Conditions were most disturbed in the so-called "Black Belt," consisting of
about two hundred counties in the most fertile parts of the South, where the
plantation system was best developed and where by far the majority of the
Negroes were segregated. The Negroes in the four hundred more remote and less
fertile "white" counties, which had been less disturbed by armies, were not so
upset by freedom as those of the Black Belt, for the garrisons and the larger
towns, both centers of demoralization, were in or near the Black Belt. But
there was a moving to and fro on the part of those who had escaped from the
South or had been captured during the war or carried into the interior of the
South to prevent capture. To those who left slavery and home to find freedom
were added those who had found freedom and were now trying to get back home or
to get away from the Negro camps and colonies which were breaking up. A stream
of immigration which began to flow to the southwest affected Negroes as far as
the Atlantic coast. In the confusion of moving, families were broken up, and
children, wife, or husband were often lost to one another. The very old people
and the young children were often left behind for the former master to care
for. Regiments of Negro soldiers were mustered out in every large town and
their numbers were added to the disorderly mass. Some of the Federal garrisons
and Bureau stations were almost overwhelmed by the numbers of blacks who
settled down upon them waiting for freedom to bestow its full measure of
blessing, and many of the Negroes continued to remain in a demoralized
condition until the new year.

The first year of freedom was indeed a year of disease, suffering, and death.
Several partial censuses indicate that in 1865-66 the Negro population lost as
many by disease as the whites had lost in war. Ill-fed, crowded in cabins near
the garrisons or entirely without shelter, and unaccustomed to caring for
their own health, the blacks who were searching for freedom fell an easy prey
to ordinary diseases and to epidemics. Poor health conditions prevailed for