Page:Annual report of the superintendent of Negro Affairs in North Carolina, 1864.djvu/61

Rh In order to promote this end, and at the same time define the status of the former slaves, and assure them of their freedom and of protection therein, Gen. Schofield issued, very wisely, the following order:

To remove a doubt which seems to exist in the minds of some of the people of North Carolina, it is hereby declared that by virtue of the Proclamation of the President of the United States, dated January 1st, 1863, all persons in this State heretofore held as slaves are now free; and that it is the duty of the Army to maintain the freedom of such persons. It is recommended to the former owners of the Freedmen to employ them as hired servants at reasonable wages. And it is recommended to the Freedmen that when allowed to do so, they remain with their former masters, and labor faithfully so long as they shall be treated kindly and paid reasonable wages, or that they immediately seek employment elsewhere, in the kind of work to which they are accustomed. It is not well for them to congregate about towns or Military Camps. They will not be supported in idleness.

J. A. CAMPBELL, Assist Adj't General. The foregoing order did not, however, become immediately known to all the people. The negroes were plied in many cases with abuse and falsehood, and made to believe that after the departure of the troops they would be slaves precisely as before. While they were in this transition state, scarcely knowing whether they were or were not free,—a point made still more uncertain to them by the untimely death of their great Deliverer, Abraham Lincoln,—the efforts and counsels of my assistant superintendents were of great value to these bewildered people. It was noticeable that the negroes would not believe the promises of their old masters, however much they had been supposed to love them, but would confide implicitly in the statements of Northern men whom they never saw before, and who told them they had rights of their own which white men even were bound to respect. It will be necessary for such mediators to stand between the colored people and the old aristocracy, that once presumed to own them, until the feelings and habits of both classes have become adjusted to the altered conditions of society. The general government having stricken off their shackles, and pledged freedom to the colored race, should stand god-father to these simple children of nature, and throw the strong arm of its protection around them, until they are confessed to be free men and citizens, and willingly treated as such by the dominant race. In order to introduce a uniform practice in respect to the Freedmen in North Carolina, and provide for the settlement of all cases that might arise, and bring the whole subject under military control, Gen. Schofield promulgated in General Orders a series of rules intended to cover the whole ground, as follows: The following rules are published for the government of Freedmen in North Carolina, until the restoration of civil government in the State: