"I hope the negroes' fidelity will be duly rewarded and regret that we are not in a position to aid and protect them. There is, I observe, a controversy which I regret as to allowing negroes to testify in court. From brother Joe [Joseph Davis], many years ago, I derived the opinion that they should be made competent witnesses, the jury judging of their credibility. (Jefferson Davis: Private Letters 1823-1889, selected and edited by Hudson Strode, New York: De Capo Press, 1995, reprint, p. 188)
Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis: Ex-President of the Confederate States of America, A Memoir by his Wife, Volume 2
Chapter 71: letters from prison.
From Mr. Davis to Mrs. Davis.
Fortress Monroe, Va., October 11, 1865
Excerpt pp. 720-21
I hope the negroes' fidelity will be duly [723] rewarded, and regret that we are not in a situation to aid and protect them. There is, I observe, a controversy which I regret as to allowing negroes to testify in court. From brother Joe, many years ago, I derived the opinion that they should then be made competent witnesses, the jury judging of their credibility; out of my opinion on that point, arose my difficulty with Mr. C—*, and any doubt which might have existed in my mind was removed at that time.…
* An overseer who gave up his place with us, on account of the negroes being allowed a hearing in their own defence.
In addition to the Memoirs of Varina Davis, I have The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Vol. 11, June 1865 - December 1870, Lynda Lasswell Crist, Editor, LSU Press, 2008. In this volume, the Letters appear in chronological order. There is one, and only one, letter of Jefferson Davis to Varina Davis on October 11, 1865 from Fortress Monroe included therein, but it has an entirely different text from what is provided by Varina Davis. Varina only provided excerpts from the text she quoted from, with the excerpts spanning pp. 720-28 of Volume 2 of her Memoir. The Papers of Jefferson Davis provides a different text for that same date in its entirety, spanning pp. 32-36 in a small type font. I have no explanation for this anomaly, but I believe the lengthier excerpt I have provided, with date, provides some useful information.
Also from The Papers of Jefferson Davis, Vol. 11, June 1865 - December 1870 is another letter from Jefferson Davis to his wife Varina, p. 96-98, at pg. 97:
I had feared that our negroes would be disturbed by the introduction of others among them, but could not have imagined that they would be driven away from their home by those pretending to be their special advocates.
Also of possible interest:
https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/limber-jim/
Varina Davis, Memoir, Vol. 2 at 645-46, describing a scene at Port Royal after the capture of Jefferson Davis, herself, and children:
There a tug came out to us, bringing a number of jeering people to see Mr. Davis, and they plied him with such insulting questions, that he looked up at an axe fastened to the wall in the gangway; the look was observed, and the axe removed. From one of these people we learned that our old friend, General Saxton, was there, and my husband thought we might ask the favor of him to look after our little protégé Jim’s education, in order that he might not fall under the degrading influence of Captain Hudson. A note was written to General Saxton, and the poor little boy was given to the officers of the tug-boat for the General, who kindly took charge of him. Believing that he was going on board to see something and return, he quietly went, but as soon as he found he was to leave us he fought like a little tiger, and was thus engaged the last we saw of him. I hope he has been successful in the world, for he was a fine boy, notwithstanding all that had been done to mar his childhood. Some years ago we saw in a Massachusetts paper that he would bear to his grave the marks of the stripes inflicted upon him by us. We felt sure he had not said this, for the affection was mutual between us, and we had never punished him.
See how that works?