GRO.

(Maps 3 and 4, Bulletin 129, U.S. Bureau of the Census.)

(Maps 5 and 6, Bulletin 129, U.S. Bureau of the Census.)]

In some of these camps, and especially in those of the West, the refugees
were finally sent out to other sections in need of labor, as in the cases
of the contrabands assembled with the Union army at first at Grand
Junction and later at Memphis.[17]

There were three types of these camp communities which attracted attention
as places for free labor experimentation. These were at Port Royal, on the
Mississippi in the neighborhood of Vicksburg, and in Lower Louisiana and
Virginia. The first trial of free labor of blacks on a large scale in a
slave State was made in Port Royal.[18] The experiment was generally
successful. By industry, thrift and orderly conduct the Negroes showed
their appreciation for their new opportunities. In the Mississippi section
invaded by the northern army, General Thomas opened what he called
_Infirmary Farms_ which he leased to Negroes on certain terms which
they usually met successfully. The same plan, however, was not so
successful in the Lower Mississippi section.[19] The failure in this
section was doubtless due to the inferior type of blacks in the lower
cotton belt where Negroes had been more brutalized by slavery.

In some cases, these refugees experienced many hardships. It was charged
that they were worked hard, badly treated and deprived of all their wages
except what was given them for rations and a scanty pittance, wholly
insufficient to purchase necessary clothing and provide for their
families.[20] Not a few of the refugees for these reasons applied for
permission to return to their masters and sometimes such permission was
granted; for, although under military authority, they were by order of
Congress to be considered as freemen. These voluntary slaves, of course,
were few and the authorities were not thereby impressed with the thought
that Negroes would prefer to be slaves, should they be treated as freemen
rather than as brutes.[21]

It became increasingly difficult, however, to handle this problem. In the
first place, it was not an easy matter to find soldiers well disposed to
serve the Negroes in any manner whatever and the officers of the army had
no desire to force them to render such services since those thus engaged
suffered a sort of social ostracism. The same condition obtained in the
case of caring for those afflicted with disease, until there