Page:Extracts from letters of teachers and superintendents of the New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen.djvu/10

 This letter is signed by all the five committee men, who are all present, and very thankfully agree to what is said, and we shall all be pleased to receive any message from you. Robert L. Chaplin, X Chairman. John Edward, his X mark. William Jefferson, his X mark. Daniel Bolles, his X mark. William Scott, his X mark.

8th, 1863. The colored people are doing well generally. They are quite industrious, and well informed in all that appertains to raising the cotton and all the other productions of the soil. They are very much interested in all those products that form the means of their subsistence. They are laboring assiduously to procure in the coming harvest sufficient to supply all the wants of the body, with some amount to sell. The Governor of this department in the spring cut off the clothes and rations from all the people that were able to labor in the fields, and it has proved one of the most efficient means of promoting industrious habits among them. So long as they saw before them a source from which they could draw food and clothes, they were contented, and these contributions had a deleterious effect upon them. Now they are aware that if they do not produce sufficient to support themselves, and purchase their clothes, they must suffer, and they are quite ambitious to get as much as possible. It is quite surprising to see the ingenuity and tact which many of them exhibit to accomplish that end. They certainly have imbibed largely the spirit of trade and commerce, by which they increase their revenue. Their little fields are guarded with the strictest care, and the growth of all the products watched with much eagerness, and the profits calculated by them, as much as the cargo and the profits to accrue therefrom are, by the great shippers of our commercial marts. They are fast learning the value of money, and are acquiring an idea of property, whether it be in a horse or land. There is a growing desire among them to become owners of land. Hundreds of them are guarding their little stores with jealous care, and adding to their stock all they can, in order to have sufficient to make purchases at the next sales of land. To be able to receive all the proceeds of their labors, is one of the heights of their ambition. The adjoining plantation to the one where I live, was purchased last year by the negroes. They have worked it themselves without any direction from white people. They have exhibited all the skill, thus far, of those that have been worked by the Government. They have a large field of cotton, and a larger one of corn. I see them frequently, and converse with them about it. They are as proud of their labors as are any of the farmers of the North when success follows a period of industry. They have planted and brought to good growth by the necessary working three acres of cotton, each of which is, I am told, the maximum of one person's allotment, when other crops are worked by the same hand to the maximum. This condition of that plantation excites the emulation of all the surrounding people, and they frequently say that if they could work this land in the same way we could see some great crops. I have no doubt that if the negroes owned the land and could work it with the expectation of receiving all the proceeds, the cotton crop would have been. increased one-third, if not one-half.

So far as the question of subsistence is involved with these people, there is not the least doubt about it. They are abundantly competent, and able and willing, to support themselves, and in a short time many of them will acquire a competence that will enable them to demand and supply themselves with many of the comforts of civilized life.

13th, 1863. The people are raising a plenteous crop for their subsistence, with the exception of a few aged and otherwise helpless individuals. There is much matured corn, an abundance of sweet potatoes, considerable rice, and a general supply of various kinds of vegetables all over the islands. There is also a quite extensive crop of cotton, the first picking of which is now taking place. The peach, fig and other fruit harvests have gone by, but there is a profusion of oranges everywhere, some of them beginning to turn yellow. The supply seems to be unlimited. I have been surprised at the amount of