working well; others do not. The difference in their efficiency coincides
in a great measure with a certain difference in the conditions under which
they live. The conclusion lies near, that if the conditions under which
they work well become general, their efficiency as free laborers will
become general also, aside from individual exceptions. Certain it is, that
by far the larger portion of the work done in the south is done by
freedmen.

_Vagrancy_.--Large numbers of colored people left the plantations as soon
as they became aware that they could do so with impunity. That they could
so leave their former masters was for them the first test of the reality
of their freedom. A great many flocked to the military posts and towns to
obtain from the "Yankees" reliable information as to their new rights.
Others were afraid lest by staying on the plantations where they had been
held as slaves they might again endanger their freedom. Still others went
to the cities, thinking that there the sweets of liberty could best be
enjoyed. In some places they crowded together in large numbers, causing
serious inconvenience. But a great many, probably a very large majority,
remained on the plantations and made contracts with their former masters.
The military authorities, and especially the agents of the Freedmen's
Bureau, succeeded by continued exertions in returning most of those who
were adrift to the plantations, or in finding other employment for them.
After the first rush was over the number of vagrants grew visibly less.

It may be said that where the Freedmen's Bureau is best organized
there is least vagrancy among the negroes. Here and there they show
considerable restlessness, partly owing to local, partly to general
causes. Among the former, bad treatment is probably the most
prominent; among the latter, a feeling of distrust, uneasiness,
anxiety about their future, which arises from their present unsettled