Ashdale, Near Beaufort, S. C., August 8th, 1863.
The colored people are doing well generally. They are quite
industrious, and well informed in all that appertains to raising the cotton and
all the other productions of the soil. They are very much interested in all
those products that form the means of their subsistence. They are laboring
assiduously to procure in the coming harvest sufficient to supply all the wants
of the body, with some amount to sell. The Governor of this department in the
spring cut off the clothes and rations from all the people that were able to
labor in the fields, and it has proved one of the most efficient means of
promoting industrious habits among them. So long as they saw before them a
source from which they could draw food and clothes, they were contented, and
these contributions had a deleterious effect upon them. Now they are aware that
if they do not produce sufficient to support themselves and purchase their
clothes, they must suffer, and they are quite ambitious to get as much as
possible. It is quite surprising to see the ingenuity and tact which many of
them exhibit to accomplish that end. They certainly have imbibed largely the
spirit of trade and commerce, by which they increase their revenue. Their
little fields are guarded with the strictest care, and the growth of all the
products watched with much eagerness, and the profits calculated by them, as
much as the cargo and the profits to accrue therefrom are, by the great
shippers of our commercial marts. They are fast learning the value of money, and
are acquiring an idea of property, whether it be in a horse or land. There is a
growing desire among them to become owners of land. Hundreds of them are
guarding their little stores with jealous care, and adding to their stock all
they can, in order to have sufficient to make purchases at the next sales of
land. To be able to receive all the proceeds of their labors, is one of the
heights of their ambition. The adjoining plantation to the one where I live,
was purchased last year by the negroes. They have worked it themselves without
any direction from white people. They have exhibited ail the skill, thus far,
of those that have been worked by the Government. They have a large field of
cotton, and larger field of corn. I see them frequently, and converse with them
about it. They are as proud of their labors as are any of the farmers of the
North when success follows a period of industry. They have planted and brought
to good growth by the necessary working three acres of cotton, each of which
is, I am told, the maximum of one person's allotment, when other crops are
worked by the same hand to the maximum. This condition of that plantation
excites the emulation of all the surrounding people, and they frequently say
that if they could work this land in the same way we could see some great
crops. I have no doubt that if the negroes owned the land and could work it
with the expectation of receiving all the proceeds, the cotton crop would have
been increased one-third, if not one-half.
So far as the question of subsistence is involved
with these people, there is not the least doubt about it . They are abundantly
competent, and able and willing, to support themselves, and in a short time
many of them will acquire a competence that will enable them to demand and supply
themselves with many of the comforts of civilized life.
A. B. Plimpton.
SOURCE: New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen, Extracts
from Letters of Teachers and Superintendents of the New-England Educational
Commission for Freedmen, Fourth Series, January 1, 1864, p. 6
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