“Picking cotton near Montgomery, Alabama ” “Stereograph shows African Americans, possibly slaves, working in a cotton field.” (sometime between 1860 and 1870 (Library of Congress))
From The New-York Times June 6, 1865:
The Destitution of the Freedmen in Alabama.
The following letter has been received by Mr. F.G. SHAW, the President of the National Freedman’s Relief Association. It discloses a state of things which loudly calls for relief. The rooms of this association are at No. 76 John-street.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY AND DIVISION WEST MISSISSIPPI, MOBILE, Alabama, May 16, 1865.
SIR: There are thirty thousand poor freedmen now thrown upon our hands in this State. They will be able only to get bread this year; clothing and learning must come from the government, or from the benevolent hearts of merciful loyal people.
The advance of the army from Mobile upward, was the occasion for the flight of nearly all the colored people from their homes. The roads are filled with thousands upon thousands. The exodus of olden time was nothing compared with this.
Chicago Times June 5, 1865
But when I speak of the suffering endured by them, I must acknowledge that it weakens me. I am hardly able to tell it. Many have starved to death in their flight. Mothers, exhausted themselves, left their children on the roadside to die. Soldiers have paused in their march, and with kindly souls, dug graves in which to bury them. The old slaveholders, confused by the defeat of their armies, mad at the loss of “their property,” impoverished and humbled, give but little mercy to the people whose lives they formerly held. I see freedmen every day who come scarred, mangled, bleeding from the brutal treatment of their oppressors.
There never was presented to any people so vast a field for the exercise of benevolence as is presented here in the South to-day, to the good Christian people of this world.
Will you be kind enough simply to let these facts be known throughout the North? I am sure they will speak for themselves. I wish I had clothing for thirty thousand people at this moment.
I leave for Montgomery to-day, and will enlarge on this sad picture from there.
I am, in great haste, very truly yours,
THOMAS W. CONWAY,
General Superintendent Freedmen.
