Both sexes, during Reconstruction, lost much of their
native cheerfulness; the men no longer went singing and shouting to
their work in the fields; some of the blacks, especially the women,
became impudent and insulting in their bearing toward the whites.

As a result of certain pernicious alien influences there soon
developed a tendency to insolent conduct on the part of the younger
negro men, who seemed convinced that civil behavior and freedom were
incompatible. With some there was a disposition not to submit to the
direction of their employers, and the negro's advisers warned him
against the "efforts of the white man to enslave" him. Consequently,
he very often refused to enter into contracts that called for any
assumption of responsibility on his part, and the few agreements to
which he became a party had first to be ratified by the Bureau. As he
had no knowledge of the obligation of contracts, he usually violated
them at pleasure.

The negroes, massed in the towns, lived in deserted and ruined houses
or in huts built by themselves of refuse lumber. They were very
scantily clothed and their food, often insufficient and badly cooked,
if cooked at all, was obtained by begging, stealing, or upon
application to the Bureau. Taking from the whites was not considered
stealing, but was "Spilin' de Gypshuns."

The health of the negroes was injured during the period 1865-1875. In
the towns the standard of living was low, sanitary arrangements were
bad, and disease killed large numbers and permanently injured the
negro constitution.

Following the military occupation of the State the negroes, young and
old, were seized with an overmastering desire for book learning. This
seeming thirst for education was not rightly understood at the North;
it was, in fact, more a desire to imitate the white master and obtain
formerly forbidden privileges than any real yearning due to an
understanding of the value of education. The negro hardly knew the
significance of the bare word, but the northern people gave him credit
for an appreciation not yet altogether true even of whites.

CONCLUSION.

No occurrences of extreme historic value mark the career of Loudoun
since the days of Reconstruction, and the seemingly abrupt conclusion
to which the reader has now arrived is not thought incompatible with
the plan of this work, which in no single instance has contemplated
the inclusion of any but the most momentous events. Besides, existing