The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1866-06-29

the purchase. The boat is now beached
on St. Johns Island, and the $4,000
mortgage will soon be foreclosed. They
will, therefore, lose what to them is a
large amount of money.
The writer says Beaufort is nearly
Yankeeized, one.half of the present resi-
dents hailiug from Massachusetts and
other New England States" Before the
war it was a seaside resort of much &C.
lebrity, and was noted for the wealth and
intelligence of its inhabitants. 1t has
been transformed into the perfect type Of
lazy negro town, and sis now noted for
its immense number of donkey carts,
ponies, small negroes and pretty ~ Yam
kee schoolmarms.'
In further description Of the present
appearance of the town, of the habits of
the negroes, and of the character and
practices of the New England "philan-
thropists" who have been operating there
the Times correspondent says:
The first thing that attracts attention
on approaching the wharf is the large
number of children, as well as full grown
darkey adults. [ infer, from what | have
seen, that one-third of the colored popu-
lation spend their time on the docks con-
tinually. Some of the boys aud girls ex-
hibited evidence of schooling by spelling
the names of consiguees on the express
and freight packages. They were all
anxious to carry baggage and do small
jobs, charging exorbitantly therefor, but
did not cvince any desire to go to work
permanently. There is no doubt that the
freedmen here are somewhat demoraized.
They have had among them, during the
war, a large number of philanthropic
spectators, who, while they made money
out of them, instlled foolish ideas Of an
tagonism toward their old masters. They
call the native whites "rebels," and speak
of them as their "enemies," and use all
the pet phrases common with their money
making white friends from the North.
No one will pretend TO deny the fact
that there are honest philanthiopists in
the South laboring for the benefit of the
freedmen but from what have seen
and heard, am always half inclined to
put a man down as rascal who is en-
gagged in aiding them. 1t is certainly a
very suspicious circumstance that many
of the Massachusetts, "friends," who came
down here several years ago almost pen
niless, are now going back with plenty of
money. The truth of the matter is that
the freedmen have been pundered by
land sharks from the North, disguised as
friends, who are now leaving them to the
tender merces of the master they have
taught them to hate. The female school,
teachers, sent down here by benevolent
associations, are about the only true phi
lanthropists that fud, and they are of
ten used by outsiders as mediators be-
tween them and the money of the blacks,
1t may seem strange to some that the
blacks are now so poor when they have in
many instances worked hard and faith
fully during the past few years, but it is
easily accounted for when it is known
that their friends have grown rich. H.
stead of economy, they have been taught
to be extravagant, for it only needed an
example in order to develop astounding
wasteful abilities. Their tastes for
bright colors, sweatmeats, jewelry, buggy
riding, and "fast things generally proved
a perfect mine to the false men in whom
they trusted.