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Title: Letters from Port Royal

Editor: Elizabeth Ware Pearson

Release date: March 1, 2008 [eBook #24722]
                Most recently updated: January 3, 2021

Language: English

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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.





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