The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1866-05-28


OPPRESSION OF NEGROES By NEW ENGLAND spECU-
LAToBs-LANDED NEGROES DESTITUTE AND starry
NG-THE COMMISSIONERS AT sAvANNAH-yIEws OF
THE CITIZENS ABOUT THE BUREAU.
Tho Heratds correspondent with the investigat-
ing commission of Generals STEEDMAN and Full
LERToN writes from Port Royal aud Savannah A.
moro favorable condition OF affairs is noticeable
among tho freedmen in Port Royal Edisto and
the Hilton Head Islands. The same old story OF
Northern peculation and malfeasance, however,
s told in relating the condition of the Sea Island
settlers. In Georgia, the report is to the effect
that the Freedmen's Bureau is an obstacle in the
way OF kindly feeling between the whites and
blacks. The following will be found very interest,"
ing:
THE SEA IsLANDS
Are fifteen or twenty in number, and range in ex-
tent from two thousand acres to ono hundred
thousand. A large proportion Of this area, though
it includes some Of the finest cotton growing laud
in the world, is still undeveloped. One man l
for dollar an acre, to Northern company, fifty
thousand acres Of magnificent timber land which
he had held idle for forty years.
CONDITION OF AFFAIRS.
Generals Steedman and Fullerton, in pursuing
the investigation, with the officers OF the Freed
mems Bureau, which they are conducting with so
much impartiahty, industry, and ability, have vis
tied ;1s Wsdmslsw Edso Jehossee Pert Royal
ed the condition Of the freedmen, and discovered
| abundant evidences that in the past they had
been grossly robbed and illtreated, and that some
men muss have made q large amount Of money in
this cruel and dishonest manner; but under the
present administration of Brevet Major General
Scott, Assistant Comm issioner of the Freedmen's
Bureau for the State, matters are progressing as
satisfactorily as could be expected IN community
recently in a state approaching almost to chaos.
GENERAL sHERMAN's ORDERS.
The exceptional condition OF the Sea Islands is
attributable to the orders which General Sherman
Issued atter his occupation Of Savannah, in Janu-
usry, 1865, setting apart the islands from Charles
ton south for thirty miles back from the sea, for
the settlement OF negroes made free by acts Of
done for double purpose, mainly to get rid Of
the great incubus OF contrabands who were fol-
lowing his army and esting up his commissary,
the rebellion was conceived and graded. The
measurement OF the sllotments also was never
properly carried ont. As mentioned in previ-
to bs only three and half and some four hundred
and fifty acres In extent. Thue early in the his
tory Of the scheme frauds and rascalites Of every
down to the end Of General saxton's loose and in
efficient administration.
srRA1aHTENIHa MATTERS UP.
For some time past the Bureau and military au-
| straight All the plantations on which there are
no valid certificates have been returned to their
former owners, and those on which there are only
Gates. or the original settlers, few except these
two hundred remain on the isisnds; the rest have
moved back into Georgia, whence they came.
NuirBER OF FRREDlIeH.
1t 10 estimated that there are now ebout a. 600
freedmen on the sea islands, namely from thres
to four thousand on Edisto, fifteen hundred on
Wadmslew, two thousand on Johns, two thou
thousand on st. Helena, and the balance on the
| smaller islands,
| THEIR CONDITION.
rhn ffna tpf fhn ox,ta
! on his own account has failed as signally as q
| hundred other experiments with the negro have
failed: Those who had land orders last year, and
| were in o position to grow twenty or thirty acres
| Of cotton for themselves, have this year not q
cent to bless themse with, and have been
living on charity all the winter. A planter on
Edisto Island assured me that every morning
from hundred to hundred and fifty former
owners of these certificates ("tifities" the me-
cal them but one drae called
or work. In the first place, they raised miserable
oroPs in the next they were robbed BY Northern
Bureau, of what little they did raise.
NORTHERN OPPRESSION
We met with married. case OF this kind on Wad-
malaw leland. Driving over q plantation, we
ssited at store round which group Of forty or
their days wages. There we're no contracts on
| this farm. The hands we're engaged from day to
day at fifty cents "tssk." The atorekeeper was
| them, not money, but tickets for provisions. He
| explained that he often had no money wherewith
to pay them, 30 he gave them their earnings In
were sold. We found that corn, which sells In
Charleston market at dollar and shirty cents o
| bushel, and is worth In Wadmalaw leland, with
transportation added, certainly less than dollar
and fifty cents, was being doled out to them at
three dollars . bushel. twenty-five cents WAS
| charged for package containing twenty-five bis
cults, suoh as might be bought in New York three
for cent and everything else was In like proper
tion Should there be anything still due to the
negroes after they had purchased the necessary
meal and bacon, there we're beads and cheap jew
elry-sure TO attract the negrO's eye-displayed
in the store to absorb the balance Of his earnings.
for their work, more than half their earnings were
every day taken back from them 10 the shape OF
profit on the goods In which they were paid in lieu
Of money Gen. Steedman asked who leased the
| plantation. He was told Mr.. Underwoo OF Bos-
ton. This MIR. Underwood does not reside on the
plantation.
| MEETING OF CITIZENS IN SAVANNAH.
On Friday evening large number Of the lead
ing citizens Of savannah met at tho Pulaski
House, where General steedman is staying (and
which, with the Mills House at Charleston, is one
| Of the few hotels in the South conducted with
something like Northern enterprise and success),
| to confer with the Government Commissioners.
The feeling expressed by the meeting that the
Freedmeu's Bureau, however we'll administered
| was an unnecessary and an unmitigated evil, and
| q number OF instances were mentioned Of coun-
ties where no Bureau exists, in which the freed.
men are working better, receiving better wages
tricts controlled by the Bureau.
The Columbus tMiss.) linden says "Mr. BEN
TAYLOR lost fine horse on Saturday last. The
beast was harnessed in . common oarryali, snt
becoming frightened, ran away with It, md splin
tered the shafts He Was then placed in o stou
cart, ran of again, dashed under O beam erected