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5

as in the others.  The Freedmen own a small log house badly located.  No efforts have been made either to repair the one they have or to procure a better one -

The general condition of the Freedmen in the 8th. Sub. District is that of dependent laborers upon unfeeling and overbearing employers.

Not one per cent own what could be called property.  The price of labor is so low and so disproportional to the prices of the necessaries of life that they are bearly able to procure the cheapest food and scantiest of Clothing.  Their condition is made worse by the fact that the property owners almost unanimously take every advantage and interpose every obsticle to their acquireing any thing which would in the least render them independent.

The lowest wages are paid while the most exorbitant prices are charged for every thing furnished them.  Not owning a foot of land they are compeled to occupy the same uninhabitable huts formerly occupied as slaves for which nearly half their earnings are taken for rent and then on the least offense or in the least demanding what is their right they are notified to leave forthwith 

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-11-30 09:19:14