upon the roads, were shot or otherwise severely punished, which was
calculated to produce the impression among those remaining with their
masters that an attempt to escape from slavery would result in certain
destruction. A large proportion of the many acts of violence committed is
undoubtedly attributable to this motive. The documents attached to this
report abound in testimony to this effect. For the sake of illustration I
will give some instances:

Brigadier General Fessenden reported to Major General Gillmore from
Winnsboro, South Carolina, July 19, as follows: "The spirit of the people,
especially in those districts not subject to the salutary influence of
General Sherman's army, is that of concealed and, in some instances, of
open hostility, though there are some who strive with honorable good faith
to promote a thorough reconciliation between the government and their
people. A spirit of bitterness and persecution manifests itself towards
the negroes. They are shot and abused outside the immediate protection of
our forces _by men who announce their determination to take the law into
their own hands, in defiance of our authority_. To protect the negro and
punish these still rebellious individuals it will be necessary to have
this country pretty thickly settled with soldiers." I received similar
verbal reports from other parts of South Carolina. To show the hopes still
indulged in by some, I may mention that one of the sub-district
commanders, as he himself informed me, knew planters within the limits of
his command who had made contracts with their former slaves _avowedly_ for
the object of keeping them together on their plantations, so that they
might have them near at hand, and thus more easily reduce them to their
former condition, when, after the restoration of the civil power, the
"unconstitutional emancipation proclamation" would be set aside.

Cases in which negroes were kept on the plantations, either by ruse or