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1. 1863
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ChaPter 1 1863 the abolition of slavery and the transition to free Labor February 19, 1863 Moving from these movements and military activities to General Banks’s purely political and administrative acts, I shall now alert Your Excellency to publication of a general order relating to the president’s latest proclamation on the abolition of slavery in certain states or portions of states said to be in open rebellion, as well as the organization of black labor in the Louisiana districts exempted from the said proclamation. This order, dated January 29, was followed successively, on the fifth, sixth, and sixteenth of this month, by three circulars1 that explain and supplement it. Released more than two weeks after publication of the presidential proclamation in the city, it did not initially have the effect that the general could have expected. In the difficult position that General Butler had bequeathed to him, [Nathaniel P. Banks] was evidently driven by a desire to minimize future threats and to pacify as much as possible the white and black populations. But, if on one hand, he sees in this newsworthy project the only means of reorganizing plantation labor for the upcoming harvest, he devalues, on the other hand, the planters’ legitimate rights to their slave property, and he angers blacks, who are now averse to doing any kind of work, with or without wages. In addition, by means of the [proposed] organizational system, the general completely abrogates the distinction, established by the president, between the different portions of Louisiana identified as loyal and disloyal, and he was cognizant of this, especially as he concluded his order thus: “that within three years of the restoration of peace and under this system of voluntary labor, the State of Louisiana will be three times as productive as the previous most prosperous years.” In truth, it must be said in the general’s defense that before turning to this plan, he tried in good faith for one week to enforce Louisiana’s laws by arresting, imprisoning, and restoring vagabond slaves to their masters, but these measures had the sole effect of fanning the spirit of rebellion among them, and, the DIsPatChes of CharLes ProsPer fauConnet 2 far from promoting a reorganization [of labor], which, I think, is the genuine goal of his aspirations and activities, they only tend to delay more and more the moment that the servile population returns to work. However, I reiterate that this order generated the most intense emotion in the city and the countryside, despite the muzzling of the newspapers, and it was thus in jeopardy of becoming a dead letter when publication of the circulars of the fifth and sixth of this month calmed fears and led one to believe that implementation was possible. Indeed, it seems that, through these circulars, General Banks really seeks in good faith to advance the task that he has begun and that his only desire is to restore labor on the plantations in the most practical manner under the present circumstances. He believes he can do so in such a way as to reconcile the rights of the master[s] with the new claims of the slaves. Your Excellency will see that the wages he establishes for black workers are only slightly higher—and perhaps even lower—than the earnings these same blacks had always enjoyed with their masters, but General Banks, in employing the words contract and salary, wished to give them [the freedmen] a modicum of satisfaction and thus encourage them to return to work. Your Excellency will also note that he was careful to maintain the term slave and to add “that the acceptance of the contract by the planter does not signal in any way the abandonment of ownership interest in the slave or any other right of possession.” Arrival of the steamer North Star, carrying General Nathaniel P. Banks and his staff to New Orleans. From Harper’s Weekly, Jan. 10, 1863, 21. [100.26.1.130] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:02 GMT) 1863 3 If, therefore, this arrangement is accepted in good faith by the two populations , black and white, the fieldwork could resume immediately under virtually the same conditions as in the past. Unfortunately, there is a difficulty clearly resulting from the terms of the third [circular] issued on the sixteenth of this month, a problem that will only be magnified by implementation of a Congressional law authorizing the raising of a certain number of Negro regiments. Indeed, on...