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2

owing to the fact of their being slaves they could not under the Slave Code hold property in their own names as individuals or as corporations; that in order to avoid such code, they bought this property in the names of certain trustees of their own choosing to be held by them to their use and benefit; that such trustees were members of The Southern Ala. Conference and that the deeds were so drawn as to place the titles to the same in the said conference; that the said Ala conference never at any time had the right of control over them but they assumed the appointing of a pastor for them; that they always acted as [[strikethrough]] an [[/strikethrough]] [[independent?]] church, and no rules or regulations, of the discipline of the Ala Conference were applied to their organization or in their support; that when the Federal troops [[strikethrough]] troops [[/strikethrough]] took possession of this city, they the colored congregations felt it their right and duty to withdraw from whatever connection the may have had with the said Conference and a people who were willing to recognize them only as property and who had waged a fearful war against the rest of government; that the fact of their having connected themselves