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Others who have gone away at different times, have come back, but do not let me see them.  They stay at night with their families.  In one instance, a woman went away leaving her husband; he took another wife & then went to Washington & brought back his first wife, thus creating a great disturbance on the plantation.  I wish them sent away.  In some cases, the women & children, though well able to work, positively refuse to do so, & spend their time in their houses, doing nothing.  Their example has a bad influence over those who would be willing to work.  Every one thinks he may work or not as he pleases, & if he is not satisfied, he may go elsewhere, & retain his house & keep his family on my land.  It will readily be perceived what confusion such notions must produce on a plantation.  The negroes believe that the whole, or a part at least of the land is to belong to them, & this delusion disposes them to indulge their natural inclination to idleness.  The only way to dispel it is to let them know that the proprietor has the absolute ownership of his estate.

Those who live on my plantation & get work elsewhere I wish to have removed, with their families at once.  They will amount in all to about fifteen or twenty.  Were that done I should have little trouble with the rest, & it would have the happiest effect.  They will not believe they are to be forced to leave their old homes.  Their removal will cost the government nothing, as they can be compelled to work for the support of themselves & their families, which they are quite able to do.

Those who continue at work on my plantation are assured they shall receive full wages but they will have to provide for their own families.  They understand that, for the last two or three years, the plantation has been far from supporting itself, & as nothing has been made, they can expect little.  I have paid them money from time to time as they asked for it, & am now ready to enter into contracts for the next year.

From the above statement it will be perceived there are two points on which I wish the Freedman's Bureau to act.

1st - On the support of the negros who are unable to maintain themselves, to furnish them with provisions, & to regard what I have already done for them.

2d - On the removal of those who have no right to be on my plantation & whose presence operates injuriously on those employed there.