adopted for their government in which the freedmen took a considerable part, the Bend was divided into districts, each having a sheriff and
judge appointed from among the more reliable
and intelligent colored men. A general oversight
of the proceedings was maintained by our officers
in charge, who confirmed or modified the findings
of the court. The shrewdness of the colored
judges was very remarkable, though it was sometimes necessary to decrease the severity of the
punishment they proposed. Fines and penal service on the Tome Farm were the usual sentences
they imposed. Petty theft and idleness were the
most frequent causes of trouble, but my officers
were able to report that exposed property was as
safe on Davis Bend as it would be anywhere. The
community distinctly demonstrated the capacity of
the Negro to take care of himself and exercised
under honest and competent direction the functions of self-government.”[1]
Carl Schurz said in his celebrated report: “The emancipation of the slaves is submitted to only in so far as chattel slavery in the old form could not be kept up. But although the freedman is no longer considered the property of the individual master, he is considered the slave or society and
- ↑ A. U. Publications, No. 12 p. 38; Cf. also Fleming, Vol. I, p. 355.
