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[[diffi]]culty in procuring laborers to work for him from the Freedmen formerly under his control, he has made no contracts before me with any of the Freedmen of North Wales, Caroline County, but has made contracts with some of the Freedmen of Broadneck in this County as follows, 10 men at 1 dollars per month to be paid Quarterly, 1 1/2 peck meal & 2 1/2 pounds meat per week as rations 1 man at 75 dolls per year to be paid as above, with same allowance of rations house &c. 2 Boys at 30 dolls per year paid Quarterly, 1 peck meal & 2 pound meat per week as rations, 1 Boy at 25 dollars per week with same rations as the other Boys above mentioned, 1 woman at 3 dollars per month to be paid Quarterly, to be fed from his table. None of these contracts have been finally executed.
Harris is a resident of the same County (Caroline) and owns 150 or 200 acres of land, part of which he has rented to some of the Freedmen of North Wales Farm, has built a tavern and I understand he sells Whiskey a great many of the inhabitants of his vicinity charge him with dishonesty but do not charge him directly nor bring any poof against him for committing any dishonest act I cannot say that his general carracter is bad as the reports about him are only hints and suppositions not substantiated by proof, all the difficulty originated and was confined to Caroline County where all the parties concerned reside (except Mr Wickham) in which county I have no jurisdiction, except when specially authorized, there being an Asst Supt in charge of that County, there has been no difficulty since the shooting occurred, in the latter part of December last I received a letter (through the Supt 4th Dist) from Col O. Brown Asst Comr Va directing that houses be found elsewhere immediately for the Freedmen then occupying houses on the North Wales & Broad Neck Farms, this I accomplished by informing all those who did not wish to work for Allen that they must find homes elsewhere, they did so without further trouble only those who were able to work and had places to go to, were orderd by me to leave. Rev Wickham has certainly been very kind to the indigent and infirm