_Sept. 27._ I gave one yard for every task of cotton hoed in July,
requiring about 600 yards. The Coffin people all got some, but about
half the people on the Fripp plantations had to go without, having
neglected the last hoeing. The people who were too lazy to hoe their
cotton in July looked rather glum, and those who got their cloth
laughed and looked exultant. Some people here got twenty-two yards,
and many got only two or three, but all took it thankfully and seemed
content that they got any. Those who got so little will have to buy
more, which they are doing already. I sell it at about half the price
that is asked by our own quartermaster, so I shall be liberally
patronized. In dividing up this cotton cloth I deducted from the
shares of those people to whom clothing was given last spring the
value of that clothing. The only cases were those of Martha, Amaritta,
and Rosetta, to each of whom Mr. G. gave a dress. Rosetta's cotton was
only _one_ acre and her share of cloth was therefore but four yards,
which was fully paid for last spring. So she got nothing now. She
didn't take it very kindly, and growled about the dress being too
small for her, so she couldn't wear it, whereupon I offered to take it
back, but I haven't heard anything more about it. The more I see of
these people, the more I am opposed to the practice of _giving_ them
anything except in payment for services actually performed. The cases
of destitution are comparatively very few.
At this time some of the superintendents were trying hard to
instruct the negroes in military drill. A young enthusiast
on one of the Fripp places was very proud of his little
squad of black recruits, but found their attendance on the
daily drill amazingly irregular. Apropos of his own efforts
in this direction, Mr. Philbrick pursues his letter as
follows:
I have tried in vain to get my young men together to drill for
self-defense; my twenty-five guns are lying useless. One might as well
think of a combination among the Boston kittens to scratch the eyes
out of all the Boston dogs as to look for an insurrection in this
State, if the negroes on these islands are a fair sample of those on
the main. If there should be any insurrection in the South, it will
not be in this State. The negroes in the sugar plantation districts
are different, I suppose, being, a larger portion of them, Kentucky
and Virginia born, torn from their old homes or sent South for bad
behavior, and therefore more revengeful. But you know the people here
are too timid to do any fighting unless driven to it. If General
Hunter had not _forced_ them into his regiment last May, we might do
more at drilling now. As it is, my men won't listen to me when I talk
about it; they only suspect me of wanting to press them into service
by stealth, and lose what little confidence they have in my sincerity.
C. P. W. opens the next letter with a melancholy comparison
between the autumnal glories of "home" and the absence
thereof on the Sea Islands of South Carolina.