T. E. R. to C. P. W.
St. Helena, May 6. The Coffin’s Pointites had a gay old blow-out over at church, owing to Mr. Williams’ telling them that they must pay Mr. Philbrick for pasturing their horses. They called Mr. P. a thief, robber, liar, and everything else that was bad.
The death of Lincoln was an awful blow to the negroes here. One would say, “Uncle Sam is dead, isn’t he?” Another, “The Government is dead, isn’t it? You have got to go North and Secesh come back, haven’t you? We going to be slaves again?” They could not comprehend the matter at all—how Lincoln could die and the Government still live. It made them very quiet for a few days.
Secesh are coming back quite freely nowadays and looking about as much as they please: Old Ben and young Ben Chaplin, several of the Pritchards, and Captain Williams, that owned a plantation on Ladies Island.
The negroes begin to clamor about the final payment for their cotton, and we have to tell them that the probabilities are that there will not be any more. Then they think we have cheated them, and so the world goes in South Carolina. Rather a thankless task.