Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/34

32 thousand three hundred and twenty-five dollars ($44,325.00), a sum large enough to have purchased the whole island three years ago, with all the improvements of two hundred years, under the rule and culture of its white inhabitants.

It has multiplied the value of real estate thirty-seven times in a single year, at least in the estimation of the negroes who occupy it, and has led the native whites to ask almost fabulous prices for the lands which they still retain.

It has furnished important manufacturing facilities to the island and its vicinity, by introducing valuable steam-power, and opening stores for trade, which will survive the war, and become elements of prosperity and sources of wealth.

The colored population of the island would have been much less dependent upon the Government, if the Government had more fully met its engagements with them. Immediately upon the occupancy of Roanoke Island by the Union troops, the negroes began to be employed by the Quartermasters, the Surgeons, the Engineers, and other Government officers, upon verbal promises to pay, at rates varying from $8.00 to $25.00 per month. In the frequent changes of command which came over the island, their accounts were transferred from officer to officer, and usually in a very imperfect form. Oftentimes they were never rendered at all, but the laborer was deliberately swindled out of his earnings by some officer leaving the service, who thought this a brave transaction, and "good enough for the nigger" and his friends. At the commencement of Gen. Butler's administration in North Carolina, these people were led to believe that their just dues would be paid them. The several Superintendents of Negro Affairs, were made special commissioners to audit carefully these accounts, and present them at Headquarters for payment. Accordingly a roll of labor was made up for Roanoke Island, with care and painstaking, making use of all the scattered materials at command, and comparing them, when possible, with the testimony of the parties. This Report Roll embraced unsettled accounts amounting to eighteen thousand five hundred and seventy dollars and seven cents. This sum of money in circulation on Roanoke Island would make greenbacks tolerably plenty over its limited area of twelve miles by three or four. The most unsatisfactory manner in which these