And so the emigration to the coast set in.
In October, 1865, orders were issued that no more allotments of land should be made to the Freedmen. But this did not avail to stop entirely the tide of emigration; nor did it inspire with contentment those who remained in the interior. “If a freedman has forty acres on the coast,” they reasoned, “why shouldn’t we have as much here?” Hence one of the most serious troubles the officers of the Bureau had to contend against.
In October, General Howard visited the Sea Islands with the intention of restoring to the pardoned owners the lands on which freedmen had been settled, under General Sherman’s order. According to the President’s theory, a pardon entitled the person pardoned to the immediate restoration of his property. Hence arose a conflict of authority and endless confusion. Secretary Stanton had approved of Sherman’s order, and earnestly advised the freedmen to secure homesteads under the government’s protection. General Saxton, Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau, had in every way encouraged them to do the same. So had General Hunter. Chief Justice Chase had given them similar counsel. General Howard found the land-owners urgent in pressing their claims, and the freedmen equally determined in resisting them. Impressed by the immense difficulty of the problem, he postponed its immediate solution by a compromise, leaving the main question to be settled by Congress. Congress settled it, after a fashion, in the provisions of the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill; but that, in consequence of the President’s veto, did not become a law.
By General Howard’s plan, abandoned lands on which there were no freedmen settled under Sherman’s order, or only “a few,” were to be restored to pardoned owners. Other estates, on which there were more than “a few,” were also to be restored, provided arrangements could be made, satisfactory to both the owners and the freedmen. So nothing was settled. The owners claimed the lands, and wished the freedmen to make contracts to work for them. The freedmen claimed the lands, and positively refused to make contracts.
The freedmen’s crops for the past year had generally proved failures, or nearly so. Their friends argued that this result was owing to causes that could not be controlled,—the lack of capital, of seed, of mules and farming implements, and the lateness of the season when most of them commenced work. The owners of the lands contended that the negro, under the best conditions, could not make a crop of cotton. The truth probably lies between these two extremes. The freedmen lacked experience in management, as well as planting capital; and I have no doubt but many of them thought more of a gun and a fishing-rod, sources of a pleasure so new to them, than of hard work in the field, which was anything but a novelty.
I regret to add that the freedmen’s prospects for the coming year did not appear flattering. The uncertainty of their titles caused them deep trouble and discouragement, and they did not exhibit much energy in improving lands which might be taken from them at any moment. The feeling, “This is my home and my children’s,” seemed no longer to inspire them. The majority were at work; but others were sullenly waiting to see what the government would do.
This whole question is one of great embarrassment and difficulty, and it is not easy to say how it should be decided. The plan proposed by Congress, of securing to the freedmen the possession of the lands for three years, did not seem to me a very wise one. It would take them about three years, under the most favorable circumstances, to overcome the obstacles against which their poverty and inexperience would have to struggle; and the knowledge that, after all, those homes were not to be permanently their own, would tend to discourage industry and promote vagabondism. It would be better to remove them at once, if they are to be removed at all; but then the question presents itself, can a great and magnanimous government afford to break its pledges to these helpless and unfortunate people?
On the other hand, to make their titles perpetual, is to give over to uncertain cultivation, by a race supposed to exist only for the convenience of another, the most valuable cotton-lands of those States,—for it is here alone that the incomparable long-fibred “Sea-Island” staple is produced,—a conclusion deemed inadmissible and monstrous, especially by the Rebel owners of the lands.
CHAPTER LXXV.
A VISIT TO JAMES ISLAND.
A company of South Carolina planters, who were going over to look at their estates on James Island, and learn if any arrangements could be made with the freedmen, invited me to accompany them; and on the morning of the day appointed, I left my hotel for the purpose.