themselves to the cultivation of cotton. A good many southern planters, in
view of the fact, expressed to me their intention to engage northern men
for the management of their plantations. This circumstance would seem to
prove that under certain conditions the negro may be expected to work
well. There are two reasons by which it may be explained: first, that a
northern man knows from actual experience what free labor is, and
understands its management, which the late slaveholder, still clinging to
the traditions of the old system, does not; and then, that the negro has
more confidence in a northern man than in his former master. When a
northern man discovers among his laboring force an individual that does
not do his duty, his first impulse is to discharge him, and he acts
accordingly. When a late slaveholder discovers such an individual among
his laborers, his first impulse is to whip him, and he is very apt to suit
the act to the impulse. Ill treatment is a doubtful encouragement for free
laborers, and it proves more apt to drive those that are still at work
away than to make the plantation attractive to others. But if the reasons
above stated are sufficient to explain why the negroes work better for
northern than for southern men, it will follow that a general improvement
will take place as soon as the latter fulfil the same conditions--that is,
as soon as southern men learn what free labor is and how to manage it in
accordance with its principles, and as soon as they succeed in gaining the
confidence of the colored people.

In the reports of officers of the Freedmen's Bureau, among the documents
annexed to this, you will find frequent repetitions of the statement that
the negro generally works well where he is decently treated and well
compensated. Nor do the officers of the Freedmen's Bureau alone think and
say so. Southern men, who were experimenting in the right direction,
expressed to me their opinion to the same effect. Some of them told me
that the negroes on their plantations worked "as well as ever," or even