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Office Assistant Superintendent,
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands,
Montgomery, Ala., October 25th 1866.

1st Lieut J.F. Conyngham
Act. Asst. Adjt. Genl.

Sir;
In compliance with Circular No. 2. from Head Quarters Sub-District of Ala. I have the honor to make the following report.

The manner of punishing crime among the freedmen in this District, is generally by fines and imprisonment, and working on the chain gang. In regard to the free labor system, I believe that when the employers have fulfilled their part of the Contract with the freedmen in good faith, and given them any encouragement, that they (the freedmen) have worked much better than most of the planters thought they would last Spring. (I enclose the form of Contract that has been used in this District.)

There has been Four hundred and Sixteen (416.) claims presented by Discharged "Colored" Soldiers at this Office, as yet none have been

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