_Savannah, June 9._ Our business has slacked greatly, and is now
mainly kept up by recent refugees from the up-country. We have stopped
more than half the rations, and almost every family within a dozen
miles has been represented at the office and been furnished with the
proper papers. But slavery still exists in the interior and is
spending its last moments in the old abominations of whipping and
punishing. Of course it is nearly dead,--the people know they are free
and the masters have to own it,--but the ruling passion is strong in
death.
W. C. G. left the South in June; H. W. and C. P. W. had gone
several months before him. The letters written at intervals
during the next two years are mostly addressed to the latter
by F. H. and T. E. R. They report the gradually changing
conditions and increasing difficulties of plantation
superintendence.