Olmsted met a fishing boat operator who was in the habit of paying slaves to blow up stumps, giving them a quarter or fifty cents a day. Sure enough, slaves clamored to be selected for this dangerous duty and accomplished it with aplomb. “What! Slaves eager to work, and working cheerfully, earnestly and skillfully?” asked Olmsted in a dispatch. He added, “Being for the time managed as freemen, their ambition stimulated by wages, suddenly they, too, reveal sterling manhood, and honor their creator.”
