a state of
confusion about buying land. They had got the impression at church
from the earnest way in which they were urged to buy, that they _must_
buy land _nolens volens_, and wanted to have my consent to stay where
they were and work for me as long as they pleased! Of course I laughed
and told them they were welcome to stay as long as they wished and
behaved well. They seemed "well satisfy" with this, and all in good
humor.

I stayed at home Monday to see Mr. Hull, who came down with another
big boat-load of cotton for our people to gin. They had finished
ginning what he brought last week in two days. As soon as his boat
came to the landing near Nab's house, the people made a rush for the
cotton, the men carting it and the women carrying the bags on their
heads and hiding it, so they might have some of it to gin. It was like
rats scrambling for nuts.

Mr. B. has a letter from Secretary Chase, urging that a bale of free
labor cotton be sent to the Sanitary Fair at New York, and I offered
to present a bale for the purpose. It will be worth about five hundred
dollars; but is not a very great contribution, considering that we
have two hundred of them nearly.

I see that my letter to Alpheus Hardy[152] is going the rounds, being
copied in Providence _Journal_ and New York _Evening Post_, with a few
blunders as usual. Did you notice the expression "extend the arm of
charity" was printed "area" instead of "arm," making a very absurd
appearance? The Providence _Journal_ put in an extra cipher,
multiplying my figures by ten. In order to correct this blunder, which
was a serious one, making the cotton cost ten times as much as I
stated, I wrote to the editor, giving him some more information about
my crop, for the benefit of the Providence cotton spinners.[153]

FROM W. C. G.

_Jan. 29._ Outside of our plantations, the people for once are excited
with good reason. In the most awkward, incomplete, bungling way the
negroes are allowed to preempt twenty and forty acre tracts; so
everybody is astir, trying to stake out claims and then to get their
claims considered by the Commissioners. These gentlemen meanwhile are
at loggerheads, the land is but half surveyed, and everything is
delightfully confused and uncertain. Still it is the beginning of a
great thing,--negroes become land-owners and the door is thrown open
to Northern immigration. Years hence it will be a satisfaction to look
back on these beginnings,--now it is