_Captain Oliver Fripp's, Jan. 26._ We are very busy now on the
plantations. A new system of labor to inaugurate,--lands to
allot,--grumbling to pacify and idleness to check,--my hands--with
nine plantations--are perfectly overrunning. The worst of it is that
my people are in pretty bad disposition,--the new system has been
received with joy and thankfulness in most parts of the island,--here
with suspicion, grumbling, and aversion. How far it is the fault of
their past and present superintendents, I cannot tell,--it has been
known as a hard district ever since we came here,--but it must be our
failing in some degree. I devoutly hope that by the middle of February
it will be over as far as I am concerned. It is a little remarkable
that while the Abolitionists and negroes' friends up North are
striving so hard to have the sale postponed,[101] we superintendents,
without exception that I have heard, are very desirous to have it
effected. This "superintendence" is a most unsatisfactory
system,--temporary and unprogressive in every element. Of course,
nothing else could well have been tried this last year, and perhaps
the time has not yet come to abandon it. But we all think it has. I am
satisfied that the sooner the people are thrown upon themselves, the
speedier will be their salvation. Let all the natural laws of labor,
wages, competition, etc., come into play,--and the sooner will habits
of responsibility, industry, self-dependence, and manliness be
developed. Very little, very little, should be given them: now, in the
first moments of freedom, is the time to influence their notion of it.
To receive has been their natural condition. They are constantly
comparing the time when they used to obtain shoes, dresses, coats,
flannels, food, etc., from their masters, with the present when little
or nothing is given them. I think it would be _most unwise and
injurious_ to _give_ them _lands_,--negro allotments; they should be
made to _buy_ before they can feel themselves possessors of a rod.
There are some who are now able to buy their houses and two or three
acres of land,--by the end of the year their number will probably be
greatly increased. These will be the more intelligent, the more
industrious and persistent. But _give_ them land, and a house,--and
the ease of gaining as good a livelihood as they have been accustomed
to would keep many contented with the smallest exertion. I pity some
of them very much, for I see that nothing will rouse and maintain
their energy but suffering.
In regard to the immediate sale,--even should speculators buy some
plantations, I don't think the people would suffer much oppression
during the years of their possession. It would be for their interest
to continue or increase the wages which Government offers,--and
probably many would let the places almost alone. Should oppression
occur, the negroes will probably have an opportunity to move,--such
cases would be closely watched and loudly reported,--and the people
would be all the more dependent on their own exertions. I should think
the great injury would come at the end of the war, or whenever the
speculators sell the lands: then, instead of selling at low prices and
in small lots or of consulting the people's interest in any way, they
will simply realize the greatest advantage for themselves. Other
places, however, will be bought by friends and by the Government,--on
the whole, great good would result to the people. Moreover, the work
will then have very much more value as a test of their capacity and
ambition,--as an experiment in American emancipation.
I feel that outside of directly spiritual labor, this emancipation
work is the noblest and holiest in the country.