If the North could stand it, the South could.

For himself, he should make no special objection to Negro suffrage as one of the terms of reorganization, and if it came, he did not think the South would have much cause to regret it." To sum up the situation at this time: the Negro population at the close of the war constituted a tremendous problem for those in authority.

The race was free, but without status, without leaders, without property, and without education.

Probably a fourth of them had some experience in freedom before the Confederate armies surrendered, and the servitude of the other three millions ended very quickly and without violence.

But in the Black Belt, where the bulk of the black population was to be found, the labor system was broken up, and for several months the bewildered freedmen wandered about or remained at home under conditions which were bad for health, morals, and thrift.