The Plantation Negro as a Freeman Observations on His Character, Condition, and Prospects in Virginia

Southern negro, both as a man and as a citizen, has been so often and so fully discussed, and from such a variety of standpoints, that it would seem almost impossible now for any new information to be produced, or any opinion advanced that would be likely to add much to the general knowledge of the problem which his presence creates, or to dispel any of the darkness that envelops his future. That his presence in the South constitutes a problem of the gravest importance is obvious to any one who has had an opportunity of examining closely the various tendencies of his nature and conduct in those rural communities in which individuals of his race form a large proportion or a great majority of the inhabitants.1 It is in such communities as these that the observations embodied in this volume were made, these observations extending over a long series of years, but being entirely confined to the period that has elapsed since the war. It is only as a freeman that the negro has been presented to my view, for I have no distinct recollection of slavery as an institution;it is only as he has been affected by the circumstances surrounding him since his emancipation that he is regarded 1T he overwhelming majority of the Southern negroes are found in the rural districts, the number inhabiting the towns and cities being too small to exercise any material influence on the general destiny of their race.