a hopeless muddle that no Gordian knot
ever required more patience than an effort to enlighten them as to
their rights and wrongs. The only limit set to their credit at
the stores was that the purchases were to be confined to food and
clothing. Without any idea of money or economy, they were wasteful,
and heard with long faces that the pile of money they confidently
expected was awaiting them had already been spent. Conversations like
the following occurred many times a day:

"'No money, Mars' Cap'n? Why, ole mars' he done 'greed to gib me fou'
hund'ed dollars dis year, an' I done worked faithful, Mars' Cap'n; an'
now I ain't to have nuffin'!'

"'But you have had nearly five hundred dollars.'

"'Clare to Goodness, Mars' Cap'n, I ain't had one cent--not one cent.'

"'But you have had it in meal, bacon, calico and other goods at the
store.'

"'But dey allers gives a nigga his food and clothes, Mars'
Cap'n--_allers_. We ain't got to pay for dat ar, for sure?'

"'Yes. Now you can earn your own money you must pay for your own
food.'

"'But dey nebber does--nebber! And dar's only de ole 'ooman an' two
picaninnies. Dey's nebber ate fou' hund'ed dollars up in a year.'

"'But you have had a suit of clothes, and there is calico charged to
you.'

"'But we ain't got to pay for clothes? Dey allers 'lows a nigga two
suits a year--_allers_?

"And much argument failed to convince the poor fellows that food and
clothing were no longer to be had for nothing, the usual end of the
discussion being, often with great tears rolling down the black faces,
'An' I was promised fou' hund'ed dollars! Ole mars' done promised dat
ar, an' I've jes' worked dis whole year for nuffin'.'

"Their perfectly childlike faith in the promise of their old masters
made their disappointment more acute than can be imagined by those
who are used to the close bargains driven with the working community
farther North. 'Ole mars'' represented to them their sole idea of vast
wealth and power, and was usually almost worshipped.

"I do not deny the many horrible exceptions, the shocking cruelties,
that blot the records of slave-life; but I do maintain that they
were exceptions, and that nine cases out of ten--nay, more than that
proportion--that came under my personal observation proved that a
sincere love existed between masters and slaves. In many instances I
saw planters impoverished by the war supporting old slaves or whole
families in absolute idleness