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Bureau Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands. OFFICE OF ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER. For the State of Mississippi. Vicksburg, Miss., February 5th, 1866. Major General O.O. Howard. Com'ner Bu. R. F. and A.L. Washington D.C. General: I have the honor to forward copies of the state laws apprenticing black and white children. The law respecting freedmens children conflicts with General Orders No 3., current series, War Dept. A. G. O. enclosed. If you will examine the law, you will find that colored minors are at the mercy of the Probate-Judges of the counties, without restrictions of any kind. Colored people who may be able to support their children without the aid of any one, may have them seized at the request of any citizen and practically re-enslaved till they are twenty one years old. Again: many families were broken up and their members scattered, by slavery, at the will of their masters. These families are being constantly reunited. This law steps in prevents the