_Jan. 9._ I started for Coffin's Point, meeting a long procession of
the people on the way to church. More than half the number were in
sulkies or some sort of go-carts, with all sorts of animals pulling
them, mostly quadrupeds that had once been horses,--and some might
still bear that name. I had to stop and shake hands every few rods, of
course. I have spent most of the day at Fripp Point, with Mr. York.
Mr. G. had not been able to collect the rent of corn-land there, to be
paid in corn, most of the men refusing to pay. He had withheld enough
from their pay to cover the amount of corn due. I took over the money
due, with the pay-roll and corn-list. After a long talk on the part of
Pompey and John Major and others, which I listened to patiently, most
of them still refused to bring their corn. But I felt pretty sure that
when some began they would all do it, and so opened the door of the
corn-house and told the willing ones to bring in their corn. Jack came
first, then Katy, Louisa, and Moll. Pretty soon John Major came along
with a cart-load, and all the rest followed but Pompey. Then I began
to pay off the women for ginning and preparing their cotton. All went
smoothly except that Celia wanted her "yellow-cotton-money"[184]
"by himself," and as I couldn't tell exactly how much the
"yellow-cotton-money" was, I had to take her money all back and tell
her to go over and see Mr. G. After paying the others, however, Celia
came up and concluded to take her dues. They all took their money
excepting Pompey, who stoutly refused, and I came off without paying
him. Then came the talk about next year. I introduced Mr. York as
having leased the plantation for the year, which fact was received
with less dissatisfaction than I expected; but when it came to talk
about prices, which I left for Mr. York to settle, they all demanded
_a dollar a task_, evidently having been preparing their minds for
this for some time back. Then followed the usual amount of reasoning
on my part, enlarging upon the future uncertainty of prices of cotton,
etc., but we made little or no impression on them. They had evidently
been listening to an amount of talk about the wealth I had acquired at
their expense, and felt aggrieved that they were not making money as
fast as those who planted their own cotton, on Frogmore and other
places. I told them that the proceeds of last year's crop had all been
expended by me in carrying on this year's work, but they wouldn't
believe it. John Major said he knew very well they had been jamming
the bills into that big iron cage (meaning my safe at R.'s) for six
months, and there must be enough in it now to bust it! It had been
raining for the last half-hour pretty steadily, and we finally
withdrew, the choir of hands hanging about me, singing out "A dollar a
task!" "A dollar a task!" as we went off.
_Jan. 15._ I went out and introduced Mr. Jackson on Tuesday morning to
the Pine Grove people, who expressed very little surprise or feeling
of any kind, but met him with the same cry which had greeted me and
Mr. York at the Point about _a dollar a task_. I left him with them
and rode over to Cherry Hill with old Mr. Waters. The Cherry Hill
people received us very well. Tony had a long list of grievances to
relate, for Mr. Folsom had had him in jail for a fortnight for
refusing to bring out his cotton, raised for me, which he kept in his
own house. I listened quietly, and then told Tony I couldn't go behind
the decision of the court, but if he had any other matters in dispute
with Mr. Folsom he had better come up to the house in the evening and
we would talk them over together; but he never came, probably from a
sense of guilty conscience.
Primus and Mike and several other negroes were there [in Beaufort],
buying horses from officers and men in Sherman's army, titles very
uncertain, for they mostly belong to the quartermaster. I advised them
not to buy a horse till the ownership was certified by an officer, but
they were too much in a hurry for that and hooked on to the first
quadruped they could find offered for sale. The fact is that thousands
of horses are attached to this army which are picked up by the
privates in their march through Georgia, and which these privates
pretend to own, and sell without authority, pocketing their money as
fast as they please. Some of them are very good horses, and some are
not. The town was crowded with the army, on a general leave to ramble
about, and new troops continually arrive. One entire corps marched
over Port Royal Ferry yesterday, and two more army corps are said to
be following. Some twenty steamers arrive daily at Beaufort direct
from Savannah, bringing the troops and wagons, artillery and animals.
So you can imagine what a confusion appears in the streets as they
disembark and march out to camp. The greater part of the whole army
seems to be coming around this way and marching over the Ferry towards
Pocotaligo. Secretary Stanton is said to have arrived from Savannah at
Beaufort last evening. It seems that Primus and the other negroes were
about to get their new horses over the Ferry, when the provost marshal
sent down a guard to seize men and animals, and marched them all off
to the guard-house for the night. The horses will probably be taken
away from them and the men allowed to pursue their way this morning,
with more sense and less money than they came with. I don't pity them
much, for they were fairly warned, and their eagerness to own horses,
for which they pay from $200 to $300 each, is perfectly absurd.[185]
_Later._ An interesting scene has just taken place. May's Comba
knocked at the door and asked me to come out in the entry a minute.
Thinking there might be some domestic trouble, though she looked
smiling, I went out and found about twenty women (representative
women) about the door. Comba disappeared in the mass with a giggle,
and old Grace spoke up, about as follows: "I'se come to you,
sir"--pause--"I'se been working fer owner three years, and made with
my chillun two bales cotton last year, two more this year. I'se a
flat-footed pusson and don't know much, but I knows those two bales
cotton fetch 'nough money, and I don't see what I'se got for 'em. When
I take my leetle bit money and go to store, buy cloth, find it so
dear, dear Jesus!--the money all gone and leave chillun naked. Some
people go out yonder and plant cotton for theyself. Now they get big
pile of money for they cotton, and leave we people 'way back. That's
what I'se lookin' on, Marsa. Then when I come here for buy 'lasses,
when Massa Charlie sell he sell good 'lasses, then when Mister W. sell
he stick _water_ in 'em, _water enough_. Molasses turn thin, but he
charge big price for 'em. Now I'se done working for such 'greement.
I'se done, sir." Whereupon chorus of women join in like a flock of
blackbirds all talking at once. After a while I got a chance to say
about as follows: "If any one wants to work on this plantation I will
give them so and so (naming terms), but if any one don't like my
wages, they may go and find better, but they can't use my land to
plant their corn and 'tater on. That's my rule." Chorus interrupts
with discordant shouts: "I stay right here, sir--I will work this
land for myself, sir--I will sell the cotton," etc., etc. Amaritta
and Petra stood silent all this time, and finally Amaritta quietly
asked me to repeat my terms, which I did. She repeated them after me
word for word, but said nothing more, only nodded and grunted a sort
of assent. The chorus became wilder and more noisy, and I walked off
into the house. Presently Demus came to the door and said Amaritta
wanted to see me by heself. So I went to the door, and Amaritta called
Tilly, Petra, and one or two others. Thus said Amaritta: "I'se work
for you dis lass year, sir, what I was able. I been sick, you know,
wi' small-pox and didn't get much strength all summer, but I don't
mind much what them people say, sir, they'se got no manners. Now you
say you'll give so and so (carefully repeating my terms). Well, sir,
I'se come to say I'se 'gree for work. I 'speck to work, sir. I want to
lay my bones in dat air bush (pointing to cemetery), and don't want to
go nowhar else; that's what I wanted to say, sir." Then the other two
or three women chimed in with smiling faces and said the same in fewer
words, and so I bid them good-morning. I told them, too, that if some
of those people who made so much noise didn't look out, they would get
turned off the place, just as Venus and her gang got turned off last
year. The fact is, they are trying to play brag, as such people often
will; but they will all go to work in a few days, I feel sure.
_Jan. 17._ Mr. Folsom went over to Port Royal Island with Mr. G. on
Sunday, taking their own horses, and rode over Sherman's pontoons at
Port Royal Ferry, without a challenge, and then up the mainland as
far as Pocotaligo Bridge, around which the 17th Army Corps is
encamped, in full possession of the railroad. Mr. G. called here an
hour ago on his way back, and told some of his experiences. He says
they were taken for "Secesh" by our own troops, all the way, just as
we all are in Beaufort, for the officers themselves seem to be hardly
aware that we are all Yankees, taking us for the old residents of the
island, made loyal by our experiences.
Every one wonders what brought Secretary Stanton here. He seems to
have done something, at any rate, viz., hauled General Foster over the
coals severely for his negro conscription last summer, promoted
General Saxton to a brevet major-general, with enlarged powers; and,
report says, put General Howard in place of General Foster. The
newspapers will tell you all I know, and more, too, without doubt. Mr.
Tomlinson, who was about disgusted with things here as he found them
when he came back from the North, and had concluded to go to
Philadelphia to take some position offered him there by the
Philadelphia committee, now thinks he will remain here,--for which I
am very glad. Very few men could be so useful as he in this place; for
though he has a weak spot on the question of negro character, he has a
vast deal of good sense in detail, and is perfectly unimpeachable in
his stern regard for justice, never allowing himself to be _used_ in
any way for the furthering of the designs of interested parties. No
one who has not spent some time under martial law knows how hard it is
and how _rare_ for men in office to follow such a course, unswerved by
either flattery or ambition.
_Jan. 22._ General Saxton came over to the St. Helena church last
Sunday, and set all the Edisto people into a stew by telling how he
was going to send the black troops there to defend the islands, and
how they might all go back to their "old homes," etc., forgetting that
they were not natives of Edisto, but only refugees when there, and
that they were now more comfortably settled here than they were there
in 1862. The Georgia refugees are coming along by hundreds and
thousands, and he "wanted to make room for them," etc. Of course the
Edisto people all say the General has ordered them to pack up and he
will carry them back, etc. So, many refuse to work, but pack up and
sit still, waiting for the General to come along and tote them across
the sound! The Georgia negroes are a superior-looking set to those of
these islands. Many are taken in outbuildings, etc., and have given a
good start to labor by giving the impression that if the old residents
don't work, _somebody else will_. They have gone to work for Mr. York
at Fripp Point, and here for Mr. H., and all along the road generally.
George Wells has got over a hundred Georgians on Morgan Island doing
well, and I guess the rebs won't trouble him, they are too busy.
Mr. Tomlinson is to take the place on General Saxton's staff formerly
held by Captain Hooper, but without military rank. C. F. Williams is
to take Mr. Tomlinson's place here.
We hear by your letter the list of the passengers lost on the
_Melville_. All our worst fears are confirmed, and you were right in
supposing that it was our acquaintances who were lost. This miserable
steamer I once talked of coming on, by her previous trip, but gave it
up when I found her character.