Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/224

 they were apt to be seriously troubled by things which would not trouble at all an employer accustomed to free labor. Many worries of that sort came to my notice, the narration of one of which may do to characterize them all. I wrote it down at the time as a specimen occurrence.

One of our generals commanding the garrisons of a district, was visited by a doctor who owned a plantation in the neighborhood of headquarters. The doctor seemed very much disturbed.

“General,” said he, “the negroes in my county are in a terrible state of insubordination, and we may look for an outbreak at any moment. I come to implore your aid.” The General, having heard such stories before, and remaining cool, insisted upon the doctor's telling him in detail the facts and circumstances which so violently agitated him. The doctor repeated with growing emphasis that it was impossible to put up with the demonstrations of insubordination on the part of the negroes; that he would have to seek refuge for his family in the city, for their lives were not safe on the plantation, unless military protection be furnished them. The General still remaining obdurate in asking for particulars, the whole story came out at last. Formerly, the doctor said, the slaves had to retire to their cabins by nine o'clock in the evening. After that nobody was permitted outside. The slaves knew this and quietly obeyed the rule. “But now,” the doctor continued, “when their work is done, they roam about just as they please, and when I tell them to go to their quarters, they do not obey me. Negroes from other plantations will sometimes come to visit them, and then they have a sort of meeting and they cut up sometimes until ten or eleven. You see, General, this is alarming, and you must admit that we are not safe.”

The General, still undisturbed, wished to know what the