Viewing page 91 of 229

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Hayneville, Sept. 13th 1865.

To Brig. Gen'l Wager Swayne, Assistant Commissioner for Alabama, of Bureau of Freedmen, &c.-

Sir: I send you a case lately tried before me for your decision. I want my Judgment affirmed or reversed. 

If the written Contracts made by the employer and his freedmen compelling them to labor 10 hours every day is to be strictly construed according to the letter of the contract and is to be enforced in all cases, then it is certain that every negro at work on the plantations in this vicinity can be expelled on any day and forfeit his wages. I will illustrate one case only to show how unjust it would be to the negro, and infurious to the public at large:- Suppose this man Blow, the Plaintiff in the case sent up to you, had brought suit before me to expel from the plantation the 80 odd negroes whom he swears have all violated their Contract by not laboring the 10 hours every day, and he proves that they have violated their Contract, one by being absent 2 minutes, another a half hour and another two hours, and so on. Am I compelled on this state of facts to expel all these negroes from the place and declare their wages forfeited that they are not entitled to a cent, although they have made the crop by the sweat of their brow and it is now ready to gather and they were entitled to a portion of it.