ed
into New Orleans alone.[46] Fleming records that upon leaving their homes
the blacks collected in gangs at the cross roads, in the villages and
towns, especially near the military posts. The towns were filled with
crowds of blacks who left their homes with absolutely nothing, "thinking
that the government would care for them, or more probably, not thinking at
all."[47]

The portrayal of these writers of this phase of Reconstruction history
contains a general truth, but in some cases the picture is overdrawn. The
student of history must bear in mind that practically all of our histories
of that period are based altogether on the testimony of prejudiced whites
and are written from their point of view. Some of these writers have aimed
to exaggerate the vagrancy of the blacks to justify the radical procedure
of the whites in dealing with it. The Negroes did wander about
thoughtlessly, believing that this was the most effective way to enjoy
their freedom. But nothing else could be expected from a class who had
never felt anything but the heel of oppression. History shows that such
vagrancy has always followed the immediate emancipation of a large number
of slaves. Many Negroes who flocked to the towns and army camps, moreover,
had like their masters and poor whites seen their homes broken up or
destroyed by the invading Union armies. Whites who had never learned to
work were also roaming and in some cases constituted marauding bands.[48]

There was, moreover, an actual drain of laborers to the lower and more
productive lands in Mississippi and Louisiana.[49] This developed later
into a more considerable movement toward the Southwest just after the
Civil War, the exodus being from South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and
Mississippi to Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas. Here was the pioneering
spirit, a going to the land of more economic opportunities. This slow
movement continued from about 1865 to 1875, when the development of the
numerous railway systems gave rise to land speculators who induced whites
and blacks to go west and southwest. It was a migration of individuals,
but it was reported that as many as 35,000 Negroes were then persuaded to
leave South Carolina and Georgia for Arkansas and Texas.[50]

The usual charge that the Negro is naturally migratory is not true. This
impression is often received by persons who hear of the thousands of
Negroes who move from one place to another from year to year because of
the desir