Port Royal and Beaufort.
At daylight we were steaming into the broad sheet of water which Dupont
first made famous, and which our sailors have since come to consider the
finest harbor on the Southern coast. Admiral Dahlgren had evidently
prepared the naval authorities for our arrival. Within a few moments,
the numerous vessels were dressed in all their colors, the sailors
manned the yards, and a salute was fired from all the men of war in the
harbor. A few minutes later a deluge of naval officers set in, till the
quarter deck of the “Wayanda” overflowed with the dignitaries, and the
indefatigable boatswain grew weary blowing his whistle as they came over
the ship’s side.
Everybody seemed possessed with the mania of speculation. Even these
naval gentlemen were infected by it; and we saw no civilians or army
officers who were not profoundly versed in the rival claims of Hilton
Head, Bay Point and Beaufort. That a great city must spring up
hereabouts, has been laid down as an axiom. This is the best harbor on
the coast, while that of Charleston is positively bad, and that of
Savannah is contracted, and not easy of access. Situated midway between
the two, the speculators insist that it ought to fall legitimate heir to
the trade of both. Besides, the Carolina sea-coast must have a seaport,
and Charleston is so utterly ruined, they argue, and so odious to the
nation that Northern trade and capital would discriminate against it, in
favor of its younger rival. And the most flourishing part of South
Carolina to-day is made up of the sea islands, cultivated by the
freedmen, all whose trade already centers here. Therefore, for these
reasons, and many more, which your speculator will set out in ample
array before you, if you only listen, it is necessary and fated that a
great city should grow up on the waters of Port Royal harbor.
But where?—that is the rub. Not at Hilton Head, say some, for there are
hurricanes there, every dozen years or so, that blow everything flat,
and even now, in rough weather, shipping can hardly live at the wharf.
Not at Bay Point, rejoin the Hilton Head landholders, for it is low and
unhealthy. And not at Beaufort, some ten or fifteen miles up Broad river
from here, they both agree, because it is so far off.
And so, while they make it quite clear that an immense fortune is to be
realized here by the purchase of real estate, they leave one in the most
provoking uncertainty as to the precise point at which the fortune is
located. It is very clear that you can treble and quadruple and
quintuple your money here in two or three years—if you don’t lose it all
by investing in the wrong place! But, alas, what good did it do
Archimedes to know that he could move the world, when he couldn’t find
the place to fix his lever?
Hilton Head has taken a start, however, and quite a village of frame
houses line the shore—wide, roomy cottages, occupied by army officers,
and mostly built for them by the Government, under a liberal
construction of the regulations about providing the officers with
quarters, making up the street fronting on the water. Back of these are
warehouses and other Government buildings; and a row of two-story
houses, ambitiously entitled “Broadway” or some other high-sounding
name, by the occupants, has received, from the unfortunates who are
compelled to frequent it, the more expressive designation of “Robbers’
Row.” It is the street of the sutlers!
General Gillmore had arrived from Charleston in advance, and he had
carriages in waiting for us when we landed. Captain James, of his staff,
had provided horses for those who preferred to ride, and the delights of
a gallop along the superb beach were not to be overrated. The sun was
intensely hot, and the horses were in a lather, almost in a moment; but
the Captain said they were used to it, and that they really seemed to
stand as much fatigue and rough usage here as at the North.
Half an hour’s ride brought us to an extraordinary collection of cabins,
arranged in long streets, and teeming with little woolly-headed,
big-stomached picaninnies, in all stages of primitive costume. This was
the village of Mitchelville, so named in honor of General Ormsby M.
Mitchel, who died here shortly after he had begun his work, but not
until he had impressed the grateful negroes with a firm belief in his
friendship. The population is made up entirely of freedmen, and is
regularly organized, with a Mayor and Common Council, Marshal, Recorder
and Treasurer—all black, and all, except the Mayor and Treasurer,
elected by the negroes themselves.[17] The Common Council requires every
child, between the ages of six and fifteen, to attend school regularly,
except in cases where their services are absolutely necessary for the
support of their parents, of which the teacher is made the judge!
General Mitchel was one of Cincinnati’s contributions to the war. But is
Cincinnati behind Mitchelsville?
* * * * *
As we passed up Broad river, in the afternoon, a straggling collection
of old two-story frame houses, with faded paint and decayed boards, but
with the inevitable wide halls and spacious verandahs, rose among the
islands on the left. Of old, it was the very center of the aristocratic
country residences of the wealthier South Carolinians; to-day, it is the
capital, if I may so call it, of a new community of South Carolinians,
liberated by the war, and settled on the famous sea-island plantations.
“Here,” says some one, “secession was first plotted,” and he points out
houses which had been the residences of the Barnwells and the Barnwell
Rhetts. Near here, another tells, is the plantation where the
“_South-Side View_” was taken; and there are negroes in the village who
tell of the rustic seat in the bough of a great live-oak tree, where Dr.
Nehemiah Adams wrote the book, and of the appetizing claret cobblers
they bore him to cheer him up, from time to time, in his work. Could the
good Doctor return now, he would scarcely find the blacks so
affectionately attentive, but he would be pleased to see that the
plantation is in a much higher state of cultivation than when it
elicited his eulogies.
General Saxton had carriages waiting for us at the wharf, and, after a
short drive through the sandy streets, we were taken to see the
dress-parade of a regiment of negroes, commanded by a brother of General
Howard. The men marched from their camps, by companies, into line with
as steady a tramp and as soldierly a carriage as the average of other
troops, and, however lacking in beauty the individual negro may be, the
bitterest negro hater would have been willing to admit a thousand of
them looked handsome. Yet these men were scarcely a month from the
plantations! They had made little progress in the drill beyond the
manual of arms and the formation of the regimental line, but what they
did know, they knew thoroughly. They were all coal black, and seemed
larger and more muscular than the negro troops raised farther north.
General Saxton has, within his present district, over a hundred thousand
negroes. He claims that all are now absolutely self-sustaining, save
those swept in the wake of Sherman’s march. Even the rations issued to
these are charged to them, and the thrifty negroes make all haste to
quit leaning on the Government, lest their debt should swell to too
great proportions. Most of the older-settled negroes, who were
originally dependent on Government support, have already repaid the
advances thus made them, and many have, besides, accumulated what is,
for them, a handsome competence.
The astonishment of our Doctor at the changes he witnessed, among these
scenes of his earlier life, is unbounded. His old slaves have been
greeting him very enthusiastically; and many a hand-kissing, or worse,
has “Massa Richard” had to endure; but he sees among them manliness of
bearing, and a sober cheerfulness wholly novel to his experience of
negro character; and he begins to suspect that perhaps, after all, there
were characteristics of the negro nature which all his former
familiarity with it had not disclosed. Withal, he says, that he never
saw the slaves of Beaufort so well clad, or seemingly so comfortable.
General Saxton rather proudly responds that the peasantry of no country
in the world is better behaved or more prosperous.
-----
Footnote 17:
The following are the main points of the military order under which
Mitchelville is organized:
“I. All lands now set apart for the colored population, near Hilton
Head, are declared to constitute a village, to be known as the village
of Mitchelville. Only freedmen and colored persons residing or
sojourning within the territorial limits of said village, shall be
deemed and considered inhabitants thereof.
“II. The village of Mitchelville shall be organized and governed as
follows: Said village shall be divided into districts, as nearly equal
in population as practicable, for the election of Councilmen, sanitary
and police regulations, and the general government of the people
residing therein.
“III. The government shall consist of a Supervisor and Treasurer, to
be appointed by, and hold office during the pleasure of the Military
Commander of the District, assisted by a Councilman from each council
district, to be elected by the people, who shall also, at the same
time, choose a Recorder and Marshal. The duties of the Marshal and
Recorder shall be defined by the Council of Administration.
“IV. The Supervisor and Councilmen shall constitute the Council of
Administration, with the Recorder as Secretary.
“V. The Council of Administration shall have power:
“To pass such ordinances as it shall deem best, in relation to the
following subjects: To establish schools for the education of children
and other persons. To prevent and punish vagrancy, idleness and crime.
To punish licentiousness, drunkenness, offenses against public decency
and good order, and petty violation of the rights of property and
person. To require due observance of the Lord’s Day. To collect fines
and penalties. To punish offenses against village ordinances. To
settle and determine disputes concerning claims for wages, personal
property, and controversies between debtor and creditor. To levy and
collect taxes to defray the expenses of the village government, and
for the support of schools. To lay out, regulate, and clean the
streets. To establish wholesome sanitary regulations for the
prevention of disease. To appoint officers, places and times for the
holding of elections. To compensate municipal officers, and to
regulate all other matters affecting the well-being of citizens, and
good order of society.
“VIII. Hilton Head Island will be divided into School Districts, to
conform, as nearly as practicable, to the schools as established by
the Freedmen’s Association. In each District there shall be elected
one School Commissioner, who will be charged with supplying the wants
of the schools, under the direction of the teacher thereof. Every
child, between the ages of six and fifteen years, residing within the
limits of such School Districts, shall attend school daily, while they
are in session, excepting only in case of sickness. Where children are
of a suitable age to earn a livelihood, and their services are
required by their parents or guardians, and on the written order of
the teacher in such School District, may be exempt from attendance,
for such time as said order shall specify. And the parents and
guardians will be held responsible that said children so attend
school, under the penalty of being punished at the discretion of the
Council of Administration.”