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Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
After the War:
A Southern Tour.
MAY 1, 1865, TO MAY 1, 1866.
PREFACE.
With the exception of the unhealthy summer months, I spent thegreater part of the year following the close of the Rebellion, in travelingthrough the late Rebel States, passing first around their entirecoast line; and, on subsequent trips, crossing by various routesthrough the interior.
I have sought, in the following pages, to show something of thecondition in which the war left the South, the feelings of the lateinsurgents, the situation and capacities of the liberated slaves,and the openings offered, under the changed condition of affairs,to capital and industry from without.
A couple of months, this spring, spent on the great cotton plantationsof the Mississippi Valley, enabled me to make a closer studyof the character of the average plantation negro than tourists haveordinarily found practicable; and the concluding chapters aremainly devoted to these observations.
A further word of explanation may be needed as to the part ofthe volume describing the journey of Mr. Chief-Justice Chase.After the inauguration of President Johnson, Mr. Chase determinedto visit the Southern cities, to learn as much as possible,from actual observation, of the true condition of the country. TheSecretary of the Treasury was then about to send a revenue cutterto the New Orleans station, and on board of her a special agent,charged with the duty of examining the agencies, and carryingivinto effect the directions of the Department in the severalSouth Atlantic and Gulf ports. He tendered the use o