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Jackson Miss
July 4th 1868

Maj Gen O.O. Howard
Freedmens Bureau
Washington City

Gen'l.

We appeal to you in the most earnest manner in behalf of the suffering colored people of Mississippi.

The colored people are being turned off by scores from their employment because they saw fit to vote the Republican ticket. And they are turned away without any settlement for wages due them. In the majority of cases the colored people are working for a share of the crop and now that the crops are fairly made, there is the dishonest incentive of gain by getting rid of the laborer as well as the incentive of political hatred, under which the planter acts. And the laborer is remediless; for the experience of three bitter years has taught them that when once discharged without pay, they may as well give it up at once.

Now can not these people who have stood up manfully for what they thought right be assisted. Numbers of them if slightly assisted would be able to get