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relative to the construction or performance of any contract, said com mitteeman may act as arbitrator between the parties, and his decision shall be final, unless one or both of the parties desire an appeal.

"ART. 8th. It shall be the duty of all the officers of this Association, to see that the freedman shall receive from his employer his wages or earnings, and in case such employer refuses to pay promptly such wages and earnings, to aid the freedman by their full power in the collection of the same.

"ART. 9th. It shall also be the duty of this Association, and particularly the officers thereof, to see that the freedman shall comply with his contracts with his employer unless he can show some good or reasonable excuse for the non-performance.

"ART. 13th. It shall be the duty of the said Association to provide a home for the aged and helpless freedmen of the county, and for such others as are unable to make an honest support, and to see that they are provided with the necessaries of life, to devise ways and means for their permanent relief and support.

“ART. 15th. It shall be the duty of this Association, and all the officers thereof, to favor, as much as possible, the education and schooling of the colored children in said county, and to aid in devising ways and means, and making arrangements for having said children properly taught and their general morals taken care of."

The association taxed itself for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of its constitution. Every planter in Monroe County had joined it. General Swayne, Assistant-Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau for Alabama, had approved its action, and appointed its president superintendent of freedmen for that county. "The thing is working admirably,” said B-"The planters are encouraged, and the freedmen are contented and at work."

I said to him: "If all the members of the association are as sincere as yourself, and will perform what they promise; if all the counties in the State will follow the example of Monroe; and if other States will follow the example of Alabama, there will be no longer any trouble about reconstruction: the great problem of the country will be solved."

He said he believed so, and was sure the association would act in good faith. And I heard afterwards that Conecuh County had already followed the example of Monroe.

THE MAKING OF PLOUGHS.

433

CHAPTER LXI.

WILSON'S RAID.

WE had lovely weather, sailing up the Alabama River. The shores were low, and covered with canebrakes, or with growths of water-oak, gum, sycamore, and cotton-wood trees, with here and there dark and shaggy swamps. Then plantations began to appear, each with its gin-house and cotton-press, planter's house, corn-crib, and negro-quarters, on the river's bank.

The sycamores, with their white trunks covered all over with small black spots, and heavily draped with long moss, presented a peculiar appearance. Green tufts of the mistletoe grew upon the leafless tree-tops. Clouds of blackbirds sometimes covered the shore, casting a shadow as they flew. The second day, the low shores disappeared, replaced by pleasantly wooded bluffs and elevated plantations.

Nearly all the planters I met had been down to Mobile to purchase their supplies for the season. Freight went ashore at every landing. Recent rains had made the steep clayey banks as slippery as if they had been greased; and it was quite exciting to see the deck-hands carry up the freight, many a poor fellow getting a perilous fall. The wood for the steamboat was sometimes shot from the summit of the bluff down a long wooden spout which dropped it at the landing.

Seeing some heavy bars of iron going ashore at one place, I asked an old gentleman to what use they were put on the plantation.

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They are to make ploughs of, sir.

"Does every plantation make its own ploughs?"

“Do we make our own ploughs?" he repeated, regarding

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Buy them, or have them made for you.'

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"Buy our ploughs! It would impoverish us, sir, if we had to buy our ploughs."

"On the contrary, I should think a plough-factory could furnish them for less than they now cost you, - that, like boots and shoes, it would be cheaper to buy them than to make them."

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No, sir! I've a black man on my plantation who can make as good a plough, at as little cost, as can be made anywhere in the world."

After that I had nothing to say, having already sufficiently exposed my ignorance.

On the third day (it was the slowest trip, our captain said, which he had made in twenty years) we reached Selma, three hundred miles above Mobile, a pleasantly situated town, looking down from the level summit of a bluff that rises almost precipitously from the river. Before the war it had three thousand inhabitants, and exported annually near a hundred thousand bales of cotton. It is connected by railroads with the North and West, and by railroad and river with Montgomery and the East. It was a point of very great importance to the Confederacy.

I found it a scene of "Yankee vandalism" and ruin. The Confederate arsenal, founderies, and rolling-mills, the most important works of the kind in the South, covering many acres of ground, furnished with coal and iron by the surrounding country,— together with extensive warehouses containing ammunition and military stores, were burned when Wilson captured the place. A number of private stores and dwellings were likewise destroyed; and the work of rebuilding them was not yet half completed.

Climbing the steps from the landing to the level of the town, the first object which attracted my attention was a chain-gang of negroes at work on the street; while a number

of white persons stood looking on, evidently enjoying the sight, and saying to one another, "That's the beauty of freedom! that's what free niggers come to!”

On inquiring what the members of the chain-gang had done to be punished in this ignominious manner, I got a list of their misdemeanors, one of the gravest of which was "using abusive language towards a white man." Some had transgressed certain municipal regulations, of which, coming in from the country, they were very likely ignorant. One had sold farm produce within the town limits, contrary to an ordinance which prohibits market-men from selling so much as an egg before they have reached the market and the market-bell has rung. For this offence he had been fined twenty dollars, which being unable to pay, he had been put upon the chain. Others had been guilty of disorderly conduct, vagrancy, and petty theft, which it was of course necessary to punish. But it was a singular fact that no white men were ever sentenced to the chain-gang, being, I suppose, all virtuous.

The battle of Selma was not a favorite topic with the citizens, most of whom were within the stockade, or behind the breastworks, captured by an inferior force of the Yankee invaders. But on the subject of the burning and pillaging that ensued they were eloquent.

A gray-haired old gentleman said to me: "I was in the trenches when Wilson came. Everybody was. I just watched both ways, and when I saw how the cat was jumping, I threw my musket as far as I could, dropped down as if I was killed, and walked into town atter the Yankees. I stood by my own gate, when four drunken fellows came up, slapped me on the shoulder, and said, This old man was in the stockade, he's a Rebel!' Of course I'm a Rebel,' I said, if I'm ketched in a Rebel trap.'

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They was taking me away when an officer rode up. Old man,' says he, can you show me where the corn depot is?' • I reckon I kin, if these gentlemen will let me,' I says. So I got off; and when I had showed him the corn he let me go.

"The fire was first set by our own men: that was in the

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