CHAPTER XXXIII. NORTHERN AID FOR FREEDMEN. Lessons of slavery. - Wants of the ex-slaves. "Atlantic Monthly."- Edward L. Pierce. Fortress Monroe. "Contrabands."— Employed. - Letter from "Newport News."- Rev. L. C. Lockwood. — First school. Great work inaugurated. — Commission. - Report and recommendations. - Charles B. Wilder. - Northern aid needed. - Favorable attitude of governmental officials. Sea Islands. Mr. Pierce's visit. Cotton agents. - Secretary Chase. Report and plan. Peck and French. General Sherman. Hesitation of President and Cabinet. - Co-operation. - Appeals and Northern responses. Associations formed. - Pierce's second report. First arrival of missionaries and teachers. Immediate success. - Lincoln's death and Johnson's new policy. General purpose of the work for the freedmen. Prompt and generous Northern responses. Female teachers. — Extravagant expectations. - Actual results. Drawbacks. - Various Associations. - British help. -- American Missionary Association. THE slave, like others, was the creature of circumstances, and he became substantially what slavery made him. By simple diet, enforced temperance, and hard work he was generally healthy and strong. With well-developed physique, inured to toil, he was capable of endurance and continuous labor. Under the stern discipline of slavery he was generally docile and obsequious, if not always truthful and trustworthy. But he was ignorant, because ignorance was a necessity of slavery. He had little or no self-assertion, care, forethought, because everything about slavery was unfriendly to such traits of character. When, therefore, through the exigencies of war he found himself suddenly freed from his master's control and within the Union lines, he was substantially the same man. His change of position had not changed him. He had the same brawny arm, the same strength to use it, the same powers of endurance, the same docility of disposition, and the same willingness to obey; for all this he had learned in the stern school from which he had just emerged. But he lacked the ability to use these faculties, to set himself to work, or to take suitable care of himself, for these were lessons he had not learned; at least this was the general rule, to which there were now and then exceptions more or less marked. He needed, therefore, at the hands of others what he lacked in himself, this service in return for the service he was willing to render. And this was the lesson soon learned and the conclusion soon reached by those who were first brought in contact with the "contrabands" at Fortress Monroe. "Abandoning one of these faithful allies, who, if delivered up, would be reduced to severer servitude because of the education he had received and the services he had performed, probably to be transported to the remotest slave region as now too dangerous to remain near its borders, we should be accursed among the nations of the earth. I felt assured that from that hour, whatsoever were the fortunes of the war, every one of those enrolled defenders of the Union had vindicated beyond all future question, for himself, his wife, and their issue, a title to American citizenship, and become heir to all the immunities of Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States." These words appeared in the "Atlantic Monthly" for November, 1861, under the title "The Contrabands at Fortress Monroe." They were furnished by E. L. Pierce, Esq., of Boston, whose name deserves honorable mention as the first, or among the first, to entertain and give a practical solution of the vexed question, the momentous problem, "What shall be done with and for those made free by the exigencies of rebellion and war?" Their chief significance, perhaps, and main interest are due to the time and circumstances under which they were written. Though the sentiments, however true and important, seem now familiar and obvious, it is to be remembered that they were written within a very few months of the opening of hostilities, when everything was dark and in the highest degree uncertain, and when the most sagacious could only guess what the outcome would be. Mr. Pierce, in his own words, had been "specially detailed, from his post as private in Company L of the Third Regiment, to collect the contrabands, record their names, ages, and the names of their masters, provide their tools, superintend their labor, and procure their rations." Federal troops having entered Hampton, from which the white inhabitants had fled, setting on fire not only the village but the bridge leading thereto, it was found necessary to throw up intrenchments. It having been suggested that the "contrabands" might very properly be employed for such work, General Butler was interrogated. He gave his assent, and on Monday morning, July 8, they were thus employed. "That was the first day," says Mr. Pierce, "in the course of the war, in which the negro was employed upon the military works of our army. It therefore marks a distinct epoch in its progress, and in its relations to the colored population." A soldier's ration was given to each contraband thus employed, and a half-ration for each dependant. Of the new policy this little experiment inaugurated, and of the vast results to which it led, previous chapters have made mention. The regiment ("three months") soon returning home, Mr. Pierce was compelled to leave the care of his novel charge to other hands, though he was soon to be recalled to enter upon work for the freedmen on a larger scale and in another part of the field. Meanwhile there were other eyes upon the "contrabands at Fortress Monroe," other hearts to sympathize with them, and other hands to help. On the 21st of August, 1861, a chaplain of a regiment stationed at Newport News addressed a letter "to the Young Men's Christian Association of the City of New York," urging the employment of a missionary "among the slaves that had been liberated in Virginia." That letter was carried to the rooms of the American Missionary Association, an antislavery organization for the prosecution of missions in both this country and foreign lands. Rightly deeming this a call of Providence to the performance of a service in the very line of its self-selected work, the executive committee at once determined to respond thereto. Rev. Lewis C. Lockwood was accordingly commissioned to proceed at once to this new field of labor. Repairing to Washington and making his errand known to the officials there, he received letters to General Wool, in command at Fortress Monroe. He was kindly received by the general, who gave him authority to enter at once upon the work, promising him such facilities as the military authorities could consistently render. Sabbath-school instruction. In a letter to the Association, dated September 4, 1861, after stating that "arrangements have been made for three services on the Sabbath," one being" in the house of ex-President Tyler," and that, "so far as now appears, we shall soon enter upon Sabbath-school instruction as well as week-day instruction," Mr. Lockwood adds: “There will be, I think, a sufficient number of soldiers and other persons to assist in General Wool is actively concurring with us in arrangements for places, etc." Thus suddenly was inaugurated, and from such simple and small beginnings arose, a work which at that point soon assumed large dimensions, employing scores of teachers, giving instruction to hundreds. of pupils, and finally resulting in the establishment of an institution of a higher grade, upon a permanent foundation, receiving State patronage, and designed, through a normal department, to send forth teachers properly qualified, mainly, though not exclusively, among the freedmen. A few statistics introduced subsequently will indicate more clearly the extent and value of the work thus informally and providentially begun. Nor was the government or the military indifferent to the pressing necessities of this new class of beneficiaries. Suddenly deprived of even the meagre care of their former mas ters, and thrown at once upon their own resources, without any provision or preparation for self-support, the army officials I could not but see their need of both guidance and help; and they acted promptly in their behalf. Evidence of this is afforded by a report, made to the XXXVIIth Congress, in an answer to a resolution of the House, on the 25th of March, 1862, on "Africans in Fort Monroe Military District." The report I was made by General Wool, and covers several "general orders," and the report of a commission, appointed by him, and consisting of Colonel T. J. Cram and Majors L. B. Cannon and W. P. Jones, "for the purpose of making a critical examination of the condition of persons known as vagrants or contrabands,' who are employed in this department, in reference to their pay, clothing, subsistence, medical attendance, shelter, and treatment, physical and moral." "In order," he said, "to do justice to the claims of humanity, in a proper discharge of the grave responsibility thrust upon the military authorities of this department in consequence of numerous persons (men, women, and children) already congregated and daily increasing, being abandoned by their masters, or having fled to this military command for protection," he called upon all "chiefs of the several departments, their subordinates and employees" to afford the commission all information and facilities needful for the faithful accomplishment of the purposes of their appointment. Reminding it of the rumor that these persons "had not been properly treated in all cases," he instructed its members that they could not be "too rigid in the examination, in order that justice may be done to them as well as to the public service." It was also instructed to accompany its report" with such suggestions as the commission may deem proper for the improvement of the treatment and management of these persons." This "general order" was made on the 30th of January, 1862, and on the 20th of March the commission made report. It was elaborate and gave the facts developed in detail, grouping the information communicated under the heads of clothing, subsistence, shelter, medical attendance, pay, treatment, physical and moral, economy of this labor to the government, census, suggestions for the improvement of their condition. Under the latter head very suggestive statements were made and plans proposed. Saying that it was "a new thing to all, beset with difficulties and antagonisms on all sides; but, like all systems, requiring practical results to develop its weak points, and time to remedy its errors," it made several recommendations of a practical or prudential character needful for the protection and support, employment and control, of these people. Under the head of moral treatment it referred to |