One of these agents had taken five plantations under his control, and was proposing to retain them for another year.  It was charged that he had not paid his negroes for their labor, except in scanty supplies of clothing, for which exorbitant prices were charged.  He had been successful with his plantations, but delivered very little cotton to the Government agents.

The investigations into the conduct of agents and lessees were expected to make a change in the situation.  Up to that time the War Department had controlled the whole system of plantation management.  The Treasury Department was seeking the control, on the ground that the plantations were a source of revenue to the Government, and should be under its financial and commercial policy.  If it could be proved that the system pursued was an unfair and dishonest one, there was probability of a change.

I pressed forward on my visit to New Orleans.  On my return, two weeks later, the agents of General Thomas were pushing their plans for the coming year.  There was no indication of an immediate change in the management.  The duties of these agents had been enlarged, and the region which they controlled extended from Lake Providence, sixty miles above Vicksburg, to the mouth of Red River, nearly two hundred miles below.  One of the agents had his office at Lake Providence, a second was located at Vicksburg, while the third was at Natchez.

Nearly all the plantations near Lake Providence had been leased or applied for.  The same was the case with most of those near Vicksburg.  In some instances, there were several applicants for the same plantation.  The agents announced their determination to sell the choice of plantations to the highest bidder.  The competition for the best places was expected to be very active.

There was one pleasing feature.  Some of the applicants for plantations were not like the sharp-eyed speculators who had hitherto controlled the business.  They seemed to be men of character, desirous of experimenting with free labor for the sake of demonstrating its feasibility when skillfully and honestly managed.  They hoped and believed it would be profitable, but they were not undertaking the enterprise solely with a view to money-making.  The number of these men was not large, but their presence, although in small force, was exceedingly encouraging.

I regret to say that these men were outstripped in the struggle for good locations by their more unscrupulous competitors.  Before the season was ended, the majority of the honest men abandoned the field.

During 1863, many negroes cultivated small lots of ground on their own account.  Sometimes a whole family engaged in the enterprise, a single individual having control of the matter.  In other cases, two, three, or a half-dozen negroes would unite their labor, and divide the returns.  One family of four persons sold twelve bales of cotton, at two hundred dollars per bale, as the result of eight months’