with proper management; and I, at the same +time, fully appreciate the duty imposed upon us as a nation to extend +the arm of charity where the unsettled state of the country renders +industry impossible until time is given to recognize and force to +protect it. We are more fortunately situated than the people of the +Mississippi valley, and have got the start of them."] + +[Footnote 153: A letter dated January 25, 1864, and printed in the +Providence _Journal_ on February 6.] + +[Footnote 154: Land on the Sea Islands is now worth $15 an acre,--$20 +if it is near a road.] + +[Footnote 155: F. J. W. was in Boston at the time.] + +[Footnote 156: William Birney, Brigadier-General and Commander of the +Post at Beaufort during one of Saxton's absences, had, on March 30, +issued an order to the effect that in all cases the negroes were to be +left in possession of the land they claimed as theirs.] + +[Footnote 157: An ambulance.] + +[Footnote 158: Cf. E. S. P.'s letter of February 22, p. 251.] + +[Footnote 159: Early in April the steamer _City of New York_, carrying +sixty-one bales of Mr. Philbrick's cotton, was wrecked in Queenstown +harbor. The cotton was insured for $1.50 a pound, but would have +brought more in the market.] + +[Footnote 160: See p. 219. The idea was by no means new. Frederick Law +Olmstead had devoted a great deal of space to proving the truth of it, +and indeed had quoted many planters who admitted that, as a system of +labor, slavery was expensive.] + +[Footnote 161: (Dated April 26, in the _Independent_.) On St. Helena +to-day it is always possible to hire men for common work at fifty +cents per day.] + +[Footnote 162: Dated May 2.] + +[Footnote 163: The National Union Convention which met on June 7.] + +[Footnote 164: The hero of the _Planter_ episode; see p. 46.] + +[Footnote 165: See p. 145.] + +[Footnote 166: One of many minor raids, very likely up the Combahee +River.] + +[Footnote 167: As General commanding the Department of the South.] + +[Footnote 168: Husband of Fanny Kemble.] + +[Footnote 169: Compare J. A. S. on p. 265.] + +[Footnote 170: Evidently G.'s suggestion was practically for the plan +Mr. Philbrick did in fact adopt finally, that of selling some of his +land to negroes and some to white men. The price at which he sold to +the negroes was determined by the ideas here expressed.] + +[Footnote 171: A mulatto, educated in the North, who had gone to help +at Port Royal.] + +[Footnote 172: Colonel Milton S. Littlefield, Twenty-First United +States Colored Troops.] + +[Footnote 173: Foster's order was dated August 16.] + +[Footnote 174: "The First South," as the First South Carolina +Volunteers was always called by the negroes, had in the spring been +enrolled among the United States Colored Troops as the Thirty-Third +Regiment.] + +[Footnote 175: See p. 187.] + +[Footnote 176: Both in the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts Volunteers +(colored).] + +[Footnote 177: The battle of Honey Hill (near Grahamville), fought +November 30.] + +[Footnote 178: Of the Fifty-Fifth Massachusetts.] + +[Footnote 179: F. H. was to take charge of Coffin's Point on C. P. +W.'s leaving permanently for home a few weeks later. In connection +with Mr. Philbrick's words about him and in preparation for his own +letters, it is worth while to record something he had written in the +autumn: + +Oct. 7. St. Helena. I am slowly recovering from my three weeks' +sickness,--more buoyant and hopeful than ever before. I seem to have a +new birth, with new aspirations, and new views--particularly in regard +to life and its duties and prospects among the freed people of South +Carolina. + +If _God_ is not in it, then I am laboring under hallucination.] + +[Footnote 180: The crop of 1864 had cost Mr. Philbrick about $1.00 a +pound, and he thought it quite possible that the crop of 1865 might +not fetch more than that in the market. It will be seen that his fears +were more than justified.] + +[Footnote 181: General Oliver O. Howard.] + +[Footnote 182: The only thoroughfare by land from Beaufort to +Charleston. At Port Royal Ferry it crosses the Coosaw.] + +[Footnote 183: F. H.] + +[Footnote 184: "Yellow cotton" was cotton which for any reason had +been stained in the pod.] + +[Footnote 185: Concerning this horse-buying fever Mr. Philbrick has +elsewhere an amusing anecdote: + +[Jan. 8.] The latest case of destitution I have heard of was the case +of old Robert at the Oaks, cow-minder,--you remember him. He and old +Scylla applied to Mr. Tomlinson for rations, pleading utter poverty. +It turned out next day that Robert and Scylla's husband were in treaty +for Mr. Fairfield's horse, at the rate of $350! They didn't allege +_inability_ to pay the price, but thought they would look around and +see if they couldn't get one cheaper. I daresay it will end by their +buying it.] + +[Footnote 186: Fuller, of Fuller Place, who had succeeded in keeping +with him on a plantation elsewhere the negroes he had induced to +accompany him when the war broke out.] + +[Footnote 187: In Europe.] + +[Footnote 188: By President Johnson's instructions.] + +[Footnote 189: The original owners of the Sea Island plantations were +subsequently reimbursed by Congress for their loss (minors receiving +again their actual land); but inasmuch as the sums paid them did not +include the value of their slaves, they considered the payment +inadequate.] + +[Footnote 190: New York _Nation_, November 30, 1865.] + +[Footnote 191: The cotton when ginned should have weighed between one +third and one quarter as much as it weighed before ginning. See p. +236.] + +[Footnote 192: In one of his letters to the _Nation_ (December 14), +Dennett quotes Richard Soule as saying that he thought the past four +years had encouraged and confirmed the faults of the negro. +"Demoralized on the negro question," therefore, seems to mean, not +that Richard Soule and F. H. were finding the negro worse than they +had thought him, but that they considered that present conditions were +rapidly making him worse.] + +[Footnote 193: General Saxton was Assistant Commissioner for South +Carolina under the Freedmen's Bureau.] + +[Footnote 194: Reuben Tomlinson had been made State Superintendent of +Education.] + +[Footnote 195: The Union Store was finished, stocked, and operated, +but its life was brief. From the first, its vitality was sapped by the +claim of the stockholders to unlimited credit; then a dishonest +treasurer struck the death-blow.] + +[Footnote 196: See p. 312.] + +[Footnote 197: This was Grant's famous "car-window" report, in which +he stated his belief that "the mass of thieving men at the South +accept the situation in good faith."] + +[Footnote 198: Mr. Waters bought Cherry Hill and lived there for a +short time.] + +[Footnote 199: "Corner" was the Captain John Fripp place.] + +[Footnote 200: At the auction referred to, the Government offered for +sale the plantations which had been reserved for the support of +schools.] + +[Footnote 201: A negro who worked a plantation "on shares" was +independent of the owner, merely paying a rent in cotton.] + +[Footnote 202: Afterwards used as the nucleus of _Slave Songs of the +United States_.] + +[Footnote 203: Before the war.] + +[Footnote 204: Rose had been living with H. W. in the North, and was +now at Port Royal with her, also on a visit.] + +[Footnote 205: General Bennett was managing Coffin's for the owner, +who had bought it of Mr. Philbrick.] + + + + +INDEX + + +Aaron, 235. + +Abel, 65, 66, 141 n., 145, 212, 218, 239, 330. + +Abigail, 331. + +Abolitionists, hostility to. + See Army Officers; Hunter; Saxton. + +_Advertiser, Boston_, 62, 219, 324. + +Africa, 203, 225. + +Alden, William, 286, 313, 321, 330. + +Alex, 86, 87, 95. + +Alick, 31, 239. + +Allen, William, 232. + +Amaritta, 88, 144, 187, 212, 222, 225, 233, 304. + +Andrew, 103. + +Anti-slavery people, hostility to. + See Army Officers; Hunter; Saxton. + +Antony, 95. + +_Ariel_, The, 225. + +Army Corps, + 17th, 305; + 18th, 150 n. + +Army officers, hostility of, to anti-slavery people, 108, 115, 122, 308. + See also Negroes, hostility of army officers to; Hunter; Saxton. + +_Army Life in a Black Regiment_, 104 n., 131 n., 133 n. + +"Arnie," Miss, 127. + +Atkinson, Edward, 53, 62, 101. + +Atlanta, Georgia, 290, 297. + +_Atlantic_, The, 2, 9. + + +B----, Mr., 247. + +Bacchus, 64, 65, 121, 123, 126. + +Bacchus, foreman of Morgan Island, 203, 204. + +Bail, Anthony, 328. + +Baldwin, Mr., 235. + +Baltimore Convention, 1864, 267. + +Baptisms, 145, 146, 249, 268. + +Barkis, 228, 229. + +Barnard, James M., 162, 163. + +Barney, Hiram, 2. + +Barstow, Major, 163, 164. + +Bay Point, 13, 29, 35, 37 n., 41, 73, 79. + +Beaufort, N. C., 82. + +Beaufort, S. C., vi n., 6, 9, 16, 31, 39, 45, 46, 47, 53, 54, 61, 71, + 72, 82, 83, 92, 93, 98, 100, 104, 106, 108, 117, 122, 127, 128, + 129 n., 134, 141, 150, 155 n., 167, 170, 175, 186, 187, 196, 197, + 202, 207, 211, 221, 235, 240, 255, 257 n., 258, 265, 267, 282, 283, + 289, 290, 295, 297, 301, 302, 305, 314, 320, 326, 327. + +Beaufort River, vi n., 6, 71, 116, 117. + +Beaufort Sound, 203. + +Beauregard, Fort, 5, 37, 61. + +Becca, 126. + +Ben, 95. + +Bennett, General, 332. + +Betsey, 185. + +Betty, 61, 252, 253, 272. + +Betty, 144. + +"Biffert," 49, 82. + +Binah, 27, 44, 45, 157. + +Bingham, Quartermaster-General, 132. + +Birney, William, Brig.-Gen., 257, 271. + +Black Draft. See Draft, Black. + +Boston, 117, 118, 141, 168, 190, 205, 220, 225, 226, 250, 256, 257 n., + 264, 266, 272, 307, 310, 315, 316, 325. + +Boston syndicate, 140, 172, 208, 258, 275, 316. + +Boutelle, Captain, 205, 206. + +Brannan, John M., Brig.-Gen., 86, 94, 108, 122. + +Brisbane, Dr., 129, 164, 244, 312. + +Brown, Peter, 323. + +Bryant, Captain J. E., 185, 187, 240. + +Bryant, Lieutenant O. E., 188. + +Bryant, Mr., plantation superintendent, 108, 116, 122. + +Bryant, Mrs., 115, 321. + +Bundy, Dr. Francis, 142, 143, 188, 196, 197. + +Bundy, Mrs. Francis, 141, 142. + +Burying-place, 65 n., 66. + +Butler, Pierce, 271, 272. + +Butler, Mrs. Pierce. See Kemble, Fanny. + + +Cæsar, 184, 239. + +Caroline (1), 16, 17. + +Caroline (2), 87. + +Caroline (3), 235. + +Cat Island, 6. + +Cato, 86, 87, 95. + +Celia, 300. + +Chaplin, Benjarola, 206, 311. + +Charleston, S. C., 31 n., 36, 45, 46, 61, 62, 63, 92, 115, 164, 165, + 195, 198, 206, 213, 232, 297, 307, 316, 319; + siege of, 150 n., 163 n., 194-199. + +Chase, Salmon P., 70 n., 247. + +Chattel sales, 255, 256. + +Cherry Hill, 79, 80, 135, 160, 172, 301, 324. + +Chester, 120. + +Child, Professor F. J., 257. + +Christmas, + 1863, 237; + 1864, 292, 293. + +Church, Brick (Baptist), 49, 243, 306. + +Church, White (Episcopal), 49 n., 68, 101, 117. + +Cicero, 192, 271. + +_City of New York_, The, 264 n. + +Clarke, Mrs., 141. + +Climate of Sea Islands, 10, 68, 73, 105, 106, 110, 118, 140, 145, 152, + 243, 323. + +Coast Survey, 60, 139. + +Cockloft, overseer, 127, 165, 169. + +Cockspur Island, 43 n. + +Coffin, Eben, 205. + +Coffin family, 236. + +Coffin, Sir Isaac, Bart., 150. + +Coffin, Julian, 209, 326. + +Coffin, Thomas Astor, 79, 139, 164, 165, 204, 206, 232, 330. + +Coffin, Mrs. T. A., 206. + +Coffin trademark, 237. + +"Coffin's Battery," 187, 285. + +Coffin's Point, 8, 10, 11, 13, 16, 22, 29, 40, 42, 45, 46, 51, 53, 54, + 58 n., 62, 68, 71, 79, 88, 94, 119, 122, 135, 139 n., 145, 180, 182, + 183, 188, 190, 191, 203, 229, 239, 240, 255, 281, 285, 291 n., 299, + 309, 310, 311, 312, 322, 323, 324, 328, 330, 331, 332 n. + +Comba, 303. + +Combahee River, 271 n. + +"Concern." + See Boston Syndicate. + +Contracts with negroes, 262, 263. + +Cooley, Judge, 259. + +Coosaw, Fort, 240. + +Coosaw River, 233, 297 n. + +Corn Crop of 1862, 12, 13, 54, 94, 101. + +"Corner," 324 n. + +_Cosmopolitan_, The, 6, 199. + +Cotton-agents, 12, 14, 18, 22, 98. + See also Mr. S. + +Cotton crop, + 1861, 11, 110, 118 n., 127; + 1862, 13, 54, 57, 83 n., 92, 99, 101, 109, 117, 125, 237 n., 264 n.; + 1863, 151, 171, 208, 209, 211, 212, 234, 235, 236, 237; + 1864, 295 n., 297, 310, 326; + 1865, 313, 314, 320, 322, 326. + +Cotton Fund, 115, 152. + +Cotton-gins broken by the negroes, 102 n., 109, 181. + +"Court." + See Plantation Commission. + +Crane, Captain W. D., 288, 289, 290. + +Crystal Palace, 168. + +Cuffy, 20, 26, 27, 61. + +Cutchery, Indian, 140. + +Cuthbert's Point, 116, 117. + + +Dan, 185, 239. + +Darien, 204. + +Dathaw, 322. + +David, 46, 47, 239. + +Davis, Col. W. W. H., 202 n. + +De Golyer, Mr., 313. + +De la Croix, Mr., 141, 142, 143. + +Deborah, 160. + +Demus, 145, 212, 243, 304. + +Demus, elder, 173. + +Dennett, Mr., 319, 320. + +Department of the South, 86, 114, 154, 163, 173 n., 193, 196, 197, + 227, 237, 249, 254, 260, 261, 268, 271, 278, 289. + +Doll, 25, 212, 235. + +Draft, Black, 37-42, 43, 44, 50, 51, 54, 77, 96, 99, 167, 172-175, 176, + 177, 182, 183, 184, 185-190, 211, 213, 236, 239, 240, 249, 281-284. + +Drivers, 8, 12, 31 n., 40, 41, 78, 80, 124. + +Duhurst, Lieut., 132. + +Dupont, Commodore S. F., 5, 225, 289, 319. + +Dutch, Captain, 185, 233. + + +Eddings Point, 171, 192, 247, 270. + +Edisto, 318. + +Edisto refugees, 72, 150, 151, 294, 306, 307. + +Educational Commission for Freedmen + (Boston), 1, 4, 12, 33, 37 n., 117 n., 257, 311; + (New York), 4, 12, 129 n.; + (Philadelphia), 171, 305. + +Eggs, donations of, 21, 22, 35, 44, 59, 75, 121, 139, 196, 250. + +Egypt, 5, 11, 15, 28. + +Ellen, 138. + +Ellwell, Col., 245. + +Elsie, 203, 204. + +Elsie, at Coffin's Point, 218, 330. + +Emancipation celebration, 124, 125, 126, 127-134. + +Emancipation, Preliminary Proclamation of, 97. + +Emancipation, Proclamation of, 92. + +Eustis, F. A., 8, 19, 32, 44, 171, 196, 238, 240, 246, 292, 327. + +Eustis Place, 252. + +Evacuation of Sea Islands, 84, 86, 98. + + +Fanny, 195. + +Fairfield, Mr., 302 n. + +Ferry, from Port Royal Island to Ladies Island, 19 n., 128, 173; + to mainland, 297, 302. + +_Festina Lente_, 63. + +Finnie, 86. + +First South, see S. C. Vols., 1st Regt. + +Flora, 21, 23, 25, 31, 35, 36, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 52, 58, 59, 123, + 141, 152, 331. + +_Flora_, The, 182. + +Florida, 50, 136, 153 n., 167. + +Folsom, Dr. Charles F., 70, 184, 232, 262, 265, 298, 301, 304, 307. + +Folsom's Place, 280, 329. + +Forbes, John M., 3, 16, 17, 18, 140, 147, 196. + +Fort Coosaw, 240. + +Fort on Smith Plantation, 132. + +Forts Walker and Beauregard, 5, 37, 61. + +Forten, Charlotte, 133. + +Fortress Monroe, 290. + +Fortune, 239. + +Foster, John G., Maj.-Gen., 150 n., 154, 160, 162, 163, 271, 280, 281, + 282, 285, 290, 299, 305. + +Fourth of July, 68-70. + +Fowler, Rev. Mr., 102, 129. + +Frank, 136, 229, 330. + +_Free South, The_, 155, 187. + +_Freedmen at Port Royal, The_, 312. + +Freedmen's Aid Societies, 325. + +Freedmen's Bureau, 321, 325. + +French, Rev. Mansfield, 4, 49, 50, 130, 230, 243, 254. + +Fripp, Alvirah, plantation of, 81. + +Fripp, Dr. Clarence, 31, 59, 207, 319, 320. + +Fripp, Eddings, 207. + +Fripp, Eden, 31. + +Fripp, Edgar, plantation of, 68, 74 n. + +Fripp, Hamilton, 270; + plantation of, 230, 271; + sons of, 296. + +Fripp, Harriet, 22, 31. + +Fripp house in Beaufort, 196. + +Fripp, Captain John, 316, 326; + daughters of, 316, 326; + plantation of, 135, 172, 249, 324 n., 326, 329. + +Fripp, Juliana, 34. + +Fripp, Lynch, 34. + +Fripp, Captain Oliver, plantation of, 68, 137, 184. + +Fripp Point, 12, 30, 41, 43, 88, 92, 119, 123, 126, 127 n., 139, 172, + 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 191, 199, 200, 224, 239, 255, 258, 259, + 263, 299, 301, 306, 324, 326, 331. + +Fripp, Sam, 34. + +Fripp, T. B., plantation of, 135, 171, 230, 321. + +Fripp, T. J., 204. + +Fripp, Washington, 31. + +Fripp, William, 12, 31, 59; + sons of, 12, 31. + +Fripp, Willie, 34. + +Frogmore, 205, 206, 300. + +Fuller, Rev. Robert, 314, 315. + +Fuller Place, 295, 324, 328. + +_Fulton_, The, 197. + +Funeral, negro child's, 65, 66, 67. + + +K. G., 33. + +W. C. G., 3, 8, 20, 21, 24, 26, 27, 32, 34, 40, 41, 61, 64, 65, 66, 88, + 105, 116, 122, 125, 147, 161, 172, 186, 187, 189, 197, 204, 211-213, + 224, 232, 238, 240, 246, 255, 259, 260, 265, 266, 268, 299, 300, 304, + 305, 312, 333; + letters from, 11, 14, 20 n., 22, 32, 37 n., 43, 57, 84, 107, 115, + 137, 154, 165, 167, 177, 183, 191, 197, 210, 222, 231, 241, 248, 254, + 263, 267, 277 n., 283, 286, 288, 307, 308, 309. + +W. C. G., article by, in _North American Review_, 312. + +W. C. G., poem by, 66. + + +Gage, Mrs., 132. + +Gang system, 58 n., 94, 108, 109, 112. + +George, 235, 331, 332. + +Georgia, 50, 136 n., 144, 153, 297, 301, 308. + +Georgia refugees, 293, 294, 295, 306, 307, 314. + +Gettysburg, battle of, 195. + +Gib, 315. + +Gillmore, Q. A., Brig.-Gen., 193, 194, 228, 233, 249, 321. + +Gordon, Captain, 290. + +Gordon, slave pirate, 225. + +Government, U. S., 1, 9, 10, 14, 17, 37 n., 53, 56 n., 57, 72, 78, 81, + 86, 97, 98, 99, 102, 112, 113, 115, 117, 118, 137, 148, 149, 150, + 151, 171, 174, 175, 177, 182, 185, 191, 208, 229, 231 n., 244, 245, + 260, 266, 277, 282, 296, 308, 309, 311, 327 n. + +Grace, 126, 222, 225, 250, 303. + +Grahamville, S. C., 289. + +Grant, U. S., Lieut.-Gen., 324. + +Green, Jonas, 322. + +Green, Dr. S. A., 163. + +"Gun fire at Bay Point," 37 n., 79, 126, 209. + + +H----, Col., 280, 281. + +F. H., 291, 298, 306, 309, 321, 324; + letters from, 291 n., 311, 313, 323, 328. + +Habersham, Mr., 308. + +Hacklis, 262, 263. + +Halleck, Henry W., Maj.-Gen., 122. + +Hall, Wm., 127, 150, 183, 184, 186, 196, 197, 201, 205, 216, 237, 252. + +Hallowell, Col. E. N., 196. + +Hallowell, Col. N. P., 168. + +Hamlet, 185. + +Hammond, Mr., 119, 156, 193. + +Hardy, Alpheus, 248. + +Harriet, 34. + +Harrison, Mr., 262. + +Harry, 16, 162. + +Hartwell, Col. A. S., 290. + +Hayti, 84. + +Hazard, Mr., 271. + +Henry, 127, 206, 207, 226. + +_Herald_, Boston, 124. + +Hester, 140, 141, 142, 214, 217, 251. + +Higginson, Col. T. W., 104 n., 106 n., 124, 129, 130, 131, 133 n., 134, + 153, 164, 167, 168, 195, 225, 240. + +Hilton Head, 5, 6, 9, 13, 37 n., 40, 41, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 53, 57, + 71, 73, 77, 79, 83, 84, 86, 87, 92, 94, 97, 98, 107, 114, 118, 125, + 126, 150, 175, 182, 194, 195, 229, 235, 261, 279, 280, 281, 319. + +Honey Hill, S. C., 289 n. + +Hooper, Captain E. W., 3, 9, 16, 19, 49, 50, 93, 105, 111, 124, 175, + 187, 188, 197, 198, 306. + +Hope Place, 81, 82, 171. + +_Horace_, The, 297. + +Horse-buying, 301, 302. + +Howard, O. O., Maj.-Gen., 297, 298, 299, 305, 317, 318. + +Hoyt, Capt., 186, 189. + +Hull, Mr., 116, 117, 172. + +Hunn, Mr. J., 171, 244, 251. + +Hunter, David, Maj.-Gen., 37 n., 38, 39, 40, 42, 48, 50, 62, 63, 86, + 89, 100, 103, 104, 108 n., 115, 133 n., 154, 155, 156, 159 n., 162, + 163 n., 165, 167, 172, 173, 175, 182, 187, 188, 190. + +Hunter Regiment, 62, 96, 104, 106. + +Hunting Island, 78, 238, 279. + +Hunting, Dr., 239. + +Hurd, Augustus, 3. + + +Indemnity, for slave-owners, 319 n. + +_Independent_, The, 265. + +Irish, compared with negroes, 11, 15, 18, 22, 56, 75. + +Isaac, 82, 239. + + +Jack, 125, 126, 299. + +Jackson, Mr., 301. + +Jacksonboro', 196. + +Jacksonville, Fla., 167. + +James, Capt., 106. + +James, G. W., Adjt., 196. + +January, 153, 181, 239, 315. + +Jenkins, Dr., plantation of, 108 n., 116. + +Jenkins, Mary, plantation of, 233, 247, 296. + +Jim, 78, 79, 90, 239. + +Jimmy, 239. + +Joe, 20, 23, 39, 40, 41, 46, 52, 60, 61, 100, 106, 122, 123, 141 n. + +John, 87, 257, 258. + +John, Major, 260, 299, 300, 319. + +Johnson, Andrew, 317, 318. + +Jonas, 239. + +Joseph, 255. + +Josh, 188. + +_Journal of Music_, The Boston, 30. + +_Journal_, Providence, 248 n. + +Judd, Mr., Gen. Supt. of Port Royal Island, 94, 129, 132. + +Judy, 141, 154, 243, 272. + +Juliana, 233. + +July, 95. + +June, 136, 195. + + +Katrine, 145. + +Katy, 212, 299. + +Katy, at Frogmore, 206. + +Keller, Lewis, 279. + +_Kelley_, The, 279. + +Kellum, Capt, 322. + +Kemble, Fanny, 271, 272. + +_Kingfisher_, The, 176, 185 n., 204, 212 n. + + +L----, John, 152, 162. + +Ladies Island, 8, 9, 19 n., 54, 72, 109, 116, 117, 118, 172, 223 n., + 240, 311. + +Land-sales, 109 n., 111, 117, 120, 135, 137, 140, 141, 147, 148, 151, + 152, 154, 155, 159, 165, 170, 171, 172, 177, 229, 230, 231, 243, 244, + 245, 246, 247, 248, 254, 265, 266, 277, 312, 315, 320, 327. + +Land's End, 119, 135, 153 n., 155, 161, 162, 174 n., 182, 194. + +Lee, Mr., paymaster, U. S., 100, 110. + +Lee, R. E., Gen., 310. + +Lester, 65. + +Lewis, 192. + +Lewis, Dio, 160. + +Lieutenant, of 104th Pa. Vols., 200, 201, 202. + +Limus, 37, 77, 221, 226, 228. + +Lincoln, Abraham, 48, 50 n., 62, 63, 86, 91, 92, 96, 97, 98, 129, 230, + 243, 245, 258, 263, 310. + +Littlefield, Milton S., Col., 282. + +_London News_, The, 168. + +Louisa, 35, 138, 144, 146, 299. + +L'Ouverture, Toussaint, 104 n. + + +McClellan, George B., Maj.-Gen., 168. + +McKee's plantation, 46. + +McKim, Lucy, 30 n. + +McTureous Plantation, 76, 77, 78, 79, 171, 229, 230, 312, 323, 330. + +Mack, David, 3. + +Maria, nurse, 126, 209. + +Maria, seamster, 271. + +_Market for manufactures, A new_, 219. + +Marriage of negroes, 95, 103, 104, 125, 126, 144. + +Martha, 88, 330. + +Mary, 61, 216. + +Mary Ann, 95. + +Massachusetts Vols., + 24th Regt., 153, 154, 156, 162; + 54th Regt., 168, 194, 196, 198; + 55th Regt., 226, 288, 289, 290 n. + +May, 303. + +_Mayflower_, The, 71. + +_Melville_, The, 306, 307. + +Methodism, 124, 163, 221. + +Mike, 185, 255, 256, 311, 332. + +Miller, 212, 239. + +Mily, nurse, 26, 59, 136. + +Minda, 127, 146, 243. + +Mission House, 129. + +Mitchel, Ormsby M., Maj.-Gen., 86, 94, 105, 108 n. + +_Mohegan_, The, 225. + +Moll, 201, 299. + +Monah, 331. + +Monday, "Useless," 262. + +Monroe, Fortress, 290. + +Montgomery, Col., 167, 185, 189. + +Morgan Island, 203, 233, 270, 295, 296, 306. + +Morris Island, 195, 196, 289. + +Mulberry Hill, 80, 81, 135, 172, 322, 324. + +Murray, Ellen, 329. + + +N. R. & W., Firm of, 324, 326, 329. + +Nancy, 138, 212. + +Nancy, old, 222, 234. + +Nat, 77, 95, 139. + +_Nation_, The New York, 26 n., 319-321. + +National Union Convention, 261 n. + +_Negro Burying Ground, The_, 66. + +Negroes of Sea Islands, + characteristics of, 11, 15, 21, 22, 23, 25, 75, 76, 81, 99, 109, 116, + 122, 138, 144, 171, 177, 214, 215, 241, 315, 328; + compared with Irish, 11, 15, 18, 22, 56, 75; + compared with negroes elsewhere, 11, 15, 89, 97, 288; + condition of, in 1862, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 51, 70, 181, 307; + contracts with, 262, 263; + cotton-gins destroyed by, 102 n., 109, 181; + dishonesty of, 126, 136, 227, 241, 242, 256, 269, 287, 310, 311, 313, + 320, 322, 323, 324, 328; + food of, 53, 62, 73, 93, 120; + future of, 317, 318, 334; + gratuities to, 14, 33, 34, 44, 47, 51, 52, 53, 58, 80, 88, 94, 148, + 150, 165, 166, 179, 191, 208, 246, 276, 277, 302 n., 309, 334; + health of, 15, 105, 213; + hostility of army officers to, 74, 85, 101, 164; + industry of, 11, 37 n., 48, 55, 111, 156, 175, 181, 182, 208, 209, + 212, 222; + independence of, 208, 260, 275; + intelligence of, 21, 60, 63, 74, 76, 90, 93, 97, 112, 166, 168, 169, + 174, 241; + intemperance of, 15, 225, 229, 327; + as land-owners (see also Land-sales), 272, 276, 312, 315, 323, 326; + language of, 21, 25, 26, 27, 28, 35, 36, 90, 123, 157, 160, 218; + marriage of, 95, 103, 104, 125, 126, 144; + names of, 36, 52, 209; + petition of, 258-261, 263, 264; + religion of, 15, 20, 21, 26, 27, 36, 44, 61, 65, 66, 67, 145, 146, + 193, 235, 268; + singing of, 19, 28, 29, 30, 134, 253, 292, 293, 328; + as soldiers, 42, 43, 63, 89, 91, 93, 96, 97, 100, 102, 103, 104, 108, + 136, 153, 164, 168, 184; + treatment of, by masters, 31, 32, 36, 206, 207; + wages of, 45, 56, 57, 75, 85, 91, 92, 99, 100, 110, 111, 112, 139, + 147, 148, 222, 234, 244, 245, 246, 250, 251, 258, 260, 264, 265, + 266 n., 267, 294, 295, 300, 301, 303, 304. + +Nero, 236. + +New Orleans, 62, 325. + +_New South, The_, 173. + +New York Vols., + 19th Regt., 13; + 48th, 197; + 79th, 39. + +Nile, songs on the, 28. + +Noble, 271. + +_North American Review_, The, 312. + +North Carolina Army, 150, 153 n., 161. + +Nubia, 11, 15. + + +Oakland, 171. + +Oaks, The, 69, 83, 93, 127 n., 150, 171, 320. + +Ogeechee River, 309. + +Oliver, Dr., 328. + +Olmstead, Frederick Law, 265 n. + +Otter Island, 47, 159. + + +Paige, Mr., 235, 236. + +Palmer, Mr., 79, 81, 82. + +Paris, 81, 82. + +Parker, Rev. Mr., 268, 269. + +Paxton, Capt., 197. + +Peg, 212. + +Peggy, Old, 43, 44. + +Penn Normal, Industrial, and Agricultural School, 16 n., 298, 329, 334. + +Pennsylvania Volunteers, + Roundhead Regt., 51; + 104th Regt., 200. + +Peter, Uncle, 26, 36, 46, 120, 185. + +Peter, on Frogmore, 206. + +Petition of negroes, 258-261, 263, 264. + +Petra, 304. + +Philadelphia, 47, 51, 53, 104. + +Philbrick, Edward S., 14, 16, 19, 22, 24, 28, 31 n., 36, 37, 39, 40, + 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 58, 59, 61, 62, 64, 65, 69, 75, 76, 83, 85, 97, + 99, 105, 120, 121, 125, 127 n., 135, 137, 139, 146, 150, 152, 158, + 160, 165, 170, 171, 172, 176, 177, 180, 184, 186, 187, 189, 190, 191, + 201 n., 203 n., 205, 212, 216, 218, 219, 220, 229, 240, 249, 250, + 251, 254, 255, 256, 258, 259, 260, 261, 264 n., 265, 284, 291 n., + 312, 324, 329, 331, 332. + Letters from, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 53, 62, 86, 88, 91, 92, + 93, 94, 100, 101, 105, 107, 116, 122, 124, 132 n., 135, 140, 180, + 185, 187, 205, 218, 219, 220, 221, 224, 229, 231, 232, 234, 235, + 236, 237, 239, 240, 243, 247, 248 n., 249, 250, 256, 257, 264, 265, + 266, 272, 280, 290, 291, 294, 299, 301, 302 n., 304, 306, 310, 315, + 316, 317, 325. + +Philbrick, Mrs. E. S., 3, 4, 10, 11, 16, 19, 20, 23, 25, 33, 41, 44, + 46, 51, 58, 59, 61, 65, 73, 82, 150, 154, 161, 170, 183, 191, 216. + +Phillips, Rev. Mr., 103, 115, 244, 269. + +Phillis, 95, 186, 212. + +Phoebe, 103. + +Pierce, E. L., 3, 4, 7, 8, 16, 19, 37, 38, 42, 45 n., 49, 50, 54, 64, + 68, 69, 70. + +Pine Grove Plantation, 12, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 26, 31, 51, 59, 60, 75, + 88, 95, 102, 103, 109, 120, 123, 126, 127 n., 136, 141, 152, 172, + 173, 183, 184, 185, 186, 191, 210, 231, 234, 262, 270, 271, 301, 328, + 330, 331. + +Plantation Commission, 201 n., 210, 228, 269, 270, 286, 313, 323. + +"Plantation Bitters," 310. + +_Planter_, The, 45, 46, 47, 51, 63, 268 n. + +Pocotaligo, 290, 302, 305. + +Pompey, 207, 239, 250, 251, 257, 258, 260, 261, 266, 299, 300. + +"Poor Rosy," 30. + +Pope, Mr., 327. + +Pope's plantation, 19, 50, 195. + +Port Royal, 1, 4 n., 28, 70, 119, 190, 191, 225, 226 n., 229, 278, 280, + 285, 290, 299, 329, 331 n. + +Port Royal Bar, 5. + +Port Royal Experiment, 92, 98, 118, 119, 170, 172, 180, 218, 219, 240, + 241. + +Port Royal Ferry, 297, 302, 304. + +Port Royal Island, 6, 69, 97, 118, 119 n., 128, 194, 304. + +_Post_, The N. Y. Evening, 248, 265, 277. + +Potter, Edward E., Brig.-Gen., 158, 159, 160. + +Preëmption system, 229, 230, 244, 245, 248, 254, 266, 318. + +Prices, war-time, 47. + +Primus, 183, 186, 188, 189, 190, 301, 302, 332. + +Prisoners, exchange of, 198, 199. + +Pritchard, 78, 79, 171, 311. + +Pritchard's Island, 171. + +Pulaski, Fort, 43, 87. + + +T. E. R., 122, 125, 135, 141, 145, 172, 186, 193, 229, 233, 243, 244, + 246, 284, 313; + letters from, 285, 310, 314, 320, 326, 328. + +"R.'s," 128, 228, 232, 280, 289, 298, 300, 322. + +R., Miss, 141, 145, 232. + +Rand, Capt., 198. + +Ranty, 58, 103, 135, 136. + +Raphael, 160. + +Rations to negroes, 34, 80, 94, 150, 246, 302 n., 309; + to whites, 10, 20, 23, 32, 72, 114, 146. + +Readville, 161. + +Rebel raids, 233, 270, 279, 296, 306. + +Red tape, 72, 75, 85, 86, 190, 191, 285. + +Reed, Joe, superintendent, 116. + +Refugees. + See Edisto Refugees and Georgia Refugees. + +Republican party, 328. + +Rhodes, J. F., _History of the United States_, 194. + +Rice, Lt.-Col., 282, 283. + +Richard, 211. + +Richmond, 199, 310. + +Ripley, Fort, 47. + +Rivers, Sergeant Prince, 104, 130, 131. + +Road, 209. + +Robert, 76, 141, 142, 158, 168, 207, 214, 225, 232, 252, 253, 259, + 286, 332. + +Robert, old, 269, 302 n. + +Rodwell, 286. + +Rose, Alex's daughter, 86, 87, 95. + +Rose, 141, 142, 145, 152, 156, 159, 160, 161, 168, 213, 214, 215, 216, + 217, 218, 226, 243, 250, 251, 252, 259, 271, 278, 285, 287, 292, 331. + +Rosetta, 88. + +Russel, Cabot, 199. + +Russell, Dr. LeBaron, 117, 118, 153. + + +S----, Col., 258. + +S----, Mr., cotton-agent, 12, 14, 33, 42, 44, 55, 102. + +S----, postmaster at Beaufort, 152. + +St. Croix, 132. + +St. Helena Island, 6, 10, 16, 19 n., 36, 74 n., 78, 79, 91, 94, 96, + 109, 115, 118, 119, 127, 135, 182, 187, 188, 199, 205, 223 n., + 266 n., 279, 285, 288, 294, 310, 314, 319, 320. + +St. Helena Sound, 10. + +St. Helena Village, 30, 68, 72, 201, 329. + +St. John's River, 167. + +St. Mary's, 107. + +St. Mary's River, 153. + +St. Simon's Island, 136, 144, 271. + +Sally, Aunt, 192. + +Sam (Uncle), 34, 61, 65, 66, 95, 106, 141, 145, 146, 158, 159, 205, + 235, 252, 253. + +Sammy, 119, 120. + +Samson, 144. + +Sancho, 188. + +Sanitary Fair, N. Y., 247. + +Sarah, of C. Pt., 125, 126. + +Sarah, 330. + +Sarah, Flora's, 331. + +Savannah, 289, 290, 296, 302, 308, 309, 310. + +"Saxby," Gen., 130, 150. + +Saxton, J. A., 265, 276. + +Saxton, Maj.-Gen. Rufus, 48, 57, 69, 83, 84, 86, 92, 93 n., 94, 96, + 97, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 115, 116, 117, + 118, 122, 124, 125, 129, 130, 132, 139, 150, 151, 152, 156, 159 n., + 165, 167, 168, 171, 172, 173, 175, 187, 188, 190, 193, 194, 198, 201, + 202, 211, 213, 229, 230, 231, 239, 240, 243, 244, 245, 254, 257 n., + 262, 285, 298, 299, 305, 306, 307, 308, 312, 319, 321, 324, 325. + +Schools, 16 n., 20, 21, 24, 32, 43, 59, 60, 149, 152, 159, 180, 208, + 273, 298, 321, 334. + +School Farm, 165 n. + +Scylla, 302 n. + +Sea Islands, 42, 45 n., 70 n., 71, 89, 90, 128, 221, 254 n., 257, 299, + 307, 319, 321, 334. + +Sea Side Road, 76, 171. + +"Secesh," 43, 44, 51, 61, 72, 97, 113, 185, 252, 260, 264, 270, 305, + 311, 314. + +"Secesh children," 271. + +Seed-cotton, 109 n., 236, 320. + +"Shares," 327. + +Sharper, 183. + +Shaw, Col. R. G., 194, 196, 197, 199. + +Shell Road, 297. + +Sherman, W. T., Maj.-Gen., 289, 290, 293, 298, 301, 304, 307, 308. + +Shop, 24, 33, 46, 57, 92, 142, 157, 158, 159, 185, 190, 219, 220, 233, + 264, 273, 279, 280, 281, 321. + +Shout, 26, 27, 34, 292, 293. + +Siah, 34, 119, 199, 221, 222, 224, 260, 266. + +Sickles, D. E., Maj.-Gen., 321. + +Sim, 36. + +Simon, 185. + +Sinclair, Mr., 332. + +Sinclair, Mrs., 332. + +Sinnet, 222. + +_Slave Songs of the United States_, 28, 328 n. + +Slip-potato crop. See Sweet potato crop. + +Small, Robert, 268. + +Small-pox, 251-253. + +Smallwood, Mr., 313, 314. + +Smith, Judge, tax-commissioner, 230, 245. + +Smith, Judge, Special Agent, 258, 259, 260. + +Smith Plantation, 17, 128. + +Soldiers, 38, 39, 92, 94, 118, 119, 155, 199-202. + +Soule, Capt. C. C., 89, 289. + +Soule, Richard, Jr., 3, 37, 74, 78, 79, 105, 150, 169, 200, 203, 205, + 211, 213, 223, 225, 258, 259, 261, 263, 269, 280, 283, 289, 290, 321, + 323, 326, 332; + letters from, 309, 312, 315, 322, 324. + +Soule, Mrs. R., 289, 332. + +South Carolina, 50, 53 n., 91, 267, 290, 291, 311, 321. + +South Carolina Vols., + 1st, 102, 104 n., 106, 107, 115, 124, 128, 129, 130, 133, 134, 136, + 153, 154, 167, 225, 236, 268, 282; + officers of, 106, 124, 129, 132, 133, 240, 268; + 2d, 167, 185; + officers of, 188, 189. + +Stanton, E. M., Secretary of War, 48, 133 n., 298, 299, 305. + +Stevens, Hazard, 38, 39. + +Stevens, Brig.-Gen. Isaac I., 47. + +Stevenson, Thomas G., Brig.-Gen., 162, 163, 164. + +Stickney, Judge, 132. + +Stone-cotton, 109, 236. + +Store. + See Shop. + +Strappan, 217. + +Strong, Lt.-Col., 282. + +Sumner, Arthur, 68, 156, 161, 163. + +Sumter, Fort, 46, 47, 51. + +Superintendence, system of, 101, 117, 137, 147, 167, 228, 272. + +Superintendent, typical day of, 76-82. + +Superintendents, duties of, 86; + meetings of, 101, 108, 117, 197. + +Susan, 23, 43, 141. + +Sutton, Corp. Robert, 131. + +Sweet potato crop, 105, 106, 111. + + +Tamah, 163. + +Task, 45 n. + +Tax-commissioners, 109, 117, 129 n., 165, 231, 248, 254, 255, 258, + 259, 320. + +Thanksgiving Day, + 1863, 232; + 1864, 288, 289 + +Thomas, 224. + +Thompson, Capt. Thomas, 186, 188, 189. + +Thorpe, Mr., 143, 217. + +Tilly, 304. + +Tim, 139, 208, 222. + +_Times_, The New York, 69. + +Tira, 36. + +"Titles," 36, 52. + +Titus, 252. + +"Tobey," Captain, 97. + +Toby, 87, 95. + +Tom, 30, 31, 59, 61. + +"Tom, Uncle," 61. + +Tomlinson, Reuben, 222, 224, 251, 258, 259, 261, 262, 263, 302 n., + 305, 306, 307, 319, 321; + letters from, 223, 228, 250. + +Tony, driver, 79, 80, 82, 120, 199, 239, 301. + +Towne, Laura E., founder of Penn School, 16, 49, 293, 294, 298, 319, + 329. + +Towne, Mr., 323. + +Treasury Department, 1, 280, 281. + +Treasury, Secretary of, 70 n., 247, 281. + +_Tribune_, The New York, 62, 235, 236, 265. + + +Union Store, 312, 314, 322. + +United States Colored Troops, + 21st Reg't., 282 n.; + 33d Reg't. See S. C. Vols., 1st Reg't. + + +Vaughn, Mrs., 288. + +Venus, 304. + +Vicksburg, 195. + + +C. P. W., 70, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 138, 139, 141, 143, 144, 146, + 152, 153, 157, 159, 160, 167, 168, 171, 172, 176, 177, 180, 182, 183, + 184, 189, 190, 193, 194, 195, 196, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 205, 208, + 210, 211, 213, 214, 216, 220, 222, 225, 228, 230, 234, 239, 250, 255, + 256, 259, 262, 263, 267, 268, 279, 285, 286, 289, 291 n., 292, 293, + 303, 309, 331, 332; + letters from, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 84, 86, 90, 93, 94, 96, 105 n., + 106, 111, 114, 115, 120, 146, 152, 154, 170, 171, 172, 190, 209, + 226, 279, 282, 286, 293, 297. + +H. W., 10, 16, 22, 34, 75, 120, 184, 278, 279, 286, 309, 331 n.; + letters from, 16, 21, 22, 25, 30, 34, 35, 36, 43, 44, 45, 46, 49, + 51, 52, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65, 119, 121, 122, 124, 125, 127, + 128, 133 n., 138, 139, 140, 141, 144, 149, 150, 152, 153, 154, 155, + 157, 158, 160, 161, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 173 n., 174 n., 176, + 180, 182, 184, 185, 186, 189, 191, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 199, + 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 213, 215, 216, 217, 218, 222, + 224, 226, 229, 230, 232, 234, 237, 240, 250, 251, 252, 253, 258, + 259, 262, 263, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 285, 287, 288, 289, 292, + 293, 298, 329. + +W----, Miss, 49. + +_Wabash_, 225. + +Wagner, Fort, assault on, 196. + +Wakefield, Dr., 41, 45, 51, 196. + +War Department, 159 n. + +War, Secretary of, 48, 133 n., 298, 299, 305. + +Ward, Captain, 328, 331. + +Walker, Fort, 5, 37, 61. + +Washington, 122 n., 151, 165, 240, 243, 254, 260, 280, 281, 326. + +Waters, Mr., 301, 324, 330. + +Waters, Mrs., 330. + +Wells, George, 172, 197, 203, 204, 232, 233, 236, 247, 270, 295, 296, + 306. + +Wells, Mrs. Geo., 270. + +Westcott, Dr., 213. + +White, William, 323. + +White Place, 236. + +Whitredge, Alonso, 195. + +Whitredge, John, 195. + +Whittier, J. G., 133. + +"Widow Bedotte," 192. + +Will, 235. + +Wil'by, 41, 43, 61, 123. + +Williams, C. F., 134, 141, 193, 306, 310, 315, 322, 324, 325. + +Williams, Mrs., 141, 143. + +Williams, F. J., 251, 257. + +Williams, Capt., 311. + +Williamsburg, battle of, 62. + +Wolcott, Mrs. J. Huntington, 168. + + +York, Mr., 299, 300, 306, 310, 322. + +York, Polite, 13, 36, 37, 58, 123, 141, 152. + + +Zachos, Mr., 130. + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's Notes + +Inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, and grammar +are due to the dialects and preferences of the various letter writers. + +The following corrections have been made from the original: + +Page 61: Charleson changed to Charleston (cents in Charleston). + +Page 64: sufficent changed to sufficient (sufficient intelligence). + +Page 76: The illustrated symbol was originally on the line of text +following the words: rude portal. + +Page 79: assisttant changed to assistant (Mr. Soule's assistant). + +Pages 103, 342: Phoebe had an oe ligature in the original book. + +Page 158: itle changed to title (The title had an immense effect). + +Page 237: The illustrated symbol was originally on the line of text +following the words: Coffin trademark. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM PORT ROYAL*** + + +******* This file should be named 24722-8.txt or 24722-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/7/2/24722 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |