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Nor do the results
of emancipation in the West Indies, more or less satisfactory as they
may be, afford any measure of the progress which opens before our
enfranchised masses. The insular and contracted life of the colonies,
cramped also as they were by debt and absenteeism, has no parallel in
the grand currents of thought and activity ever sweeping through the
continent on which our problem is to be solved.
In the light of these views, the attempt shall be made to report
truthfully upon the freedmen at Port Royal. A word, however, as to the
name. Civilization, in its career, may often be traced in the
nomenclatures of successive periods. These people were first called
contrabands at Fortress Monroe; but at Port Royal, where they were next
introduced to us in any considerable number, they were generally
referred to as freedmen. These terms are milestones in our progress; and
they are yet to be lost in the better and more comprehensive designation
of citizens, or, when discrimination is convenient, citizens of African
descent.


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