Viewing page 123 of 329

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

0449

required of the Laborer on Sundays, and before such contract shall be binding, both contracting parties must sign a formal contract, in duplicate and witnesseth by the local authorized superintendent 

(No 8 All Freedmen, without visible means of support for himself and family, who shall neglect or refuse to make a contract for Labor for one year before 1st of January of each year, shall be arrested by order of the local superintendent, and confined in solitary confinement (and supplied only with bread & water) and not released from imprisonment until a contract for labor for him, not to expire before the 1st day of January thereafter, shall have been made & signed.

9 Any Freedman who shall abandon his place of labor or fail to perform properly and faithfully the duties he was contracted to perform, or for other bad conduct, shall be reported to the nearest local superintendant, who shall immediately institute an examination of the case reported, and decide on its merits; & should such superintendent determine & decide, that the Freedman has been guilty of improper or unfaithful conduct, such Freedman shall be immediately placed in solitary confinement (and only supplied with bread & water) for such length of time as may be determined on, not however to exceed the term of his contract; and during the period of such absence from labor, his wages shall cease, and he yet be chargeable with the expense of supporting the non-supporting members of his family.

10 Should it so occasion, during the term of contract, that from death or other disability, on the part of the laboring Freedman, that his services should be so destroyed or diminished, as to reduce his or her wages below the amount needed to provide for their own and their family expenses; then the local superintendant, at the written request of the employer, removed immediately from the premises, and the employer relived from all further care & responsibility