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3

winter will bear no harder upon them than the last, that very few are getting at all ahead; he knows of but five who are forehanded. 

My own observation and opinion is that the freedmen of the Eastern Shore of Va. are lazy and dishonest to a degree, but that they are, and may well be discouraged. Rents are exorbitant, exhausting, often equal to half the value of the land. From the poor of either class these outrageous rents are exacted, which keep the laboring population in abject poverty, without hope or relief. Such is the sentiment of landholders, there that it would take a man of large moral courage, to offer lands at lower than the prevailing rates of rental. Thus, it is a struggle for the freedman to pay his taxes, or educate his children, and a large unhappy discontented

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-11-30 09:38:06