THE NEGRO AT THE CLOSE OF THE CIVIL WAR 15 
Charitable societies and individuals of the 
North undertook much other work for the Negro 
but little of it had any economic bearing. The 
work of extremists in churches and in schools 
had bad results in irritating the races, while the 
natural effect of the gift in 1867 of political 
privilege was unsettling from an economic stand- 
point. The Negro received much advice and 
assistance to help him get his political and social 
rights, but little attention was paid to his 
material condition. 
ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT OF THE 
EMANCIPATED NEGRO 
The influences surrounding the emancipated 
Negro were contradictory; some tended to ele- 
vate him, others to lower him. Until the strict 
drawing of race lines by the prejudices arising 
out of Reconstruction there was. a noticeable 
tendency among the emancipated to separate 
into economic and social classes. Between the 
more intelligent mulattoes and the blacks there 
was a slight antipathy. Most of those who were 
free before the war were mulattoes and many of 
them had property; in Louisiana they formed an 
important part of the colored population, hold- 
ing property valued in 1860 at $13,000,000. The 
house servants held themselves superior to the 
field workers. The natural aristocrats of the col- 
ored people, with the better training and the 
superior intelligence, might have been expected 
under favorable conditions to become the eco- 
nomic leaders. 
There was a universal desire to own land, to