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Columbiana Ala. Sept 25, 1865. Brig Genl W Swayne Genl. We have the honor to call your attention to the following facts. We are continually called upon by the Negroes around us, stating to us their grievances, and asking us to redress the impositions imposed on them. We find that the agreements they have been working under (some of them since last April), are merely a paper drawn up by their late owners, in which the Negro promises to work for an indefinite time for nothing but his board and clothes, and the White man agrees to do nothing. These agreements are drawn up seemingly for the express purpose of blinding the Negroes, and enabling their hirer to turn them off, starving and naked, as soon as the hirer's crop is in. None of the agreements we have yet heard of, are in the least formal or binding, or been drawn up or witnessed by a "Justice of the Peace", or Agent of the Freedman Bureau. Naturally the imposed on party, call on us, and
Transcription Notes:
National Archives stamp not transcribed per SI Staff