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8

part of the employer to furnish provisions.

As General Wilson's raid approached, the planters generally gave out what bacon they had to their slaves, in many cases three or six month allowance, hoping in this way to secure their meat from an invading Army. They expected the slaves to protect themselves against the raid, and retain the meat. The planters demanded the slaves to do what they themselves admitted they were powerless to accomplish. In many instances the Army took portions of this bacon for its own use, the negroes have consumed part or exchanged it for other articles and now many of them have been without any kind of meat for weeks, their only sustenance being corn meal and a few vegitables, and yet these same employers come and complain to me bitterly that their hands wont work. I have made several rigid examinations into the cases of this kind, and found Freed men were  subsisting on corn meal and yet, were compelled to cultivate the plantation. I anticipate increased trouble and complaint from this source. When the employer is asked why he does not furnish suitable food to his hands, he replies, "I gave them meat enough to do them and if they have not kept it I cant help it." it is