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Office Sub. Asst. Com
B.R.F and A.L
Houston, Texas Nov 19th 1866
Bvt Lt. Col. H.A. Ellis
A.A.A.G, B.R.F and A.L.

Colonel
Enclosed please find a copy of an affadavit taken by me this morning. I would respectfully state that numbers of complaints of this kind are made daily, the planters are shipping their produce to market without paying the Freedmen and the latter come to this place and ask that justice be done them.  Every species of rascality is resorted to by planters to cheat the negroes and I am sorry to say that they succeed in a great many instances.  Freedmen come here from Fort Bend, Brazoria, Matagorda, Austin, Grimes, Walker, Montgomery, Liberty, Polk, Jefferson counties and in fact from nearly every county of what was formerly called the Eastern District of Texas, they complain of some agents, saying that the planters are the best friends the agents have, and they (freedmen) are not believed, nor their complaints any attention paid to.