430 



FREEDMEN OF THE SOUTH. 



compliance with law and the policy of the Administra- 

 tion. 



IV. It will be the duty of the provost-marshal at 

 every military post to see that every negro within the 

 jurisdiction of the military authority is employed by 

 some white person, or is sent to the camps provided 

 for freed people. 



V. Citizens may make contracts with freed persons 

 of color for their labor, giving wages per month in 

 monev, or employ families of them by the year on 

 plantations, Ac., feeding, clothing, and supporting the 

 infirm as well as the able-bodied, and giving a portion, 

 not less than one twentieth, of the commercial part of 

 their crops in payment for such service. 



VI. Where negroes are employed under this author- 

 ity, the parties employing will register with the pro- 

 vost-marshal their names, occupation, and residence, 

 and the number of negroes so employed. They will 

 enter into such bonds as the provost-marshal, with the 

 approval of the local commander, may require, for the 

 kind treatment and proper care of those employed, as 

 security against their being carried off beyond the em- 

 ployer's jurisdiction. 



VII. Nothing in this order is to be construed to em- 

 barrass the employment of such colored persons as 

 may be required by the Government. 



By order of Maior-General U. S. GRANT. 



T. S. BOWERS, Acting Assist. Adj.-Gen. 



Near the close of the year, the management 

 of these Infirmary farms and camps, as well as 

 of the whole matter of leasing plantations and 

 employing the freedmen, passed from the War 

 Department to the Treasury Department, and 

 the special agent appointed by the latter De- 

 partment, Mr. Mellen, in conjunction with 

 Mr. Yeatman, perfected the regulations for 

 the year 1864, guarding so far as was possible 

 against all chances of fraud or ill treatment on 

 the part of the lessees, placing them under 

 strict supervision, increasing the wages of the 

 freedmen about threefold, and making them a 

 first lien on the crop. The tax payable to 

 Government on the crop was also increased, 

 and one fourth applied to the support of 

 schools for the colored children, and another 

 fourth to the maintenance of the Infirmary 

 farms. Medical attendants were also to be 

 provided for each district, and the money re- 

 served paid to them by the district superin- 

 tendent, and they were required to attend 

 strictly to the health of the people of their dis- 

 tricts. The same system will probably be 

 adopted in substance in the other depart- 

 ments. 



The plan of leasing plantations during the 

 year 1863 in the Department of the Gulf seems 

 to have been in some respects worse than that 

 of Adjt.-Gen. Thomas. The wages were low- 

 er (though paid more punctually), the attend- 

 ance and labor of the slave enforced by military 

 authority, often with great rigor, and the inter- 

 ests of the lessee rather than those of the freed- 

 man consulted. There was also an equally fright- 

 ful mortality in the Infirmary camps. That 

 this proceeded from no intention of oppressing 

 the freedmen on the part of Gen. Banks, it is 

 unnecessary to say ; but the whole matter was 

 one of experiment, and surrounded by numer- 

 ous difficulties ; and, with the weight of so 

 many duties pressing upon him, errors of detail 

 in carrying out a new system of free labor were 



to be expected. They will be modified the pres- 

 ent year. (See LOUISIANA.) At Port Royal, S. 

 C., a different method was adopted, and seems 

 to work well. There had been a longer ex- 

 perience there, a Government superintend- 

 ent of abandoned plantations, as well as a 

 superintendent of contrabands, having been ap- 

 pointed there early in 1862. The first year 

 the freedmen were employed in cultivating the 

 land on the island for Government, receiving 

 rations, supplies, &c., from it ; and the Govern- 

 ment undertaking to dispose of the crop. In 

 March, 1863, the abandoned plantations were 

 sold at auction for the collection of the direct 

 Government tax, and thus a good title obtain- 

 ed for them. A considerable number of the 

 smaller plantations or divided plantations were 

 purchased by the negroes themselves, and have 

 been cultivated by them successfully. Others 

 were sold to northern purchasers, sometimes 

 several to the same man, and have been culti- 

 vated by hired labor, each family being allot- 

 ted a certain quantity of land, about an acre 

 and a half to adults, and in proportion to chil- 

 dren, on which they raised their own food ; 

 being allowed besides to take such quantity 

 of cotton land as they chose, for the crops of 

 which they were responsible. They received 

 no fixed wages, but a certain percentage on 

 the amount of cotton produced. During the 

 growth of the cotton partial payments were 

 made each month to secure them comfortable 

 subsistence, at a fixed rate for each acre plant- 

 ed and hoed, and when the crop was gathered 

 they were paid the remainder of what was due 

 them at the specified rate of so much for each 

 pound of cotton. In one case a proprietor of 

 thirteen plantations employed four hundred 

 laborers, not one of them able-bodied, all be- 

 ing old men, old or feeble women, and chil- 

 dren; yet the average earnings of each laborer, 

 aside from house rent, the food raised for him- 

 self, and the value of his own private crop, was 

 $16.50 per month for the year. This proprie- 

 tor, with an investment of $40,000, cleared 

 $81,000 as the net proceeds of his year's labor. 

 The cotton raised was Sea Island. On these 

 plantations he had maintained five free schools, 

 which were attended by 300 pupils, and five 

 stores, in which $20,000 worth of goods, main- 

 ly clothing and housekeeping articles, was 

 sold at cost, including transportation. 



Great attention has been paid to the estab- 

 lishment of schools for the education of the 

 freedmen, and to the imparting of religious in- 

 struction to them, especially at Port Royal, 

 Roanoke Island, Norfolk, and at the Freed- 

 men's village, Arlington, opposite Washington, 

 D. 0., under the direction of the Freedmen's 

 Relief Societies, the American Missionary As- 

 sociation, the Free Mission Society, &6. In 

 North Carolina, the land on Roanoke Island 

 has been assigned to the freedmen for cultiva- 

 tion, and they are supporting themselves com- 

 fortably. At Arlington, at Fortress Monroe, 

 and at Norfolk a large portion of them find 



