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0025

Head Quarters,
Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen & Abandoned Lands,
State of Texas.
Office of Surgeon in Chief,
Galveston, Texas. December, 1," 1865.

General:

I have the honor to report that in obedience to Special Orders No. 7 of these Head Quarters, dated November 4. 1865. directing me to inspect the Eastern District of this State to ascertain the general condition of the Freedmen therein and comply with the requirements of Circular No. 14, War Department, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, Washington, D.C. dated August, 17," 1865.

I respectfully report that I visited the Counties of Liberty, Polk, Tyler, Angelina, Nacogdoches, San-Augustine, Sabine, Jasper and Hardin and a part of Harris.

I find but few contracts made by the planter with the Freedman, those being mostly verbal agreements; the few that were written would not meet your approval, as the conditions were such that if the planter was disposed he could bring the Freedman in debt by charges of board and damages. I do not believe that there are twelve planters in that section of the State that have made written contracts with the Freedmen.

The planters say that the Freedmen have behaved well during the war and since, and that they have gathered the last crop; at the same they assert that they are lazy and will not work. The general complaint with the Freedmen is, that they have not been paid for services since the "break up," or freedom, and most of them are not disposed to contract for next year until they have had a guarantee for the future.

On Sunday last at the house of Henry Pedigo, Judge of the 15" Judicial District, I met a large number of Freedmen who applied to him for the information - if they were entitled to pay for services since they became free under Yankee rule, and how they could collect it? And solicited advice for the future. The Judge has been known from first to last as a Union man, and his advice to the Freedmen was manly and just. He informs me that he has from two to three hundred applicants weekly. The Grand Jury in several of the Judicial

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