Historical voices

With a capital of a few thousand dollars, and a personal supervision of his work, a Northern farmer, devoting himself to cotton-growing, may count with safety on a net profit of fifty per cent, on his investment.

That the openings which the South presents for Northern capital and industry are unsurpassed, has been sufficiently illustrated.

A “war within the Union,” for their rights, seems now to be the universal policy—a war in which they will act as a unit with whatever party at the North favors the fewest possible changes from the old order of things, and leaves them most…

Men regarded it as tyrannical and humiliating that Government hirelings should be sent among them to supervise their relations with their old slaves; but, in practice, they were very glad of the supervision.

Even the unreflecting masses were beginning to suspect that flattery of the President and abuse of Congress would not be sufficient to carry them through the difficulties that beset their political progress.

You protect individuals against them; why isn’t it more important to protect whole communities?

Undoubtedly the South would sympathize with the President in any movement against Congress; but it is in no condition to give valuable co-operation.

The South and the Government are in the same boat one more time, thank the gods! ‘now blow ye winds and crack your cheeks.’ If Black Republicanism wishes to find out whether the South is loyal, there is now a beautiful opportunity.

The growling thunder, though its mutterings are still faintly heard, dies out in the distance: The denunciations of defeated partisans, and of fanatical bloodhounds, cease to spread their alarms over the land.

Where the hands thought he understood his business, and could tell when they were doing their duty, and was, at the same time, disposed to treat them justly, there was no trouble.

But I find that they are just as easily controlled, when sufficient motives are presented, as any other class of people would be.” He was getting along without the aid of the Freedman’s Bureau; and, indeed, without aid of any sort.

The mistake we have generally made in the South has been that we have supposed nigger nature was something different from human nature.

He was giving the free-labor experiment a fair trial; and risking upon it pretty nearly all he was worth.

When we could get nothing else we were forced to the necessity of ripping up our mattresses to get material for dresses; and we are all too poor yet to buy new things for their every-day wear.

There never was a greater outrage than to turn Stockton out, just to get a party majority.

There could be no question of the zeal with which, through the exciting spring months, the people in the interior of the cotton States, supported the “President’s Policy” of Reconstruction; but it was rarely a zeal according to knowledge.

I have had boys come to me with the sorriest stories of their necessities, to get an advance of a few dollars on their month’s wages, when I knew that they had as much money in their pockets as I had in mine.

Through such difficulties is it that the subject-race is called upon to prove, by its prosperity, its fitness for freedom.

Every effort will be made to prevent negroes from acquiring lands; and even the renting of small tracts to them is held to be unpatriotic and unworthy of a good citizen.

What’s de use of being free,” said one, an old man of sixty, who was begging permission to plant cotton; “What’s de use of being free if you don’t own land enough to be buried in?

The negroes displayed very little judgment, at last, in making their selections; and, as a rule, the men who made the most big promises, which they never meant to keep, got the most laborers.

In general, the more remote the plantation, the more backward the work upon it; and the less reliable the owner or lessee, the higher were the offered wages.

Half of them made no engagements at all; and, in a week after their discharge, the streets of Natchez were full of ragged, hungry negroes who had spent all their money and lost all their clothes; and were anxious to contract for a year’s…

It was refreshing to see with what careful consideration and scrupulous politeness they approached the “niggers.” Here was no longer “hatred of the upstarts,” “war of races,” “unconquerable antagonism.” The negro was king.