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not a particle of it is owing to the Military or to the Agent of the Bureau in that place.

But it is owing entirely to the inaccessible nature of the work.  In the first place there is no building in the possession of the Military Authorities, or in the possession of the blacks in which to assemble them to talk to them or to organize schools.  The Freedmen have no church edifice & no church organization, but large numbers of them belong to the white churches of the place.  There are two of these churches open now, namely, the Episcopal & the [[strikethrough]] Methodist [[/strikethrough]] Baptist, & altho' large numbers of the people of color belong to these churches, I co'd not get an opportunity to speak to them in either.  Every such door was at once closed against me.  The colored members of the Baptist Church paid largely for the finishing of the basement of that church, & altho' other ministers often speak to them there yet I co'd not obtain the least privilege of the kind.  So you see it was impossible for me to get at the colored people in any considerable numbers. I gathered as many as I co'd in private houses & spoke to them twice in this way.  This produced a great excitement in town & I tho't it might not be for the good of all concerned  

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---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-01-14 14:13:06