Missionaries for Port Royal – Stores and Teachers for the Contrabands

The steamer Atlantic will sail to-day for Port Royal, with a large cargo of army stores for our troops, and about sixty persons who accompany Mr. Edward L. Pierce, the government agent in charge of the plantations and contrabands at Port Royal.  These persons were all recommended by the National Freedman’s Relief Association, and its auxiliary, the Educational Commission at Boston.  Three-fourths of the whole number are men who are to be the superintendents of the abandoned estates, and will direct the labors of the negroes, who are to be employed in such agricultural pursuits as cotton-culture and raising vegetables for their own support and for the use of the army at that point.

Twelve or fifteen of the passengers are ladies who will become teachers of an industrial school, which will be at once established at Port Royal, under the superintendence of Rev. M. French of this city. – Mrs. Senator Harlan, of Iowa, is among the ladies, and will assist in some department of the work.  Rev. Dr. Floy, of the Methodist Episcopal Church of this city, is passenger by the Atlantic.  He went to Port Royal for the purpose of preparing for missionary efforts among the negroes.

A portion of the superintendents and teachers who are employed under the regulations so far as the government is concerned, explained in Mr. Chase’s letter to the “contraband” agent, receive compensation from the associations from this city and Boston; but some are volunteers.  Among the number are men of almost all trades, and some professions.  There are several physicians and one or two clergymen. – Quite a number, especially of those from Boston, have been teachers, and liberally educated; others of them are quite familiar with agricultural operations.

About three thousand dollars worth of agricultural implements, including ploughs, hoes, and others in most common use, have been purchased by Mr. Pierce, and will be taken to Port Royal in the Atlantic.  He takes also a quantity of seeds, including one barrel contributed from the Patent Office at Washington; as well as some medicines and other necessary articles. – N. Y. Eve. Post.

– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette, Davenport, Iowa, Tuesday Morning, March 11, 1862, p. 2