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should own land: they take no interest in schools for their education nor in anything that is a condition of their independence or elevation. Intelligent colored men, standing on the ground they have bought for a church, have, in these cases, told me that the "Secesh" had tried to get it out of their hands by purchase, or by involving the owners in debt: The whites want them to work, that is all. Dealers in provisions are making large profits out of freedmen, and, as every grocery is a groggery, there is every temptation to drink. The shop-keeper encourages extravagance, and lounging about town, and, with a dram, is ready to entice his poor customers to spend his last cent.
There was great suffering last winter and many died who with proper comforts might have survived.
The supply of labor in Northampton Co is said to be much greater than the demand; in accounae it is more nearly equal to it. Both counties are very generally tilled. There is, doubtless, a surplus of freedmen. I think one-fourth of them could better be spared than not.
It was remarked to me that boys of either color, take the plow at an earlier age than formerly, due I think to the apprentice system which gives greater control over boys than over grown laborers.
Labor, on the whole, is unsteady, many freedmen are

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-10-06 19:58:35