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perpetuated or not. In the mean time, however, Mr Nelson says he can bring suit to recover the produce belonging to the freedman, which is still held possession of by John Patterson: but this will likewise take time, and in the interim the rightfully owner and his family, having no means of living, are placed, to say the least, is a most precarious position.

But this is by no means all the injury that has been sustained. In the first place, this man really owned about ten and a half barrels of corn, worth at least $5.00 a barrel; two hundred pounds of tobacco, worth about $14.00 per hundred; and one and a half stacks oats, worth $10.00; making an aggregate sum of $90.50. Out of this he should have to pay to John P. Patterson- $49.00; leaving a balance in his favor of $41.50. But this stuff is forceably and wrongfully withheld by John P. Patterson, who has fraudulently obtained judgment in his own favor, against the freedman, for that $49.00 which is really due from the latter to, and is still claimed of him by the nephew. The costs of the court amounting to $7.00, of course, have also to be paid by Walker. Then, after the stuff is sold- presuming it to be by the time, this and all other expenses are deducted, it will leave him nothing to receive, and he will, after that, still have to pay, over again, the $49.00 which is due to the nephew, who it must be remembered had previously settled with the uncle for the [[?]] accounts brought against the freedman, and which, even if he had not, could not justly have been recovered as it was, by the uncle, of the latter.

In the second place, to extricates himself from this unfortunate dilemma, which has been brought about through no fault of his, and if

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-10-26 18:26:15