Viewing page 298 of 339

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

0296

24 25

in similar operations. Such examples as the above encourage the negroes around, however poor, to form provident habits and to imitate the same thrift.

It is the universal impression that freedom is to be coupled with prosperity, and it is not difficult to induce them to save their surplus earnings for accumulation and future use. I found that the large crowd of negroes whom I often addressed spring forward to ideas of industry and economy, that they might save for old age, for sickness, for purchasing homesteads or other property in the future. Their notion of having land given to them by government is passing away, and we hear them saying, "We will work, and save, and buy for ourselves." When they know this is what their prosperous friends (the Yankees) have always done, they seem eager to follow the example.

FRAUDS.
Much fraud has been practiced in bargains and contracts hitherto made with their old masters. Some of these contracts, as drawn by the planters themselves, are purposely constructed to be misunderstood. I saw one in which it was stipulated, that, "one-third of seven-twelfths of all corn, potatoes, fodder, &c., shall go to the laborers." &c; another, that "the party violating the contract shall forfeit his right to all services and wages." It will be seen at once how blind we were in the first case, and unjust in the second, these terms were to the poor negro.

In many places, last autumn, laborers were turned off without pay, or any portion of the crops, and, in other cases, four or five dollars a month were given, or even only food and clothing. The place of these oppressors was evidently to keep the negro in a condition of perpetual poverty and dependence. There were exceptions, of course, and I am happy to report great improvement of late in the wages given. The present year opens with the prospect that labor will be everywhere in demand, and at fair prices. This is owing, in part, to the high value of the great staples of the south, and the desire for a large crop, but much more to the efforts of your Bureau officers, who have everywhere insisted on just compensation.

The lien on crops for wages, or work on shares, to be had, of course, only at the end of the year, may not be necessitated by the present poverty of the planters, but, in our opinions, it would be much better for the freedman if he could be paid often, and in money. He would then seldom be defrauded. His immediate wants could be met, he would work far more contentedly, and he would learn much sooner how to manage properly his own finances.

Colored troops have been defrauded of very large sums of money. I have spent much time and labor in ascertaining this. Almost universally the regiments complain, often unreasonably, without doubt, and from ignorance. It would seem that they have a reason, in some respects, to complain of the government itself that they have not been treated precisely as if they had been white men. But these frauds are clearly charges by the soldiers main to the bounty-agents of the several states, or to enlisting and disbursing officers, and sometimes to their own regimental officers.

Moneys were undoubtedly sent by States to procure enlisted men, which only in part reached these men.- They were made mere merchandise of, while the agent enriched himself by the balance retained. This class of frauds can probably never be effectively detected. The colored soldier was, in many cases, ignorant of money, and the bounty-agent will make no confession.

Enlisting and disbursing officers had many opportunities of pocketing funds. by keeping them back from the soldiers unduly, or taking them from him as trust; the enlisted man being, as was alleged, in no condition to keep the same. Such funds, of course, were put upon a very precarious tenure, the trustee himself being only a military officer. There are facts which lead to the suspicion that some of these officers are deeply implicated in this species of fraud.

Officers of regiments have borrowed money largely of their men. This is a very common practice, and pay-day for them, in multitudes of cases, has never come, The officer may be profligate or dishonest; or, if otherwise, he is off on furlough - it may be, mustered out of service; and it is easy to forget borrowed money, especially when due the negro. I know of many cases of such indebtedness.

I need not say how sutlers often defraud, nor tell of gamblers, rumsellers. and bad women, who hang about camps and pay-tables, luring the unwary, and robbing these ignorant and yet brave colored men. This is a humiliating statement, and there should be some remedy.- Of course, if the troops are mustered out such evils must cease, and others are being corrected. Those officers who are honest and able are paying back borrowed funds.-

Transcription Notes:
Do not indicate font style, italicized, bolded, or underlined words. There is also no need to indicate the difference between handwritten and pre-printed or typed text on a document. https://transcription.si.edu/instructions-freedmens-bureau