POLITICS, FREE LABOR, AND SUGAR.
Through the courtesy of the Mayor I became acquainted with some of the
radical Union men of New Orleans. Like the same class in Richmond and
elsewhere, I found them extremely dissatisfied with the political
situation and prospects. “Everything,” they said, “has been given up to
traitors. The President is trying to help the nation out of its
difficulty by restoring to power the very men who created the
difficulty. To have been a good Rebel is now in a man’s favor; and to
have stood by the government through all its trials is against him. If
an original secessionist, or a time-serving, half-and-half Union man,
ready to make any concession for the convenience of the moment, goes to
Washington, he gets the ear of the administration, and comes away full
of encouragement for the worst enemies the government ever had. If a man
of principle goes to Washington, he gets nothing but plausible words
which amount to nothing, if he isn’t actually insulted for his trouble.”
I heard everywhere the same complaints from this class. And here I may
state that they were among the saddest things I had to endure in the
South. Whatever may be thought of the intrinsic merits of any measures,
we cannot but feel misgivings when we see our late enemies made jubilant
by them, and loyal men dismayed.
The Union men of New Orleans were severe in their strictures on General
Banks. “It was he,” they said, “who precipitated the organization of the
State government on a Rebel basis. Read his _General Orders No. 35_,
issued March 11th, 1864, concerning the election of delegates to the
Convention. Rebels who have taken the amnesty oath are admitted to the
polls, and loyal colored men are excluded. Section 4th reads, ‘Every
free white man,’ &c. Since his return to Massachusetts he has been
making speeches in favor of negro suffrage. He is in favor of it there,
where it is popular as an abstraction, and a man gets into Congress on
the strength of it; but he was not in favor of it here, where there was
a chance of making it practical. His excuse was, that if black men voted
white men would take offence, and keep away from the polls. Very likely
some white men would, but loyal white men wouldn’t. That he had the
power to extend the franchise to the blacks, or at least thought he had,
may be seen by his apology for not doing so, in which he says: ‘I did
not decide upon this subject without very long and serious
consideration,’ and so forth. So he let the great, the golden
opportunity slip, of organizing the State government on a loyal
basis,—of demonstrating the capacity of the colored man for
self-government, and, of setting an example to the other Rebel States.”
Being one day in the office of Mr. Durant, a prominent lawyer and Union
man, I was much struck by the language and bearing of a gentleman who
called upon him, and carried on a long conversation in French. Having
understood that the Creoles were nearly all secessionists, I was
surprised to hear this man give utterance to the most enlightened
Republican sentiments. After he had gone out, I expressed my
gratification at having met him.
“That,” said Mr. Durant, “is one of the ablest and wealthiest business
men in New Orleans. He was educated in Paris. But there is one thing
about him you do not seem to have suspected. He belongs to that class of
Union men the government has made up its mind to leave politically bound
in the hands of the Rebels. That man, whom you thought refined and
intelligent, has not the right which the most ignorant, Yankee-hating,
negro-hating Confederate soldier has. He is a colored man, and has no
vote.”
There were six daily newspapers published in New Orleans,—five in
English and one in English and French,—besides several weeklies. There
was but one loyal sheet among them, and that was a “nigger paper,” the
_Tribune_, not sold by any newsboy, and, I believe, by but one
news-dealer.
I called on General T. W. Sherman, in command of the Eastern District of
Louisiana, who told me that, in order to please the people, our troops
had been withdrawn from the interior, and that the militia, consisting
mostly of Rebel soldiers, many of whom still wore the Rebel uniform, had
been organized to fill their place. The negroes, whom they treated
tyrannically, had been made to believe that it was the United States,
and not the State government, that had thus set their enemies to keep
guard over them.
Both Governor Wells and General Sherman had received piles of letters
from “prominent parties” expressing fears of negro insurrections. The
most serious indications of bloody retribution preparing for the white
race had been reported in the Teche country, where regiments of black
cavalry were said to be organized and drilled. The General, on visiting
the spot, and investigating the truth of the story, learned that it had
its foundation in the fact that some negro boys had been playing soldier
with wooden swords. No wonder the Rebel militia was thought necessary!
From General Baird, Assistant-Commissioner, and General Gregg,
Inspecting-Agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau, I obtained official
information regarding the condition of free labor in Louisiana. A
detailed account of it would be but a recapitulation, with slight
variations, of what I have said of free labor in other States. The
whites were as ignorant of the true nature of the system as the blacks.
Capitalists did not understand how they could secure labor without
owning it, or how men could be induced to work without the whip. It was
thought necessary to make a serf of him who was no longer a slave. To
this end the Legislature had passed a code of black laws even more
objectionable than that enacted by the Legislature of Mississippi. By
its provisions freedmen were to be arrested as vagrants who had not, on
the 10th of January, 1866, entered into contracts for the year. They
were thus left little choice as to employers, and none as to terms. They
were also subjected to a harsh system of fines and punishments for loss
of time and the infraction of contracts; and made responsible for all
losses of stock on the plantation, until they should be able to prove
that they had not killed it. Although these laws had not been approved
by the Governor, there was no doubt but they would be approved and
enforced as soon as the national troops were removed.
A majority of the Southern planters clamored for the withdrawal of the
troops and the Freedmen’s Bureau. But Northern planters settled in the
State as earnestly opposed the measure. “If the government’s protection
goes, we must go too. It would be impossible for us to live here without
it. Planters would come to us and say, ‘Here, you’ve got a nigger that
belongs to us;’ they would claim him, under the State laws, and compel
him to go and work for them. Not a first-class laborer could we be sure
of.”
Here, as elsewhere, the fact that the freedmen had no independent homes,
but lived in negro-quarters at the will of the owner, placed him under
great disadvantages, which the presence of the Bureau was necessary to
counteract. The planters desired nothing so much as to be left to manage
the negroes with or without the help of State laws. “With that
privilege,” they said, “we can make more out of them than ever. The
government must take care of the old and worthless niggers it has set
free, and we will put through the able-bodied ones.” The disposition to
keep the freedmen in debt by furnishing their supplies at dishonest
prices, and to impose upon their helplessness and ignorance in various
other ways, was very general.
Fortunately there was a great demand for labor, and the freedmen, with
the aid of the Bureau, were making favorable contracts with their
employers. When encouraged by just treatment and fair wages, they were
working well. But they were observed to be always happier, thriftier,
and more comfortable, living in little homes of their own and working
land on their own account, than in any other condition. “I believe,”
said General Gregg, “the best thing philanthropic Northern capitalists
can do both for the freedmen and for themselves, is to buy up tracts of
land, which can be had in some of the most fertile sections of Louisiana
at two, three, and five dollars an acre, to be leased to the freedmen.”
The more enlightened planters were in favor of educating the blacks. But
the majority were opposed to it; so that in many parishes it was
impossible to establish schools, while in others it had been very
difficult. In January last there were 278 teachers in the State,
instructing 19,000 pupils in 143 schools. The expenses, $20,000 a month,
were defrayed by the Bureau from the proceeds of rents of abandoned and
confiscated estates. But this source of revenue had nearly failed, in
consequence of the indiscriminate pardoning of Rebel owners and the
restoration of their property. In New Orleans, for example, the rents of
Rebel estates had dwindled, in October, 1865, to $8,000; in December, to
$1,500; and they were still rapidly diminishing. The result was, it had
been necessary to order the discontinuance of all the schools in the
State at the end of January, the funds in the treasury of the Bureau
being barely sufficient to hold out until that time. It was hoped,
however, that they would soon be reëstablished on a permanent basis, by
a tax upon the freedmen themselves. For this purpose, the Assistant
Commissioner had ordered that five per cent. of their wages should be
paid by their employers to the agents of the Bureau. The freedmen’s
schools in New Orleans were not in session at the time I was there; but
I heard them highly praised by those who had visited them. Here is Mr.
Superintendent Warren’s account of them:—
“From the infant which must learn to count its fingers, to the
scholar who can read and understand blank-verse, we have grades and
departments adapted and free to all. Examinations, promotions, and
gradations are had at stated seasons. The city is divided into
districts; each district has its school, and each school the several
departments of primary, intermediate, and grammar. A principal is
appointed to each school, with the requisite number of assistants.
Our teachers are mostly from the North, with a few Southerners, who
have heroically dared the storm of prejudice to do good and right.
The normal method of teaching is adopted, and object teaching is a
specialty.
“There are eight schools in the city, with from two to eight hundred
pupils each, which, with those in the suburbs, amount to sixteen
schools with nearly six thousand pupils and one hundred teachers.”
It was estimated that there were at least fifty thousand Northern men in
Louisiana. Some were in the lumber business, which had been stimulated
to great activity throughout the South. Many were working cotton
plantations with every prospect of success; a few had purchased, others
were paying a fixed rent, while some were furnishing capital to be
refunded by the crop, of which they were to have a third or a half.
Occasionally I heard of one who had taken a sugar plantation. Mr. ——, a
merchant of New York, told me he had for two years been working the
Buena Vista plantation, in St. James Parish. He employed an agent, and
visited the place himself once a year. There were twelve hundred acres
under cultivation, for which he paid an annual rent of sixteen thousand
dollars. There was one hundred thousand dollars’ worth of machinery on
the plantation. He employed sixty freedmen. They worked faithfully and
well, but needed careful management. During the past year but one had
deserted, while two had been discharged. They received one third of
their wages monthly, and the remainder at the end of the year. “If they
were paid in full as fast as their work was done, when sugar-making
season comes they would be apt to quit, the labor is so hard,—though we
pay them then fifty cents a night extra.”
I inquired concerning profits. “The first year we lost money. This year
we have made it up, and more. Next year we shall be in full blast.”
It takes three years from the start to get a sugar plantation going; and
in two years, if neglected, the cane will run out. This is the case in
Louisiana,—although I was told that in the West Indies some kinds of
cane would yield twenty or thirty successive crops, without replanting.
In some parts of the State, where the soil is too dry, or the climate
too cold for the most profitable cultivation, it requires replanting
every year for the subsequent year’s crop.
The majority of the plantations in Lower Louisiana, said to be good for
little else but sugar and sweet potatoes, were waste and unavailable.
St. Mary’s Parish had been almost entirely abandoned. The cane had run
out; seed-cane was not to be had; and to recommence the culture an
outlay of capital was necessary, from which no such immediate, bountiful
returns could be anticipated as from the culture of cotton.
The sugar region and the cotton belt overlap each other. Cane may be
cultivated to some extent as far north as 34°, while cotton ranges as
far south as 30°, although it can scarcely be considered a safe or
profitable crop much below 31°. In 1850 there were in Louisiana 4205
cotton and 1558 sugar plantations. This year cotton is not only king,
but a usurper, holding with uncertain tenure much of the special
province of sugar.
Good cotton plantations in Louisiana yield a bale (of five hundred
pounds) to the acre. The sugar crop varies from five hundred to
thirty-five hundred pounds, according to the fitness of the soil, the
length of the season, and the mode of culture. A hogshead of eleven
hundred and fifty pounds to the acre, is about an average crop.
Five different varieties of cane are used by the planters of Louisiana.
The cuttings from which it is propagated are called “seed-cane.” They
are cut in September, and laid in “mats,”—a sort of stack adapted to
protect them from frost. Cane is usually planted between the months of
October and March. Two or three stalks are laid together in prepared
rows seven feet apart, and covered by five or six inches of soil. This
is called the “mother-cane.” In cold soil it rots, and is eaten by
vermin. The first year’s growth is called “plant-cane,” and is ploughed
and hoed like corn. On being cut, new stalks spring up from the roots.
These subsequent year’s stalks are called rattoons,—a West Indian word,
derived from the Spanish _retonó_, (_retoñar_, to sprout again,) which
was probably imported into Louisiana, together with the Creole cane, by
the refugees from St. Domingo, in 1794.
“There’s nothing handsomer,” said my friend Dick P——, the overseer,
“than a field of cane on the first of June, high as your head, all
green, a thousand acres, waving and shining in the wind.” It is a lively
scene when a gang of fifty or sixty negroes, armed with knives, enter
such a field in the fall, and the cutting begins.
I was desirous of seeing a sugar-mill in operation, but could hear of
none within convenient visiting distance. The scene is thus described in
a letter written by a Northern lady whose husband was last year working
a Louisiana plantation:—
“I am sitting in the gallery of a building two hundred and fifty
feet long. This gallery was made expressly for the white overseer,
and overlooks all that is going on in the main building. There is a
sleeping-room in each end of it, and a large open space in the
middle which serves as a dining-room; here I am writing. In the
opposite end of the building I can see the engine which carries all
the machinery; just this side of it are the great rollers that crush
the cane, and the apron, or feed-carrier, that carries the cane from
the shed outside up to the crushers.
“Just this side of the crushers are four large vats that receive the
juice. From these it is carried into two large kettles, where the
lime is put in, and the juice is raised to the boiling-point, and
then skimmed. From these kettles the juice is transferred by means
of a bucket attached to a long pole, to the next kettle, where it is
worked to the right consistency for clarifying.
“This done, it is conveyed, by means of a steam-pump, to the
filtering room, where it is passed into large vats filled with burnt
bones, called bone black, through which it is filtered, and thus
freed from all impurities. From these filters it is run off into a
large cistern, and pumped up by the same steam-pump into tanks,
where, by means of faucets, it is drawn into the sugaring-off pan.
In this pan it is heated by means of a coil of pipe that winds round
and round till it fills the bottom of the pans and carries the steam
which, in from fifteen to twenty minutes, finishes the boiling
process. From this pan it is let off into a box car, set on a
railroad track which runs up and down between the coolers, which are
ranged along each side of this end of the building, like pews in a
church.
“The Creoles along the coast have looked with amazement all summer
upon our success with free black laborers, and have been obliged to
acknowledge that they never saw a more cheerful, industrious set of
laborers in all their experience. ‘But wait till sugar-making
comes,’ they have said, ‘and then see if you can get off your crop
without the old system of compulsion. Your niggers will flare up
when you get off your ten-hour system. They are not going to work
night and day, and you cannot get off the crop unless they do.’
“White sugar-makers presented themselves, telling us, in all
sobriety, ‘Niggers cannot be trusted to make sugar,’ and offering,
with great magnanimity, to oversee the matter for five hundred
dollars. J—— declined all such friendly offers, and last Monday
morning commenced grinding cane. The colored men and women went to
work with a will,—no shirking or flinching. The cutters pushed the
handlers, the handlers pushed the haulers, and so on, night and day,
each gang taking their respective watches, and all moving on with
the regularity of clock-work.
“And so the business went on with black engineers, black crushers,
black filterers, black sugar-makers,—all black throughout,—but the
sugar came out splendid in quantity and quality. Sixty hogsheads of
sugar, finished by Saturday night, and things in readiness for the
Sabbath’s rest, is acknowledged by old planters to be the largest
run ever made in this sugar-house for the first week of the sugar
season. So they gape and stare, and wonder that humanity and justice
can bring forth more profitable results than the driver’s whip.”
Louisiana has been the great sugar-growing State of the Union. For
several years before the war, the annual crop varied from 100,000 to
450,000 hogsheads. In 1864 less than nine thousand hogsheads were
produced. In 1865 the crop amounted to between sixteen and seventeen
thousand hogsheads, less than was raised in 1860 on four plantations!
Attempts were being made to introduce white laborers into Louisiana.
While I was there, one hundred Germans, who had been hired in New York
for a sugar plantation, were landed in New Orleans. Within twenty-four
hours thirty of them deserted for higher wages; by which trifling
circumstance planters, who had hoped to exchange black for white labor,
were very much disgusted.