We control ’em; and we don’t mean to take ’em to anybody’s plantation without being paid for it.” And, in truth, quite a number of officers were bargaining all the time with the negro-seeking planters for their valuable influence.
Reid highlights the bargaining practices of officers who were leveraging their influence over freedmen for labor contracts.
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Suppose it to be merely a war in defense of our own just rights and interests.
Brushing aside, then, these bugbears, gentlemen, what are the obvious duties of the hour?
We must, then, be prepared with a policy for maintaining it ourselves.
We are all washed under, and the most of us only live peaceable lives by the sufferance of our Rebel neighbors.