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Contract for Hire.
[THIS FORM TO BE USED WHERE THE COMPENSATION IS A CERTAIN PORTION OF THE CROP.]

This Agreement between Dixon & Aldridge of Hinds County, and Freedman, William Dixon & family, [[?]] Lizzie & George, witnesseth: That said Dixon & Aldridge hereby hires said William Dixon & family as [[strikethrough]] a [[/strikethrough]] field hands, from this date until January 1st 1867; and for faithful services to be rendered in this said employment, by said William Dixon & family during all that time, the said Dixon & Aldridge hereby agrees to allow and pay them as follows: One fourth of all the Cotton, Corn, potatoes & everything else, that they may produce by their labor as field hands during this year 1866, to be delivered on the 1st day of January 1867. They agree also to furnish free of charge said family with necessary rations during the Year. Said family to clothe themselves & pay doctors bills. And the said William Dixon and family, in consideration thereof, hereby agrees to render to said Dixon & Aldridge, all the family who can work, for and during all of said term, due obedience and faithful service, and promptly to perform all such work and duty as said Dixon & Aldridge may reasonably require of them, and to bestow due care and attention in all things, upon all property and interests committed to their charge and keeping, and will faithfully account, or pay for the same, to be deducted out of their wages, or share of the crop, so far as the same will pay; and will discharge, in all things, the duties of a faithful servant. And it is hereby understood, and mutually agreed, that for such time as William Dixon & family may be absent without leave, [[strikethrough]] he shall forfeit his compensation at the rate of [[/strikethrough]] the forfeiture of compensation for such absence without leave, and for all time lost on account of sickness shall be decided by freedmen's court, composed of freedmen, to be established on plantation, whose decision shall be subject to approval of said Dixon and Aldridge.
(Signed) Dixon & Aldridge [[seal]]
William his x mark Dixon [[seal]]
                        
Witness:
(Signed) L Dixon
James Henderson

NOTE.-"All contracts for labor with freedmen, free negroes and mulattoes, for a longer period than one month, shall be in writing and in duplicate, attested and read to said freedman, free negro or mulatto, by a beat, city or county officer, or two disinterested white persons of the county in which the labor is to be performed, of which each party shall have one; and said contracts shall be taken and held as entire contracts; and if the laborer shall quit the service of the employer before the expiration of his term of service, without good cause, he shall forfeit his wages for that year, up to the time of quitting."

Printed and for sale at The Mississippi Standard office. Jackson-$2.50 per quire.