The restoration of confiscated property was again leaving many of the freedmen houseless. During the convulsions of the war they had left their old homes, and the authorities had established them upon the confiscated estates of absent Rebels. Pardoned, and resuming possession of their property, it was not unnatural that their first step should be to eject the vagrant negroes from their premises. The superintendent of schools under the Freedmen’s Bureau estimated the entire number of persons thus rendered houseless in Eastern Virginia, at the beginning of winter, to be not less than seventy thousand.
Small-pox was also making ravages among them. They had not yet learned to take care of themselves; the emancipation had removed them from the care of their masters, and exposure, neglect, and disease were rapidly thinning out the population on which the wasted State had to rely for labor. The prevalent tone of public feeling indicated indifference to this public calamity. Virginians had not yet learned that their interests in laborers did not end when they ceased to own them; and many seemed to gloat over the facts, as a proof of the wisdom of their own opinions, and of the folly of their anti-slavery enemies. “This,” exclaimed a newspaper, “is one of the practical results of negro freedom—one of the curses that has fallen on this unfortunate race, and one for which somebody must be held responsible at the bar of God. Who that somebody is, must be determined by a higher authority than human, though many are disposed to believe that the responsibility rests not on the people of the South. But be that as it may, the ‘freedmen’ are dying by hundreds and thousands. Where are the philanthropists of the North? Where are the Christian Commissions of Boston, and the Freedmen’s Aid Societies of Philadelphia? Where are those who wanted an anti-slavery God and an anti-slavery Bible? Yes! where are they, when the negro is freed and is so sadly in need of their kind (?) offices?”
Where it could, the Government was still issuing rations to these poor waifs of the war, but the suffering was beyond any governmental control. Some of the old masters did their best to care for former slaves; but they were themselves impoverished and destitute. November winds already blew sharply—what might be expected before the winter was over?
[44]. The “learned librarian of the House” had simply published a statement of the laws governing the organization of the House, showing the illegality of any attempt to have the names of the so-called Southern members placed on the roll, prior to the organization. This statement the Associated Press had chosen to pronounce semi-official.
[45]. Applications for pardon were first presented to the Attorney-General.
[46]. “And don’t you know—supposing your statement true—that she’d been soundly thrashed if she had attempted it?” interjected a quiet gentleman who had been attentively listening.
[47]. Richmond Enquirer, 7th November, 1865.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Lynchburg—The Interior of Virginia.
The direct road from Richmond to Lynchburg was not yet in running order again. “One of our fool Generals burnt a big bridge near Lynchburg,” explained a citizen, “when there wasn’t the slightest use for it, and the bridge has not been rebuilt. Some of our Generals thought if they couldn’t have everything their own way, they must ruin everything. They hadn’t sense enough to see that it was their own friends they were ruining.” The trains from Richmond to Gordonsville, however, and thence to Lynchburg were running with unexpected regularity. But, in at least one respect, Richmond was not to be moved from the good old ways. The train started from the middle of a street; and, in the absence of a depot, the passengers rendezvoused at the shops on the corner till they saw the cars coming along.