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7
I went upon this land, so hired to the people, It is horridly poor, and covered with heavy pine timber. the freedmen were cutting, clearing and building huts: they have not provisions to sustain them for months; and I do not believe they could raise enough on this land should they work on it all the time, to keep them six months in the year. These inducements held out to secure two days weekly labor, are not what they appear to be, to the freedman, but they have got the idea, and many are leaving the rice-fields, and some places are entirely abandoned, and the rice planters, being so pressed to get hands, that they are willing to agree to almost any terms to secure them.
I explained to all I met, the tenor of the contracts recommended by these Head quarters, and advised them to throw aside any terms, where they would eventually