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tried in almost every possible way, except the use of force, to induce them to go back to their former homes, and counties, or elsewhere, that they might find labor and support, furnishing them transportation, and whenever it could be done with propriety cutting off their rations, but this has failed, for the most part from two reasons, 1st, want of confidence in their former owners and fear lest they should be ill-used, and defrauded of their earnings, they in most instances replying, "I knows old master better'n you do." and 2nd, from the fact that reports have been circulated, very generally among them, that in their former homes,-particularly south of the James River,-the labor of the freedmen has been sold at public auction to the highest bidder, as in the days of slavery, and that their former owners were more harsh and exacting now, than when they claimed ownership in their flesh and blood.  These reports are brought in by persons who have visited those localities, or who come from there, and I am unable to contradict them from any information I have been able to obtain.