THE NORTHERN TREATMENT OF THE SLAVES.
I F we are to estimate with any justice the character of the war in
the United States, we must examine with the most anxious attention every symptom of the practical spirit evinced by both belligerents with regard to the main cause of war—Southern slavery. Nor is this by any means an easy matter. It is :indeed easy enough to indulge in vague generalizations on either side ; to say that the Northern taste is more repelled by the negro than the Southern; that the social hatred of men of colour in the North is more bitter than the political jealousy of the South. But the true test remains—the test of action. Is it worse, or not ? As the North advances, does freedom follow in its track, or a more hateful tyranny ? What do the slaves think themselves, and what are the enactments with regard to them ? These are questions of fact, and may now be answered by an appeal to really convincing facts. Mr. Russell, of the Times, in his last letter from the United States, dated New York, has indeed expressed a very curt opinion on the subject—reserving all his grounds of belief—to the effect, that "the negroes of Port Royal are much worse off in consequence of their change of masters." He quotes the New York Tribune to prove, what it is not difficult to prove, that there are numbers of soldiers and even officers in the Northern expeditionary corps in South Caro. lina who feel "that rooted contempt for the African race" which "shows itself in hourly acts of fraudulent oppression." Is there an army in the world of which the same might not be said, especially when the military discipline maintained is anything but perfect ? But while referring to the evil doings of "a _portion of the Northern army," which are properly rebuked in the Tribune, Mr. Russell does not give us any account of the proceedings of another, and very dif- ferent "portion," and this the governing portion, of the expeditionary corps with regard to these Carolina negroes, on which the fullest and most detailed official information is given by the same organ. English- men read Mr. Russell's letter, and remark with a smile to each other, "Do you see that the Northern army in South Carolina is oppress- ing the negroes far more grievously than their old masters ? And they call themselves the opponents of slavery !" The remark is natural, perhaps, for it is the instinct of an Englishman to open his mind confidingly to the drift of the first printed statement which meets his eye, but a very slight criticism would suggest two difficulties : first, how we are to discover, in the absence of these negroes' "old masters," what the general character of their oppression was ? secondly, is the Northern oppression which is so eagerly rebuked by Northern censors, likely to have been so universal as to cha- racterize the whole army ? Is a rule, when a powerful popular press condemns some of the proceedings of a powerful popular army, the presumption is very strong that these proceedings really cha- racterize only a part and not the whole, probably not even the in- fluential part of the army thus criticized. This would be the obvious presumption. Popular censure of a popular body implies a division of parties in the people. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to let the
negroes speak for themselves on the subject—to find out, so far as we can, what they think.
Fortunately we can find out a good deal. A commissioner (Mr. Edward L. Pierce) was sent by the Government at Washington to report specially on the condition of the negroes among the islands near Port Royal, and a very voluminous and apparently very honest report, disguising and extenuating nothing that is evil, has been made and printed at length in the American journals. We find in it the accusations which the friends of freedom bring against a portion of the army, what they are doing to check the evils thus caused, and, lastly, what the negroes themselves think and do with regard to the war.
It seems that there are at least 8000 negroes still resident on the island plantations in the vicinity of Port Royal, and generally, there- fore, within the lines of the Northern position. Besides those resident on their old plantations, there are a large number more actually within the camps, which number is daily and rapidly in. creasing through the escape of fugitives from the territory still occupied by the South. Altogether there were, when the last ac- counts left, from 10,000 to 12,00 negroes to be protected, cared for, and in some sense organized, and the number is now still larger. The plantations had been stripped of forage to a great extent for the supply of the army's wants, owing to the delay in complying witls the requisitions from Washington, and it was certain that before the new provision crops could be ready, the negroes would be absolutely dependent for food upon the Northern Government. Under these circumstances the whole reorganization of the district was exciting great attention.
The Brigadier in command, General Sherman, is a humane officer, of anti-slavery principles, not without the prejudices of colour, but anxiously bent on organizing a system which will not only protect the negroes against insult and oppression, but educate them for liberty. On the other hand, his subordinate at. Beaufort, General Stevens, is a man of avowedly pro-slavery principles, who obstructs to the utmost of his power the work of liberation. Hence, at Beau- fort, the negroes in camp have been subject to much ill-treat- ment. By General Stevens's command or connivance, the negroes there were first put in charge, not of the proper officer, the quarter- master of the fort, Captain Fuller, who would have treated them well, but of the brigade quartermaster, Captain W. Lilley, who has been guilty of the grossest inhumanity, entrusting their" discipline" to a private of the 79th New York, who was allowed to carry and use "a whip." This was about as bad as it could be. But it applies only to one fort, and, in this its worst form, it lasted only a short time. Captain Lilley has been disgraced, and the negroes in the fort are put under the care of Captain Fuller, who uses them humanely. This, together with individual cases of insult and ill-usage on the plantations, where soldiers from the camp were running riot amongst the negroes, forms the whole of the evidence against the Northern army. Probably much worse cases of ill-treatment of the Hindoos were frequent after the arrival of our relieving army in India, in 1858.
And now for the other side of the case. The Government at Washington has, as we said, sent a Commissioner expressly to inquire into the wants of the negroes, and given urgent instructions to the commanders of the army to respect and protect them in every way, and, as soon as possible, restore, under a system of wages and free labour, the work of the plantations which has been so long inter- mitted. General Sherman has not only executed these orders, but has anxiously opened the way for individual benevolence, which is already hard at work, visiting, educating, and in every way raising the condition of the plantation negroes. Even at Beaufort, where General Stevens's influence is completely hostile to the negroes, a Baptist clergyman has been permitted to open a school already containing sixty negro children, who are instructed in reading and writing. Even those negroes who express little interest in freedom show the greatest desire to have their children taught, and avail themselves eagerly of the privilege afforded them. In the camp at Port Royal a civil superintendent, Mr. Lee, has been appointed, who devotes himself entirely to the negroes in camp. He has established a tariff of wages, which are paid regularly to the blacks for their work, and has secured equality in the treatment of them and of the white labourers. Private philanthropists from the North were securing supplies of clothine.° and other necessary aid for these poor people. In his last
al
gener order on this subject, General Sherman had reduced the treatment of these negroes to a system, appointing two general agents : the one to administer the agricultural work of the district, and the other the education department. Under these, district agents were to superintend the labour on the various estates. The proposition to lease the abandoned estates to private speculators—in fact, a proposition to continue slavery in its worst form—had been indignantly repudiated by all the authorities. Corporal punishment, even in the camp at Beaufort, was disallowed, and was said to be entirely needless. The negroes were willing enough to work for wages, either under their old black "drivers" on the estate, or as
labourers in camp. Many very efficient artisans—carpenters, &c.— had been found amongst them. On the whole, the conquered district was being governed on the same humane principles on which we aim at governing India, directly under the authority of Government, and with organized checks on the cruelty of individual prejudices.
And now, as to the negroes' own evidence. The Government com- missioner tells us frankly that during the first meek of his inquiry lie found no symptoms of a real desire for freedom. The negroes seemed stupid, sullen, and suspicious. They said they did not follow their masters because they preferred to stay on their provision grounds. When asked if they wished for freedom, they answered "Yes" without any heart, or said that white men must do with them what they liked, or that they wanted white men to protect them. It was evident that the negroes distrusted their old masters and the conquerors almost equally, and had little real belief or apprehension of the term "freedom." But, as a matter of fact, they did refuse, even when compulsion was tried, to depart with their masters. A colony of negroes at North Edisto repelled alone an attack from the Southern cavalry, driving them back into their old lines. Numbers came in daily from the Southern planta- tions when it gradually appeared that there was no fear of their being sent to Cuba by the North, as they had been industriously told. The spontaneous religious meetings of the negroes for prayer and preaching went on as usual, and they were beginning to learn the pleasure of self-government. In one place, where wages had been earned by the negroes, a voluntary proposition was made and adopted to defray the cost of lights for their evening meetings by subscription, now that they had the means, which formerly had always been paid by the masters. The Government commissioner found, after a longer experience, a much more widely-spread appreciation of freedom than lie had any conception of at first, and great anxiety was betrayed as to the ultimate measures for their distribution and education which the Northern Government would adopt.
On the whole, it is clear that while the North and the Northern army contain many sections cruelly prejudiced against the slaves, the predominant intention there is to make them free, to fit them for freedom, and to use every benevolent effort to promote their happi- ness,—and again, that the slaves themselves, while so degraded as to seem at first apathetic, feel very keen gratitude for humane treat- ment, and very deep interest in the means of education for the young, some appreciation of the meaning of liberty, often a fixed purpose to shed their blood for it,—and, above all, an absence of hatred to white men as such. Can we reasonably look for much more than this, having regard to the evil education of both the Northern Democracy and the slaves themselves, for any true appreciation of the great issue before them ?
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