Don’t fall into the mistake of some, that freedom means idleness. No
such thing. Free people have to work, and some of them have to work
very hard even to get their bread. Some of the free colored people
have by their own labor gained the means of a comfortable livelihood,
and made themselves respectable. You can do the same, if you will
use the same diligence. By industry you will soon be able to support
yourselves and families, and lay up something perhaps for a rainy day.
Thus you may secure something to depend on when you are sick or old
and can’t work. There will no doubt be penny savings-banks, where you
can put some of your money, and where it will not only be safe, but
will increase. We hope, if there are such banks, that you will take
advantage of them.
At first, and before you get well a going, the government, aided by
good people, is ready to lend you a helping hand. This is done to give
you a chance to get used to your new situation. But the sooner you stop
leaning on the government and on the help of the whites, the better for
yourselves and for all concerned.
Don’t refuse to work then, even at low wages. Work at low wages is
better than idleness. The Bible says, he that will not work, neither
shall he eat. It says also, “Be diligent in business.”
Besides, if you are idle, and look for support to the whites, the
slaveholders will throw it in our teeth, and say, “There, you see
negroes wont work, unless there is a master over them.” And so we
shall be ashamed, not knowing what to say in reply. But if you are
industrious and willing to work even at low wages, they can’t say this.
If the government wants able-bodied men among you for the army, to dig
trenches, to build forts, or to enlist as soldiers, let it not be said
that you refused. If you are invited to go in as field laborers, go in
and work. You work now as freemen, not as slaves; and the money which
is paid you, you can lay out for food and clothing, and for any thing
else that is proper. In this country nobody expects to live without
work.