Letters from Port Royal Part 12

As a sample of the change of feeling in regard to working on cotton, I will relate how I got the cotton ginned on this and the various other plantations in this neighborhood. I walked through the negro quarters one day in December and told the people I would pay them three cents per pound of clean cotton if they would gin, a.s.sort, clean, and pack their cotton ready for market. They said in reply their gins were all broken up. I told them that was their own fault, and that, if they wanted other people to gin their cotton and get their seed away from the place, they would do so, and so get all the money and leave them no good seed to plant. "Dat' so, Ma.s.sa," said they, and I pa.s.sed along. The next time I came they had hunted up the broken pieces of twenty-five gins, and patched them up, and had ginned and packed all their cotton, in two weeks, wanting to know what I would have them do next, for they did not want to lie still and do nothing.

So you see there is some satisfaction in being among these people, although they are not exactly companions for us.

FROM H. W.

_March 23._ C. came home to-night, having resigned his position under the Government.

H. W.'s next letter, after describing a drive towards Land's End, narrates the events of her return trip as follows.

_March 25._ I opened the first gate myself, then met a man coming from his work, who took off his hat with rather a surprised look at seeing a lady alone, and an "Evening, Missus, how far you come from?" "From Coffin's Point, and am going back again--Mr. Charlie's sister."

Whereupon another bow and a pleased grin as I go on. Soon I met another man coming out into the road with a piece of paper, which he asked me to read to him. I took the precaution to ask him his name before opening it, to be sure he had not another man's pa.s.s, and then read him an autograph pa.s.s from General Hunter for him to go to St.

Helena and back to Hilton Head, to see his wife. He was a servant of Hunter's and _afraid of some trick_. He seemed satisfied, and thanked me. When I asked him where his wife lived and if he had seen her, he said, "Shum dere?" pointing to a woman hoeing, towards whom he made his way again. At the next gate I was cutting cherokee-roses before opening it, when a slight sound behind me attracted my attention to a boy on a mule who had come noiselessly up, so I got into the sulky again, and as he followed me along and I questioned him, found he was coming here to see his "aunty." In a few minutes a loud whistle attracted my attention and Sharper[125] announced Ma.s.s' Charlie, who came cantering up behind me. He had sent the boy with a note to me and exemption-papers for the old and feeble on his places, as he could not go home and had met the black soldiers out taking the men for the draft. With Sharper for attendant I drove on to Pine Grove, where I gave C.'s note to William and the papers to distribute on both the Fripp places while I went on to deliver those here. Heard one man say to William that he wished his old master was back,--he was at peace then. Poor fellows!

By the time I reached our quarters it was bright moonlight, and in that light I drove through the street, read the names on C.'s papers and the contents to the men named as they came out at Primus' knock. A little group gathered about to hear what I had to say as I explained to the men,--a sober, disturbed set, saying nothing, but receiving the explanation with a sad silence that went to my heart.

FROM W. C. G.

_Coffin's Point, March 31._ You see I write from my first home. In truth it seems like a home. Mrs. Philbrick and Miss W., Mr.

Philbrick, and Mr. Hall are here, besides Mr. Folsom--of '62, Harvard--who is to be my future house-mate. A week ago, after settling up all business at Captain Oliver's, I resigned my place of Government Superintendent, and last Friday came down here. To-morrow we shall take up our quarters at the "Pine Grove." I am going to take charge of the two William Fripp places. The people are old friends. I used to teach school for them. I think I shall like the work here much better; the people are far better and the locality less exposed to outside influences. It is a much better opportunity for trying the experiment of free black labor. I manage the places, Mr. Philbrick supplies money to carry them on, and at the end of the year, after deducting all expenses, we share the profits, if any.

The draft is either taking or frightening off most of the men, but it should be made, I think.

FROM H. W.

_April 3._ Caesar came home on a furlough, and it was fun to see him in the street afterwards, surrounded by a great gang, talking away as eagerly as possible. I should like to have heard him, if I could have understood him; he had had a "firs' rate time" and he and January have been trying to get some of the men to go back with them, but they can't succeed any better than C. or Mr. Philbrick.

The next few letters are entirely occupied with incidents of the draft.

E. S. P. TO C. P. W. (IN BOSTON)

_April 7._ Nothing has been done yet about enforcing the draft on our island, but Captain Bryant[126] told me yesterday he should probably strike the last of this week, taking every point at once as near as may be. Colonel Montgomery's regiment[127] are given him for the purpose, with orders not to _shoot_ except in self defense!

FROM H. W.

_April 14._ The soldiers had been there [at Fripp Point] in the night, but had only caught old Simon and Mike, a boy of about fifteen, though one of them had shot at Dan's Peter, about seventeen, and wounded him in the head slightly. They went in squads all over this end of the island except Pine Grove and here. They got sixty men in all, most of them old, a waste of Uncle Sam's money. Of course our people here are warned and all off again. The white officer said they took what men they could get without reference to the superintendents' lists.

_April 15._ Hamlet's wife, Betsey, came to buy salt, said her husband was carried off the other night and she left with ten children and a "heart most broke, shan't live long, no way, oh my Jesus!" My new cook's husband was shot (and killed) as he ran away when the Secesh tried to make him go with them--how are they to understand the difference? Captain Dutch[128] says he thinks that six or eight have gone onto the Main from this island; they openly say, some of them, that they wish the old times were back again.

_April 23._ The men at Fripp Point are said to have fired on the soldiers from their houses. They are very bitter that negroes should be sent against them. They would not mind white men, they say. R. has persuaded all his men to go up to Beaufort,[129] and only a few were retained. The rest have come back as happy as kings--no more bush for them! I wish all would do the same.

_April 29._ Mr. Philbrick went off to the wharf before breakfast, and as he was coming back met Phillis on her way to tell the men who were at work on it that the soldiers had come. As we sat down to lunch we could see the gleaming of the bayonets as they came through the first gate, and Primus sent up to say that he was taken and wanted Mr.

Philbrick to come down. Mr. G. appeared from Pine Grove, where they had taken only two men, who will probably be let off. Soon William appeared, saying they had been at the Point, too, but had got no one.

Mr. Philbrick rowed down to the [Fripp Point] quarters and presently returned with Captain Hoyt and Captain Thompson, who were very tired, to lunch. They all received him very crustily and coldly at first, but they were prejudiced against him and vexed at their want of success, and I think it did something towards removing ill feelings to see him.

When they reached the n.i.g.g.e.r-house here, where the men [the soldiers], about fifty, had been waiting, they found they had tracked two men down through the marsh from Fripp Point and caught them just here, after shooting one. The people were in a wild state of confusion. The soldiers had been telling our people all sorts of stories--that they had orders to shoot because Mr. Philbrick had said in Beaufort that he had a battery here to defend his people, etc. They came flocking round him, all women of course, and all talking at once to try and get at the truth of things, and Mr. Philbrick had to quiet them before he could make out a word. Then Amaritta naturally stood forward as spokeswoman to get "satisfaction," and they were easily made to understand that the soldiers had been telling lies, and their confidence in Mr. Philbrick quieted them.

E. S. P. TO C. P. W.

_Beaufort, May 1._ We are led to admire more than ever the cool discrimination of the General commanding the Department. The other day some officer conceived the idea that the superintendents of St. Helena in general, and W. C. G. in particular, were opposing the draft, _employing_ able-bodied men, etc.; also that shots had been fired at the black soldiers on his plantation. It was so represented to General Hunter, and he ordered on the spot that he should be arrested and sent out of the Department. Fortunately Captain Bryant, who was to have executed the order, was a man of sense and consulted Captain Hooper, who told him that General Saxton didn't want to spare Mr. G., and that as he had no written orders he had better hold on. The editor of the _Free South_ has been amusing himself by throwing out owlish insinuations to the effect that speculators and others on St. Helena had better take heed of General Hunter's orders, for the prospective profits of a speedy fortune would hardly warrant the risk, etc., etc.

The next paragraph gives another version of the search for black recruits.

Captain Thompson came to Coffin's on Wednesday with about fifty men.

They caught no one but Primus, who felt safe and didn't hide. If he had behaved himself he wouldn't have been taken, but got into a pa.s.sion and talked so wild that he was taken out of punishment for his impudence, and then held on the ground that his influence must be against the draft, and as he was foreman, his power must be considerable! Captain Thompson pretended to have orders to shoot men running, and scoured the Fripp Point place through Lieutenant O. E.

Bryant and some black soldiers. They met no young men except Sancho and Josh, whom they chased down into the marsh opposite Coffin n.i.g.g.e.r-house, and then shot Josh. He was taken with a bullet in his leg and a buckshot in his head, carried to the village, and placed under Dr. Bundy's care. Of course, Sancho was taken, too, and brought up to camp. He had an Enfield rifle with him, and admits that he fired it to "scare away the soldiers," after Josh was. .h.i.t, but not before.

The black soldiers all say he fired first, and no white man was present to see. I came up to lay the matter before the General, but he is not well. Captain Hooper has taken it in hand and promises to investigate it. The Major of the Second Regiment[130] was down here, but I couldn't see him. He may have given such orders to Thompson as he pretends. They seem to have got enraged because they couldn't find any men on those three plantations after having been quartered at the village for two weeks, and imputed their want of success to G. and myself. I shouldn't be surprised if I am ordered out of the Department at any moment.

Then comes the sequel.

FROM H. W.

_May 17._ Primus has come home. He deserted a week ago and has been all that time getting here. He says that he has not drilled but once since he was taken to camp, that he has been sick all the time, but that he has not been in the hospital. Of course, not being volunteers, there is a great deal of shamming, and they have to be very strict; in short, they pursue the old masters' system of believing they lie until it is proved they have spoken the truth,--a most elevating process!

and he had a large blister put on the back of his neck and was kept in his tent. Finally Captain Hoyt took him to Colonel Montgomery and told him that he thought the man was really sick and not fit to be kept, but the Colonel was very short with him and said drill was the best cure for him. Then Primus ran away, and is now in his bed here. Mr.

Philbrick has seen him and says it is impossible to tell whether he is sick or not, but he understands fully the consequences of desertion, and that Mr. Philbrick and C. cannot employ him again. Mr. Philbrick told him that he should not inform against him, but that if the officers asked him if he had come home he should have to tell them that he had. "I know dat, ma.s.sa, but I won't stay dere." He understands that we are helpless. He says, and we have learned in other ways, that all who were drafted have been deserting. One day they brought in fourteen, and the next day twelve of them had gone, and the next the other two. They can't pretend to get them back again, and of course the demoralization must be great. It will be very bad for Primus now, if they do not take him, to live on here an outlaw, working his wife's cotton but not able to resume his plow or his old position in any way--yet if he is taken again he will never make a good soldier. The whole thing is wrong from the foundation, and should be given up, and all those who did not volunteer sent to their homes--if any are then left in the regiments. Yet I don't see how that could be done unless Hunter went off, and some other Major General repealed his orders.

To return to matters of plantation management.

C. P. W. had recently been sent home by Mr. Philbrick to buy and send a schooner-load of provisions, merchandise, etc., for the "store." He found himself "an object of regard and curiosity," "engaged out to dinner and tea to 'talk Port Royal' many days ahead." Apropos of the things he bought for Coffin's Point, he wrote:

C. P. W. TO E. S. P.

_Boston_, [_April 27._] I received permission from the Secretary of the Treasury to ship the powder, shot, saddle, bridle, tar, pitch, and rope, but I had to consign these, with the hats, to General Saxton, from whom you will have to obtain an order for them. The tobacco, shoes, rice, and buggy are not contraband. They were going to stop the hats, on the ground that they were "adapted for military uniforms,"

and I had to get a "character" from one of my friends, a clerk in the Custom House, and then a.s.sure the crusty old Collector that the hats were not to be used for any illegal purpose, before he would let them pa.s.s.

FROM W. C. G.

_Pine Grove, May 17._ The schooner has but just come round to Coffin's, and the rain has prevented our plundering her with energy.

But Friday I got up my mola.s.ses and gave some out yesterday. You ought to have seen the little ones dance as the mothers came home with their piggins full. We are going to give some mola.s.ses and bacon monthly for the present,--in lieu of an increase of wages. Most of the proprietors are offering rather better terms than the Government,--some in money, others in a larger share of the crop. We keep the Government scale of prices, but give them the "poke" and "sweet'ning," and I think have touched their sensibilities much more certainly thereby.

This same day Mr. and Mrs. Philbrick left Port Royal and went home. The next extracts are from two of H. W.'s letters, full of details about the home life and the wonderful ways of the "people."

FROM H. W.

_June 10._ As we drove up under the shade of a b.u.t.tonwood-tree [at Fripp Point] we found a group of children under it, three or four boys and girls washing at wash-tubs, others sitting round taking care of younger children. They were just like children all over the world,[131] playing and teasing each other, but very good-naturedly, and as happy as you please. This weather the children wear nothing but a shift or shirt, and the other day Lewis and Cicero appeared in the yard entirely naked. Aunt Sally, from Eddings Point, amused us with her queer, wild talk a long time. The story is that she was made crazy by her master's whipping her daughter to death, and very sad it was to hear her talk, though it was funny. She knows any number of hymns and parts of the Bible, and jumbles sc.r.a.ps and lines from the one with Genesis and Revelation in the most extraordinary manner, talking about Mr. Adam and Madam Eve, who brought her and her race all their woe, whom she knows but will never forgive. She stands and reads everything out of her "heart-book," which she says tells her everything, looking all the time at her left hand, which she holds out like a book. Her epithets against her old master and the rebels were voluble and denunciatory in the extreme, and she left us with many warnings to remember "Det and de Jugment." I had sent for the "Widow Bedotte," to whom I presented some tobacco and who was very funny indeed. She is in her right mind and delights in making herself agreeable. I wish I could describe to you this extraordinary specimen of humanity--a short little old body with an intelligent face--all her wool carefully concealed by an enormous turban, from beneath each side of which hung four black strings, looking like an imitation frisette of false curls, her odd figure enveloped in shawl and cape, rubbing her hands nervously and sinking into the floor, as it seemed, as she curtseyed to us lower than I ever saw anybody go and get up again straight. And then her conversation and manner were as comical as her appearance.

Another characteristic of the "Widow Bedotte" H. W.

describes elsewhere.

She prides herself upon her good manners, which she says she gets because she belongs to the church, which every now and then she joins again. She has just done so here, so is full of extra flourishes.