Horace James

“ These people are wards of the government. It is an element of our glory as a nation, that we can crush out a slave-holding rebellion with one hand, and sustain a liberated people with the other. The person, be he white or black, who has taken an acre of piney woods, worth two dollars in the market, and increased its value thirty or forty fold by his own labor in a single year, certainly deserves well of his country, and should be permitted to enjoy, while he lives, the fruits of his industry. When a "Bureau of Freedmen's Affairs" is created by Congress, it may well look to this matter. ”

“ And the foolish prejudice against color which prevails, I am forced to believe, even among the best people of the North, should immediately give way, that they may take their proper place in all our households: not to throw white laborers out of employment, but to lift them higher in the social scale, and engage them in labors which require more skill. In the successive orders or ranks of industrial pursuits, those who have the least intelligence must needs perform the more menial services, without respect to color or birth. ”

“ Upon intelligent people it would have been powerless. Send out teachers then, and especially female teachers. Let them follow in the track of every conquering army. Let them swarm over the savannas of the South. Bring hither the surplus of females in New England, greatly increased by the bereavements of war, for here it can essentially contribute to the national wealth and honor. No more beautiful resolution of a difficult and delicate social dilemma can be conceived of. ”

“ The negroes are grateful for liberty, and but little inclined to abuse it. They know, as we do not, what slavery means, and are truly grateful that they have escaped it. It would be natural enough for their minds to react, and go to the other extreme of rude and disgusting boldness in their new powers and privileges. But only occasionally is one found who would put upon the white man's limbs the fetters which have dropped from his own. ”

“ The shadow of a passing disgust at the abject negro is changed into the fervor of a holy indignation against the crime that debased him when we reflect upon the pent up abuses of many generations now let loose in judgment upon the land, and hear the voice of the Lord, like muttering thunders, saying, let my people go. ”

“ The temporary support of a few hundred thousand negroes is but a trifling incident for this nation, and is more than countervailed by their services in the field. When we have gone into every corner of the South, and carried liberty and laws, art and enterprise, learning and pure religion to all these people with painstaking and in the spirit of love, then and not till then, shall we have paid the debt. ”

“ Give the colored man equality, not of social condition, but equality before the law, and if he proves himself the superior of the Anglo-Saxon, who can hinder it? If he shall fall below him, who can help it? undoubtedly the negro has his own place under republican institutions, and eternal laws are sure to bring him into position. This, at least, is our "south-side view." ”

“ My observation in this State has led me to the conclusion that, of those who are equally poor and equally destitute, the white person will be the one to sit down in forlorn and languid helplessness, and eat the bread of charity, while the negro will be tinkering at something, in his rude way, to hammer out a living. ”

“ Never did a fairer field of endeavor open before any man, though there will be many obstacles to success. But let not one of them be a faint heart on the part of the friends of the Freedmen. Our work is just begun; years are necessary to its completion. Latent in our successful appeal to arms are unspeakable blessings for the whole South, both oppressors and oppressed. They are to be developed slowly and by peaceful processes, like the healing ministries of nature and the restoring grace of God. ”

“ My relations to the military authorities of the Department, and of the District and several Posts as well, has been so uninterruptedly cordial, as to make the conduct of negro affairs far easier than it would have been under a state of distrust and jealousy. The number of officers who sneer at the idea of freedom, education, and advancement for the African race in America is, fortunately for the service, growing less every day. The current of public opinion and the resistless logic of events is too strong for them. ”

“ Its headquarters, where reside the superintendent, his assistant, and some of the female teachers, its hospital buildings, at one extremity, overlooking the river shore, its blacksmith's shop, cook-houses, camp stables, and variety store, its comfortable dwellings, its well-filled schools and churches, its neatness, comfort and order, conspire to make it a happy home for many a panting fugitive, in which he may learn the first lesson of a higher social life.
The gardens, though small, were wonderfully productive, and furnished for the cultivators thousands of bushels of green vegetables. ”

“ While several of the powerful free states of the North are still holding the black man aloof from the ballot box, it was hardly to be expected that he should emerge from abject slavery in the South, and rise at one bound to this high privilege of citizenship. ”

“ But the whole body of white refugees are the nation's guests. This does not prove that "the negro is better than the white man," but rather that labor is honorable, and tends to independence.
Many who were at first settled in this camp have left it to live in town, where they can better obtain work, or to reside upon farms, or to migrate northward. As many as could be induced to go North, and for whom places could be found as household servants, have been assisted to go. But they much prefer to live in the warmer climate of the South. ”

“ The "councillors" were too ignorant to keep records, or make and receive written communications, were jealous of one another, and too little raised in culture above the common people to command their respect, at least while the island is under military rule. To fit these people for republican self-government, education is the prime necessity. The sword to set them free, letters to make them citizens.
The whites, who lived to the number of about four hundred on Roanoke Island previous to this rebellion, did not, for the most part, abandon their homes. ”

“ The last preacher of liberty has been silenced. The last propagandist of liberal ideas has been hooted and proscribed by a tyranneous and brutal public opinion. An idea may now march, with the step of a conqueror, over every foot of Southern soil. ”

“ Its capacity to produce different styles of lumber, and to convert grain into the form so widely used by the negroes, and indeed by all the Southern people for food, makes it a positive addition to the wealth and resources of the island, and as valuable to the whites as to the blacks. The officers of the Government, the troops, the attachés of the army, the white natives, and the negroes, are sharing alike in the benefits of this Northern institution. Thus do enterprise, thrift, and productiveness enter the gates which have been opened by the demon of war. ”

“ The negro is always jolly, and when driven out of one home, he will "tote" his small inventory of household stuff upon his head, until he finds a place in which to establish another. He goes forth like Abraham, journeying for "de promus land." The soldier under orders does not strike his tent with more alacrity, or sing with more unconcern, when he knows not where he shall next lay his head.
Large numbers of white refugees, also, left their homes at the same time with the negroes. Many of them belonged to families of North Carolina soldiers in the Union army. ”

“ One is sorely tempted at times to throw up the work in disgust. The soil seems so unpromising, so choked with poisonous weeds, as to defy cultivation. The negroes are so untrustworthy, so full of all deceitfulness and dishonesty, so enveloped in dirt and rags, that we ask in despair, Is there rain enough in the sweet heavens to cleanse them, or grace sufficient to renew them? ”

“ The boon they crave above all others, is knowledge. They believe it will assure them rights, influence, position, and consideration. In this way they hope to vote, and to acquire property, to become landholders, and citizens in full. And now that the national battle is won, it is to be hoped they may not be disappointed. If this war, terminated as it has been in the success of the Union arms, means anything, it means that thought and speech and instruction at the South are now and forever free. If it be not so, we had better go to fighting again. The last school-teacher has been banished. ”

“ The community need to be cautioned against accepting without question the statements of enemies. If unscrupulous falsehood can create the impression that negro freedom is a failure, it will do it. But all honest investigations will show the contrary.
The colored people greatly desire to learn. They are enthusiastic and persevering in their efforts in this behalf. They have an idea that knowledge is power, and that it has given to the Yankees their great success, and this thought stimulates them to exertion. ”

“ During the five months of the present year, all our operations in behalf of the Freedmen in North Carolina have been pursued in much the same manner as heretofore, and with good success. The changes experienced have been more sudden than ever before, vibrating from the active conflicts of war to the hushed repose of peace. The negroes are adjusting themselves as rapidly as possible to their changed circumstances, and things generally look promising.
It is not true in North Carolina that the negroes are lazy and will not work. ”

“ The wail of grief is mingled with the shouts of victory every time the wires flash out some new success. But, with the Anglo-Saxon and the African alike, these great tribulations, so sure as God reigns, must work out a common advantage, and bear for centuries to come the peaceable fruits of righteousness. ”

“ Among these refugees our teachers moved like ministering angels. They took by assignment a hospital ward each, and attended to those helpless patients, day and night, like sisters of mercy. Ignorant people, they could scarcely believe their own eyes when they saw the despised "nigger schoolma'am's" ministering so sedulously to themselves and their children. ”

“ To remove a doubt which seems to exist in the minds of some of the people of North Carolina, it is hereby declared that by virtue of the Proclamation of the President of the United States, dated January 1st, 1863, all persons in this State heretofore held as slaves are now free; and that it is the duty of the Army to maintain the freedom of such persons. ”

“ V. Persons of age, who are free from any of the obligations referred to above, are at liberty to find new homes wherever they can obtain proper employment; but they will not be supported by the government, nor by their former masters, unless they work.
VI. It will be left to the employer and servant to agree upon the wages to be paid; but Freedmen are advised that for the present season they ought to expect only moderate wages, and where their employers cannot pay them money, they ought to be contented with a fair share in the crops to be raised. They have gained their personal freedom. ”

“ Besides the 1,297 children under fourteen years of age, many of the adults are eager to be taught to read and write, and will not be denied. Add to this the distribution of donated clothing, visitation of the sick, writing letters for the women to their husbands or sons in the army, and their own domestic cares, and one may readily decide whether from ten to twenty dollars per month, would tempt teachers to do this work, in banishment and obloquy, if their minds were not glowing with enthusiasm, and their hearts penetrated with benevolent love. ”

“ The negro always builds his own house. Set him down where trees grow, give him an axe, a saw, a hammer, and twenty pounds of nails, and in a month his house is done. Let some disturbance of the times drive him from his cabin, and when he has found an eligible spot, he will erect another, and another. An old Roanoke negro told me he had built eight houses for himself on his master's plantation. ”

“ The manufacturers of the North will scarcely be able to supply the South, in those swift coming days when almost every negro will be a cash paying customer.
For the present it is plain that the negroes must be sheltered under the protecting wing of the government, and be trained into self-reliance and independence. They need a special agency to manage their affairs at the nation's capital. ”

“ It was noticeable that the negroes would not believe the promises of their old masters, however much they had been supposed to love them, but would confide implicitly in the statements of Northern men whom they never saw before, and who told them they had rights of their own which white men even were bound to respect. It will be necessary for such mediators to stand between the colored people and the old aristocracy, that once presumed to own them, until the feelings and habits of both classes have become adjusted to the altered conditions of society. ”

“ Their families are nearly as dependent on the Government for food as if no bounty had been offered or paid, suggesting the suspicion that the money found its way into the wrong pocket. While some of the recruiting agents in North Carolina were persons of integrity and honor, gentlemen in every sense of the word, it is not too much to say that others were scoundrels of the deepest dye, who left the District enriched with ill-gotten gains, filched by fraud from the ignorant poor, who became the easy dupes of their knavery. ”