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maltreatment.  As far as possible I have assisted them in endeavoring to obtain redress.  Several cases have been tried before Justices of the Peace, of complaints for assault and battery, the freedmen being the complainants.  As far as I have been able to judge, these cases have been thrown aside by the County Court, and the only instance in which a negro has had quick law administered was that in which, a few weeks since, a black man was sent to Jail for raising a few hundred pounds of cotton for the support of his family, but without leave, upon a plantation that had not been worked during or since the war.

I think this is a plain statement of facts as they have transpired, and I make it as my duty, without partiality or prejudice.

The Freedmen have little to expect at the hands of courts or State laws, and appeal to me with