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At a meeting of the citizens of Williamsburg, held on the 24th January A.D. 1866, John H. Barlow, Mayor, was called to the chair: This meeting was held, at the request of the Military commander of this district, to express their views upon the relative condition of the blacks and of the white population of this region. at this meeting, a committee was appointed to consider the matter, & to report on the 27th inst, at 11 o clock A.M, to which time the meeting adjourned.  On the 27th inst, at the appointed time, the meeting was called to order by the Mayor.  The committee appointed reported as follows.

The number of freedmen upon this Peninsular is now at least four times, perhaps five times, what was the number of blacks resident upon it before the war.

It is confidently believed, from experience & observation, that the mass of the freedmen are indisposed to do agricultural labour in the employment of the proprietors of the land.

The inevitable result of this condition of things must be that, the blacks will become predatory, or vagrants, and [[strikethrough]] paupers, whilst the lands of the region will remain uncultivated and be reduced to wastes.

There seems no mode of averting these calamities from both races, but the removal of the freedmen, or the greater number of them, to regions where they can be comfortably colonized, or the establishing by sufficient authority, of a system, by which those of them who are devoid of means of subsistence, and unwilling to work, shall be obliged to labour.

Therefore

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