NORTH AMERICAN No. CCVIII. JULY, 1865. REVIEW. ART. I. THE FREEDMEN AT PORT ROYAL. THE peculiarity with which slavery usually stamps its victims is effected not so much by a positive brand of its own as by simply removing him from that contact with circumstance which is the normal condition of growth. Outside of slavery, even in almost every depth of barbarism, circumstances serve to increase human power. But in slavery, not only are natural rights denied, but, what is quite as injurious, necessary wants are supplied; everything contributes to the repression of faculty. The slaveholder's institution is a nursery for perpetuating infancy; and the more enlightened the nurse, the more successful his efforts. The world has waited for the nineteenth century and republican institutions to develop slavery in its hugest and most direful proportions; and now that the manowner's reckless pride has made its fatal mistake, the most shameful spectacle that ever saddened earth is opened for the nations to behold, the spectacle of a race of stunted, misshapen children, writhing from the grasp of that people which, in so many respects, is the foremost of the age. It is this immaturity that occasions the chief difficulty in analyzing the negro's nature, as we see it in the South. In each separate faculty of his mental and moral constitution we miss the effect of training. No tendency has had scope to display its direction and vigor. Careful study is required, therefore, of the specific effects of slavery, both to distinguish what is innate from what really belongs to this condition, and to estimate the qualities of those who have been slaves at their true worth under natural laws of development. It is because this is often neglected, that the negro's friends and his enemies differ so widely in describing his character. The freedmen of Port Royal have been regarded as the lowest of their race in America. On account of their insulation from the few currents of intelligence that find their way to the plantations of the mainland, they are probably less raised from their original degradation than the majority of the blacks, - an impression that is confirmed by comparing them with the refugees who have escaped from the interior of the State. Three years we have passed with these people, knowing them intimately in all the relations of life. Our experience therefore is narrow, but at least neither distance nor the light that is most favorable lends coloring to our view. The first inquiry in regard to them naturally concerns their intellect. Of the mental faculties, those in close connection with the outward senses are alone developed. That they observe well, is proved by their quickness in imitation; and their memory often surprises persons used to note-books and memoranda. But while they apprehend and hold detached facts easily, they are slow to comprehend them in connection,-are deficient in the more ideal operations, which require reflection and reasoning. Hence arises an appalling mental inaccuracy. Nothing reveals more strikingly this mental degradation than the confusion of ideas that blurs their common statements. It even accounts for much of their apparent dishonesty, and most curiously distorts the structure of their language. An intercourse of several months is needed thoroughly to understand their jumbled speech. Their minds are by no means inactive, however, though the range of thought is so limited; nor does their ignorance appear dulness. The impression made by a short acquaintance with the Sea Island negroes, and confirmed by a longer one, is that they have capacity, but lack ability,the term properly applicable to the mind which by discipline has control of its powers. That the faculty exists dormantly and awaits its training is indicated by the fact that in many individuals it is already partially developed. The slight education obtained by familiarity with white people has, for instance, lifted the class of house servants to a decidedly higher grade of intelligence, and rough talent is not unfrequently met with that compels genuine respect. Of course the instruction which the children principally have received during the last three years cannot have visibly affected this condition. It is to these children alone, and not at once to them, that we may fairly look for evidence of greater mental ability than that exhibited by their parents. Many friends of the Port Royal movement have a very exaggerated notion of the extent of the education already accomplished there. We have even been asked, how many negroes were yet qualified to take the place of teachers. Perhaps the teachers, for want of material to form definite reports, were obliged to make general statements at first, and may have colored them too warmly. Attention has been given chiefly to reading, spelling, and writing. The higher classes have gone through the multiplication table, and in many schools the cardinal operations of arithmetic, with a little geography and history, have been introduced. None can read with perfect confidence, few without frequent hesitation. The majority of the scholars are young children still in their First or Second Primer. In writing and spelling, for the length of time spent, the relative advancement has been greater than in reading. From two plantations nearly thirty men enlisted in the summer of 1864; and of the brisk correspondence which immediately ensued, three quarters of the letters came from camp in the well-known chirography of Sammy Simmons, Jerry Polite, or others of the school-boys who had learned their alphabet since emancipation. With children more ignorant at first than our most neglected street-wanderers, and amid all the difficulties which beset any new undertaking in so unsettled a place and time, the progress thus described is at least satisfactory to those engaged in the work. One who only knows what ignorance is from the worst that we see at the North, can hardly conceive the poverty of ideas which here prevails. The primers, for instance, contain few words with which a white child is not already more or less familiar; but to the learner here they introduce very many of whose sound and meaning he knows noth ing. This is a deficiency which schools alone cannot at once supply. But in the mere knowledge of reading and writing, the teachers generally say that their pupils advance about as rapidly as white children. Every one is proud of a few who would anywhere be called good scholars. The statement has been made, that in some of the schools at the North for colored children, careful observation indicates that the scholars up to the age of twelve, and in the degree of attainment then usually reached, appear to be fully equal to white children; but that beyond this point they fall behind. Experience at Port Royal has not been sufficient to test the question; but it is more than probable that the untrained mind of generations will reveal its weakness just where the higher faculties begin to come into exercise. Comparatively few adults attend the schools at Port Royal; their work and their conscious stiffness of mind deter them. But books are very widely distributed, and many with good success are picking their own way through the words. Nearly every school-child is a teacher in the family. It is painful to hear how humbly the men recognize the superiority of "white sense"; and believing, as they do, that the secret of it lies in reading and writing, they fully appreciate the advantages of education. Even where they feel too old or too busy to acquire it themselves, they are very eager to secure it for their children; and in most places the children love the schools as white children love a holiday, often coming two, three, and four miles regularly from their homes. This is due in great part, doubtless, to the characters of the women engaged as teachers. They have brought to their work a courage and endurance, and in most cases a refinement and an enthusiasm, with which the slight salary, that barely pays their necessary expenses, has evidently no connection. We turn to a richer part of the nature of the black race; but not with the conviction that in the quality of their emotions we can testify to as much excellence as many of their friends are wont to claim for it. Feeling certainly predominates in their life. It gives picturesqueness to their ideas and a dramatic vividness to their conversation; it reveals itself in their fondness for color and for music; and, much more than reason, it prompts their action. But the act is often only a beginning, because the motive dies. The surface everywhere is springy, but the springs lack depth, and the waters subside almost as easily as they appear. In spontaneity, intenseness, and briefness, their emotion constantly suggests that of children, and can be excited and directed like theirs. Yet this weakness-the same immaturity that runs through their whole nature—has its good side. If the nobler passions are short-lived, so also are the bad. A white man marvels at the freedom from vindictiveness with which they speak of their old masters. We have never seen the man or woman who did not prefer his present state to the care of the best owner, yet we have heard of more than one "blessed master," and of many who were "very well"; while the common story of their hardness and cruelty is seldom more than a memory. It is oftener accompanied with pity for their present condition of exile and poverty, than with any expression of malignity. Life has taught the negroes to pity; and no feeling can be so easily moved or so confidently appealed to. It takes but little also to obtain their good-will and gratitude; they think much of a cordial greeting, and patient friendliness is sure to win their hearts. Their gratitude, however, is that of smiles and promises, and votive offerings of eggs, and only lasts during fair weather. It is not their fault that a general suspicion of white men lies deeper than trust in this or that individual. Accustomed to kindness only in the form of an owner's interested protection, they cannot appreciate disinterested effort in their behalf; and in the present ignorance of their own rights and real advantage, they will sometimes turn on those whom they have long regarded as benefactors. That devoted, self-forgetful attachment of which the slaveholders boast we are sure rarely lasts longer than the connection is necessary. Contrary to our expectation, we have never seen parents more apathetic. Certainly the expression of affection is rare to any children who are old enough to get out of the way. But this is not strange. From the example hitherto always before them, their only theory of management is that of threat and force. Formerly many husbands seem to have transferred in miniature to their wives, and both parents to their children, the blows they themselves received from their masters. Wife |