FREEDMEN OF THE SOUTH. 



387 



occasioned by the resignation of the late Hon. 

 William Sprague. He held a seat in that body 

 during the remainder of the long session then 

 pending, and the whole of the short session of 

 the succeeding winter, his time expiring March 

 4, 1845. He was subsequently, for eight or 

 nine years, a Senator in the State Legislature, 

 from the town of Warwick, and continued to 

 wield an important influence in the politics of 

 Rhode Island. In 1856 he declined a reelec- 

 tion and withdrew from public life.* From 

 1S2S to 1857 he was a member of the Board 

 of Trustees of Brown University, and from 1841 

 to 1854 he held the office of Chancellor in that 

 body. His character, his manners, and his 

 social position, combined to give him unusual 

 popularity and influence among all classes of his 

 fellow-citizens. 



FREEDMEN OF THE SOUTH. The ques- 

 tion of the proper disposition to be made of the 

 vast number of persons of African descent who 

 by the operation of the Emancipation procla- 

 mation, by the progress of the Union armies in 

 various parts of the South, or the acts of 

 Emancipation passed by the Constitutional 

 Conventions of several .of the States, have be- 

 come free, has continued to excite the anxious 

 attention of the Government and of the citi- 

 zens of the United States. While some pro- 

 gress has been made toward the solution of the 

 difficulties, it cannot be said that any entirely 

 satisfactory policy has yet been adopted. Dif- 

 ferent sections require differences in detail in 

 the management of freedmen, but the general 

 policy should be the same. Even this, however, 

 does not seem to be settled. The number who 

 Lave already obtained their freedom is not 

 easily ascertained. In September last the 

 Philadelphia "North American" published a 

 carefully-prepared estimate for each State, 

 making the aggregate amount 1,368,600. Mr. 

 J. R. Gilmore (Edmund Kirke) had previously 

 estimated the number at 1,555,225, while Jef- 

 ferson Davis in the summer stated the number 

 at 3,000,000, about three-fourths of the whole 

 number in the country. Since that time, Slier- 

 man's march through Georgia, South and North 

 Carolina, has resulted in setting at liberty hardly 

 less than 200,000, and victories in other quar- 

 ters have materially added to the number else- 

 where. Whatever may have been the case 

 last summer, it hardly admits of a doubt that, 

 including those set free by the Emancipation 

 acts in Maryland, Western Virginia, and Mis- 

 souri, the whole number of freedmen now does 

 not fall much if at all short of 3,000,000. Of 

 these nearly 250,000 are in the army, either as. 

 soldiers or teamsters, and probably more than 

 twice as many more women, children, or old 

 men are employed as servants, cooks, washer- 

 women, etc., etc., in the various camps, military 

 posts, hospitals, etc., throughout the country. 

 Of the remainder a large number pick up a 

 living, more or less precarious, in the larger 

 cities and towns of the West and South. Very 

 few of them come North, the severe climate 



being disliked by the negro, Nut far from a 

 million and perhaps more than that number 

 are employed upon plantations leased or per- 

 mitted by the General Government, or work 

 for wages for farmers and planters in Missouri, 

 Maryland, or Western Virginia, or have them- 

 selves become lessees of plantations, or are 

 gathered in Freedmen's Home Colonies if feeble, 

 aged, or infirm, and there supported from the 

 proceeds of the labor of those who are able- 

 bodied. 



It is in the management of and provision for 

 these that there has been the greatest difficulty. 

 In the AXXUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1863 the sys- 

 tems adopted during that year in the Missis- 

 sippi Valley, in the Department of the Gulf, 

 and in the Department of the South, were 

 fully detailed. In general it may be said that 

 these plans, though devised from humane mo- 

 tives, have proved unsuccessful. In the Missis- 

 sippi Valley and the Department of the Gulf 

 they very generally failed, for several reasons. 

 The lessees, in many instances, were mere 

 speculators, who obtained possession of planta- 

 tions and the services of the freedmen without 

 adequate means for carrying out their contracts, 

 hoping to obtain such means by the profit on 

 the cotton or sugar crops, and who did not pay 

 their employes promptly ; furnished food of 

 poor quality, and clothing which was nearly 

 worthless, and, in defiance of their contract, 

 charged exorbitant prices for both ; established 

 no schools, and did not, as they had agreed, 

 provide suitable cabins for their people or sup- 

 port the feeble and helpless. Under these cir- 

 cumstances the negroes worked iinwillingly, 

 were absent many days, and often procured 

 their food by stealth. Thus dissatisfaction 

 sprung up on both sides, and complaints were 

 frequent. In addition to these causes of trouble, 

 the army worm nearly destroyed the cotton 

 crop on many plantations, and the guerrillas 

 visited and plundered those not readily or fully 

 protected by troops. Those who carried out 

 in good feith the provisions of their agreement 

 with the Government, as well as most of the 

 loyal citizens who hired the services of the 

 freedmen, did better, but in many cases the 

 army worm greatly diminished their profits. 

 In some hundred or more instances negroes 

 themselves, either singly or in company, leased 

 plantations and cultivated them or hired other 

 freedmen to aid them. These, almost with- 

 out exception, did well, notwithstanding the 

 drought and the army worm. Some of 

 them made but a few hundred dollars be- 

 yond their expenses and support; some two, 

 four, or six thousand dollars, and one over ten 

 thousand dollars. They were very desirous of 

 having schools for their own instruction and 

 that of their children, and contributed liberally 

 to their maintenance. This plan would sem 

 to have been capable of further extension, but 

 no efforts were made to increase the number of 

 this class of lessees. 



Finding that the plan adopted in February, 



