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18(S3.] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 2 9 1
watch for many months beside this be
loved one. It was not a wild delirium
which had taken possession of him; the
only fit of that kind was that in which
he t r ied to drown himself in the R hine ,
— at the t ime when the papers got holdof the terrible secret. His insanity was
manifested in his conviction that he was
occupied by the souls of Beeth ove n and
Schubert . Much in the ma nne r of your
Am erica n m ediums, he would be seized
by a control l ing power,—would snatch a
pencil, and dash out upon paper the wild
est discords. The se we would play for
him, at his request, from morning till
n ight , — during much of which t ime he
would seem to be in a happy trance.
Of this music no chord or melody was
tr ue ; they were jangl in g memories ofhis earlier works.
" On e day he c alled his wife and my
self, and took our hands in h is ow n: —
' Beethov en says that my earth ly music
is ov er; i t cannot be unders tood h er e;
he writes for angels, and I shall write
for them. ' The n, turnin g to me, he said ,
— ' Louis , my friend, farewe ll! This ismy las t praye r for you,' — handing m e the
pape r which I h ave shown yo u; ' and
now leave us, to come again and kiss me
when I am cold.'
" Then I left him alone with his Clara.
" A month from that t ime, Schumann
was no more ."
Out under the glowing sunset, I clasp
ed hands part ing with Louis Boehner,
and said, as my voice would let me, —
" Tak e th is pape r, and w hen you would
have a friend, such as you have been toRobert Schumann, come and help me
to bo that friend."
TH E FR EE DM EN A T PORT ROYAL.
T w o quest ions are concerned in the
social problem of our time. One is. Will
the people of African descent work for a
living ? and the othe r is. Will they fight
for their freed om? A n affirmative an
swer to these must be put beyond any
fair dispute before they will receive per
man ent securi ty in law or opinion. W ha t
ever may be the theses of philosophers or
the instincts of the justest men, the gen
eral sense of mankind is not likely to ac
cord the rights of complete citizenship to
a race of paupers, or to hesitate in impos
ing compulsory labor on those who have
not industry sufficient to support them
selves . Nor, in the present development
of human nature, is the conscience of
great communities likely to be so perva
sive and controlling as to restrain them
from disrega rding t he rights of those whom
it is perfectly safe to injure, because they
have not the pluck to defend themselves.
Sent iment may be lavished upon them
in poetry and tears, but it will all be
wasted. Lik e all unpriv ileged classes be
fore them, they will have their full recog
ni t ion 'as ci t izens and men when they
hav e vindicated th eir title to be an es
tate of the realm, and not before. Let
us, then, take the world as we find it, and
try this people accordingly . But it is not
pert inent to any pract ical inquiry of our
time to predict what triumphs in art, lit
erature, or government they are to ac
complish, or what romance is to glow
upon their history. No IHad may bo
wri t ten of them and their woes . No Plu
tarc h may ga ther th e lives of their heroes .
No Vand yck may del ight to warm his
canvas with their forms. Ho w ma ny
or how few astronomers l ike Ban neke r,
chieftains like Toussaint, orators like
Douglass they may have, it is not worth
while to conjectu re. It is be tter to dis
miss the se fanciful discussions. To vin
dicate their title to a fair chance in the
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29-2 The Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
•worM as a free p eop le, it is sufficient, an d
alone sufficient, that i t appear to reason
able minds that they are in good and
evi l very much l ike the rest of mankind,
and that they are endowed m about the
same degree wi th the conservat ive andprogressive e lements of character com
mon to ordinary humani ty.
It is given to the people of this coun
try and time, could they realize i t , to
make a new chapter of hum an ex peri
ence. Th e past may suggest, bu t i t can
do li t t le eithe r in directing or dete rrin g.
There is nothing in the gloomy vat ic ina
tions of Tocqneville, wise and benevolent
as he is, which should be permitted to
dark en our future . The mediaeval an
tagonisms of races, when Christ iani ty
threw but a par t ia l l ight over mankin d,
and before commerce had unfolded the
harmony of interests among people of di
verse origin or condition, determine no
laws which will fetter the richer and more
various develo pme nt of mod ern life. No r
do the results of emancipation in the
West Indies, more or less satisfactory as
they may be , a iford any m easure of the
progress which opens before our en fran
chised masses. Th e insular and c ontra ct
ed life of the colonies, cramped also as
they were by debt and absenteeism, has no
paral le l in the grand currents of thought
and activity ever sweeping throtigh the
cont inent on which our problem is to be
solved.
In the l ight of these views, the a t tempt
shal l be made to report t ruthful ly upon
the freedmen a t Po rt Roy al . A word,
how ever, as to the nam e. Civilization,
in i ts career, may often be traced in
the nomenclatures of successive periods.
These people were first called contra
band s a t Fort ress Monroe ; but a t P ort
Royal , where they were next int rodu
ced to us in any considerable number,
they were generally referred to as freed
men . These terms are mi lestones in our
progress; and they are yet to be lost
in the bet ter and m ore comprehensive
designation of cit izens, or, when discrimi
nation is convenient, cit izens of African
descent .
Th e enterprise for the protect ion and
development of the freedmen a t Port
Royal has won i t s way to the regard of
man kind. Th e best minds of Eur ope ,
as well as the best fi-iends of the United
Sta tes, l ike Cairnes and Gaspa rin, havetestified much interest in i ts progress. A n
Eng lish periodical of considerab le m erit
not iced a t some length " Mr. Pierce 's
Ten Thousand Cl i en ts . " In Pa r l i am ent ,
Earl Russel l noted i t in i t s inc ipient
stage , as a reason why Eng land should
not interve ne in Am erican affa irs . Th e
" Revue des De ux M ond es," in a re
cent number, character izes the colony as
" that small pacific army, far more impor
tant in the history of civilization than all
the military expeditions despatched from
time to t ime since the commencement ofthe civil war."
No li t t le historical intere st covers th e
region to which this account belongs.
Explora t ions of the coast now known
as that of the Carolinas, Georgia, and
Florida , involving the r ival pre tensions
of Spain and F ran ce , were made in the
f irst ha l f of the sixteenth century . Th ey
were conduc ted by Ponce de Leon , Vas-
quez, Ver razan i , and Soto, in search of
the founta in of perpetual youth, or to ex
tend empire by r ight of discovery. Bu tno permanent se t t lement by way of colo
ny or garrison was attempted until l . ' )62.
In that year , — the same in which he
drew his sword for his faith, and ten
years before the Massacre of St . Bar
tholomew, in which he fell the most i l
lustrious victim, — Ad mir al Coligny , th e
grea t Pro t e s t an t chief, anxious to found
bey ond th e seas a refuge for pers ecute d
Huguenots, fi t ted out the expedition of
Je an Ribaul t , which, af ter a voyage of
over three months across the ocean and
northward a long the coast , cast anchoron May 27th in the harbor of Port Roy
al , and gave i t the name which i t re ta ins
to this day. Th at year was a lso to be
ever memorable for another and far dif
ferent enterprise , which was dest ined to
be wri t ten in dark and perpetual l ines on
hum an history. Th en i t was that Jo hn
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 2 9 3
Hawkins sailed for Africa in quest of the
first cargo of negroes ever brought to the
New World . Th e exped i tion o f R ibau l t
was the first visit of Europeans to Port
Koyal or to any part of South Carolina,
and the garrison left by him was the firstset t lement unde r their auspices ever m ade
on th is cont inent north of Mexico. Th ere
is not space or need to detail here the
mutiny and suffering of this military col
ony, their abandonment of the post , the
terrib le voyage homeward, or the perse
verance of Coligny in his original pur
pose. Nor is it within the compass of this
narrat ive to recount the fortunes of the
second garrison, which was founded on
the St . John 's , the v is i t of John Hawkins
in 1565 with timely relief, the return of
Ribau l t from Fr an ce and his sad fate ,the ferocity of Melendez against all her
et ic Frenchmen, and the avenging chiv
alry of Dominic de -Gourges. Th e stu
den t is baffled in attem pts to fix localities
for the deeds and explorations of this pe
riod, even with the he lp of the several
accounts and the drawings of Le Moyne ;
and, besides, these later vicissitudes did
not involve any permanent occupat ion as
far north as Por t Roy al , tha t region ha v
ing been abandoned by the Frenc h, and
being then visited by the Spanish only
for t rade or adventure.
Some merchants of Barbados, in 1663,
sent Wil l iam H il ton and other commis
s ioners to Florida, then including Port
Royal , to explore the country with refer
ence to an emigrat ion th i the r. Hil ton 's
Narrat ion, published in London the year
after, mentions St. Elle ns as one of th e
points v is ited , mean ing St . H elena , but
probably including the Sea Is lands un
der tha t name . Th e nat ives were found
to speak many Spanish words, and to be
famil iar enough with the r epo rt of guns
not to be alarmed by it. T he commis
sioners, whose explorations were evi
dent ly pro mp ted by motives of gain, close
a somewhat glowing description of the
country by saying, " And we could wish
that al l they that want a happy set t le
ment of our English nat ion were well
t ransported th i ther."
Hi ther to Eng la nd had bo rne no p ar t
in explor ing this region. Bu t, relieved
of her civil wars by the Restoration, she
beg an to seek colonial emp ire on the
southern coast of Nor th Am erica. In
1663 , Charles II . granted a charter toClarendon, Monk, Shaflsbury , — each fa
mou s in t he conflicts of those time s, —•
and to the ir associates, as propr ietors of
Carol ina. Th e genius of Joh n Locke,
more fitted for philosophy than affairs,
devised a constitution for the colony, —
an idle work, as it prove d. In 1670, the
first emigrants , und er Governor Wil l iam
Sayle, arrived at Po rt Roya l , with th e
purpose to remain there; but , d is turbed
probably with apprehensions of Spanish
incursions from Florida, they removed
to the ban ks of the A shley, and, afteranoth er chang e of site, founded Charle s
ton.
In 1682, a colony from Scotland un
der Lord Cardross was founded at Po rt
Koya l , but was driven away four y ears
later by the Spanish . No perm anen t
settlem ent of the Beaufo rt district ap
pea rs to have succeeded until 1700. This
district is divided into four pa rishes, St.
Pe te r ' s , S t . Luke ' s , S t . He lena , and
Pr inc e Willia m, being fifty-eight miles
long and th irty-two broad, and contain
in g 1,224,960 acres . St . He lena parish
includes the islands of St. Helena, La
dies, Po rt R oyal , Paris , and a few small
er islands, which, together with Hilton
Head, make the district occupied by our
forces. Th e largest and most populous of
these islands is St. Hel ena , being fifteen
miles long an d six or seven broad , con
taining fifty plantations and three thou
sand negroes , and perhaps more s ince
the evacuat ion of Edis to . Po rt Royal is
two-thirds or three-quarters the size of
St . Helena, Ladies half as large, and
Hil ton He ad one-th ird as large. Paris ,
or Parry, has five plantations, and Coo-
saw, Mo rgan, Cat , Can e, and Barnw ell
hav e each one or two . Beaufo rt is the
largest town in the district of tha t nam e,
and the only one at Po rt Royal in our
possession. Its popula tion, black and
white, in time of pea ce m ay have been
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2 9 4 Hie Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
between two and three thousand. Th e
first lots were granted in 1717. Its Epis
copal churc h was built in 1720. Its li
bra ry was instituted in 1802, had increa s
ed in 1825 to six or eight hun dre d vol
umes , and when our military occupationbegan contained about th irty-five hun
d red .
Th e orig in of the name P ort R oyal ,
given to a harbor at first and since to an
is land, has already been note d. ' Th e
name of St. Helena, applied to a sound,
a parish, and an island, originated prob
ably with the Span iards, and was g iven
by them in t r ibute to Saint Helena, the
mother of Constant ine the Great , whose
day in the calendar is August 18th .
Broad River is the equivalent of La
Grande, which was g iven by Ribaul t .Hil ton H ead m ay have been derived from
Captain H il ton , who came from Barba
dos. Coosaw is the name of a tribe of
Ind ians . Beau fort is likely to have been
so called for He nry , D uk e of Beauford,
one of the lord proprietors, while Caro
l ina was a province of Great Bri tain .
Th e Beauf ort District is not inv ested
with any considerable Revolut ionary ro
ma nce . In 1779, the British forces hold
ing Sav annah sent two hund red t roops
with a how itzer a nd two field-pieces to
Bea ufort. Fo ur companies of militia
from Char lesto n with tw o field-pieces,
reinforced by a few volunteers from
Beaufort, repulsed and drove them otF.
Th e Bri t ish made marau ding incursions
from Charleston in 1782, and are said to
have levied a mihtary contribut ion on
St . Helena and Port Royal Is lands .
Th ere are the remains of Indian mounds
and a ncie nt forts on the islands. O ne
of the se last, it is said, can be trac ed on
Paris Island, and is claimed by some an
tiquaries to be the Charles Fort built by
Rib ault . Th ere are the well-preserved
walls of one upon the plantation of John
J. Sm ith on Po rt Royal Island, a few
miles south of Beaufort, now called Camp
Saxton, and recent ly occupied by Col
onel Higg inson's regim ent. It is built
of cem ented oyster-shells. Common re
mark refers to it as a Spanish fort, but
it is likely to be of English construction.
Th e site of C harles Fo rt is claimed for
Beaufort , Lemon Is land, Paris Is land,
and other points.
The Sea Islands are formed by the in
tersection of the creeks and arms of thesea. Th ey have a uniform level, are
without any s tones , and present a rather
monotonous and uninteres t ing scenery ,
spi te of the raptures of Fre nc h explorers .
The creeks run up in to the is lands at
numerous points, affording facilities for
transportation by flats and boats to the
buildings which are usually near them.
Th e soil is of a light, sandy mould, a nd
yields in the best seasons a very moder
ate crop, say fifteen bushels of corn and
one hundred or one hundred and th irty
pounds of ginned cotton to the acre, •—•quite different from th e planta tions in Mis
sissippi and Texas, where an acre pro
duces five or six hun dre d pounds. Th e
soil is not ric h enou gh for the cult ivat ed
grasses, and one finds but little turf. T h e
coarse saline grasses, gathered in stacks,
.furnish the chief material for manure.
The long-fibred cotton peculiar to the
region is the result of the climate, which
is affected by the action of the salt wa
ter upon the atmosphere by means of
the creeks which permeate the land in
all directions. T he seed of this cotton,planted on the upland, will produce in
a few years the cotton of coarser text
ure ; and the seed of the lat ter , p lanted
on the islands, will in a like period pro
duce the finer s taple. Th e Trea sury De
partment secured eleven hundred thou
sand pounds from the islands occupied
by our forces, including Edisto, being the
crop, mostly unginned, and gathered in
storehouses, when our -military o ccupa
t ion began.
Th e characteris tic t rees are the l ive-oak, its wood almost as heavy as lig-
num-vitse, the trunk not high, but some
times five or six feet in diameter, and
extending its crooked branches far over
the land, with the long, pendulous, fune
real moss adhering to them , — and the
palmetto, shooting up its long, spongy
stem thirty or forty feet, unrelieved by
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Eoyal. 2 9 5
vines or branc hes, with a disproportion
ately small cap of leaves at the summit,
the most ungainly of trees, albeit it gives
a name and coa t -o f -a rms to the S ta te .
Besides these, are the p ine, the red
and white oak, the cedar, the bay, thegum , the maple, and the ash. Th e soil
is luxuriant with an undergrowth of
impene trable v ines . T hese in terlacing
the trees, supported also by shrubs, of
which the cassena is the most distin
guished variety, and faced with ditches,
make the prevailing fences of the plan
tat ions . The hedges are adorned in
Ma rch and Apri l with the yel low jes
samine, {jelseminum,') — the cross-vine
(bignonia,) with its mass of rich red
blossoms, — the Chero kee rose, (Icevi-
gata,) spreading out in long wavingwreaths of w hite , — and, two months
later , the palmetto royal , (yucca glorio-
sa,') which protects the fence with its
prickly leaves, and dehghts the eyes with
its pyramid-like clusters of white flow
ers. Some of these trees and shrubs
serve a utilitari an end in ar t an d m edi
cine . The live-oak is famous in ship
bui ld ing. The palmetto , or cabbage-pal
metto, as it is called, resists destruction
by worm s, and is used for facing wha rves.
I t was employed to protect Fo rt M oul
trie in 17 76, when bombarded by the
British fleet; and the cannon-balls were
buried in its spongy substance. Th e
moss (tillandsia usneoides) served to
calk th e rud e vessel of the first F re nc h
colonists, longin g for hom e. It may be
used for bedding after its life has been
killed by boiling water, and for the sub
sistence of cattle when destitute of other
food. Th e cassena is a powerful diuretic.
The game and fish, which are both
abundant and of desirable kinds, and to
the pursui t of winch the p lanters weremuch addicted, are described in Eliot 's
book. • Russel l 's " D ia ry " may also be
consulted in relation to fishing for devil
and drum.
The best dwellings in Beaufort are
capacious, with a piazza on the first and
second stories, through each of which
runs a largo hall to admit a free circula
tion of air. On ly one, howe ver, app ear
ed to have been bui l t und er the super
vision of a professional arc hite ct. Thos e
on the plantations, designed for the plant
ers or overseers, were, with a few ex
cept ions, of a very mean character, anda thriv ing mechanic in New England
would tur n his back on them as unfit to
l ive in . Their yards are without turf,
having as their best feature a neighbor
ing grove of orange - trees . On e or two
dwellings only appe ar to be ancient. In
deed, they are not well enough built to
last long. Th e estates upon Edisto Is
land are of a more patrician character,
and are occasionally surrounded by spa-
clous flower-gardens and ornam enta l trees
fancifully trimmed.
Th e names of the p lanters indicatedmainly an English origin, although some
may be traced to Huguenot families who
sought a refuge here from the religious
persecut ions of France.
The deserted houses were general ly
found strewn with rehgious periodicals,
mainly Baptis t magazines . This charac
teristic of Southern life has been else-'
where observed in the progress of our
arm y. Occasionally some book deno un
cing slavery as criminal and ruinous was
found among those left behind. On e of
these was Hewatt 's history of South
Carolina, published in 1779, and re
printe d in Carroll 's collection. An othe r
•was Gregoire's vindication of the negro
race and tribute to its distinguished ex
amples , t ranslated by Warden in 1810.
These people seem, indeed, to have had
light enough to see the infinite wrong of
the system, and it is difficult to believe
them entirely sincere in their passion
ate defence of it . Th eir very violence,
when the moral basis of slavery is as
sailed, seems to be that of a man whodistrusts the rightfulness of his daily con
duct, has resolved to persist in it , and
therefore hates most of all the prophet
who comes to con front him for his mis
deeds, and, if need be, to publish them
to mankind.
Well-authe nt icated ins tances of cruel ty
to slaves wer e brough t to notice withou t
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2 9 6 The Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
bein g sought for. Th e whip ping-tr ee is
now often po inted out, still showing the
place where it was worn by the rope
which boun d the sufferer to it . O n the
plantat ion whe re my own quar ters were
was a woman who had been so beatenwhen approaching the t r ials of materni ty
as to crush out the life of the unborn
child . Bu t th is p lanter had one daugh
ter who looked with horror on the scenes
of which she was the unwilling witness.
She declared to her parents and s is ters
that it was hell to live in such a place.
She was accustomed to advise the ne
groes how best to avoid being whip ped.
W he n the wa r began, she assured them
that the s tory of the masters that the
Yankees were going to send them to
Cub a was all a lie. Sur ely a kind Pro videnc e will care for this noble gi rl! This
war wil l , indeed, emancipate o thers than
blacks from bonds which marria ge and
kin dre d hav e involved. B ut it is un
pleasant to dwell on these painful scenes
of the past, constant and authe ntic as
they a re ; and they hardly concern the
• prac tical question which now presses for
a solution. Nor in referrin g to them is
there any need of in just ice or exaggera
t ion . Hu ma n nature has not the phys
ical endurance or moral pers is tence to
keep up a perpetual and universal cruelty ; and th ere are fortunate slaves who
never received a blow from their mas
t e r s . Besides, there was less labor ex
acted and less discipline imposed on the
loosely ma nage d plantations of the Sea
Islands than in other districts where
slave-labor was better and more profitr
ably organized and directed .
The capture of Hil ton Head and Bay
Poin t by the navy, November 7 th , 1861,
was followed by the imm ediate militar y
occupation of the Sea Islands. In t he
la t t e r pa r t o f December , the S ecre ta ry
of the T reasur y , Mr. Chase, whose fore
sight as a statesman and humane dispo
sition nat ura lly .turned his thoug hts to
the subject, deputed a special agent to
visit this district for the purpose of re
porting upon the condition of the negroes
who had been aband oned by the wh ite
population, and of suggesting some plan
for the organization of their labor and the
promotion of their general well-being.
Th e agen t , leav ing New Yor k J anu ary
13th, 1862, reached that city again on hisway-to Washington on the 13th of Feb ru
ary, having in the mean time visited a
large number of the p lantat ions , and talk
ed familiarly with the neg roes in thei r cab
ins. Th e results of his observations, in re
lation to the condition of the people, their
capacities and wishes, the culture of their
crops, and the best mode of adm inistra
tion, on the whole favorable, were embod
ied in a repo rt. Th e plan proposed by
h im recommended the appo in tmen t o f
superintendents to act as guides of the
negroes and as local magistrates, with anadequ ate corps of teachers . I t was ac
cepted by the Secretary with a fu l l in
dorsement , and i ts execut ion in trusted
to the same agent . The agen t present
ed the subject to several members of
Congress, with whom he h ad a perso n
al acquaintanc e, but , though they lis
tened respectfully, they seemed either to
dread the magnitude of the social ques
tion, or to feel that it was not one with
which they as legislators were called up
on immediately to deal . The S ecreta ry
himself, and Mr. Olmsted, then connected with the San itary Comm ission, alone
seemed to grasp it, and to see the neces
sity of immediate action. It is doubtful
i f any mem ber of the Cabinet , excep t
Mr. Chase, took then any interest in the
enterprise, though it has since been fos
tered by the Secre tary of W ar . A t the
suggestion of the Sec reta ry, th e P resi
dent appointed an in terview with the
agent . Mr. Lincoln , who was then chaf
ing under a prospect ive bereavement , lis
tened for a few moments, and then said,
somewhat impatiently, that he did not
think he ought to be troubled with such
detai ls ,—that there seemed to be an i tch
ing to get negroes into our lines; to which
the age nt repl ied , that these negroes were
within them by the invitation of no one,
being domiciled there before we com
menced occupat ion. Th e Preside nt then
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 2 9 7
•wrote and handed to the agent the fol
l o w i n g c a r d : —
" I shall be obliged if the S ec. of the
Tre asu ry wi l l in his discre tion give Mr.
Pierce such inst ruct ions in regard to PortRoyal contrabands as may seem judic ious.
" A . L I N C O L N .
" Feb. 15,1862."
Th e Presid ent , so history must w ri te
i t , approached the great quest ion slowly
and re luc t an t ly ; and in Februa ry , 1862 ,
he l i t t le dreamed of the proclamat ions he
was to i ssue in t h e Sep tem ber and J an
ua ry fol lowing. Pe rha ps tha t slowness
and re luctan ce were wel l , for thereb y i t
was given to this people to work out
thei r own sa lvat ion, ra ther than to be
saved by any chief or prophet .
Notwi ths t and ing the p l an o f supe r in
t enden t s was accep ted , t he re were no
funds wherew ith to pay them . At this
stage the " Educat ional Commission," or
ganized in Boston on the 7th of Feb
rua ry , and the " Freed men ' s R e l i e f As
socia t ion," organized in New York on
the 20th of the same month, gal lant ly
vo lun tee red to pay bo th supe r in t enden t s
and teachers , and did so unt i l Ju ly 1st ,
when the Government , hav ing de r ived a
fund from the sale of confiscated cotton
lef t in the terr i tory by the Rebels, under
took the pay men t of t he supe r in t enden t s ,
the tw o spciet ies, together wi th an othe r
organized in Phi ladelphia on the 3d of
March , and ca l led the " Po r t Ro ya l R e
l ief Commit tee ," providing for the sup
por t o f t he t eache rs .
W he n these volunta ry associa t ions
spra ng into being to save an enterprise
which otherwise must have fa i led, no
authori ta t ive assurance had been given
as to the legal condition of the negroes.Th e S ecre ta ry, in a le t ter to the agen t ,
had said, that, after being received in
to our service , they could not , wi thout
great injust ice , be restored to thei r mas
ters, and should therefore be fit ted to be
come se l f-support ing c i t izens. Th e Presi
dent was reported to have sa id free ly, in
private , tha t negroes who were wi thin
VOL. X I I . • 20
our l ines, and had been employed by the
Government , should be protected in thei r
freedom. N o oflicial assu ranc e of this
had, however , been given; and i t s ab
sence disturbed the societies in their for
mat ion. A t one meet ing of the Bostonsocie ty. ac t ion was tem porari ly arrested
by the expression of an opinion by a gen
t leman present , tha t there was no evi
dence showing that these people , when
educated, would not be the vic t ims of
some unh app y compromise . A publ ic
meet ing in Providence, for thei r relief,
i s sa id tp have broken up wi thout ac t ion, .
because of a speech from a furloughed
officer of a regiment stationed at Port
Roy al , who con sidered such a resul t th e
probab le one. Bu t the socie t ies, on re
flection, wisely determ ined to do w hatthey could to prepare them to become
self-supporting citizens, in the belief, t ha t ,
when they ha d become such, no Gov ern
ment could ever be found base enough to
turn I ts back upon them. The se associa
t ions, i t should be sta ted, have been man
aged by persons of much considera t ion in
thei r respect ive communi t ies, of unosten
ta t ious phi lanthropy, but of energet ic and
pract ica l benevo lence , hardly one of whom
has ever fi l led or been a candidate for a
poHtical oflice.
There was a pleasant interview at this
t ime which may f it ly be ment ioned . Th e
vene rab le Jos l ah Q uincy , j us t en t e red on
his ninety-f irst ye ar , hear ing of the enter
pr ise , desi red to see one who had charge
of i t . I went to his chamber, wh ere he
had been confined to his bed for many
week s wi th a frac tured l imb. H e ta lked
l ike a pat r iot who read the hour and i t s
duty . H e fe lt t roubled lest adeq uate
power had not been given to protect the
ente rpris e, — said th at bu t for his disa
bili ty he should be glad to write something about i t , but tha t he was l iving
" the p ostscript of his l if e" ; and as we
parted, he gave his hearty benedic t ion to
the work and to myself Restored in a
me asu re to activity, he is sti ll spared to th e
generation which fondly cherishes his old
age ; and recent ly, a t the organizat ion of
the Union Club, he read to his fellow-citi-
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2 9 8 The Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
zens, gathering c lose about him and ha ng
ing on his speech, words of counsel and
encouragement .
On the morning of the 3d of March,
1862, the first delegation of superintend
ents and teac hers , fifty-three in all , ofwhom twe lve wer e wom en, lef t the har
bor of New York, on board the Uni ted
Sta tes steam-transport At lant ic , a iTiving
at Beaufo rt on the 9th. I t was a voy
age neve r to be forgot ten. Th e enter
pr ise was new a nd «t ran ge, an d i t was
not easy to pre dict i ts future . Success
• or defeat m ight be in store for us ; a nd
we could only t rust in God that our
st rength would be equal to our respon
sibilit ies. As the colonists app roac hed the
shores of South Carol ina , they were ad
dressed by the agent in charge", who toldthem the l i t t le he had learned of thei r
dut ies, enjoined pat ience a nd hum ani ty,
impressed on them the greatness of thei r
work, the resul ts of which were to cheer
or dishearten good men, to se t t le , per
haps , one way or the other , the socia l
problem of the age , — assuring them that
never did a vessel bear a colony on a
nobler mission, not ev en the Mayflower,
when she conveyed the Pi lgr ims to Ply
mouth, tha t i t would be a poorly wri t ten
history which should omit the i r individ
ual names, and that, if faithful to their
t rust , there would come to them the high
est of all recognitions ever accorded to
angels or to men, in this hfe or the next ,
— " Inasmu ch a s ye have done it un to the
least of these , ye have done i t unto Me."
This f i rst de legat ion of superintendents
and teachers were dist r ibuted during the
first fortnight after their arrival at Beau
fort , and at i ts close they had all reached
thei r appoin ted posts . The y took thei r
quarters in the deser ted houses of the
plan ters . These had a l l lef t on the ar
r ival of our army, only four w hi te me n,
c i t izens of South Carol ina , remaining,
and none . of those being slaveholders,
except one , who had only two or three
slaves. Ou r opera t ions we re , therefore ,
not interfered wi th by landed proprie tors
who were loyal or pre tended to be so.
The negroes had, in the mean t ime, been
without persons to guide and care for
them, and had been exposed to the Care
less and conflicting talk of soldiers who
chanc ed to mee t them . Th ey we re also
brought in connect ion wi th some em
ployes of the G overnmen t , engaged inthe collection of cotton found upon the
planta t ions, none of whom were doing
anything for thei r educat ion, and most
of whom were in favor of leasing the
planta t ions and the negroes upon them
as a&crtpft"^fe6cE, looking forward to their
restoration to their masters at the close
of the war. The y were unce rta in as to the
in t en t ions o f t he Y ankees , and were w on
dering at the confusion, as they called it .
They were beginning to plant corn in
thei r patches, but were disincl ined to
plan t cot ton, regardin g i t as a badg e ofservi tude. No schools had been open ed,
except one a t Beaufort , which had been
kep t a few w eeks by two freedmen, one
bea r ing the name of John Mi l ton , unde r
the auspices of the Kev. Dr. Peck. This
is not the place to detail the obstacles we
met wi th, one af ter anoth er overcome, —
the calumnies and even personal violence
to which we were subjected. The se things
occurred a t an ear ly period of our st rug
gle , when the nat ion was groping i t s way
to l ight , and are n ot l ike ly to occur again.
Let unworthy men sleep in the obl ivion
they deserve , and le t others of bet ter na
tures, who were then bl ind, but now see ,
not be taun ted wi th thei r inconsidera te
acts. The nickname of Gibeoni tes, ap
plied to the colonists, may, however, be
f it ly remem bered. I t may now just ly
cla im rank wi th the honored t i t les of
Pu ri tan and Methodist . Th e higher ofl i-
cers of the army w ere uniformly respect
ful an d disposed to coop eration. O ne of
these may properly be men t ioned. Ou r
most important opera t ions were in the
dist r ic t under the command of Brigadier-
General Isaac I. Stevens, an officer whose
convictions were not supposed to be fa
vorable to the enterprise , and who, dur
ing the polit ical contest of 1860, had been
the chairman of the Nat ional Breckin
ridg e Com mittee. B ut such >vas his hon
or as a gent leman, and his sense of the
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 2 9 9
duty of subordination to the wishes of
the Go vern men t , th a t his personal cour
tesies a nd official aid w er e ne ve r wan1>
ing. H e receive d his mo rta l woun d a t
Chantil ly, Virginia, on the first of Sep
temb er fol lowing, and a brav er and ablerofficer has not fallen in the service.
Notw ithstanding our work was .com
menc ed six weeks too la te , and o ther hin
drances occurred, deta i led in the second
report of the agent , some e ight thousand
acres of es culents, — a fair s upply of food,
— and some four thousand f ive hun dred
acres of cotton (after a deduction for
ove r -e s t ima te s) were p l an ted . Th i s was
done upon one hundred and e ighty-nine
planta t ions, on which were nine thousand
and fifty people, of whom four thousand
four hundred and twenty-nine were f ie ld-hands, made up of men, women, and
chi ldren, and equivalent , in the usual
classification and estimate of the produc
t ive capaci ty of laborers, to three thou
sand eight hundi-ed and five and one-
half ful l hand s. Th e cot to n-cr op pro
duced will not exceed sixty-five thousand
pound s of ginned cot ton. W or k enough
was done to have produced f ive hundred
thousand pounds in ordinary t imes; but
the imm atu rity of the pod , resu lting fi-om
the la teness of the plant ing, exposed i t
to the ravages of the frost and the worm.Troops being ordered No rth, af ter the dis
asters of the Peninsular campaign, Edisto
was evacuated in the middle of July, and
thus on e thousand acres of esculents, and
nearly seven hu ndred acres of cot ton, the
cultivation of which had been finished,
we re abando ned. In the autum n, Major-
Ge neral Mitchel l req uired for ty tons of
corn - fodder and s eve nty- e igh t thousand
pounds of corn in the ear, for army-forage.
These are but some of the adverse influ
ences to which the agricul tura l o pera
t ions were subjected.
It is fi t t ing here that I should bear
my test imony to the superintendents and
teac her s commissioned by the associa
t ions. Th ere was as high a purpose and
devot ion among them as in any colony
that ever wen t for th to bear th e evangel of
civilization. Am ong the m we re some of
the choicest young men of New England,
f i 'esh from Harvard, Yale , and Brown,
from the divinity-schools of Andover and
Cam bridge, — men of pract ica l ta lent and
exp erien ce . Th ere were some of whom
the world was scarce worthy, and towhom, wh ether they are amoug th e l iv
ing or the dead, I de l ight to pay the
ti-ibute of my resp ect an d adm iration.
Fo ur of the or iginal delegat ion h ave
died. Wil l iam S. Clark died a t Boston,
Ap ri l 25th, 1863, a consumptive when
he entered on the work, which he was
obliged to leave six months before his
dea th. H e was a faithful and conscien
t ious teacher . Tho ugh so man y mon ths
had passed since he left these labors,
their fascination was such that he dtvelt
fondly upon them In his last days.
The colony was first broken by the
dea th of Franc i s E . Ba rna r d , a t S t . H e
lena Island, October 18th, 1862. H e
was devoted, en thusiast ic , — and though
no t fitted, as it at first ap pe are d, for the
pract ica l dut ies of a superintendent , ye t
eve n in t i lls respec t disappo inting m e en
tirely . H e was an evangelist , also, and_
he preached w i th more unct ion than any
oth er the go spel of freedom, — alway s,
however , enforc ing the dut ies of indust ry
and se l f-rest ra int . H e was neve r sad, but
a lways buoyan t and t rustful . H e and
a com rade w ere th e first to be sepa rat
ed from the company, whi le a t Hi l ton
Head, and before the rest went to Beau
fort , — bein g assigned to E disto, which
had been occupied less than a month,
and was a rem ote and exposed po int ;
but he went fearlessly and without ques
t ion. Th e evacuat ion of Edisto in Ju
ly, the heat, and the labor involved in
bringing away and se t t l ing his people
at the vi l lage on St . Helena Island, a
summer resort of the former residents,
where were some fifty vacant houses,
we re too mu ch for him. Hi s excessive
exert ions brought on malar ious fever .
Th i s p roduced an unna tu ra l exc i t ement ,
and a t mid -da y, un de r a hot sun, he
rode about to a t ten d to his people . H e
died, — men, wom en, and chi ldren, for
whom he had toiled, fi l l ing the house with
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300 The Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
thei r sobs during his depart ing hours.
His fvmeral was thronged by them, bis
coffin strewn with flowers which they
and his comrades had plucked, and then
his remains were borne to his nat ive
town , whei-e burial-rites were again performed in the old church of Dorchester.
Re ad his publ ished jour nal , a nd f ind how
a noble youth can Uve fourscore years in
a li t t le moj 'e tha n one score. O ne high
privilege was accorded to him. H e liv
ed to bear of the inmiortal edict of the
twenty-second of September, by which
the freedom of his people was to be se
cured for all t ime to come.
Sam uel D. Ph i l l ips was a young man
of mu ch religious feeling, though he n ev
er 'a dve rt ise d himself as having i t , and
a devout com munican t of the Episcopal
Church . H e was a gent lem an born and
bred, inheri t ing the qu al i ty as wel l as
add ing to i t by self-discipline. H e had
good business-ca paci ty, never complain
ed of inconveniences, was humane, yet
not misled by sent iment , and he gave
mo re of his t ime, otherwise unocc upied,
to teaching than a lmost any other super
inten den t . I was recen t ly asking the
most advanced pupils of a school on St.
Helena who f i rst taught them thei r le t
t e r s , and the frequent answer was, " Mr.
Phi l l ips." H e was a t home in the au
tumn for a vacation, was at the funeral
of Barnard in Dorchester , and though
at the time in imperfect health, he hast
ened back to his charge, feeling that the
death of Barnard, whose dist r ic t was the
same as his own, rendered his immediate
return necessary to the comfort of his
people . H e went , — but his heal th n ev
er came back to him. PIIs qu arte rs w ere
in the same house where Barnard had
died, and in a few days, on th e 6th of
Dec emb er, he followed him. H e was
tended in his sickness by the negroes,
and one day, having asked that his pillow
might be turned , he ut tered the wo rds,
"T ha nk God ," and d i ed . The re was
the same grief as a t Ba rna rd 's death,
the same funera l -r i tes a t the St . Hele
na Church, and his remains were born e
North to bereaved re la t ives.
Danie l Bowe was an a lumnus of Yale
Col lege , and a student of the Andover
Theological Seminary, not yet grad uat
ed when he turned from his professional
studies at the summons of Christian duty.
He labored faithfully as a superintendent, looking after the physical, moral,
and ' educat ional interests of his peo ple .
He had a difficult post, was overburdened
with labor, and perhaps had not the facul
ty of takin g as good car e of himself as
was even consistent wi th his dut ies. H e
came home in the summer, commended
the enterprise and his people to the c i t
izens and students of Andover , and re
tur ned . H e afterw ards fell i l l , and , again
coming North, died October 30th,-a few
days af ter reaching New Yo rk. Th e
young w oman w ho was bet rothed to him,but wh om he did not l ive to wed , has since
his' deat h sough t this field of labo r; and
on my recent visit I found her upon the
planta t ion where he had resided, teaching
the children whom he had first taught,
and whose parents be had guided to free
dom. Truly , the age of Christ ian ro
mance has not passed away!
On the first of July, 1862, the admin
istration of affairs at Port Royal having
been t ransferred from the Treasury to
the W ar Depa r tment , t he cha rge o f t he
freedmen passed into the hands of Brig
ad ie r -G ene ra l Rufus Sax ton , a na t ive
of Massachuset ts , who in chi ldhood'had
breathed the free air of the valley of
the Connect icut , a man of sincere a nd
hum ane n a tu re ; and unde r h is wi se and
benevolent care they st il l rema in. Th e
Sea I s l ands , and a l so Fe rnand ina and
St . August ine in Florida , are wi thin our
l ines in the Department of the South,
and some sixteen or e ighteen thousand
negroes are supposed to be under his
jur isdic t ion.
The negroes of the Sea Islands, when
found by us, had become an ab ject rac e,
more docile and submissive tha n thos e
of an y other locality. Th e nat ive Afri
can was of a fierce and mettlesome tem
per , sul len and untam able . Th e master
was obl iged to abate something of the
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1 8 6 3 . ] Tlie Freedmen at Port Eoyal. 3 0 1
usual rigor in dealing with the import
ed slaves. A tax-commissioner, now at
Po rt Royal , and formerly a res ident of
South Carol ina, to ld me tha t a nat ive
African belonging to his father, though a
faithful man, would perpetually insist ondoing his work in his own way, and be
ing asked the threatening quest ion," A'n ' t
you going to mind ? " would answ er, w ith
spirit , " No, a 'n ' t gwine t o ! " and the
ma ster desisted. Seve re discipline drove
th e native s to the w ilderness, or involved
a mu tilation of person w hich destroye d
their value for proprieta ry purpose s . ' In
1816, eight hundred of these refugees
we re living free in the swamps and ever
glades of Florida. Th ere the ancestors
of some of them had lived ever since the
early par t of the eighteenth cen tury , rea ring families, carrying on farms, and rais
ing cat t le . Th ey had two hund red and
fifty men fit to bea r a rms , led by chiefs
brav e and skilful. Th e story of the Ex
iles of Flor ida is one of painful inter est.
The testimony of officers of the army who
served against them is , that they were
more dangerous enemies than the In
dians, fighting the most skilfully and
standing the longest . Th e tax-commis
sioner before referred to, who was a res
ident of Charles ton during the t r ial and
execution of the confederates of Denm ark
Vesey, relates tha t one of the nat ive
Africans, when called to answer to the
charge against h im, haughti ly responded,
— " / was a prince in my country, and
have as much right to be- free as you !"
Th e Carol in ians were so awe - s t ruck by
his defiance tha t they t ransported him.
Anoth er, at the execut ion, turne d in
dignantly to a comrade about to spea k,
and said, " Die silent, as I do.'" and
the man hushed. The early newspapers
of Georgia recount the d is turbances on
th e plantati ons occasioned by these na
tive Africans, and even by their chil
dren, being not unt i l the th ird genera
tion reduced to obedient slaves.
Now here has the deteriorat ion of the
negro es from their native manh ood been
carried so far as on these Sea Islands, —
a deterioration due to their isolation from
the excitem ents of more populous districts,
the constant surveillance of the overseers,
and their in termarriage with each oth
er, involving a physical degeneracy with
which inexorable Nature punishes d iso
bedience to her laws. Th e populat ionwith its natural increase was sufficient for
the cultivation of the soil under existing
modes, and there fore no fresh blood was
adm itted, such as ia found pour ing fi-om
the Border States in to the sugar and cot^
ton regions of the Southwest . This un
manning and depravat ion of the nat ive
charac ter had been c arried so far, that th e
special agent, on his first exploration, in
Ja nu ar y, 18 62, was obliged to confess th e
existence of a general disinclination to
military service on the part of the ne
groes ; though i t is t rue that eve n theninstances of courage and adve nture ap
peared , which indicated th at the m ore
manly feeling was only latent, to be de
veloped un der the insp iration of even ts.
An d so, let us rejoice, it has bee n. You
may think yourself wise, as you note the
docility of a subject race; but in vain
will you attempt to study it until the
bur den is lifted. Th e slave is unkn ow n
to all, even to himself, while the bondage
lasts. Nature is ever a k ind mother.
She soothes us with he r dece its, not in
surgery alone, when the sufferer, else
wri th ing in pain , is t ransported with the
sweet delirium, but she withholds from
the spirit the sight of her divinity until
her opportuni ty has come. Not even
Tocqueville or Olmsted, much less the
master, can measure the capaci t ies and
possibilities of the slave, unti l the slave
himself is t ransmuted to a man.
My recent v is i t to Port Royal extend
ed from M arch 25th to M ay 10th. It
was pleasant to meet the first colonists,who still toiled at their posts, and special
ly grateful to receive the welcome of the
freedmen, and to note the progress they
had made . Th ere wer e in teres t ing scenes
to fiU the da ys. I saw an aged n egro ,
CsBsar by na me, not less than one hun
dred years old, who had left children in
Africa, wh en stolen away. Th e vicissi-
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302 Tlie Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
tude s of such a life were striking , — a free
savage in the wilds of his native land, a
prisoner on a slave-ship, then for long
years a toiling slave, now again a freeman
under the benign edict of the Pres ident ,
— his life cover ing an h istoric ce ntur y.A faithful and industrious negro. Old Si
mon, as we called him, hearing of my
arrival , rode over to see me, and brough t
me a prese nt of tw o or three quarts of
pea- nuts and some sevente en eggs. I had
an in terview with Don Carlos, whom I
had seen in May, 1862, at Edisto, the
fai thful at tendant upon Barnard , and who
had be en both with h im and Phil l ips dur
ing their las t h our s ,— now not less tha n
seventy years of age, and early in life a
slave in the Alston family, where he had
known Theodosia Burr, the daughter of
Aar on Bur r, and wife of Govern or A ls ton.
H e talked in tel l igent ly upon ' her person
al history and her mysterious fate. H e
had known John Pierpont , when a teach
er in the family of Colonel Alston, and
accompanying the sons on their way
North to college after the completion of
their prep arato ry s tudies . Pier pont was
a classmate of John C. Calhoun at Yale
College, and, upon graduat ing, went
South as a private tu tor.
Aunt PhilUs was not likely to be overlooked,— an old woman, with much p ower
of expre ssion, living on the plan tation
where my quarters had formerly been.
The at tack on Charles ton was going on,
and she said, " If you 're as long beating
Secesh ev erywh ere as you have been in
ta kin g th e tow n, guess it '11 tak e you
some time ! " Indeed, the negroes had
somewhat less confidence in our power
than at first, on account of our not hav
ing followed up the capture of Bay Point
and Hil ton Head. The same quaint o ld
creature, speaking of the d isregard of themasters for the feelings of the slaves, said,
with much emphasis , " They thought God
w a s d e a d ! "
I visited Barnw ell Island, the only pla n
tation upon which is that of Trescot, for
merly Secretary of Legat ion at London,
a visit to whom Russell describes In his
" Di ary ." Bu t the mansion is not now as
whe n Russell saw it. Its large librar y is
deposi ted in the Smithsonian Inst i tu t ion
at Washing ton. I ts spacious rooms in the
first and second stories, together with the
attics, are all filled with the families of
neg ro refiigees. Fr om this point, lookingacross the water, we could see a cavalry-
picket of the Reb els . Th e superin te nd
ent who had charge of the p lanta t ion , and
accompanied me, was Charles FoUen, an
inheri ted name , l inked with the s t ruggles
for freedom in both hemispheres.
The negro graveyards occasional ly at
t racte d me from the road. The y are
usually in an open field, under a clump
of some dozen or twenty t rees , perhaps
l ive-oaks , and not fenced. Th ere may be
fif ty or a hundred graves , mark ed only
by sticks eighteen inches or two feet high
and about as large as the wrist. Mr . Olm
sted saw some stones in a negro grave
yard at Savannah, erected by the s laves ,
and bea ring rathe r i l l i terate inscrip t ions ;
but I never succeeded in finding any but
wooden memorials, not even at Beaufort.
Only in one case could I find an inscrip
tion, and t hat w as in a buria l-place on
Ladies Is land. Th ere was a board at
the head of the grave, shaped something
l ike an ordinary gravestone, about three
feet high and six inches wide. Th e inscriptio n wa s as follows : —
OLd Jiwde PArt hisLife on tlie2 of WAYKe at frow
LAuer
On th e foot-board wore these w or ds: —•
We 11d ow N.
The rude artist was Kit, the son of theold ma n. H e can read, and also write
a little, a nd, like his decea sed father, is a
negro preacher. H e said tha t he used to
carry his father in his arms in his old age,
— that the o ld man had n o pain , and, as
the son expressed it, " sunk in yea rs."
1 inquired of Kit concerning several of
the graves; and I found, by his intelli-
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1,863.] TJie Freedmen at Port Royal. 303
gen t answers , t ha t t he i r t enan t s were
disposed in families and were known.
Th ese lowly burial-plac es, for wh ich a rt
has done nothing, are not wi thout a fas
cination, and In some hours of l ife they
tak e a faster hold on the sen t iments th anmore imposing cemeter ies, adorned wi th
shafts of marble and grani te , and r ich in
illustrious dead.
Th ere were some supersti t ions among
the people , perhaps of Afr ican or igin,
which the teachers had detected, such as
a belief in hags as evil spirits, and in a
kind of wi tchcraf t which only cer ta in
persons can cure . Th ey have a super
st i tion, tha t , whe n you tak e up and re
move a sleeping child, you must call i ts
spirit , else i t will cry, on awaking, until
you have taken i t back to the same placean d invoked its spirit . Th ey believ.e tha t
turn ing an a l l igator on his back w i ll br ing
ra in; and they wi l l not ta lk about one
when in a boat, lest a storm should there
by be brought on.
But the fea tures in the present condi
tion of the freedmen bearing directly on
the solution of the social problem de
serve most considera t ion.
And, first, as to education. T h e r e a r e
more than thi r ty schools in the terr i tory,
conducted by as many as forty or forty-
f ive teachers, who ar e commissioned b y
the three associa t ions in Boston, New
York, and Phi ladelphia , and by the
Am erican Missionary Associat ion. Th ey
have an average a t tendance of two thou
sand pupils, and are more or less fre
quen ted by an addi t ional thousand. Th e
ages of the scholars range in the main
from eight to twelve years. Th ey did not
know even thei r le t ters pr ior to a year
ago last March, except those who were
being taug ht in the single school a t Beau
fort a l ready referred to, which had bee ngoing on for a few weeks. Ve ry man y
did not have the opportuni ty for inst ruc
tion ti l l weeks and even months after.
Du ring the spring and summ er of 1862
theri^were not more than a dozen schools,
and these were much interrupted by the
heat, and by the necessity of assigning
at t imes some of the teachers to act as
superin tenden ts. Teac hers came for a '
brief t ime, and upon its expiration, or for
other cause , re tu rne d hom e, leaving th e
schools to be broken up. I t was not un
t i l October or November that the educat iona l a r rangement s were pu t i n to much
sh ape ; and they are sti l l bu t imperfect
ly organ ized. In some localit ies the re is
as yet no teacher , and this because the
associa tions have n ot had th e funds w here
wi th to provide one.
I v isited ten of the schools, and con
versed wi th the teachers of others. Th ere
wer e , i t may be noted, some mixed bloods
in the schools of the town of Be au for t,-^
ten in a school f f ninety, thi r teen in an
other of sixty-four , and twenty in anoth
er of seve nty. In the schools on thep lan ta t ions the re were neve r more than
half a dozen in one school, in some cases
but two or three , and in others none.
Th e adv anced c lasses were read ing sim
ple stories and didactic passages in the or
dina ry school-books, as Hillard 's Seco nd
Pr imary Reade r , Wi l l son ' s Second Read
er , and others of simi lar grad e. Those
who h ad enjoy ed a briefer period of in
st ruct ion were reading short sentences or
learnin g the a lphabet . In severa l of the
schools a class was engaged on an ele
mentary lesson in ar i thmet ic , geography,
or wri t ing. Th e eagerness for know ledge
and the facili ty of acquisit ion displayed
in the beginning had not abated.
On the 25th of March I visited a school
a t the Centra l Bapt ist Church on St .
He len a Island , bui l t in 1855, shaded by
lofty live-oak trees, with the long, pendu
lous moss everywhere hanging from thei r
wide-spreading branches, and surround
ed by the gravestones of the former pro
pr i e to r s , which bea r t he eve r - recur r ing
names of Fr ipp and Chapl in. This school
was opened in Septembe r last, but m any
of the pupi ls had received some inst ruc
tion before. O ne hu nd red and thii^ty-
one chi ldren were present on my f i rst
visit , an d one hu nd red an d forty-five on
my second, which was a few days later.
Like most of the schools on the planta
tions, it ope ned at noon and closed aA
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804 Tlie Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
three o'clock, leaving the forenoon for
the children to work in the field or per
form other service in which they could be
useful. On e class, of twelve pupils, rea d
page 70th in Wil lson 's Reader , on " Go
ing Aw ay." The y had not read the passage before , and they went through i t
with li tt le spelling or hesitation. Th ey
had recited the first thirty pages of
Tow le 's Sp el ler, and the mul t ipl ica t ion-
table as high as fives, and were commen
cing the sixes. A few of the scholars,
the youngest , or those who had come
latest to the school, were learning the
alph abe t. A t the close of the school,
they rec i ted in concert the Psalm, " The
Lord is my shepherd," r iquir ing prompt
ing a t the beginning of some of the
verses. The y sang wi th much spi r i thymns which had been taught them by
the teachers, as, —
also , -
" My country, 't is of thee,Sweet land of liberty";
" Sound the loud timbrel"
also, Whit t ler ' s new song, wri t ten ex
press ly for this school, th e closing s taa -
zas of which are ,—
" The very oaks are greener clad.
The waters brighter smile;Ob , never shone a da y so gladOn sweet St. Helen's Isle!
" For none in all the world beforeWere ever glad as we, —
We 're free on Carolina's shore,We 're all at home and free! "
Never has that pure Muse, which has
sung only of truth and light, as the high
est beauty and noblest ar t , been conse
cra ted to a bet te r service than to wri te
the songs of praise for these li t t le chil
dren, chat te ls no longer , whom the Sav
iour , were he now to walk on ear th,
would bless as his own.
The prevalent song, however , heard
in every school, in church, and by the
way-side , i s tha t of "John Brown," which
very much amuses our white soldiers, par
ticularly w hen the singers roll out, —
' We '11 han g Jeff Davis on a sour apple tre e! "
The children also sang their own songs,
" In de mornin' when I rise,Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh? *
In de mornin' when I rise,
Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh ?
" I wash my hands in de mornin' glorj'.Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh ?
I wash my hands in de moniin' glory,Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh ?
" Pray, Tony, pray, boy, you got de order,Tell my Jesus, Huddy oh ?
Pray, Tony, pray, boy, you got de order,Tell 'my Jesus, Huddy oh ?
" Pray, Rosy, pray, gal," etc.
Also, —
" I would not let you go, my Lord,I would not let you go,
I would not let j'ou go, my L ord,I w ould not let you go.
" Dere 's room enough, dere 's room enough,Dere 's room enough in de heab'nly
groun',Dere 's room enough, dere's room enough,
I can't stay behin'.
'' I can't stay behin', my Lord,I can't stay behin',
I can't stay behin', my Lord,1 can't stay behin'.
" De angels march all roun' de trone,De angels march all roun' de trone,De angels march all roun' de trone,
I can't stay behin'.
" I can't stay bebin', my Lord,I can't stay behin',
I can't stay bohin', my Lord,I can't stay behin'.
" Dere 's room enou gh," etc.
Other songs of the negroes are com
mon, as , " The Wres th ng Jaco b , " " Down
in the lonesome val ley," " Rol l , J ord an,
rol l ," " Heab 'n sha l l -a be my home."Russel l ' s "Diary" gives an account of
these songs, as he heard them in his even
ing row over Broad R iver , on his way to
Trcscot ' s esta te .
One of the teachers of this sehooMs an
accomplished woman from Philadelphia.
* Howd'y ' do?
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 3 0 5
An othe r is from New port , Rhode Is land,
where she had prepared herself for th is
work by benevolent labors in teaching
poor chi ldren. Th e th ird is a young wom
an of African desc ent, of olive complexion,
finely cul tured, and at tuned to al l beautiful sympath ies, of gen tle addre ss, and,
what was special ly not iceable, not pos
sessed with an overwrought consciousness
of her race . She had read the best books,
and natural ly and graceful ly enriched her
conversat ion with them . She had en
joyed the fr iendship of Wh it t ier ; had
been a pupil in the Gramm ar-School of
Salem, then in the State Normal School
in that ci ty , then a teacher in one of the
schools for white children, where she had
received only the k indest t reatm ent both
from the pupils and their pare nts , — andlet this be spoken to the honor of that an
cient town. She had refused a res idence
in Europe, where a better social life and
less unple asan t d iscriminat ion awa ited
her, for she would not dissever herself
from the fortunes of her people; and
now, not with a superficial sentiment,
but with a profound purpose, she devotes
herself to their elevation.
At Coffin Point, on St. Helena Island,
I visited a school kept by a young wom
an from the town of Milton, Massachusetts, " the child of par ent s passed in to
the skies," whose lives have both been
written for the edification of the Chris
tian world. She teaches tw o schools,
at different hours in the afternoon, and
with dift'erent scholars in each. On e class
had read through Hil lard 's Second Pri
mary Header, and were on a review,
rea ding Lessons 19, 20, and 21 , while I
was present . Being quest ioned as to
the subjects of the lessons, they answer
ed in tel l igent ly . Th ey reci ted the twos
of the mult ip l icat ion-table, explained numeral letters and figures on the black
boa rd, and wrote letter s and figures on
slates. Ano ther teach er in the adjoining
dis tr ict , a gradu ate of Ha rva rd , and the
son of a well-known U nitar ian clergyman
of Providence, Rhode Is land, has two
sehix)ls, in one of which a class of three
pupils was about finishing Ellsworth's
F i rs t P rog ress ive Reader , and ano ther ,
of seven pu pils, had j us t finished H il
l a rd 's Second Pr imary Read er . Ano ther
teacher, from Cambridge, Massachuset ts ,
on ' the same is land, numbers one hun
dre d pupils in his two schools. H e exercises a class in elocution, requiring
the same sentence to be repeated with
different ton es and inflections, and one
could not but remark the excel lent imi
tat ions .
In a school at S t . He lena vi l lage, w here
were col lected the Edis to refugees , n ine
ty -tw o pupils were pre sent as I we nt
in . Tw o ladies were engag ed in teach
ing, assisted by Ned Loyd White, a col
ored man, who had picked up clandes
tinely a knowledge of reading while still
a slave. On e class of boys an d anot her
of g irls read in th e seventh cha pter of
St . Joh n, having begun th is Gospel an d
gone thus far . Th ey s tumbled a l it t le on
words like " unrighteousness " and " cir
cumcision " ; otherwise the y got along
very well . W he n the Edis to refugees
were brought here, in July , 1862, Ned,
who is about forty or forty-five years
old , and Uncle Cyrus , a man of seventy ,
who also could read, gathered one hun
dred and fifty children into two schools,
and taught them as best they could for
five months unt i l teachers were provided
by the societies. N ed has since receiv
ed a donation from one of the societies,
and is now regularly employed on a
salary. A woman comes to one of the
teachers of this school for instruction in
the evening, after she has put her chi l
dren to bed. She had become in teres ted
in learning by hearing her younger s is ter
read when she came home from school;
and when ^ e asked to be taught , she
had learned from this sister the alphabet
an d some words of one syllable. Only asmall proportion of the adults are, how
ever, learning.
On the 8th of April, I visited a schdol
on Ladies Is land, kept in a small church
on the Eust is es tate , and taught by a
young woman from Kingston, Massachu
setts. She had manifested much persist
ence in going to this field, went with the
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30G The Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
first delegation, and still keeps the school
which she opene d in March , 1862. She
taugh t the pupils their let ters . Sixty-
six were present on the day of my vis
it. A class of ten pu pils rea d the story
which commences on page 86th of Hil-l a rd ' s Second Pr imar y Read er . One g ir l ,
Els ie , a ful l b lack, and rat he r ungain ly
withal , rea d so rapidly that she had to
be checked, — the only case of such fast
rea ding tha t I found. She assisted the
teacher by taking the beginners to a cor
ner of the room and exercis ing them up
on an alphabet card , requiring them to
give the names of letters taken out of
their regula r order, and with the let ters
making words , which they were expected
to repe at after her. One class reci ted
in Ea ton 's Fir s t Lessons in A ri thmetic ;
and two or three scholars with a rod
pointed out the s tates , lakes , and large
rivers on the ma p of the Un ited States ,
and also the diiferent continents on the
ma p of the world , as they w ere cal led .
I saw the teac he r of this school at her
residen ce, late in the afternoon, giv ing fa
miliar instruction to some ten boys and
girls, al l but two being under twelve
yea rs , who read the twenty-fi rs t chap ter
of the Book of Reve lat ion , and th e s tory
of Lazarus in the eleventh chapter of St .Joh n. Els ie was one of these. Seeing
me taking notes, she looked archly at the
teach er, and whispered, — " H e 's put
ting me in the book "; and as Elsie guess
ed, so I do. Th e teac her was instru ct
ing her pupils in some dates and facts
which have had much to do with our
his tory . Th e questions and answers ,
in which all the pupils join ed, we re
t h e s e : —
" W he re were s laves f irst brought to
th is country ? "
" Virginia."
" W h e n ? "
^" 1620."
' " W ho b rough t them ? "
" D u t c h m e n . "
" W ho cam e the same year to Ply
mouth , Massachuset ts ? "
" Pi lgrims."
" Did they b ring slaves ? "
" N o . "
A teacher in Beaufort put these ques
t ions, to which answers were g iven in
a loud tone b y the whole sc hool: —
" Wh at country do you l ive in ? "
" Un i ted S ta tes . "
" What State ? "
" South Carol ina."
" W ha t Island ? "
" Po r t Roya l . "
" W h a t t o w n ? "
" Beaufort ."
" AVho is you r Go ver nor ? "
" Genera l Sax ton ."
" Who is your Pres ident ? "
" Abraham Linco ln ."
" W h a t has he done for you ? "
" He 's freed us."There were four schools in the town of
Beaufort, all of which I visited, each hav
ing an average at tendance of from six ty
to n inety pupils , and each provided with
two teachers . In some of them wri t ing
was taught . But i t is unnecessary to de
scribe them, as they were very much l ike
the others. Th ere Is, besides, at B eaufort
an industrial school, which meets two af
ternoons in a week, and is conducted by
a lady from New York, with some dozen
ladies to assist her. Th ere were present ,
the afternoon I visited It, one hu ndr edand th irteen girls from six to twenty
years of age, all plying the needle, some
with p ieces of patchw ork, and others
with apron s, pillow - cases, or h an dk er
chiefs.
Though I have never been on the
school-committee, I accep ted in vitatio ns
to address the schools on these visits, and
particularly plied the pupils with ques
t ions, so as to catch the tone of their
minds; and I have rarely heard chi ldren
answer with more readiness and spiri t .
W e ha d a dialogue substantially as follows : —
" Children, what are you going to do
wh en you grow up ? "
" G oing to work. Sir ."
" O n w hat ? "
" Cotton and corn, Sir."
" W ha t are vou aolna to do with the
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 307
" Ea t i t . "
" W ha t are you going to do with the
cotton ? "
" SeU it."
" Wh at are you going to do with the
money you get for it ? "One boy answered in adv ance of the
res t , —
" Put i t in my pocket , Sir ."
" Tha t won ' t do . W h at ' s be t t e r than
that ? "
" Buy clo thes , Sir ."
" W ha t else will you buy ? "
" Shoes, Sir."
" W ha t else a re you going to do with
your money ? "
Th ere w as some hesi tation at th is point .
Then the quest ion was put , —
" W ha t ar e you going to do Sun
days ? "
" Going to meet ing."
" W ha t ar e you going to do there ? "
" Going to s ing."
" W ha t else ? "
" Hear the parson ."
" W ho 's going to pay him ? "
On e boy said, — " Gov ernm ent pays
him " ; but the res t answered, —
" W e 's pays h im."
" W e ll , when you grow up, you '11
probably get married , as o ther peopledo , and you '11 hav e you r little ch ildren ;
now, what wil l you do with them ? "
There was a t i t ter at th is quest ion;
bu t the gener al response came, —
" Send 'em to school. Sir."
" Well, who '11 pay the teacher ? "
" W e 's pays h im."
On e who l is tens to such answers can
hard ly th ink tha t there i s any na tu ra l
incapaci ty in these chi ldren to acquire
with maturi ty of years the ideas and hab
its of good citizens.
The children are cheerful, and, in most
of the schools, wel l-behaved, exce pt tha t
it is not easy to keep them from whisper
ing and talk ing. Th ey are joyous, and
you can see the boys after school playing
the soldier, with corn-s talks for guns.
The memory is very suscept ib le in them,
— too much so, perhaps, as it is ahead of
the reasoning facul ty .
The labor of the season has in terrupt
ed at ten danc e on the schools, the par
ents being daeirous of having the chil
dren aid them in p lant ing and cul t ivat ing
their crops , and i t not being though t best
to al low the teac hing to in terfere in anyway with industrious habi ts .
A few freedmen, who had picked up
an imperfect knowledge of reading, have
assisted our teach ers, thoug h a wa nt of
proper t rain ing material ly detracts ffom
the ir usefulness in this respe ct. Ne d
and Uncle Cyi 'us have already been
mentioned . Th e lat ter , a man of earnest
piety , has died since my visit. An tho ny
kept four schools on Hil ton Head Is land
las t summer and autumn, being paid at
f i rs t by the superin tendents , and after
wards by the negroes themselves; but in
November he enl is ted in the negro regi
me nt . He t t ie was anothe r of these. She
ass is ted B arn ard at Edis to las t spring,
continued to teach after the Edis to peo
ple were brought to St . Helena vi l lage,
and one day brought some of her pupils
to the school at the Baptist Church, say
ing to the teachers there that she could
carr y them no farther. The y could read
their letters and words of one syllable.
He tt ie had belonged to a p lan ter on W ad -
melaw Is land, a k ind old gent leman, anat ive of Rhode Is land, and about the
only citizen of Charleston who, when
Samuel Hoar went on his miss ion to
South Carolina, stood up boldly for his
official and perso nal protec tion. He ttie
had been taught to read by his daughter;
and let th is be remembered to the honor
of the young woman.
Such are the general features of the
schools as the y me t my eye. Th e most
advanced classes, and these are but little
ahead of the rest, can read simple stories
and the p lainer passages of Scrip ture;
and they could even pursue self-in
struction, if the schools were to be sus
pended . The knowledge they have thus
gained can neve r be ext i rpate d . Th ey
could read with much profi t a newspaper
special ly prepared for them and adapted
to their condit ion . Th ey are learn ing
that the world is not bounded north
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308 The Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
by Charleston, south by Savannah, west
by Columbia , and east by the sea , wi th
dim visions of New Yo rk «n this p lanet
or some other , — abou t thei r concep
t ion of geograp hy when we found them .
Th ey are acq uir ing th e knoM'ledge of
figures with w hich to do the business
of life. Th ey are singing the songs of
freemen. Visit their scho ols; rem em
ber tha t a l i t t le more tha n a twelve
mo nth ago they knew not a le t ter ,
and that for genera t ions i t has been
a cr ime to teach thei r race; then con
template what i s now t ranspir ing, and
you have a scene which prophets and
sages would have del ighted to wi tness.
It will be difficult to find equal progress
in an equal per iod since the morning
rays of Christian truth first l ighted the
hi ll -sides of Ju de a. I have nev er look
ed on St . Pete r ' s , or beheld the glor ies of
ar t which Michel Angelo has wrought or
t ra ce d; bu t to my mind the spectacle of
these poor souls st ruggl ing in darkness
and bewilderment to ca tch the gleams of
the upper and bet ter l ight t ranscends in
mora l g rand eur any th ing tha t has eve r
come from morta l hands.
Next a s t o industry. The l abore r s ,
during thei r f i rst year under the newsystem, have acquired the idea of owner
ship, and of the securi ty of wages, and
have come to see that labor and slavery
are not the same thing. Th e not ion that
they were to ra ise no more cot ton has
passed a wa y, since work u pon it is found
to be remunera t ive , and connec ted wi th
the proprie torship of land. Ho use -ser
van ts, who were a t f i rst par t icular ly se t
against i t , now general ly prefer i t . Th e
laborers have col lec ted the pieces of the
gins which the y destro yed on the flight
of thei r masters, the ginning being obnoxious work, repai red them, and ginned
the cot ton on the promise of wages. E x
cept up on p lanta t ions in the vic ini ty of
camps, where other labor i s more imme
d ia t e ly remunera t ive , and an unhea l thy
exci tem ent prevai ls , there is a gene ra l dis
position to cultiv ate i t . Th e cultu re of the
cot ton is volun tary, the only pen al ty for
not engaging in i t being the imposition of
a rent for the tenem ent and land adjacent
there to occupied by the negro, not ex
ceeding two dol lars per mon th. Both the
Government and private individuals, who
hav e become owner s of one-fou rth of the
land by the recent tax-sa les, pay twenty-
five cents for a standard day's-work, which
may, by beginning ear ly, be performed
by a heal thy an d act ive hand by no on ;
and the same was the case wi th the tasks
under the slave-system on very many
of the planta t ions. As I was r iding
through one of Mr. Phi lbr ick 's f ie lds
one morning, I counted f i f ty persons a t
work who belonged to one planta t ion.
Thi s gen t l eman , who went ou t wi th the
first delegation, and at the same time
gave largely to the bene volent contr ibu
t ions for the enterprise , was the leading
purch aser a t th e tax-sa les, and comBin-
ing a f ine humani ty wi th honest sagaci ty
and close calculation, no man is so well
f it ted to t ry the expe rimen t . H e bough t
thi r teen planta t ions, and on these has
had planted and cul t ivated e ight hun
dred an d sixteen acres of cot ton wh ere
four hundred and n ine ty -n ine and one
twelv e-hun dredth acres were cul t ivated
last year , — a larg er incre ase , how ever ,
than will generally be found in other dist r ic ts , due mainly to prompter payments.
The gene ra l supe r in t enden t o f Po r t Ro ya l
Island sa id to m e,— " W e hav e to rest ra in
ra ther than to encourage the negroes to
tak e land for cot ton." Th e genera l su
pe r in t enden t o f Hi l ton Head I s l and sa id ,
tha t on tha t i s land the negroes had , be
sides adequate corn, taken two, three ,
and in a few cases four ac res of cotton
to a hand , and there was a gen era l dis
posi tion to cul t ivate i t , excep t ne ar the
camps . A supe r in t enden t on St . He lena
Island said, that, if he were going to carry on any work, he should not want bet
ter laborers. H e had charge of the refu
gees from Edisto, who had been brought
to St . Helena vi l lage , and who had c lear
ed and fenced patc hes for gard ens , fell
ing the t rees for that purpose .
The laborers do less work, perhaps,
than a Yan kee would th ink they migh t
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 3 0 9
d o i bu t they do about as m uch as he h im
self would do, after a resi denc e of a few
years in the same chmate, and when
he had ceased to work under the in
fluence of No rther n habi ts . Nor thern
men have sometimes been unjust to theSouth , when comparing the resul ts of la
bor in the different sections. God neve r
in ten ded that a man should to i l unde r a
tropical sun with the same energy and
constancy as in our bracing lat i tude.
There has been less complaint this yetir
tha n last of " a pain in t he small of th e
bac k," or of " a fever in the hea d," —
in other words, less shamming. T h e
work has been gr eat ly derange d by the
draft , some features of which have not
been very ski l fu l ly arranged, and by the
fitfulness with which the laborers have
been t reated by the mihtary authori t ies .
The work both upon the cot ton and the
corn is done only by the women, chil
dren, and disabled men. I t has been
suggested tha t field-work does not becom e
women in the new condit ion; and so i t
may seem to some persons of jus t sy mpa
th ies who have not yet lea rned tha t no
honest work is dishonorable in man or
woman. Bu t th is ma tter may be left to
reg ula te itself Field-w ork, as an occu
patio n, ma y not be consistent with the
finest feniinine culture or the most com
plete womanliness ; but i t in no way con
flicts with virtue, self-respect, and social
development . W ome n work in the f ield
in Switzerland, the frees t country of Eu
rope ; and we may look with pride on the
triumphs of th is generat ion, when the
American negroes become the peers of
the Swiss peasan try . Be t ter a woman
witb the hoe than without it , when she is
not yet fitted for the needle or the book.
The negroes were also showing their
capaci ty to organize labor and a pply capital to it . H ar ry , to whom I referre d in
my second report, as " my faithful guide
and at ten dan t , who had done for me
more service than a ny white man could
render," with funds of his own, and some
borrowed m oney, bought a t the rece nt
tax-sales a small fal-m of three hundred
and th irteen acres for three hundred and
five dol lars . H e was to p la nt s ix teen
and a half acres of cotton, twelve and
a half of corn, and one and a half of po
ta toes. I rode throu gh his farm on th e
10th of April, my last day in the t err i
tory, and one-third of his crop was thenin. Besides some serv ant's dut y to an
ofiicer, for which he is well paid, he
does the wor k of a full h an d on his
plac e. H e hires otfe wom an and two
me n, one of the latte r b eing old and on
ly a three-q uarter s hand. H e has two
daughters , s ix teen and seventeen years
of age, one of whom is likewise only a
three-qua rters hand. His wife works also ,
of whom he said, " She 's the best han d
I g o t" ; and if Celia is only as smart
with he r hoe as I kno w her to be with
her tongue, Harry 's es t imate must be
right . H e has a horse twenty-five years
old and b lind in both eyes, whom he
guides with a rope , — carryin g on farm
ing, I thought, somewha t un de r difincul-
t ies. Harry lives in the house of the
former overseer, and delights, though not
boastingly, in his position as a landed
proprietor. H e has promised to wri te
m e, or rath er d ictate a let ter , g iv ing an
acco unt of the progress of his crop. H e
has had much charge of Government
property , and when Captain Hooper, of
Genera l Sax ton ' s staff, was coming North
las t autum n, H ar ry proposed to accom
pany him; but at last, of his own accord,
gav e u p th e p roject, sayin g, " It '11 not
do for all two to leave together."
Another case of capaci ty for organiza
t ion should be noted. Th e G overnm ent
is bui ld ing twenty-one houses for the
Edisto people, eightee n feet by fourteen,
with two rooms, each provided with a
swinging board-window, and the roof pro
jecting a little as a protection from rain.
The jou rney men -carpe n te rs a re seven teen colored men, who have fifty cents
per day without rat ions , working ten
hours. They are under the d irect ion of
Frank Barnwell , a freedman, who re
ceives twe nty dol lars a month . Ra rely
have I talked with a more in tel l igent
contractor. I t was my great regret that
I had not time to visit the village of
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SIO The Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
improved houses near the Hi l ton Head
. ; ;amp, which Gene ral Mitchel l had e xtem
porized, and to which he gave so much
of the noble enthusiasm of his last days.
Ne x t as to the development ofmaiihood.This has been shown, in the first place,
in the prevalent d isposi t ion to acquire
lan d. It did not app ear upon our first in
trod uctio n to thesef people, an d th ey did
not seem to under s tand us when we used
to tel l them that we wanted them to own
land . Bu t it is now an active desire. A t
the recent tax-sales, six out of forty-seven
plantat ions sold were bought by them,
compris ing two thousand five hundred
and ninety-five acres, sold for twenty-one
hu nd re d and forty-five dollars. In other
cases the negroes had authorized the super in ten den t to b id for them, but the land
was reserved by the Un ited States . One
of the purchases was tha t made by H ar
ry , noted above. Th e other f ive were
mad e by the negroes on the p lantat ions
combining the funds they had saved from
the sale of their pigs, chickens, and eggs,
and from the payments made to them for
work, — they th en dividing off th e t rac t
peace ably among themselves . On one
of these, where Kit , before mentioned, is
the leading spiri t , there are twenty-three
field-hands, who are equiv alen t to eigh
tee n fu ll hands . Th ey have plante d and
are cul t ivat ing s ix ty-three acres of cot
ton, fifty of corn, six of potatoes, with as
ma ny more to be p lanted , four and a
half of cow-peas , three of pea-nuts , and
one an d a half of rice. Th ese facts are
most significant. Th e instinct for land
— to hav e one spot on earth wh ere a man
may s tand, and whence no human being
ca n of right driv e him — is one of the most
conservat ive elements of our nature; and
a people who have it in any fair degreewOl never be nomads or vagabonds.
This developing manhood is further
seen in their growing consciousness of
rights , and the ir readiness to defend th em
selves, eve n whe n assailed by white m en.
The former s laves of a p lanter, now at
Beaufort , who was a res ident of New
Yo rk w hen the war. broke out , have gen
erally left the plantation, suspicious of
his presence, saying that they will not be
his bondmen, and fearing that in some
way he may hold them, i f they remain
on it. A rema rka ble case of the asser
t ion of r ights occurred one day duringmy visit. Tw o white soldiers, with a
corporal, went on Sunday to Coosaw Isl
and, where one of the soldiers, having a
gun, shot a chicken belonging to a negro .
The negroes rushed out and wrested
the gun from the corporal , to whom the
soldier had hand ed i t , th inkin g th at the
negroes would not take it from an offi
cer. Th ey then carried i t to the super
in tendent , who took i t to head-quarters ,
whe re an order was g iven for th e arre s t
of the trespasser. Oth er ins tanees might
be added, but these are sufficient.
Another evidence of developing man
hood appears in their desire for the com
forts and conveniences of household life.
The Philadelphia society , for the purpose
of maintain ing reasonable prices , has a
s tore on St . Helena Is land, which is un
der the charge o f Fr iend Hunn , o f the
good fellowship of Wil l iam Pe nn . H e
was once fined in De lawa re thre e thou
sand dollars for harbo ring a nd assisting
fugit ive s lave s; but he now harbors and
assists them at a much che aper rat e .
Th oug h belonging to a society which is
the advocate of peace, h is tone is qui te as
warl ike as tha t of the world 's people. In
th is s tore alone — and th ere are o thers on
the is land, carried on by private ente r
pri se— two thousand dol lars ' wor th of
goods are sold mon thly. T o be sure, a
rather large proportion of these consists
of molasses and sugar, " swe eten ing," as
the negroes cal l i t , being in great de
mand, and four barrels of molasses hav
ing bee n sold the day of my visit. Bu t
there is also a great demand for p lates ,knive s, forks, tin wa re, and bet ter cloth
ing, including even hoop-skirts . Neg ro-
cloth, as it is called, osnaburgs, russet-
colored shoes, — in short , the d is t inct ive
ap pa rel formerly dealt out to them , as a
uniform al lowance, — are very general ly
rejec ted. Bu t the re is no article of house-
hold-fiu-niture or wearing apparel, used
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 3 1 1
by persons of moderate means among us ,
which they wil l not purchase, when they
are al lowed the opportuni ty of labor and
earn ing wages . W ha t a mark e t the Sou th
wou ld open under the new sys tem! I t
would set all the mills an d workshops astir.Four millions of people would become
purchasers of all the various articles of
manufacture and commerce, in p lace of
the few coarse, simple necessaries, laid in
for them in gross by the p lanters . He re
is the solution of the vexed industrial
question. Th e indisposition to labor is
overcome in a heal thy nature by in
stincts and motives of superior force,
such as the love of life, the desire to be
well clothed and fed, the sense of secu
rity derived from provision for the future,
the feeling of self- respect, the love offamily and childre n, an d the convictions
of dut y. The se all exist in the negro,
in a state of greater or less development.
To give one or two examples . One m an
brought Captain Hooper seventy dol lars
in silver, to keep for him, which he had
obtained from selling pigs and chickens,
— thus provid ing for the future. Sol
diers of Colonel Higginson's regiment,
having confidence in the same officer,
intru sted h im, wh en they w ere paid off,
with seven hun dred dol lars , to be t rans
mit t ed by him to their wives , and th is be
s ides what they had sent home in o ther
ways,—showing the family-feeling to be
act ive and s trong in them. The y have
also the social and religious inspirations to
labor. Thu s, early in our occupat ion of
Hil ton Head, they took up, of their own
accord, a collection to pay for the candles
for their evening meetings, feeling that it
was not r ight for the Government longer
to provide them. Th e resul t was a contri
bution of two dollars and f orty-eight cents.
Th ey had jus t fled from their m asters,
and had received only a small p i t tance
of wages, and this little sum was not un
like the two mites which the widow cast
in to the t reasury . Ano ther col lect ion
was taken, las t June, in the church on
St . Helena Is land, upon the suggest ion
of the pastor that they should share in
the expe nses of worship. Fifty-tw o dol
lars w as the r esult, — not a bad collec
tion for some of our Northern churches.
I have seen these people where they are
said to be lowest, and sad indeed are
some features of their lot, yet with all
earnestness and confidence I enter myprotes t against the wicked sat i re of Car-
lyle.
Is there not here some solution of the
question of prejudice or caste which has
troubled so many good minds ? W hen
these people can no longer be used as
slaves, me n will tr y to see how th ey can
ma ke the most out of them as freemen.
Your Ir ishman, who now works as a day-
laborer, honest ly th inks that he hates the
ne gr o; but when the war is over, he
will have no objection to going South and
selling him groceries and household-implements at fifty per cent, advance on
New-York prices , or to h iring him to
raise cotton for twenty-five or fifty cents
a day. Our prejudices , und er any rea
sonable adjustment of the social system,
readi ly accommodate themselves to our
interests, even without much aid from
the moral sent iments .
L et those who would stu dy well this
social question, or who in public trusts
are charged with its solution, be most
careful here. Ev ery motive in the minds
of these people, whethe r of ins tinct , de
sire, or duty, must be addressed. All the
elements of hum an nat ure m ust be ap
pealed to , physical , moral , in tel lectual ,
social, an d religious. Imp erfect inde ed
is any system which, like that at New
Orleans, offers wages, but does not wel
come the teacher. I t is of l i t t le moment
whether three dol lars or th irty per month
be pa id th e la bore r, so long as the re is
no school to bind both parent and child
to civil society with new hopes a nd du
t ies.
There are some vices charged upon
these people, or a portion of them , and
truth requires that nothing be withheld .
T he re is said to be a good deal of p ett y
pi lfering among them, al though they are
faithful to trust s. Thi s is the natu ral
growth of the old system, and is quite
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3 1 2 The Freedmen at Port Royal. [ S e p t e m b e r ,
l ikely to accompany the t ransi t ion - s ta te .
Besides , the present d is turbed and unor
gan ize d condition of things is not favor
able to the rig id wrtu es . Bu t inferences
from this must not be pressed too far.
W he n I was a private soldier in Yirginia,as one of a three-months ' regiment , we
used to hide from each other our little
comforts and delicacies, even our dishes
and clo thing, or they were sure to d isap
pear . Bu t we should have rid iculed an
adventurous th inker upon the character
istics of race s a nd classes, who should have
leaped therefrom to the conclusion that
all white men or all soldiers are thieves.
And what inferences might not one draw,
discredi table to al l t rad ers and manufact
ure rs , from the universal adulteration of
article s of food! The se people , it is said,are disposed to falsehood in order to get
rat ions and small benefits , — a natu ral
vice which comes with slavery , and too
often attends on poverty without sla
very . Those of most demonstrat ive p i
ety are rare ly bet te r than the res t , not ,
indeed, hypocritical, but satisfying their
consciences by self-de precia tion and in
dulgence in emotion,—psychological man
ifestations which one may find in more
advan ced communit ies. Th ey show no
special gra titud e to us for libera ting them
from bonds. Nor do they ordinarily dis
play much exhilarat ion over their new
condit ion , — being qui te unl ike the I ta l
ian re volutionist who used to pu t on his
toga, walk in the forum, and personate
Br utus and Cassius. The ir appreciat ion
of their better lot is chiefly seen in their
dread of a return of their masters , in
their exci tement when an at tack.is fear
ed, in their anxious questionings while
the assault on Charleston was going on,
and in their desire to get their fiiends
and relat ives aw ay from the Rebe ls , —
an appreciation of freedom, if not osten
tatious, at least sensible.
But away with such frivolous modes
of dealing with the rights of races to
self-development! Because Englishm en
may be classified as hard and conceited.
Frenchmen as capricious , Austrians as
dull, and the people of one other nation
are sometimes thought to be vainglorious,
shall these therefore be slaves ? An d
where is that model race which shal l
sway them al l ? A people may have
gra ve defects, bu t it ma y not therefo re
be rightfully disabled.
During my recent v is i t , I had an op
portunity, on three different occasions,
to note carefully C olonel T. W . Hi g-
ginson's colored regiment, known as the
Fu 's t Regiment of South-Carol ina Vol
unteers . Major-G eneral Hu nte r 's f irst
regiment was mainly made up of con
scripts, drafted May 12th, 1862, and dis
band ed August 11th , thre e months after
wards , there being no funds wherewith
to pay them, and the discharged men go
ing home to find the cotton and corn theyhad planted overgrown with weeds. On
the 10th of October, General Saxton, be
ing provided with competent authori ty
to raise five thousand colored troops, be
gan to recrui t a regiment . His a uthori
ty f rom the W ar Dep ar tm en t bo re d a te
August 25th, and the order conferring it
states the object to be " to guard the plan
tat ions , and protect the inhabi tants from
captiv i ty and murde r." This was the f i rs t
clear authori ty ever g iven by the Govern
ment to raise a negro regiment in th is
war. Th ere were, indeed, some ambigu
ous words in the instructions of Secretary
Cameron to General Sherman, when the
orig inal expedit ion went to Port Royal ,
authorizing him to organize the negroes
into companies and squads for such ser
vices as the y migh t be fitted for, bu t t his
not to mean a genera l arming for mil i tary
service. Sec retary Stanton, though fur
nishing muskets and red t rousers to Gen
eral Hunter 's regiment , d id not th ink the
autho rity sufficient to justify the p ay me nt
of the regiment . Th e first regiment , asraised by General Saxton, numbered
four hundred and ninety-nine men when
Colonel Higginson took command of it on
the 1st of De cem ber ; an d on the 19th of
Ja nu ary , 1863, i t had increased to eight
hun dre d and forty-nine. I t has made
three expedit ions to Florida and Geor
gi a, — one before Colonel Higginson as-
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1 8 6 3 . ] The Freedmen at Port Royal. 3 1 3
sumed the command, descr ibed in Mrs.
Stowe 's le t ter to the women of Eng
land, and two under Colonel Higginson,
one o f which was made in Jan ua ry up
the St . Mary 's , and th e other in M arch
to Jack son ville, wh ich it occupied for afew days unt i l an evacuat ion was order
ed from head - quar ters. Th e men a re
volunteers , having bee n led to enl ist by
dut y to thei r rac e , to thei r kindre d st iE
in bonds, and to us, the ir all ies. Theu-
drill is good, an d the ir t ime e xcelle nt.
They have borne themselves wel l in thei r
expedi t ions, qui te equal l ing the whi te
regim ents in ski rmishing. In morale
they seemed very much l ike whi te men,
and wi th about the same proport ion of
good and indifferent soldiers. Som e
I saw of the finest metal, l ike RobertSut ton, whom Higginson describes in his
i-eport as " the rea l cond uctor of th e
whole expedi t ion a t the St . M ary 's ," an d
S e r g e a n t H o d g e s, a m a s t e r - c a r p e n t e r ,
capable of di rec t ing the labors of nu
merous journey men . Anothe r sa id , ad
dressing a me et ing a t Beaufort , tha t he
had been rest less, nights, thinking of the
war and of his people , — that , when he
heard of the regiment being formed, he
felt tha t his t ime to act h ad com e, an d
tha t i t was his duty to enl ist, — tha t he
did not fight for his rations and pay, but
for wife, children, and people.
These men, as a l ready int imated, are
very m uch l ike other men, easi ly depress
ed, and as easi ly reanimated by words
of encouragement . Ma ny have been re
luctant to engage in mi l i tary service , —
their imaginat ion invest ing i t wi th the ter
rors of instant and cer ta in death. Bu t
this re luctance has passed away wi th par
ticipation in active service, with t he ad
venture and inspiration of a soldier 's l ife ' ,
and the la tent manhood has recovered
i ts r ightful sway. Said a superintend
ent who was of the first delegation to
Po r t R oya l i n March , 1862 , — a t ru tk -
fii l man, and not given to rose-colored
views, — " I did not hav e fa i th . in arm
ing n egroes, when I visi ted the North last
autum n, but I have now. Th ey wi l l be
not mere machines, but rea l t igers, when
V O L . X I I . 2 1
aro use d; an d I should not wish to face
them." On e amusing inc iden t may be
ment ioned . A man deserted from the
regimen t , was discovered hidden in a
chimney in the dist r ict whe re he had
l ived, was taken back to camp, went toFlorida in Higginson's f i rst expedi t ion,
bore his pa rt well in th e skirmishes, be
came excited" wi th the service , was m ade
a sergeant, and, receiving a furlough on
his re tu rn, we nt to the planta t ion where
he had hid, and sa id he would not take
five thousand dollars for his place.
But more significant, as showing the
success of the experim ent , i s the cha nge
of feehng among the whi te soldiers to
wards the negro regiment , a change due
in part to the just pol icy of General
Saxton, in part to the President ' s Procla
mat ion of Ja nu ar y 1st , which has done
much to c lear the a tmosp here eve ryw here
within the army-l ines, but mo re than a l l to
the soldierly conduct of the neg roes them
selves durin g thei r expedi t ions. I had
one excel lent opportuni ty to note this
chang e. On the 6th of Apri l , Colonel
Higginson's regiment was assigned to
p icke t -du ty on Por t Roya l I s l and , — the
first active duty it had performed on the
Sea Islands, — and was to re l ieve the
Penn sylva nia Fi f ty-Fif th. W hen , af ter
a march of ten miles, i t reached the ad
vanced picket - sta t ion, there were about
two hundred soldiers of the Pennsylvania
Fif ty-Fif th awai t ing orders to proceed to
Bea ufor t. I said, in a careless tone, to
one of the Pennsy lvania soldiers, who was
looking at Higginson's regiment as i t stood
in line, —
" Is n ' t this ra ther new, to be re l ieved
by a negro regiment ? "
" Al l r ight ," sa id he . " Th ey 've as
much right to fight for themselves as I
have to fight for them."
A squad of half a dozen men stood by,
making no dissent , and accept ing him
as thei r spokesman. Mov ing in anothe r
direction, I said to a soldier, —
*' W h at do you th ink of that regi
ment ? "
Th e answer was, —
" All right. I 'd ra the r they 'd shoot
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su T}ie Freedmen at Port Royal, [ S e p t e m b e r
the Rebels than have the Rebels shoot
m e " ; and none of the by-standers dis
sen ted .
As one of the negro companies march
ed off the field to picket a station at the
Ferry, they passed wi thin a few feet ofsome twenty of the Pennsylvania sol
diers, just formed into l ine prepara tory
to marc hing to Beaufort . • Th e counte
nance s of the la t ter , w hich I watched, ex
hibited n o expression of disgust, dislike, or
disapprobat ion, only of curiosity . Oth er
whi te soldiers gave to the weary negroes
the hominy lef t f rom the morning meal .
The Major of the Fif ty-Fif th, highest in
comm and of the re l ieved regim ent , ex
pla ined very courteously to Colonel Hig-
ginson the sta t ions and dut ies of the
picke ts, and proffered a ny furthe r aiddesired . Th is was , i t is tru e, an official
du ty , bu t t he re a re more ways than one
in wh ich to perform even an official du
ty. I rode back to Beaufort , par t of the
way , in compan y wi th a capta in of the
First Massachuset ts Cavalry, who was
the officer of the day. H e said " he was
n ' t much of a negro-man, but he had no
objection to their doing our fighting."
He pronounced the word as spel led wi th
two ^ s ; but I prefer to re ta in the good
Engl ish. Colonel Mon tgomery , who l iad
a partly fi l led regiment, most of whom
were conscripts , sa id that on his re turn
from Jacksonvi l le he sent a squad of his
men ashore in charge of some prisoners
he had taken. Some whi te soldiers see
ing them approach from the wharf, one
said, •—•
" W ha t are those coming ? "
" Ne gro soldiers," (word pronou nced
as in the former case ,) was the answer.
" Dam n ' e m !" was the e j acu la t ion .
Bu t a s t hey approached nea re r , "W ha t
have they got wi th 'em '? " was inquu-ed.
" W hy , some Secesh pr isoners."
" Bul ly for the n egroes !" ( the same
pronu ncia t ion as before ,) was then the
response from all .
So quick was the t ransi t ion, wh en i t
was found that the negroes had demon
strated their usefulness ! I t i s, perhap s,
humil ia t ing to remember that such an
unreasonable and unpatr iot ic pre judice
has a t any t ime e xiste d; but i t i s neve r
worth whi le to suppress the t ruth of his
tory . This prejud ice has bee n effectu
a l ly b roken in t he Free Sta t e s ; and one
of the page ants of this epoch was th e^tr iumphal march through Boston, on the
28th of May, on i t s way to embark for
Po r t Roya l , of t he F i f ty - Fou r th Reg i
ment of Massachuset ts Volunteers, the
first regim ent of neg ro soldiers which the
F re e Sta tes have sent to the war. On th e
day previo us. Ma y 27th, a far different
scene t ranspired on the banks of the Mis
sissippi. Tw o black regimen ts, enlisted
some months before in Louisiana un der
the order of Major-General But ler , both
with line and one with field officers of
thei r own l ineage, made charge af tercharge on the bat ter ies of Port Hudson,
and w ere mown down l ike summer 's grass,
the survivors, ma ny wi th mut i la ted l imbs,
c losing up the thinn ed rank s and p ress
ing on again, careless of l ife, and mindful
only of honor an d duty , wi th a subl imi ty
of courage unsurpassed in the annals of
war, and leaving there to a l l mankind an
immorta l record for themselves and thei r
r a c e .
I cannot here forbear a momentary
t r ibu te t o We ntw or th Higg inson . Devo t
ing himself heroically to his gre at w ork,
absorbed in i t s dut ies, and bearing his
oppressive responsibili ty as the leader of
a regiment in which to a great extent
are now involved the for tunes of a race ,
he adds another honorable name to the
t rue chival ry of our t ime.
Homeward-bound , I s topped fo r two
days a t Fort ress Monroe, and was again
among the familiar scenes of my soldier-
l ife . I t was there that M ajor-G eneral
Butler, first of all the generals in the
arm y of the Repub l ic , and ant ic ipat ing
even Republ ican sta tesmen, had c lear ly
pointed to the cause of the war. A t
Craney Island I met two accomplished
women of the Socie ty of Friends, who,
on a most cheerless spot , and wi th every
inconvenience , were teaching the chi l
dren of the freedmen. Tw o good men .
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one at the fort and the o ther at Norfolk ,
were distributing the laborers on farma
in the v icin i ty , and providing them with
implem ents a nd seeds which the benev
olen t societies had furnished. Visitin g
Hampton, I recognized, in the shant iesbuUt upon th e c harre d ru in s , the familiar
faces of those who, in the early days of
the war, had been for a brief period un
der my charge. The ir hea rty greet ings
to one whom they rem emb ered as the
first to point th em to freedom and chee r
i,hem with its prospe ct co uld h ard ly be
received without emotion. Bu t there is
no time to linger over these scenes.
Such are some of the leading features
in the condit ion of the freedmen, part ic
ularly at Po rt Roy al . Th e enterprise for
their aid, begun in doubt, is no longer a
bar e hope or possibility. It is a fruition
and a consummation. Th e negroes wil l
work for a living. Th ey will fight for their
freedom. Th ey are ad ap ted to civil so
ciety . As a people, they are not exem pt
from the frailties of our common human
ity, nor from the vices which hereditary
bondage always superadds to these. As
i t is said to take three genera t ions to sub
due a freeman completely to a slave, so'it
may not be possible in a single generation
to res tore the pris t ine manhood. One
who expects to find in emancipated slaves
perfect men and women, or to real ize inthem some fair dream of an ideal race,
wil l meet d isappointment; but there is
nothing in their nature or condit ion to
daun t the Chr i st i an pa t r io t ; ra ther , the re
is eve ryth ing to che er and fortify his
fai th . Th ey have shown capaci ty for
knowledge, for free industry, for sub
ordination to law and discipline, for sol
dierly fortitude, for social and family re
lations, for religious culture and aspira
t ions ; and these qual i t ies , when s t i rred
and sustained by the inci tements a nd
rewards of a jus t society , and combining
with the currents of our cont inental civ
ilization, will, und er th e guida nce of a
benevolent Providence which forgets nei
ther the m nor us , ma ke them a co nstant
ly progress ive race, and secure them ev
er after from the calam ity of ano ther en
slavement, and ourselves from the worse
calamity of being again their oppress
ors.
N O A N D Y E S .
I WATCHED her at her spinning ;
And th is was my beginning
Of wooing and of winning.
But when a maid opposes ,
And throws away your roses ,
You say the case forecloses.
Yet sorry wit one uses .
W ho loves and th ink s he loses
Because a maid refuses .
For by her once denying
She only means complying
Upon a second try ing.