Viewing page 259 of 283

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

13

Ministers employed who are teaching their hearers the precepts of virtue and Godliness, and as a general thing the whites are disposed to let them worship according to the dictates of their own consciences.

There is an effort on foot among the white Citizens of this & other counties to introduce white laborers. Should this attempt be carried out the freedmen will be compelled to leave their present employers and eventually the country. Many of the freedmen have been notified when their term of Service expires their places will be filled with white laborers.

There have been but few crimes committed against the freedmen of this district during the last month. The guilty parties have been arrested and dealt with according to law.  There is a growing disposition on the part of white Citizens to respect the laws and rights of the freedmen & thereby advancing the interest of society generally.

x

It is a source of gratification to me to have to report a continued state of good feeling and harmony existing in the sub District between white and colored with the exception of Rutherford and Montgomery Counties where there have been two brutal murders perpetrated upon the freedmen. In the case of the one committed in Rutherford Co. upon W. Nelson, col'd. by Cicero Layhew (white) I shall not do anything until the