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is to keep the freed people in a state of servitude by preventing them from acquiring property, and, to accomplish this, they resort to fraud and cheat, whereby they keep the freedman impoverished and consequently they are returned in a dependent state. 

[[left margin]] Complaints and outrages [[/left margin]]
As the season approaches for gathering and selling the Crops, complaints become more numerous. The planters are taking every advantage of their laborers, and some threaten their lives with a view of frightening them away from their places of work so they (the whites) can have some pretext to retain the whole of the crop; others attempt to defraud and cheat them in final settlements. I am pleased to report that, in every instance, where cases have come under the provisions of General Orders No, 31, Settlements were effected immediately, and I may add, satisfactorily.

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