Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/13

Rh preachers. Some of these people are becoming rich; all are doing well for themselves, even in these times. They evince a capacity for business, and exhibit a degree of thrift and shrewdness, which are ample security for their future progress, if they are allowed an equal chance with their fellow-men.

In order to obtain some facts upon which I might estimate the amount of earnings to be credited to these free and freed people, I posted a handbill in New Berne, requesting such colored people as were not employed by government, but were pursuing some trade, profession, or calling on their own account, to report at my office the amount of their income or earnings during the year 1864. The result will interest the friends of the negro, and indicate their ability to support themselves. Three hundred and five persons, nearly all males, made returns in response to my request, reporting a gross amount of one hundred and fifty-one thousand five hundred and sixty-two dollars, (151,562.) The number reporting from $500 to $1,000 income was 110.

&ensp;1,000  &numsp;18.

&ensp;2,000  &numsp;&numsp;4.

&ensp;3,000  &numsp;&numsp;2. The largest income reported was $3,150. This was derived from the turpentine business, as indeed were most of the larger incomes reported, which varied from 300 to more than 3,000 dollars. The average of all the incomes reported is $496.92, a trifle short of five hundred dollars. It is common for newspapers at the North, to print the names of a few of those whose incomes are the largest; but as there is no local newspaper here ready to perform this service for the freedmen, I shall be compelled to do it in this Report.