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.
Reid observes a shift in social dynamics where former slaves are treated with respect by planters.
Share
More from Whitelaw Reid
The question about the slaves being self-supporting, is a question no longer.
They appeared at times when public men often seemed to be groping in the dark on an unknown road, but it is now evident that the road which has been taken is substantially the road they marked out.
No matter what we wish, the old continental isolation is gone forever.
But proofs were not wanting of the spirit in which, to the very last, the conflict against the Government had been waged.