On one of these, where Kit, before mentioned, is the leading spirit, there are twenty-three field-hands, who are equivalent to eighteen full hands.  They have planted and are cultivating sixty-three acres of cotton, fifty of corn, six of potatoes, with as many more to be planted, four and a half of cow-peas, three of pea-nuts, and one and a half of rice.  These facts are most significant.  The instinct for land—­to have one spot on earth where a man may stand, and whence no human being can of right drive him—­is one of the most conservative elements of our nature; and a people who have it in any fair degree will never be nomads or vagabonds.

This developing manhood is further seen in their growing consciousness of rights, and their readiness to defend themselves, even when assailed by white men.  The former slaves of a planter, now at Beaufort, who was a resident of New York when the war broke out, have generally left the plantation, suspicious of his presence, saying that they will not be his bondmen, and fearing that in some way he may hold them, if they remain on it.  A remarkable case of the assertion of rights occurred one day during my visit.  Two white soldiers, with a corporal, went on Sunday to Coosaw Island, where one of the soldiers, having a gun, shot a chicken belonging to a negro.  The negroes rushed out and wrested the gun from the corporal, to whom the soldier had handed it, thinking that the negroes would not take it from an officer.  They then carried it to the superintendent, who took it to head-quarters, where an order was given for the arrest of the trespasser.  Other instances might be added, but these are sufficient.

Another evidence of developing manhood appears in their desire for the comforts and conveniences of household life.  The Philadelphia society, for the purpose of maintaining reasonable prices, has a store on St. Helena Island, which is under the charge of Friend Hunn, of the good fellowship of William Penn.  He was once fined in Delaware three thousand dollars for harboring and assisting fugitive slaves; but he now harbors and assists them at a much cheaper rate.  Though belonging to a society which is the advocate of peace, his tone is quite as warlike as that of the world’s people.  In this store alone—­and there are others on the island, carried on by private enterprise—­two thousand dollars’ worth of goods are sold monthly.  To be sure, a rather large proportion of these consists of molasses and sugar, “sweetening,” as the negroes call it, being in great demand, and four barrels of molasses having been sold the day of my visit.  But there is also a great demand for plates, knives, forks, tin ware, and better clothing, including even hoop-skirts.  Negro-cloth, as it is called, osnaburgs, russet-colored shoes,—­in short, the distinctive apparel formerly dealt out to them, as a uniform allowance,—­are very generally rejected.  But there is no article of household-furniture or wearing apparel, used by persons of moderate means