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Besides,
there was less labor exacted and less discipline imposed on the loosely
managed plantations of the Sea Islands than in other districts where
slave-labor was better and more profitably organized and directed.
The capture of Hilton Head and Bay Point by the navy, November 7th,
1861, was followed by the immediate military occupation of the Sea
Islands. In the latter part of December, the Secretary of the Treasury,
Mr. Chase, whose foresight as a statesman and humane disposition
naturally turned his thoughts to the subject, deputed a special agent to
visit this district for the purpose of reporting upon the condition of
the negroes who had been abandoned by the white population, and of
suggesting some plan for the organization of their labor and the
promotion of their general well-being. The agent, leaving New York
January 13th, 1862, reached that city again on his way to Washington on
the 13th of February, having in the mean time visited a large number of
the plantations, and talked familiarly with the negroes in their cabins.


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