May 07, 2020 - Sale 2534

Sale 2534 - Lot 377

Price Realized: $ 594
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(RECONSTRUCTION.) Campbell, J.A. General order #46 concerning treatment of freedmen in North Carolina just after the end of fighting. 2 printed pages, 7 1/2 x 5 inches, signed in type by Campbell as assistant adjutant general for General John Schofield; stitch holes, moderate foxing; signed by another assistant adjutant. Raleigh, NC, 15 May 1865

Additional Details

At the end of the fighting, the head of the Union Army's Department of North Carolina sets forth the rules for "the government of Freedmen in North Carolina, until the restoration of civil government in the State," including giving parents control over their children (rather than former masters), and making former masters the guardians of the aged or infirm when no other relatives can be found to support them. A bit of moralizing advice is tacked on, unusual for a military order: "Freedman are advised that for the present season they ought to expect only moderate wages, and where their employers cannot pay them money, they ought to be contented with a fair share in the crops to be raised. They have gained their personal freedom. By industry and good conduct, they may rise to independence and even wealth."