[Edisto Island, S.C. October 20 or 21, 1865]
General It Is with painfull Hearts that we the committe address you, we Have thorougholy considered the order which you wished us to Sighn,1 we wish we could do so but cannot feel our rights Safe If we do so, General we want Homesteads; we were promised Homestead's by the government,2 If It does not carry out the promises Its agents made to us, If the government Haveing concluded to befriend Its late enemies and to neglect to observe the principles of common faith between Its self and us Its allies In the war you said was over, now takes away from them all right to the soil they stand upon save such as they can get by again working for your late and thier all time ememies. If the government does so we are left In a more unpleasant condition than our former
we are at the mercy of those who are combined to prevent us from getting land enough to lay our Fathers bones upon. We Have property In Horses, cattle, carriages, & articles of furniture, but we are landless and Homeless, from the Homes we Have lived In In the past we can only do one of three things Step Into the public road or the sea or remain on them working as In former time and subject to thier will as then. We can not resist It In any way without being driven out Homeless upon the road. You will see this Is not the condition of really freemen You ask us to forgive the land owners of our Island, You only lost your right arm. In war and might forgive them.
The man who tied me to a tree & gave me 39 lashes & who stripped and flogged my mother & my sister & who will not let me stay In His empty Hut except I will do His planting & be Satisfied with His price & who combines with others to keep away land from me well knowing I would not Have any thing to do with Him If I Had land of my own. that man, I cannot well forgive. Does It look as If He Has forgiven me, seeing How He tries to keep me In a condition of Helplessness General, we cannot remain Here In such condition and If the government permits them to come back we ask It to Help us to reach land where we shall not be slaves nor compelled to work for those who would treat us as such we Have not been treacherous, we Have not for selfish motives allied to us those who suffered like us from a common enemy & then Haveing gained our purpose left our allies In thier Hands There Is no rights secured to us there Is no law likely to be made which our Hands can reach. The state will make laws that we shall not be able to Hold land even If we pay for It Landless, Homeless. Voteless. we can only pray to god & Hope for His Help, your Infuence & assistanceÂ
With consideration of esteem your Obt Servts In behalf of the people
Henry Bram
Ishmael Moultrie
yates Sampson
In one instance a Mr. Ben Ville Ponteaux living about 38 miles from Charleston on the North Eastern R. Road held a freedman’s son, aged about 12 years, against the wishes of his father, who complained to me about it. On my request to Mr. Ponteaux to inform me whether or not he had authority to retain the boy in his service, I received no answer, but Mr. Ponteaux is said to have remarked that he had nothing to do with the ‘Yankees’ and to have threatened to shoot the boy’s father if he again came to his house. I went to Mr. Ponteaux to enquire on the matter, and found the boy there. Mr. Ponteaux gave as his reason for holding the boy that he was unwilling to live with his father. I sent the boy to his parents. Mr. Ponteaux denied having made the above mentioned remark and to have threatened to shoot the boys father. At first I intended to arrest and bring this man to trial, but finding that I could not get sufficient evidence to convict him, I merely confiscated his gun thereby preventing him to carry out his threat to shoot.
The average arrivals of Freedmen in transit from all parts of the state, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina seeking their relatives and endeavoring to reach their homes have been fifty (50) per day, and twenty one thousand (21,000) rations have been issued to such persons during June and July on the ground of absolute destitution and inability to proceed further without such aid. . . . One hundred articles of clothing have been given to Freedmen since June 1st, the value of which was fifty dollars ($50.00). The whole of it was donated by the Agent of the Sanitary Commission and no supplies distributed from this office have apparently been more needed or better bestowed. . . . Many of those who followed Genl. Sherman from Georgia, suffering from the toilsome march, exposure and insufficient clothing & food died soon after reaching Port Royal, leaving friendless and unprotected orphans; of this class a large number subsist we hardly know how, mainly in Beaufort & it seems an imperative duty to provide for them some place of refuge. The benevolence of northern associations will secure clothing &c but the Govt should set apart from unsold property a building or buildings in which they can be property cared for.
Halls Hill Va August 4th 1865.
Dear Sir: On Tuesday August 1st 1865, the Colored People of Halls Hill and vicinity, (near Camp Rucker, & Falls Church) Va– celebrated West India Emancipation, and American Emancipation.
During the business part of the celebration... the following resolutions were unanimously adopted:–
1. “We feel it to be very important that we obtain HOMES–owning our shelters, and the ground, that we may raise fruit trees, concerning which our children can say–“These are ours”; also: that we may regularly and perseveringly educate our children, having our own school house in a central location, and also maintain public worship, and a Sabbath School, so that we may be an established and growing people, and be respected, and recognized by all loyal people, as welcome and efficient citizens of these United States–which is now our Country–made emphatically so by the blood of our brethren recently shed to save our Country.”
2 Resolved: That we appoint a Committee of seven to visit the Freedmens Bureau, and enquire–Can the Bureau give us any aid, or advice, in regard to obtaining Homes in this vicinity, or elsewhere?”...
This Committee are bearers of this document.
I trust that they will receive such a response as may much encourage them, and those whom they represent. Yours for the Freedmen–
Joseph R. Johnson