to all legitimate efforts at advancement, and by the exercise of kindness and justice towards him, teach him to value and appreciate the new condition in which he is placed. If, after all, their honest efforts shall prove unavailing, and this four millions of the human family but recently dragged up from barbarism, and through the influence of Southern masters elevated to the status of Christian men and women, shall be doomed by the inscrutable behest of a mysterious Providence to follow in the footsteps of the fast fading aborigines of this continent; and when the last man of the race shall be standing upon the crumbling brink of a people's grave, it will be some compensation to the descendants of the Southern master to catch the grateful and benignant recognition of this representative man, as he points his withered finger to the author of his ruin and exclaims, Thou didst it.'"

All of the recommendations made by this committee, so far as enactment of laws were concerned, were acted upon and passed into statutes. But the Legislature disregarded the committee's recommendation as to delaying the education of colored children, and passed a law taxing every colored male from the age of twenty-one to fifty, five dollars for the education of colored youth, and some good schools were established accordingly under the superintendency of Rev. E. B. Duncan, who was certainly an able and conscientious man, who worked hard to establish colored schools in every county. At that time railroad facilities were very poor, and I have known him to walk from county to county in South Florida to establish colored schools.

It is true, that some of the laws passed by the Legislature of 1865 seem to be very diabolical and oppressive to the freedmen, but when we consider the long established institution of slavery, and the danger to which the Southern whites imagined they might be subjected by reason of these people, who had always been subject only to the command of their old masters, we are of the opinion that any other people, under like circumstances, would have passed the same character of laws relative to the freedmen. Many of these laws we know, of our own knowledge, were passed only to deter the freedman from com. mitting crime. For instance, the law prohibiting colored people handling arms of any kind without a license, was a dead letter, except in some cases where some of the freedmen would go around plantations hunting, with apparently no other occupation,

such a person would be suspected of hunting something that did not belong to him and his arms would be taken away from him. We have often passed through the streets of Tallahassee with our gun upon our shoulder, without a license, and were never disturbed by any one during the time this law was in force.

The law in regard to contracts between the whites and freedmen was taken advantage of by some of the whites, and the freedmen did not get justice; but the great majority of the whites carried out their contracts to the letter, and the freedmen did as well as could be expected under the changed condition of things. These laws were taken advantage of by the carpet-baggers to marshal the freedmen to their support after the freedmen had been given the right to vote. We shall have more to say on this subject in a future chapter.

CHAPTER IV.

Governor Walker's Short-Lived Administration. Conduct of White Soldiers Toward Freedmen. The Freedmen Electing a Congressman, as They Thought. Stonelake's Fraudulent Land Certificate. The Freedman's Bureau and Its Agents. The Beginning of the Secret League. Preparation and Oath of League. "The Loyal League of America."

The administration of Governor Walker, which continued something over two years, by the existing military power, exercised under the Federal authority, and he was often perplexed to avoid conflict while in the legitimate exercise of civil authority. With the Freedman's Bureau, charged with the paternal care of the freedmen on the one side, and the United States army exercising a supervisory control over the general conduct, his administration was little more than a quasi civil government, yet all was done that was possible, within the restricted limits prescribed by the Federal power, to maintain law and order. The removal of colored troops from the interior of the State to the seaboard did not hasten the restoration of law and order, as contemplated by the resolution passed by the convention for that purpose. The white soldiery were stationed throughout the interior and finally superseded the colored troops, who were entirely removed from the State. The officers and soldiers of the regular army, many of whom did not stand very high in the estimation of our best Southern society, would abuse and maltreat the negro much worse than their former masters, who in many instances would have to interfere in his behalf, to save him from cruelty and injustice. Of course there were honorable exceptions; but a majority of the officers and men sent to this State to take the place of the colored troops, were unjust and sometimes cruel in their treatment of the freedmen-first from innate prejudice, and second in order to ingratiate themselves with their former masters, who were naturally irritated at the loss of their slaves. They, however, refused to countenance such conduct on the part of the soldiery, holding that however the negro

might rejoice in his freedom, he had done nothing dishonorable to obtain it.

I can recall but few instances of brutal treatment of the freedmen by the Southern whites during Governor Walker's administration. I was personally cognizant of one case in the city of Tallahassee in the latter part of the year 1866, by the police, under Francis Epps, mayor. The mayor had enlisted from outside the city a dozen of what are generally termed "crackers," as policemen. They were of the class who had never owned a slave or dared to interfere with one while under the protection of the master, and they seemed to cherish an old grudge against the negro. They sought every opportunity to interfere in his exercise of his freedom, and would order him off the streets; and when two or three were assembled in conversation, would arrest them and beat them as long as they would submit. Under the advice of some of the more respectable of the white citizens, a party attempted one Sunday night to put a stop to this cruelty. They started around to the colored churches to summon the men to run these policemen out of town or put them to death. On their way to the churches they were met in the dark by the city marshal, Sam Quaile, who ordered them to halt. Thinking it was one of these "cracker" policemen, they discharged their guns in the direction of the voice, but inflicted no injury. The whites turned out and preserved the peace, and shortly after these "cracker" policemen were discharged and no further disturbance occurred. So far as the city of Tallahassee is concerned, the whites and blacks have lived on friendly terms.

Early in 1866 it was reported that the freedmen would be enfranchised, and many of them thinking the right had already accrued, called a secret meeting for the election of a Member of Congress. The meeting was held at the A. M. E. Church in Tallahassee, and Joseph Oats, formerly a slave of Governor Walker, was unanimously elected. The next step was to raise money to send the newly-elected Congressman to Washington. The money was forthcoming, as plenty of old men and women gave their last dollar to send one of their race to the National Congress. Several hundred dollars were thus raised and given to Oats, who shortly afterwards was "off to Congress.'

He

remained away from Tallahassee until his money was gone, when he wrote back designating the time when he would return. The freedmen prepared a picnic at Houstoun's spring, about a mile from Tallahassee. Oats notified them that if they desired to know what he had done for them while in Congress, they must prepare to protect him, as the whites would kill him when they should learn what he had accomplished against them. The 20th of May, the day on which General McCook marched his troops into Tallahassee, and declared all the inhabitants to be free, was the day set apart for Oats to tell the freedmen the great work he had accomplished in Congress. At nine o'clock on that memorable 20th of May, the drums commenced beating and the freedmen to the number of two or three thousand formed in line and marched to Oats' dwelling and sent a committee armed with old cavalry swords and pistols to escort Oats to the place of destination. He was escorted to Houstoun's spring, when the committee, at his request, arranged that he should be surrounded by the freedmen and the whites kept from harming him or hearing what he said. The whites, however, did not know what was going on other than a celebration and picnic, and were not present. Oats' speech was, that he had seen the President, and they had true friends at Washington, etc. It was believed, however, that Oats did not go further than Savannah, where he had a good time, spent the freedmens' money, and returned home. After Oats had finished his story about the President, and his great labors in Congress, the crowd sent up their huzzas for half an hour and then sat down to a sumptuous dinWhisky was plentiful on the ground and was freely imbibed by the freedmen. A dispute arose among them as to where Oats had been, and the affair ended in a general knock down and drag out. Oats was a carpenter by trade, and before being set free had hired himself from his master; could read and write, and was therefore capable of hoodwinking the average freedman. He was a fine looking mulatto whose mother was said to be white.

ner.

During the years 1865-67 there was much speculation among the freedmen as to what the government intended to do for them in regard to farms; and as most of them had to work for a portion of the crop, it induced them to seek homes of their own.