THE CASE OF THE CONTRABANDS.
ce NVHAT," we remember hearing Wendell Phillips say, "are we to do with the emancipated negroes ? This is the
question I am always being asked. My answer is—do nothing Treat them like men, and you will find they will manage very well for themselves." Now, in America, even more than in England, this assertion was regarded as that of a visionary enthusiast. Through- out all American society there prevailed an almost universal im- pression that the coloured men belonged to a different order of humanity from our own, not regulated by the same laws, or guided by the same motives. Gradually the progress of the war is- shaking this conviction. The North is beginning to find out by experience what the negroes really are. Wherever the Union armies have advanced, a large number of abandoned or fugitive slaves have come under their protection. In a very rough and unsystematic method the Federal Government has had to supply the place of the owners and employers of these contrabands. It is- a common assertion of slave-owners that nobody can under- stand the negro character, and the way of dealing with him, who has not had practical experience in managing black labourers. This experience the Union authorities are rapidly acquiring, and the result of their experience will, probably,. be to greatly modify the popular American impression of the negro- character. A number of the leading Northern abolitionists have lately been making inquiries into the condition of these contra- bands, and have received reports on the subject from the superin- tendents appointed by the Government to look after the negroes under the protection of the Federal troops. These reports have been published in a small pamphlet called "Facts Concerning the Freedmen," and from this pamphlet much valuable information can be gathered.
In the first place, it is obvious that the experiment Of employing the slaves as free labourers has been tried under the most un-1, favourable circumstances imaginable. No definite system has b pursued, and the management of the blacks has been left to supef intendents, constantly changed and transferred, and liable to
interference from the caprice or prejudices of the military autho ties. Then thes3 fugitive negroes, just released from slavery, have bee brought into contact with an army, and from the necessities of 'their posi ion have become camp followers. Finally, they have not been treated with humanity by many of the officers, or with common honesty by the Government autho- rities. On this point the evidence of the report is over- whelming. From Fortress Monroe Mr. Wilder writes, "Over 30,000 dollars are due to the coloured people for labour, to say nothing of a great amount of labour nights and Sundays, for which nothing is allowed, though promised ; and also for extra valuable services . . . . There have been some exceptions, but the rule (of the negroes) has been brutal and cruel in the extreme." Mr. Brown, writing from Craney Island, says, "the negroes at Newport News never received any pay from the Government— they worked faithfully there from three to five months—they were not paid on the grounds 'that such help in the hospitals was without authority." The chaplain of the 47th Indiana, obtained at St. Helena, Arkansas, declares "The freedmen have never received a dollar. Not far from 20,000 dols. is now due to them, and if their wages had been the same as the whites nearly 2,000 dols. more would be due. I believe they have earned enough had their wages been promptly paid, to have supported all who came. Their treatment has been by no means complimentary to the officials and their subordinates." The report from East Arkansas is, "about 1,000 have been employed by the Government, and by order of General Curtis they were to receive 10 dols. per month, rations, and clothing ; but General Steele ordered that their wages should be retained, that it might be decided in courts of law whether it should be paid to them or their masters." The superintendent at Washington states, "I have been informed that the black men do as much as the white men at the pay, if not more. Have these men been regularly paid their wages? In the quartermaster's, commissary department, and in the forts, they have been paid each month, or once in two months. Those who have worked for officers, or in the camps, or at the hospitals, have not been paid, for some reason or other." The inspector on St. Helena's Island confirms this statement. "The labourers," he says, "on the plantations have not been promptly paid. Wages, for example, earned in July were not paid till November, and no pay- ment has yet (in 1863) been made for work done in September last. This want of promptness in payment has tended more than anything to discourage the negroes and diminish their confidence in the agents of the Government. I suppose that at least 5,000 dollars are yet due to negroes in my division."
Now we are not disposed to raise an outcry against the Federal Government for the existence of such a state of things as these reports indicate. The whole country is in a disorganized condi- tion, the Union authorities have many more pressing things to look after than the condition of the contrabands, and as a large pro- portion of the Federal officers have strong pro-slavery sympathies and view the emancipation policy with extreme ill-will, it is impos- sible that they should carry out the instructions issued from Washington with regard to the fugitive slaves' with much heart or readiness. Still all these facts show that the blacks under the protection of the Union armies have had a poor chance of showing to advantage in their new character of free labourers. The results, therefore, obtained, are all the more encouraging.
Now, on one point the testimony of the superintendents is universal. The negroes have absolutely no desire to go North. Let us quote the actual words of the report :—" As long as life can be made tolerable to them in the South they prefer to stay in their old homes. Very few are willing to go North, except for safety. 1 have had applications from large numbers wishing servants, and offering good wages, lying over for months, because of the un- willingness of any to go, except for more special reason. They do not desire to go North, I have several times tried to find house- servants willing to go, with the prospect of a permanent home and good wages, but always have a difficulty in finding those willing to go. The only thing that will make them willing is the fear of their being again enslaved. In the event of emancipation, there would be no disposition to go North. Out of those who have gone out from this camp, I have not been able to persuade out of the two thousands and some hundreds, more than fifteen or twenty to go North, notwithstanding the most liberal offers have been made to them to go. They are strongly attached to the places in which they have been accustomed to live. Nothing but oppression will make them quit their present homes."
With respect to what the negroes have actually done the report is not as explicit as we could wish. The impression we gather from it is that the tangible result is not very great, but that the notion of the negroes having any innate disinclination to work, ex- cept in obedience to compulsion, is absolutely disproved. Mr. Hooper, a young man of fortune in Massachusetts, who left all the comforts of a luxurious home to undertake the thankless task of superintendent of the contrabands at Beaufort, South Caro- lina, and who is a man of education as well as benevolence, writes thus, "My personal conviction is, that the negroes in this department, almost without exception, would readily become in- dustrious and productive labourers under any system which should offer a fair and reasonably certain compensation proportioned to the work actually done. Considering that a reasonable certainty of enjoying a fair harvest is the only natural inducement, other than that of absolute necessity, for any man to work, I think that the negroes in this department have shown as much willingness to work as white men would under the same circumstances." Curious to say, too, the reports represent the negroes as being very ready to 4 learn, and quick at learning, though without any great intellectual power. "The desire to learn," to quote again from our authorities, "is almost universal. Their desire is so great that they learn very quickly—the teachers all say as quickly as white children. As to ca- pacity, there is no particular difference (from white men), but in the desire for knowledge and improvement, which is much stronger among the coloured people. They have an intense desire to learn, far beyond anything I have ever seen manifested by whites, and their ability to learn to read is fully equal to that of the whites ; beyond this I have no means of judging. I think, however, they would be slow mathematicians, memory seems better developed than any of their mental qualities. The children can be as readily taught as white children—in music much more readily. Their capacity to learn is greater than they have had credit for, and is equal to that manifested by the Irish population in the North."
With respect to religion, the general impression appears to be that the devotional feelings of the negro are extremely powerful, and their faith a good deal higher than their practice. On this point, however, the evidence of the reporters is probably somewhat biassed as several of them are ministers of different denomina- tions. Captain Hooper states, "The religious element in their nature shows itself in faith rather than in practice. They are more pious than moral." Mr. Wilder declares that "Their religious element is marked and strong, though crude, partaking largely of the relics of heathenism and slavery. One thing is clear. While their old habits and customs cling to them in their modes of worship, their faith and confidence in divine revelation are pro- minent and almost universal." Mr. Brown considers that "twenty per cent. of the adults are professors of religion. Their religion,. however, appears to be more a matter of feeling than principle." The Rev. Samuel Sawyer adds, "They have faith in God, and in the promise of His Word ; but they are great way back.'" Rev.. Charles Fitch considers that "The religious element exists to a. much larger extent among them evidently than among whites. They are exceedingly susceptible to religious emotions. They have a number of their preachers here, and many meetings, greatly thronged and long continued. But their religion is beclouded with great darkness. Mr. Nicholls, who admits that the contrabands collected at Washington were the least favourable specimens of the class he had known, says of the negroes under his charge, "This people are the most reli- gious people I have ever known ; yet it is a religion entirely desti- tute of morality. If we look into the mind itself, we shall see how this is to be accounted for. Reason and judgment do not appear as yet to be developed, while the imagination is over developed. I never attend their meetings without becoming excited myself ; yet their excitement does not come from the presentation of truth, but from sound rather than sense, or the peculiarity of the form of illustration."
On another occasion, we hope to point out some more of the evidence elicited by this report. In conclusion, however, we cannot refrain from quoting the words of General Saxton, the Federal Commander at Port Royal, which appear to us to express the gist of the whole question. "General Saxton," writ Cap- tain Hooper, "on handing me the circular, said that perhaps the best and truest answer to most of the questions would be to say that he has found these people 'intensely human."
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