Some plantations had been seized by the federal Military District of Wilmington and settled with freed slaves in April 1865. But General Joseph Hawley, a dedicated abolitionist who had settled slaves on the plantations, was replaced in June 1865 by General John Worthington Ames, an ardent conservative. In September, Ames evicted the former slaves and returned plantations to their white owners under a national policy instituted by President Johnson. Freedmen who worked on Cape Fear plantations were supposed to be paid for their labor. But the Freedmen’s Bureau in Wilmington was inundated with
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Collective farms
