service of the national government. Extensive settlements of negroes had
been formed along the seaboard and the banks of the Mississippi, under the
supervision of army officers and treasury agents, and the government was
feeding the colored refugees, who could not be advantageously employed, in
the so-called contraband camps. Many slaves had also been removed by their
masters, as our armies penetrated the country, either to Texas or to the
interior of Georgia and Alabama. Thus a considerable portion of the
laboring force had been withdrawn from its former employments. But a
majority of the slaves remained on the plantations to which they belonged,
especially in those parts of the country which were not touched by the
war, and where, consequently, the emancipation proclamation was not
enforced by the military power. Although not ignorant of the stake they
had in the result of the contest, the patient bondmen waited quietly for
the development of things. But as soon as the struggle was finally
decided, and our forces were scattered about in detachments to occupy the
country, the so far unmoved masses began to stir. The report went among
them that their liberation was no longer a mere contingency, but a fixed
fact. Large numbers of colored people left the plantations; many flocked
to our military posts and camps to obtain the certainty of their freedom,
and others walked away merely for the purpose of leaving the places on
which they had been held in slavery, and because they could now go with
impunity. Still others, and their number was by no means inconsiderable,
remained with their former masters and continued their work on the field,
but under new and as yet unsettled conditions, and under the agitating
influence of a feeling of restlessness. In some localities, however, where
our troops had not yet penetrated and where no military post was within
reach, planters endeavored and partially succeeded in maintaining between
themselves and the negroes the relation of master and slave, partly by
concealing from them the great changes that had taken place, and partly by
terrorizing them into submission to their behests. But aside from these