The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-10-10

Harvard men writing home; I'll be- gins to pity the Southern housekeepsrs This morning after making the starch she waited for two hours before she could get hold of one of the three servants. They were all off in the kitchens smoking and taking things easy. Joe was nominaily cleaning pail of water, and Sukey had no thought about her starched clothes"
 In may of the same year. 1.-the school imstress--writes They (the negroes have not done third the usual work this year and it is hard to bring anything to bear upon them"
 By September of the following year. (1s63). disenchantment seems to have come to one of the party. who writes; The people are very wayward-now they work and then they stop.--ani men have been acting badly, too; actually knocked a man down the other day-and think I did right
 Tn connection with this free labor business some curious testimony comes out as to the leniency of the old slave owners. Tn Jan. 1868 MT. Philbrick himself writes; "The smartest hands earn more than this, for they do one and a half times, or twice, as much as they used to--I have some men who gin fifty pounds a day-while they never ginnej more than thirty pounds for their master"
 Incidentally 1t comes out in another place that a quarter acre task day was the maximum of work required by the cruel slaveholders.
 Here is e bit of interesting testimony from the schoolmistress as to whole sale islander which the sins of a few wicked white men has caused to be frequently brought against the old planter class:
 we are not used to these people it is even very difficult to understand what they say They have been born and brought here In the most isolated way for generations with no chance for improvement, and there is not single mulatto on the place-they are black as the blackest, and perfect children-docile and with faith enough to lives by" It is added in a note, however that Pine Grove was an ex- ception among the Sea Island plan ations in this respect.
 Readers of '"The Wartime Journal" will be amused at this allusion to pr. French who had come out with the New York Delegation, and is frequent ly mentioned in terms of respect and affection. "IIe preached them an ai- mirable sermon" says the Schoolmis- tress. "Compared them to the Israeli ites coming out of Egypt, as in a transition state in which everything depended upon themselves. The elders all sat under the pulpit and many would nod their heads from time to time in approval"
 book is to be found in the frequent and bitter allusions to the depreda- tions of the Union soldiers. We of the South have been accustomed to think of these attentions as reserved especially for our benefit, but they seem to have been bestowed with amazing impartiality upon friend and foe alike. As examples take the fol- lowing, which might pass for a chap ter from the experience of a property owner in the line of Sherman's march.
 "At first the soldiers were allowed to go wherever they pleased-they cheated, they plundered. they threaten ed lives, they stole boats, poultry, hogs, money, and other property, they paid for dinners with worthless Richmond money, taking good bills in exchange. They behaved like mar auders in an enemy's country, and dis graced the name of man, American. or soldier. The houses of one whole plan LaIlOn they DuTHbu IO lHd BHOuHu III the night--besides the loss to the peo- pie (the negroes)-and in many cases 1t has been their all--the loss of con- fidence in Yankees In an incalculable injury. It is disgusting that any Massachusetts regiment should be mix ed up with such savage treatment, and that the twenty-fourth should be Is shameful in the extreme"
 One characteristic of the negro which greatly distrubed these enthusiastic missionaries was the "servility" of manner which seemed to them a de- grading mark of their former condi- tion. "They are about as extensively servile as I expected" writes one of the Harvard men in July, of He2 and the reformers immediately set about to remove this degrading badge of slavery. Needless to say, they suc- ceeded beyond expectation; as is shown two years later. when "the people" as their wards are always styled in these letters. became dissatisfied with the wages paid them. and proceeded to clamor for their rights" in a man. ner that was anything rather than servile.
 But in spite of many disappoint- ments and the inevitable disillusion- ment that must come to people who cHtcT upOH u thSk OL tHlS hluu WltH so much more zeal than knowledge, the missionaries still maintAin their confidence in themselves and in the ideal black man they had brought with them from Boston. In October. 1862. MT. Philbrick, after some trying experiences, writes. Tt Is, you know, a question even with our good presi- dent whether negroes can be male available as free laborers on this soil. I. for one believe they can, and am more than ever earnest to show 1t, I don't think the old masters will ever be successful in employing the can be. "The Italics are mine.
 Two months later he writes in the same strain; "I am anxious to con tinue this free labor experiment through a term of years and under more favorable than those under which we have this year been placed" The imperfections of "the people," when too obtrusive to be ignored are laid at the door of slavery and fresh hopes begin to be based on education and a new generation. At the close of 1863 one of the Harvard men writes:
 They seem to have a very delicate l without the slightest prin- | ciple. That this want of principle Is | not innate and not their own fault. | think Is proved by their consciences | true Their state of morals | Is decidedly better than 1t was un der slavery But they are very far | behind in character as well as tntelli- gence. and suspect that most aboli- | tionist views of their character are | in their favor"
 It would be amusing if 1t were not