THE FREEDMEN'S SAVINGS BANK 
authorities saw that he received food, clothing, 
and sometimes wages. Regular contracts were 
made and enforced when possible by the army 
officers. The speculators and planters made little 
money; in fact most of them lost heavily, but the 
Negroes secured some training for the responsi- 
bilities of freedom. 
Such were the conditions surrounding the 
Negroes who escaped from slavery before 1865. 
The camps, colonies, and settlements, whether 
on the Atlantic coast or in the border states, or 
in the Mississippi valley and along the Gulf 
coast, were constantly receiving accessions of 
escaping slaves. These came through the lines, 
or were brought out by such expeditions into the 
interior as that of Banks up the Red River valley 
or Sherman’s raid to Jackson, Mississippi, or his 
march through Georgia. All of those thus freed 
from slavery had some experience and training 
before the general emancipation. 
But the majority of the slaves remained with 
their masters until very nearly the end of the 
war. They worked as usual or better than usual 
on the plantations where, because of the absence 
of so many of the white men, more than ordinary 
responsibility was thrown upon them. In the 
Confederate armies numbers of them were em- 
ployed as teamsters and as laborers on fortifica- 
tions and in the munition factories. The slaves 
within the Confederate lines were better cared 
for and had better health than those in the camps 
and colonies within the Federal lines, but at the 
time of emancipation they were probably less 
fitted for the responsibilities of freedom. 
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