I do not think it too strong an expression (judging from the evidences on every hand, and from the concurrent testimony of all parties, Northerners, Southerners, whites and blacks) to say that, among the old plantation slaves of Louisiana and Mississippi, virtue was absolutely unknown.
Reid reflects on the moral state of plantation slaves in Louisiana and Mississippi post-Civil War.
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It seems to me, then, idle to thresh over old straw when the grain is not only winnowed, but gone to the mill.
Above all, if there is a trace of politics in their work, or of seeking for political effect at home, they will fail, and deserve to fail.
Give them order and justice, and trust to these to win them in other regards to our ways.
Extravagant living left nearly every planter enormously in debt when the war came.