ho had been brought to St. Helena
village, and who had cleared and fenced patches for gardens, felling the
trees for that purpose.

The laborers do less work, perhaps, than a Yankee would think they might
do; but they do about as much as he himself would do, after a residence
of a few years in the same climate, and when he had ceased to work under
the influence of Northern habits. Northern men have sometimes been
unjust to the South, when comparing the results of labor in the
different sections. God never intended that a man should toil under a
tropical sun with the same energy and constancy as in our bracing
latitude. There has been less complaint this year than last of "a pain
in the small of the back," or of "a fever in the head,"--in other words,
less _shamming_. The work has been greatly deranged by the draft, some
features of which have not been very skilfully arranged, and by the
fitfulness with which the laborers have been treated by the military
authorities. The work both upon the cotton and the corn is done only by
the women, children, and disabled men. It has been suggested that
field-work does not become women in the new condition; and so it may
seem to some persons of just sympathies who have not yet learned that no
honest work is dishonorable in man or woman. But this matter may be left
to regulate itself. Field-work, as an occupation, may not be consistent
with the finest feminine culture or the most complete womanliness; but
it in no way conflicts with virtue, self-respect, and social
development. Women work in the field in Switzerland, the freest country
of Europe; and we may look with pride on the triumphs of this
generation, when the American negroes become the peers of the Swiss
peasantry. Better a woman with the hoe than without it, when she is not
yet fitted for the needle or the book.

The negroes were also showing their capacity to organize labor and apply
capital to it. Harry, to whom I referred in my second report, as "my
faithful guide and attendant, who had done for me more service than any
white man could render," with funds of his own, and some borrowed money,
bought at the recent tax-sales a small farm of three hundred and
thirteen acres for three hundred and five dollars. He was to plant
sixteen and a half acres of cotton, twelve and a half of corn, and one
and a half of potatoes. I rode through his farm on the 10th of April, my
last day in the territory, and one-third of his crop was th