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for their years labor. I examined the books of one merchant on Edisto Island who I was informed had purchased most of the cotton sold on that Island and found that he had paid from one dollar to one dollar and seventy five cents per pound according to the quality of the cotton. This merchant kept an account showing the amount and date of each purchase the price paid and the person from whom purchased and on questioning the negroes I found their accounts agreeing with the books of the merchant.

These Store owners are all in the report denominated "Sharpers" and the assertion made that one of them was found on a plantation on Wadmelaw Island rented and cultivated by a Mr. Underwood of Boston Mass.

To the working of this place I desire to call particular attention - The contract provides that the hands are to work at fifty cents per task and to work at least one task per day and to have set apart for their own use one hundred acres of land or four and a half acres to each family twenty acres have since been added to this by Mr Underwood and the freedman have now planted on this land ninety acres of cotton which is much the best cultivated of any cotton on the plantation. The product  of this land would alone be a fair compensation for the years labor but at the fifty cents per task paid the hands they can earn from two and a half to four dollars per day by working the whole day. At this rate of wages I do not regard the Freedmen as being imposed on even had they to pay three dollars per bushel for corn as stated in the report a statement that I am satisfied after careful investigation is