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[[left margin]]Major 
423# [[/left margin]]
In compliance with instructions from the Assistant Commissioner of the State of Mississippi, I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the Bureau for the Sub District of Columbus for the month of July 1867

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[[left margin]] Number of Freed People in the Sub District [[/left margin]]
It is a difficult matter for this office to determine with certainty the exact colored population of this Sub District. [[but?]] from the best estimates I can now procure the population is at 46000. divided as follows. Lowndes Co 17000. Monroe Co. 11900, Oktibeha 10000. and Chickasaw Co 8000. I cannot vouch for the correctness of these figures, but will endeavor to get a more correct statement for my next report.

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[[left margin]] Their condition and how they have been paid for work. [[/left margin]]
The social condition of the freedmen as regards conduct, morality and virtue depend much upon the same traits of character exhibited by their former masters, and the different elements or vices they have been brought in contact with since their emancipation. Many possess the highest regard for integrity while others by far too many, are rolicking in all the [[vicisitudes?]] of degradation and vice. Yet the freedmen deserve many just apologies for any imperfections or frailties of this nature, inasmuch as character, the true fortress against all vices has been a total stranger to them, but the march of education and improvement must soon sweep away these last lingering vestages of barbarism.
 
Those engaged under contract or employed as servants with good reliable employers are in a comparitively good condition, but those who are less fortunate are in many instances in a wretched & squalid condition. 
   
In a financial point of view none can be said to be prosperous, for they have no money, yet many will realize a very nice sum from their portion of the crop if they shall succeed in having the right of the disposal of the same and the benefit of the proceeds which right they have yet never fully executed. 

The present poverty among the freedmen is wholly occasioned by the refusal upon the part of the planters

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to pay them for their last years services. I should judge that at least 50 per cent of the field hands upon plantations last year did not receive their full pay, those working for wages having their claims denied and others sharing in the crop defrauded to a great extent by fraudulent returns of sales and unfairness in the distribution of the same. A large proportion of the freedmen have valid claims against their employers for last years services but the want of means to enforce their legal rights emboldens the planter to deny their claims.

The few Attorneys who would advocate their claims, cannot afford to take the responsibility of advancing the necessary cash expenses incident to legal proceedings without security that they will be reimbursed, therefore until there shall be a new order of things in this particular, many just claims due to freedmen must remain unprosecuted and become extinct by reason of the Statute of Limitations relative to the time for commencing civil actions.

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[[left margin]] [[Nature?]] of [[Contracts]] for present [[year]] [[/left margin]]
The contracts for the present year are upon the whole very fair though in some few instances the contrary has come under my observation. The consideration for labor is generally for a portion of the crop, in some cases one quarter and others one third likewise in many instances the employers reserving the exclusive right to some particular crop. The worst feature and most vexatious by reason of the many misunderstandings, is the loose manner in which contracts are drawn, the originators and writers in most instances being the employers who rarely have the slightest conception of the legal effect and wording of a contract, undoubtedly supposing that a jargon of words covering several sides of "foolscap" will cover a multitude of errors.

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[[left margin]] [[number]] of [[sick]] old or [[infirm]] [[/left margin]]
It is impossible for me to state with any degree of certainty, the number of sick, old or infirm freedmen requiring assistance, the proportion is not so great as would naturally be supposed and from my own observation I should judge that it could not exceed over two percent of the colored population, very few cases of suffering from want has come to my knowledge. I think the number of indigent & destitute whites, greater

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left margins cut off on right page. (I think you meant right margin cut off some words on left page.) some words unable to identify.