exceptions, the country found itself thrown into that confusion which is
naturally inseparable from a change so great and so sudden. The white
people were afraid of the negroes, and the negroes did not trust the white
people; the military power of the national government stood there, and was
looked up to, as the protector of both.

Upon this power devolved the task to bring order into that chaos. But the
order to be introduced was a new order, of which neither the late masters
nor the late slaves had an adequate conception. All the elements of
society being afloat, the difficulties were immense. The military officers
and agents of the Freedmen's Bureau, to whom the negroes applied for
advice and guidance, either procured them such employment as could be
found, or persuaded them to return to their plantations and to continue in
the cultivation of the crops, promising them that their liberty, rights,
and interests should be protected. Upon the planters they urged the
necessity of making fair and equitable contracts with the freedmen,
admonishing them to treat their laborers as free men ought to be treated.
These efforts met with such success as the difficulties surrounding the
problem permitted to expect. Large numbers of negroes went back to the
fields, according to the advice they had received, but considerable
accumulations still remained in and around the towns and along the
seaboard, where there was no adequate amount of profitable employment for
them. The making and approving of contracts progressed as rapidly as the
small number of officers engaged in that line of duty made it possible,
but not rapidly in proportion to the vast amount of work to be
accomplished. The business experience of many of the officers was but
limited; here and there experiments were tried which had to be given up.
In numerous cases contracts were made and then broken, either by the
employers or the laborers, and the officers in charge were overwhelmed
with complaints from both sides. While many planters wanted to have the