Part 17 (1/2)

_Fifteenth_.--The unauthorized purchase of clothing or other property by laborers, or others domesticated on plantations, should be severely punished, and so should the sale by laborers or others domesticated on plantations of plantation products without a written permission be punished by fine, imprisonment, and obstinate cases by corporal punishment. The sale or furnis.h.i.+ng of intoxicating liquor of any kind to laborers or others domesticated on plantations should be severely punished.

_Sixteenth_.--The possession of arms or other dangerous weapons without authority should be punished by fine or imprisonment and the arms forfeited.

_Seventeenth_.--No one, white or colored, with or without pa.s.ses, should have authority to go into a quarter without permission of the proprietor of said quarter. Should any insist upon going in, or be found in a quarter without permission of the proprietor, he should be arrested at once by the proprietor.

_Eighteenth_.--Fighting and quarrelling should be prohibited under severe penalties, especially husbands whipping their wives.

_Nineteenth_.--Laborers and all other persons domesticated on plantations or elsewhere should be required to be respectful in tone, manner, and language to their employers, and proprietors of the plantations or places on which they reside, or be fined and imprisoned.

_Twentieth_.--The whole study, aim, and object of the negro laborer now is how to avoid work and yet have a claim for wages, rations, clothes, &c.

No. 31.

OAK FOREST, NEAR TIGERVILLE STATION,

_N.O. and O. Railroad, December_ 1, 1864.

Dear Sir: The earnest desire you have manifested to make the negro laborer under the new order of things successful, makes me the more disposed to offer every a.s.sistance in my power to that end. I have no prejudices to overcome; I would do the blacks all the good in my power consistently with their welfare and the welfare of the country; I owe them no ill will, but I am well satisfied that it will demand the highest skill and the largest experience combined to make the new system work successfully, when hitherto all others, including our own two years' experience, have signally failed. No namby-pamby measures will do. We may have more psalm singing, more night preaching, greater excesses in the outward manifestation of religion, but depend upon it there will be less true morality, less order, less truthfulness, less honest industry. It is not the experiment of a few only, or of a day, but of an _inst.i.tution_, if anything, for millions; the mixing in industrial a.s.sociation of separate races. .h.i.therto distinct; of systems fundamentally changed and not of mere individuals, and the man who does not rise to the height of the great argument fails before he starts. It is not to listen to babblers, to _professional_ philanthropists, to quacks and demagogues: it demands a manly, masculine, vigorous exercise of executive power, adapted to the circ.u.mstances of the case. n.o.body is absolutely free, white or black. I have been a slave all my life; you have been the same. We were subject to discipline from childhood, and the negro as well, and must continue to be subject to wholesome restraints all of us.

It is well to consider that the measures of the government have rendered labor scarce. It would be safe to say there is not _half a supply_; that every sort of inducement will be held out to get labor away from present situations; that the inclination of all who are uninc.u.mbered is, to get to the city and its neighborhood. Every planter has some already there, living most unprofitably. I have half a dozen, some under the agreement of the present year. Concentration is the order of the day, and none but those who can command the largest sum of money will be able to carry on plantations with any hope of success. I take leave to add some suggestions, believing you will receive them with the same friendly spirit in which they are offered. I am still surrounded by my own servants, and would like to see the system so ordered that they would still find it to their advantage to remain in their present comfortable homes.

Wages, rules, and regulations should be fixed and uniform: nothing left to discretion.

A penalty should be inflicted on every employer who deviates from the established rates, _maximum_ rates.

No field crops should be raised by hired laborers. The evils attending this are numerous and insurmountable.

Wages should be extremely moderate on account of the unsteadiness of labor and exceeding uncertainty of crops of all sorts, but especially of cane and cotton.

Cooking for hands should be confined absolutely to one kitchen, and a charge made for all wood taken to their houses; a certain supply should be allowed, and no additional quant.i.ty permitted at any price: otherwise no plantation can long stand the enormous, wasteful consumption of fuel.

All necessary expenditures for the blacks, old as well as young, should be borne by themselves. White laborers are all liable to such charges, and why not wasteful and improvident blacks? They should be early taught the value of what they consume as well as the other costs of living.

About keeping stock the rule should be absolute.

No travelling about, day or night, without a written sanction from the proper person. The violation of this order by a commanding officer has brought the small-pox on my place and already eight grown hands have died with it, and there are not less than twenty invalids besides: this is one of the evils.

Medicine and professional attendance a charge to the patient, as well as all educational arrangements.

Every ploughman or woman, and teamster, to be obliged to feed and curry his or her team once at least every day.

Payments beyond proper and prescribed supplies to be small, the smaller the better, and still better if withheld till the crop is made and saved; but settlements by tickets should be made weekly. (A share in the crop is the best for both parties.) I do not perceive the utility of ”home colonies;” they belong to the cla.s.s of _theories_ more than anything else.

Families should be kept together and at the ”homes” to which they have been accustomed, if possible, and _made_ to support themselves, all who are able to do so. At present there are many who will not do this because they are made a charge on the master or employer. Vagrants should be punished; _work is a necessity_. But I only put down a few particulars to _impress_ upon your mind as they occur to me.

I know the difficult task you have undertaken. You have a giant to manage, and you will have to exercise a giant's strength. You have no less than to revise the teachings of all past history. You have to accomplish what has never been accomplished before. Neither in the east nor in the west has the African been found to work voluntarily; but the experiment is to be tried anew in this country, and I shall lend my a.s.sistance, whatever it is, to help on in the road to success, if that be possible. I have tried it two years under the military without success, or the prospect of it.

If, however, I can in any way a.s.sist you to gain the meed of success, both my own interest and my kind feelings towards you combine to prompt me to renewed efforts in the cause.

I remain, very respectfully and truly, yours,