owever, was not hopeless; the Negro was able to work and in large
territories had little competition; wages were high, even though paid
in shares of the crop; the cost of living was low; and land was cheap.
Thousands seemed thirsty for an education and crowded the schools which
were available. It was too much, however, to expect the Negro to take
immediate advantage of his opportunities. What he wanted was a long
holiday, a gun and a dog, and plenty of hunting and fishing. He must
have Saturday at least for a trip to town or to a picnic or a circus; he
did not wish to be a servant. When he had any money, swindlers reaped
a harvest. They sold him worthless finery, cheap guns, preparations to
bleach the skin or straighten the hair, and striped pegs which, when set
up on the master's plantation, would entitle the purchaser to "40 acres
and a mule."

The attitude of the Negroes' employers not infrequently complicated the
situation which they sought to better. The old masters were, as a rule,
skeptical of the value of free Negro labor. Carl Schurz thought this
attitude boded ill for the future: "A belief, conviction, or prejudice,
or whatever you may call it," he said, "so widely spread and apparently
deeply rooted as this, that the Negro will not work without physical
compulsion, is certainly calculated to have a very serious influence
upon the conduct of the people entertaining it. It naturally produced a
desire to preserve slavery in its original form as much and as long as
possible... or to introduce into the new system that element of physical
compulsion which would make the Negro work." The Negro wished to be free
to leave his job when he pleased, but, as Benjamin C. Truman stated in
his report to President Johnson, a "result of the settled belief in the
Negro's inferiority, and in the necessity that he should not be left to
himself without a guardian, is that in some sections he is discouraged
from leaving his old master. I have known of planters who considered it
an offence against neighborhood courtesy for another to hire their old
hands, and in two instances that were reported the disputants came to
blows over the breach of etiquette." The new Freedmen's Bureau insisted
upon written contracts, except for day laborers, and this undoubtedly
kept many Negroes from working regularly, for they were suspicious of
contracts. Besides, the agitators and the Negro troops led them to
hope for an eventual distribution of proper