Our men have returned from Hilton Head and nearly all are
eager to go there again and serve in the forts, though Marcus says he does not
wish to fight, but only to learn to fight. . . .
Very much has occurred lately, but I have no time to write.
I have received and distributed twenty-one boxes of clothing, having sold over
$155 worth and sent out fifteen boxes to the plantations, which will be sold on
account or given away. . . . People have come from great distances to buy here
and seem almost crazy at the sight of clothes — willing to pay any price.
We have had to refuse to sell, being so overworked. I am
sorry to say that I have discovered two cases of pilfering, and the cotton
house has been entered again and again, we think, but nothing that we can miss
is taken. Our house-servants are honest as the day.
Mr. French spent Saturday night and preached here on Sunday.
He thinks good times are coming for us. He says that General Saxton1
will be our friend, and that we shall have the military in our favor instead of
against us as before. The danger now seems to be — not that we shall be called
enthusiasts, abolitionists, philanthropists, but cotton agents, negro-drivers,
oppressors. The mischief has been that on this side of the water, on these
islands, the gentlemen have been determined to make the negroes show what they
can do in the way of cotton, unwhipped. But they have only changed the mode of
compulsion. They force men to prove they are fit to be free men by
holding a tyrant's power over them. Almost every one who has attempted this has
failed. Those who have not attempted driving are loved and obeyed. On the
rationed islands, Port Royal and Edisto, the negroes have worked much better
and have been perfectly contented.
Last Saturday the provisions from Philadelphia were
distributed, and I heard our folks singing until late, just as they did after
their first payment of wages, only then they sang till morning.
Thorp was here the other night. He wanted Mr. Pierce to let
him stay in his present position for a time, for Mr. P. had wanted to remove
him. He pleaded so that Mr. P. yielded and Mr. T. went back to work, but he is
now ill and Sumner is taking his place in the distribution of clothes and food.
This has not yet been begun and the people are gloomy. Last Sunday Ria, of Gab.
Capers, came over to me and asked me to speak to Mr. Pierce about her horse.
Mr. Saulsbury, a cotton agent, had taken away a fine horse (belonging to the
estate), which Ria took care of and used, and in its place he gave her an old
beast to take her to church, as she is paralytic. She came to church and heard
that Mr. Eustis, the provost marshal, who had made a law that no negro should
ride any horse without a pass, was going to take away the horses of all the
negroes who had come to church without a pass. She appealed to Mr. Pierce. He
sent her to Mr. Park. She is afraid of Mr. Park and appealed to me. Park was
there and I went directly to him. He heard me, and smiled as if a little pleased
to be petitioned, came forward and promised the woman a pass or permission
hereafter to use the horse. The Mr. Field, a sutler and friend of the Whitneys,
who was here a few days ago, told me he had found a fine horse on the island
named Fanny — a thoroughbred, which he meant to take North with him. As Ria's
good horse's name was Fanny and he was probably one of Saulsbury's gleanings, I
think we can see how the negroes have been wronged in every way. Last Sunday
Mrs. Whiting asked me to accept a quarter of lamb. I offered to buy it and we
had it for dinner. Afterwards Mrs. W. told me she had no more right to the lamb
than I had, that she took it from the estate, had it killed and generously gave
me part. I told her of the strict military order against it, when she said
Government agents had a right to kill, and that Mr. Mack and others did so. Mr.
Pierce instantly wrote to Mr. Mack to ask if he had done this thing. Mr.
Whiting has not been a Government agent for two months, and yet he lives in
Government property, making the negroes work without pay for him and living
upon “the fat of the lamb,” — selling too, the sugar, etc., at rates most
wicked, such as brown sugar, twenty-five cents a pound; using Government horses
and carriages, furniture, corn, garden vegetables, etc. It is too bad. The
cotton agents, many of them, are doing this.
_______________
1 Rufus Saxton, Brigadier-General of Volunteers.
SOURCE: Rupert Sargent Holland, Editor, Letters and
Diary of Laura M. Towne: Written from the Sea Islands of South Carolina
1862-1864, p. 54-7
