several years longer. In 1870, Robert Somers remarked that "the health of the
whites has greatly improved since the war, while the health of the Negroes has
declined till the mortality of the colored population, greater than the
mortality of the whites was before the war, has now become so markedly
greater, that nearly two colored die for every white person out of equal
numbers of each."

Morals and manners also suffered under the new dispensation. In the crowded
and disease-stricken towns and camps, the conditions under which the roving
Negroes lived were no better for morals than for health, for here there were
none of the restraints to which the blacks had been accustomed and which they
now despised as being a part of their servitude. But in spite of all the
relief that could be given there was much want. In fact, to restore former
conditions the relief agencies frequently cut off supplies in order to force
the Negroes back to work and to prevent others from leaving the country for
the towns. But the hungry freedmen turned to the nearest food supply, and
"spilin de gypshuns" (despoiling the Egyptians, as the Negroes called stealing
from the whites) became an approved means of support. Thefts of hogs, cattle,
poultry, field crops, and vegetables drove almost to desperation those whites
who lived in the vicinity of the Negro camps. When the ex-slave felt obliged
to go to town, he was likely to take with him a team and wagon and his
master's clothes if he could get them.

The former good manners of the Negro were now replaced by impudence and
distrust. There were advisers among the Negro troops and other agitators who
assured them that politeness to whites was a mark of servitude. Pushing and
crowding in public places, on street cars and on the sidewalks, and impudent
speeches everywhere marked generally the limit of rudeness. And the Negroes
were, in this respect, perhaps no worse than those European immigrants who act
upon the principle that bad manners are a proof of independence.