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all lingering vestages of barbarism. Those engaged under contract or employed as servants with good reliable employees, are in a comparitively good condition, but those who are less fortunate in the selection of employers are placed in unpleasant circumstances. 

In a financial point of view, none of the freedmen can be said to be prosperous as they have no money, but many will realize a very nice sum from their portion of the crop if they shall succeed in having the right of disposal of the same and the benefits of the proceeds, which right they have yet never fully executed. 

The present poverty among the freedmen is wholly occasioned by the refusal upon the part of the planters to pay them for their last years services. I should judge that at least fifty per cent of the field hands upon plantations last year, did not receive their full pay, those working for wages having their claims denied, and others sharing in the crop defrauded to a great extent by false returns of sales and unfairness in the distribution of the same. A large proportion of the freedmen have valid claims against their employers for last years services, but the want of means to enforce their legal rights, emboldens the planter to deny their claims. The few  Attorneys who would advocate their claims, cannot afford to take the responsibility of advancing the necessary cash expenses incident to legal proceedings, without security that they will be reimbursed, therefore until there shall be a new order of things in this particular, many