[17]. The following are the main points of the military order under which Mitchelville is organized:
“I. All lands now set apart for the colored population, near Hilton Head, are declared to constitute a village, to be known as the village of Mitchelville. Only freedmen and colored persons residing or sojourning within the territorial limits of said village, shall be deemed and considered inhabitants thereof.
“II. The village of Mitchelville shall be organized and governed as follows: Said village shall be divided into districts, as nearly equal in population as practicable, for the election of Councilmen, sanitary and police regulations, and the general government of the people residing therein.
“III. The government shall consist of a Supervisor and Treasurer, to be appointed by, and hold office during the pleasure of the Military Commander of the District, assisted by a Councilman from each council district, to be elected by the people, who shall also, at the same time, choose a Recorder and Marshal. The duties of the Marshal and Recorder shall be defined by the Council of Administration.
“IV. The Supervisor and Councilmen shall constitute the Council of Administration, with the Recorder as Secretary.
“V. The Council of Administration shall have power:
“To pass such ordinances as it shall deem best, in relation to the following subjects: To establish schools for the education of children and other persons. To prevent and punish vagrancy, idleness and crime. To punish licentiousness, drunkenness, offenses against public decency and good order, and petty violation of the rights of property and person. To require due observance of the Lord’s Day. To collect fines and penalties. To punish offenses against village ordinances. To settle and determine disputes concerning claims for wages, personal property, and controversies between debtor and creditor. To levy and collect taxes to defray the expenses of the village government, and for the support of schools. To lay out, regulate, and clean the streets. To establish wholesome sanitary regulations for the prevention of disease. To appoint officers, places and times for the holding of elections. To compensate municipal officers, and to regulate all other matters affecting the well-being of citizens, and good order of society.
“VIII. Hilton Head Island will be divided into School Districts, to conform, as nearly as practicable, to the schools as established by the Freedmen’s Association. In each District there shall be elected one School Commissioner, who will be charged with supplying the wants of the schools, under the direction of the teacher thereof. Every child, between the ages of six and fifteen years, residing within the limits of such School Districts, shall attend school daily, while they are in session, excepting only in case of sickness. Where children are of a suitable age to earn a livelihood, and their services are required by their parents or guardians, and on the written order of the teacher in such School District, may be exempt from attendance, for such time as said order shall specify. And the parents and guardians will be held responsible that said children so attend school, under the penalty of being punished at the discretion of the Council of Administration.”
CHAPTER XI.
Among the Sea Islanders.
The most degraded slaves in the South, it has been commonly testified by Southerners themselves, were to be found in South Carolina and on the sugar plantations of the South-west. Of the South Carolina slaves, the most ignorant and debased, beyond all question, were those on the sea islands about Port Royal. Engaged in unhealthy work, to which none but the coarsest of fiber were likely to be subjected, and steeped in the normal ignorance of the rice swamp and the cotton field, they were likewise isolated on their islands, and shut out from that mysterious transmission of intelligence, concerning their own interests, which seemed to permeate, like a magnetic current, all large communities of negroes.