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Bureau Office
Dec. 30. 1865

Maj H.W. Smith
A.A.G.

Major,

Laura Perry (Col'd) represents at this office as follows.

Her husband Robert Perry and herself were formerly owned by one William Turns who lives in the town of Pendleton S.C..  They had planted a crop for the paid Turns, and worked it till it was ready to "lay by", when, sometime in the month of July, as Laura states, Turns proposed to them with others to sign a contract for their lifetime.
They with the others, Novel and Richard refused to sign such contracts, and Turns drove them away, without food, or any compensation for their labor upon his crop.
They proceeded towards Columbia, and had reached a place five miles beyond Anderson called Rocky Mill where they were overtaken by two white men, named Jolly and Dickinson, who had been sent by Turns.  They