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The condition of the freedmen of York County is, therefore not satisfactory, the population should be scattered but is kept closely together by a common fear of the whites,- they feel safer when together; and the normal distribution of the laboring classes is interfered with.

There is no liklihood of full and complete justice being given to freedmen by civil courts when they are interested against whites; the case of Lewis and Jones, especially the attendant circumstances, the bitterness of the whites, the paltry fine of Chapman determines this. The prejudice of color is still too strong to admit of such justice. The freedmen is still "nigger". Yet the magistrates of this county are, so far as I have met them, gentlemanly and competent, the judges are more trustworthy than the juries; but the former are so scattered, so remote from the settlements, that they cannot properly attend to the judicial concerns of the county; it is idle to expect justice when men have to travel ten miles to get it, and often find no one to hear them at that; the faults of the Bench in York are of omission rather than commission. There is withal of jail in this county; the sheriff is not accessible.

I am satisfied that the Freedmen's Court would give more general satisfaction and

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-07-15 16:25:00