Viewing page 106 of 260

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Oxford, Ga. Dec. 26th, 1865.
Brig. Gen. Davis Tillson, Com'r of 
Freedman's Bureau for Ga.

Sir,

I write for information which I have not been able to get from our Ordinary, who is acting as agent for the Freedman's Bureau.  After the surrender of the Southern armies, I made a contract with my own negroes & with two I had hired of ten or following. I was to give them one fourth of my crops including all except wheat, provided the authorities held that they were to receive compensation for the whole year.

If it was held that they were to be paid only from the time of the re-establishment of the authority of the U.S. in Ga., then I was to pay them at the same rate, but in proportion to time.  I made this conditional contract for the simple