two months, during which time we have had As the stringency of the military rule has been three teachers employed. Before the house relaxed they have been emboldened. Three was built, one of the ladies had been labouring times in succession our teachers have been from house to house teaching and distributing compelled to relinquish the houses in which clothing to the needy as far as we had them they have taught each time changing the to give. There was suffering there during the locality of their schools. At length, on a last winter of which it is sad to think, and ground that has since proved to be a mere yet it is grateful to know that it was mitigated pretext, the town or county (civil) authorities -that many extreme cases were relieved, by ordered the schools to be closed. In this way the donations of which our Society was the our teachers lost more than a month's time. almoner and our teachers the immediate dis- Driven from the houses in which they had tributors (for our teachers in Gallatin went to taught, our teachers finally secured a stable the camp and laboured with those there). I or barn some 30 by 40 feet, in which they have often wished, when mingling with the again opened school under the protection of a inmates of the camps, that those who have new military officer. Levi Coffin and I visited given of their substance, could hear the ex- the school here while in session. We found pressions of gratitude-simple and heartfelt- about 300 persons, mostly children, crowded that I have so often heard on making inquiries into this building, with seats, &c., of the rudest as to what had been done for them-it would be kind. We heard classes spell and read, the one of the richest rewards that a kind and gene-members of which little more than one year rous heart could share-something of that greater blessing pronounced upon him that gives. The children as well as the old persons in the Camp school are making the usual progress-I say "usual progress," because I have found no instance yet where they, both old and young, have not made encouraging progress, where they have had opportunity to attend school with any measure of regularity, though but for a few weeks.

Schools at Gallatin.

Our Schools in the town of Gallatin have been greatly interrupted. It may be well for me to state the circumstances as they illustrate the opposition against which our work of education must be prosecuted in a large portion of the South. Civil authority is being restored in Tennessee-being substituted for the military rule that has existed for yearsa desirable change when its functions are exercised by loyal men ready to stand by the Emancipation policy of the general Government. It perhaps is to be expected that some persons will be vested with power who are opposed to this policy and opposed to every effort to elevate the coloured man. Such has been the case at Gallatin. From the organization of our schools a year ago last spring, some prominent citizens have manifested all the bitterness towards our teachers that they dared to in the presence of a military force.

ago did not know a letter-scarcely knew that there were such things as books, and knew nothing of their use.

Opportunity was given to address the school. Friend Coffin gave an account of his visit to England—told them of the many kind friends they have in that country-told them of the interest felt for them by the people of Great Britain and of their willingness and desire to do what they can to help them in their present condition. He read to the school a letter written and signed by a number of English girls in a school at York who were doing some thing for them. It is a sweet spirited letter and was listened to by all the scholars with marked attention. We cannot measure the effect it will have upon this people to know that an interest is felt for them by the Christian public of England. The whole tendency of slavery has been to destroy all feeling of self-respect-to lead them to think that no man cared for them-thereby removing one of the great motives to a worthy life. To give them now to feel that the Christian world expects them to be manly and womanly, will have a stimulating and encouraging effect. Wherever I have visited a school or addressed a congregation of Freedmen during my tour of the past few months I have felt it a duty to refer to what our co-workers in Great Britain are doing. It has been my privilege to speak

to some 5,000 adults and children-to reveal to them a nation of friends of whom they had scarcely heard. The contributions received from the people among whom you now move have done much to relieve suffering and to sustain the work of education among the freedmen but when the kindly feeling and interest which prompted those contributions are fully known to and understood by the Freed-man, the fact will awaken sincere gratitude to the donors and at the same time inspire a newborn respect for themselves. I never before saw so clearly the moral effect of true benevolence on those who are its objects.

I was pleased to find a rare species of bean growing in the gardens at the camp from seed that had been presented by an English horticulturist.

Hendersonville, Tennessee.

illustrations that the coloured people will work without the lash if the common motives to labour are before them.

As soon as the camp was established here last spring we sent two teachers there to teach and distribute supplies among them. They have been labouring there some four months, and already have scholars who can read in the Second Reader. To make this plain, I will say that they are first taught the alphabet and words of one syllable on charts; they are then formed into classes in the spelling-book; after a certain degree of advancement they are transferred to the First Reader; then to the Second, and so on through the series of six books, the highest being a complete rhetorical guide.

At Hendersonville there is also an Orphan Home or Asylum in which there are now about 20 children under the immediate charge of a faithful and kind-hearted coloured woman

though our teachers give such general su. pervison as it needs. We have arranged to have a comfortable suit of clothes or two made up for each of these children from the material which has been sent us from England. We have discovered that it ensures a very

may be in our distributions giving the finer
and better articles to those who manifest a
willingness to do what they can.
Of course

We next went to the camp at Hendersonville, a station on the railroad about half-way between Gallatin and Nashville. Here there is a camp of about 400 freedmen, located on the abandoned farm or plantation of a Confederate colonee who fell at St. Donelson, I believe. This place was favoured with an abundance of timber, so that the coloured people were enabled to build quite comfort-salutary effect to discriminate as carefully as able cabins. These are a portion of the multitude that was driven into Nashville by the advance of the rebel army under Gen. Hood, by which all the camps in Central Tennessee in this none are passed by-none forgotten or and Northern Alabama and Georgia were bro-neglected to be relieved—but simply such a ken up and destroyed. These came to Hen- discrimination is made as will constantly dersonville stripped of almost everything but teach them that industry will be rewarded. the scanty clothes they had on, and these were As many of our schools are having vacation worn and torn by the trip they had made in and as I wished the Industrial education at waggons, in box railroad cars, and on foot. the camp named to have more attention I They have been here for several months, instructed our teachers to hold only a forebut with no means with which to purchase, noon session of the common school and devote and with neither the opportunity or ability to the afterpart of the day to sewing. By demake anything by labour, they only have such voting so much time to repairing and reclothes as have been distributed to them from making old clothes and making new, they our Society. But women who have so many may accumalate a valuable store before the children to care for that no one will hire them, cold season shall be upon them. Of one and aged and infirm persons who can only thing I can assure you, Aunt Mary (the work two or three hours a day, under the coloured matron) will be a happy woman direction of the superintendent of the camp, when the "young'ns" are clad in their new are raising about 300 acres of corn and other English clothes. products which now promise well. The crop is to be their own another among many

Yours truly,

J. M. WALDEN,

FREED-MEN'S AID SOCIETY.

RECEIPTS FOR PART OF JULY AND PART OF AUGUST, 1865.

Printed by ARLISS ANDREW3, of No. 7, Duke Street, Bloomsbury, W.C., in the Parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, in the County of Middlesex.

THE FREED-MAN.

OUR PLAIN DUTY WITH RESPECT TO THE FREED-MEN IN AMERICA; AND THEIR PRESENT CONDITION AND PROSPECTS.

BY THE REV. SAMUEL GARRATT, M.A.,

One of the Honorary Secretaries of the Freed-Men's Aid Society, London.

FOUR millions of human beings-men, women, and children-have passed in America within the last four years out of slavery into freedom, and are in urgent need, all of them of education, which while in bondage the law denied them, and many of them of food, which they have not been accustomed to provide for themselves, being fed by their owners like his oxen or his horses.

It needed no foresight to convince the most thoughtless that one result of emancipation and the war combined would be an immense amount of want among vast masses of the coloured people whose masters were many of them ruined, and most of them reluctant to submit to the change in their relations with their servants, and also among other vast masses who had flocked for the sake of freedom within the lines of the Federal army. In that flight from slavery many must have perished, and when the survivors reached their destination they came in naked, and footsore, and famished, and ignorant. A miserable condition truly, but yet in their eyes a happy one, because, as they so constantly expressed it, their prayers were answered and they would die free.

Writing for English men and English women, I need not pause to explain this. If any of my readers think that it would have been happier for those people to have remained slaves, I do not write for them, or ask their help. It is recorded to the disgrace of the Israelites that they did once think that slavery with plenty was preferable to freedom with scarcity. The Negroes do not think so, and, in spite of words which have been spoken during the last few years, I will not believe that any British Christian does reckon in his heart that a hungry freeman is worse off than a pampered slave.

It is not so well known as it ought to be in this country how great the effort was with which while the war lasted negroes made their escape from slavery. An impression, which must be ascribed to a Divine influence, that the war would result in their deliverance, and that like the Israelites of old they had only to

"stand still and see the salvation of the Lord," a favourite text with many of them, restrained them from acts of violence, and from attempting flight under hopeless circumstances.

But when escape was possible they underwent willingly every risk and hardship to effect it. An eye-witness relates how while a battle was raging in the neighbourhood he saw numbers of men, women and children arrive within the Federal lines, who had taken that opportunity of slipping into freedom. "They had no shelter, little clothing, and no food, but such as the more fortunate coloured people gave them, or such as the Freed-men's Aid Societies supplied. They arrived in the evening, some of them having made a detour of sixty miles, footsore of course and wearied. Some were almost white, others black as ebony. There was no murmuring among that group. I took aside nearly fifty of them. Are you not tired,' said I, 'and do you not wish yourself back again at the old home?' 'Not so tired as we were last night,' said one of them, with hope beaming in his countenance; and though we should like to go back to the old place, we came here because we were resolved to be free.' And Dr. Tomkins says distinctly, "I did not meet with a single negro who did not spurn the idea of going back into slavery. All desire to be free, though they may suffer and die.”*

A great duty lies upon the people of this country to help in the work of providing for the necessities of these emancipated slaves.

In the first place there is a very urgent necessity for assistance.

One result of so great a war has been the draining all the resources of the United States. In the north the support of an army reckoned by millions, in the south, in addition to this, the presence of an hostile armed force of such immense magnitude exacting contributions, the blockade of the ports, and the breaking up of the compulsory labour system have exhausted the wealth of the country. And while the Americans in the Northern States are making the most strenuous efforts to supply the necessities both of whites and blacks in the South, it is a task of overwhelming magnitude.

Writing from Nashville, Dr. Walden states that there are 10,000 coloured people in that city and its vicinity, of whom 500 only are in the Freed-men's Camps. The rest support themselves at present by their own labour. But then, as he observes, this labour is dependent on the existence of the army. As that dissolves, the work it has created ceases. The coloured soldiers will have to make their homes in the Freed-men's camps, or in huts about the city, and it will be difficult for them at first to find employment. "From the time," he says, "the grand problem before us was first presented in the course of the providential

"Report of a Mission to the United States from the Freed-men's Aid Society, London," by Fred. Tomkins, Esq., M.A., LL.D., of Lincoln's Inn. Dr. Tomkins adds, "Nor did I meet with a confederate soldier "-he saw many prisoners of war-" or white men in the South, who did not at once admit without the slightest hesitation that slavery was the cause of the war."